Judge keeps limits on use of ‘less-lethal’ weapons by LAPD and feds at protests

Arguing that the 1st Amendment “demands better,” a federal judge barred federal agents from targeting reporters and nonviolent protesters with crowd control weapons.

Lawyers for the city of Los Angeles and Homeland Security have argued that policing the chaotic demonstrations requires rapid decisions about when to use less-lethal force, and that it isn’t always possible to immediately recognize journalists.

But U.S. District Judge Hernán D. Vera was unmoved, extending Tuesday restrictions he first ordered in July on the use of less-lethal weapons at street protests. Vera wrote that federal officers “unleashed crowd control weapons indiscriminately and with surprising savagery.”

“Indeed, under the guise of protecting the public, federal agents have endangered large numbers of peaceful protestors, legal observers, and journalists — as well as the public that relies on them to hold their government accountable,” Vera wrote in the 45-page opinion.

The judge issued a similar injunction Thursday in a separate lawsuit filed against the Los Angeles Police Department over continued allegations of excessive force against members of the press covering the demonstrations.

In August, less than a month after Vera issued his temporary restraining order limiting the use of force, at least three reporters covering a protest were left bruised and bloody after being struck by officers’ batons.

Tuesday’s decision in the case against the Department of Homeland Security adds a provision to Vera’s previous ruling, also restricting the use of less-lethal weapons against “protesters who are not themselves posing a threat of imminent harm to a law enforcement officer or another person.”

The rulings marked a significant victory for a coalition of press rights organizations who have argued in court that judicial intervention was necessary to curb “continuing abuse.”

An attorney for the plaintiffs, Carol Sobel, said the LAPD has a flouted past court orders.

“There is no institutional memory. No one looks at what the past injunctions were. There is absolutely no humility,” Sobel said.

Sobel said she would be back in federal court this month to argue a contempt motion that alleges the LAPD violated a 2020 injunction against the use of certain less-lethal weapons during that year’s protests.

Under the order, the use of crowd control measures including hard-foam projectile launchers, tear gas, stun grenades and batons are prohibited from being used on or in the vicinity of members of the press, legal observers, and protesters “unless such force is necessary to stop an immediate and serious threat of physical harm to a person.”

Attorneys for both government entities had argued against such a broad ban at the recent court hearing, saying it was impractical and would put law enforcement at risk.

Vera disagreed, writing in his order that “launching scorching-hot tear gas canisters directly at people… will undoubtedly chill the media’s efforts to cover these public events.”