Featured Image Credit: CNN
Topics: US News, News, TV And Film, Reality TV, Donald Trump, Politics
Rhiannon Ingle
Topics: US News, News, TV And Film, Reality TV, Donald Trump, Politics
It's been a little under a week now since the city of Los Angeles erupted in a series of protests on Friday (6 June) after it had emerged that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were carrying out raids in areas of the city with prominent Latino populations.
The LA protests only grew further on Monday (9 June), when United States president, Donald Trump - who has previously vowed to launch the 'biggest deportation operation' in US history, as part of a 'complete restoration of America' - when he ordered another 2,000 National Guard troops and 700 marines to deploy to the city following an initial deployment of 2,000 troops to the area.
Such a move has been met with widespread backlash, with California Governor Gavin Newsom warning that US Marines 'shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfil the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.'
Journalists and other members of the press have been on the frontlines of the protests reporting the news and have been caught up between police and protestors.
This includes CNN National Correspondent, Jason Carroll, who has since revealed the alarming details about being detained by police, while live on air, amidst the protest LA protest yesterday.
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Footage shows Carroll wrapping up his report without incident until, just moments later, he told the studio that he was being detained.
"I am being detained. I'm being detained," he said before asking the LAPD: "I'm not being arrested, correct, officers?"
One of the police officers could be seen asking Carroll: "Did you hear what he told you?"
"No," the journalist replied prompting the officer to say: "We're letting you go, but you can't come back. Because then if you come back in, then you go. Ok, please?"
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"Ok, thank you, officer," Carroll replied before addressing the studio: "So here's what happened. I was called over, and the officer told me to put my hands behind my back. I said, 'Am I being arrested?' He said, 'You are being detained.' I was walked out of the area. They took down my information."
Carroll's audio then suddenly cut off with CNN later reporting that while he was released, two members of his camera crew were arrested.
Now, speaking from outside of the protest area he was initially in, the reporter explained the events which led up to his detainment.
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"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," he shared.
At the start of this week, a group of 27 press and civil liberties advocacy groups wrote to US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem '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 wrote: "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.
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"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."