CNN National Correspondent Jason Carroll, who has been reporting on the unrest in Los Angeles for the past few days, found himself a part of the story tonight when he was detained and briefly questioned by Police in Los Angeles.
During a live shot, Carroll is heard telling police his name and then seen being walked away with his hands behind his back.
A police officer is then heard saying, “We’re letting you go. You can’t come back. If you come back, you will be arrested.”
Carroll is heard to say, “Ok.”
You can see the scene below.
CNN later reported that, while Carroll was released, two members of his camera crew were arrested.
Carroll described the scene to Laura Coates back in the studio: “I was walking over to the officer, tried to explain who I was, who I was with. He said, I’d like you to turn around. I turned around, I put my hands behind my back. They did not put me in zip ties, but they did grab both my hands as I was escorted over to the side, they said, you are being detained.”
Carroll is not the first member of the press to get caught between police and protesters. On Sunday, Lauren Tomasi, the U.S. correspondent for Australia’s 9News, appeared to be shot by a rubber bullet while reporting on the immigration protests. Nick Stern, a British news photographer, reportedly needed emergency surgery over the weekend after sustaining a leg wound during the clashes.
A coalition of 27 press and civil liberties advocacy groups wrote to U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem today “to express alarm that federal officers may have violated the First Amendment rights of journalists covering recent protests and unrest related to immigration enforcement in the Los Angeles area.”
The coalition, led by the Los Angeles Press Club, First Amendment Coalition and Freedom of the Press Foundation, further wrote that “The press plays an essential role in our democracy as the public’s eyes and ears. The timely reporting of breaking news is necessary to provide the public with complete information, especially about controversial events.
“A number of reports suggest that federal officers have indiscriminately used force or deployed munitions such as tear gas or pepper balls that caused significant injuries to journalists. In some cases, federal officers appear to have deliberately targeted journalists who were doing nothing more than their job covering the news.”
The LA Press Club referred to at least 24 “documented” instances of journalists being targeted by law enforcement while covering the protests in Los Angeles between June 6-8, and multiple media workers report having been shot by police with less-than-lethal munitions.
Those journalists included Southern California News Group’s Ryanne Mena, freelance journalists Anthony Cabassa and Sean Beckner-Carmitchel, The Southlander’s Ben Camacho, British photojournalist Nick Stern, and LA Taco’s Lexis Olivier-Ray.
City News Service contributed to this report.
