multiple journalists<\/a> shot by nonlethal rounds, tear-gassed and detained, news organizations sued the city and Police Department, arguing officers had engaged in \u201ccontinuing abuse\u201d of members of the media. <\/p>\nU.S. District Judge Hernan D. Vera granted a temporary restraining order that restricted LAPD officers from using rubber projectiles, chemical irritants and flash bangs against journalists.<\/p>\n
Under the court order, officers are allowed to use those weapons \u201conly when the officer reasonably believes that a suspect is violently resisting arrest or poses an immediate threat of violence or physical harm.\u201d <\/p>\n
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell called the definition of journalist \u201cambiguous\u201d in a news release Monday, raising concerns that the preliminary injunction could prevent the LAPD from addressing \u201cpeople intent on unlawful and violent behavior.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk of harm to everyone involved increases substantially,\u201d McDonnell wrote. \u201cLAPD must declare an unlawful assembly, and issue dispersal orders, to ensure the safety of the public and restore order.\u201d<\/p>\n
The L.A. Press Club, plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to the injunction, has alleged journalists were detained and assaulted by officers during an immigration protest in August. The Press Club is also involved in a similar lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis case is about LAPD, but if necessary, we are ready to take similar action to address misconduct toward journalists by other agencies,\u201d the organization wrote in a news release from June.<\/p>\n
Vera ruled in September that \u201cany duly authorized representative of any news service, online news service, newspaper, or radio or television station or network\u201d would be classified as a journalist and therefore protected under the court\u2019s orders. Journalists who are impeding or physically interfering with law enforcement are not subject to the protections.<\/p>\n
Any ordinance passed by the City Council would apply to the LAPD but not other agencies that could be responding to protests that turn chaotic, such as the Los Angeles County Sheriff\u2019s Department or California Highway Patrol, thereby complicating operational procedure. <\/p>\n
Barnes-Batista, the District 13 spokesman, said the City Council would need to discuss how to craft the rules.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are definitely unanswered questions about [how] the city wouldn\u2019t want the city to be liable for other agencies not following policy,\u201d he said. \u201cSo that will have to be worked out.\u201d <\/p>\n
Last month, the City Council, led by Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, voted unanimously to deny a request by the city attorney, Hydee Feldstein Soto, to push for Vera\u2019s injunction to be lifted. <\/p>\n
\u201cJournalism is under attack in this country \u2014 from the Trump Administration\u2019s revocation of press access to the Pentagon to corporate consolidation of local newsrooms,\u201d Hernandez said. \u201cThe answer cannot be for Los Angeles to join that assault by undermining court-ordered protections for journalists.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles City Council will consider an ordinance that would prevent the LAPD from using crowd control…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":50891,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[32658,32662,4579,24822,32665,48,52,51,5015,32659,47,50,49,32663,32664,2322,827,32660,32661,3153,2058],"class_list":["post-50890","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-city-council-committee-advance","tag-council-member","tag-district","tag-journalist","tag-l-a-press-club","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lapd","tag-less-lethal-weapon","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-news-release-monday","tag-nick-barnes-batista","tag-officer","tag-ordinance","tag-other-agency","tag-physical-harm","tag-preliminary-injunction","tag-protest"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50890","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50890"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50890\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50891"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50890"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50890"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50890"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}