Reporters, legal observers cry foul after being caught up in LAPD’s mass arrests at Echo Park protest

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. “It’s an absurd conflict of interest,” said Jonathan Peltz, who was arrested while covering the events for Knock LA, a nonprofit newsroom affiliated with the progressive activist group Ground Game LA. “It should just be widely accepted that are not the people who decide who is a journalist or where a media pen is.” Julian Andrews, a TV cameraman who was in the field with Spectrum News reporter Kate Cagle and another colleague, said the actions of the LAPD — who led Cagle away and zip-tied her hands minutes before a planned live shot — were “unbelievable.” “They knew she was a reporter. It also said two officers suffered minor injuries, and that officers fired 10 hard foam or bean bag projectiles during the course of the protest “in response to projectiles thrown at officers.” The department said three people among those detained identified themselves as members of the media, while others identified themselves as legal observers with the National Lawyers Guild, and that those people were “released at scene without further action.” Not everyone who said they were a reporter was released, though. “Mass arrests of protesters, legal observers and journalists will not keep the city’s brutal, ill-conceived actions from being known,” the ACLU said.