Reporters and legal observers who were detained or arrested by the Los Angeles Police Department during a mass arrest of protesters in Echo Park on Thursday night were sounding alarms Friday — accusing the LAPD of ignoring their legitimate role in monitoring such events on the ground.
They also accused the LAPD of issuing confusing directives and attempting to force media members into a designated observation area that would not have allowed them to see the protest or the arrests that followed.
While some detained reporters and observers were released without being arrested, others — including reporters for less-established media brands — were held for hours and then formally charged, raising additional questions about police picking and choosing which outlets to acknowledge as legitimate.
“It’s an absurd conflict of interest,” said Jonathan Peltz, who was arrested while covering the events for KnockLA, a nonprofit newsroom affiliated with the progressive activist group Ground Game LA. “It should just be widely accepted that [police] are not the people who decide who is a journalist or where a media pen is.”
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