By Owen Sullivan | 17 October 2025
Late Friday, a federal judge rejected the Los Angeles Police Department’s emergency request to use force against journalists covering the upcoming No Kings protests, set to take place Saturday across Los Angeles and the rest of the USA. The LAPD had petitioned to modify an existing injunction that prevents officers from assaulting or detaining members of the press, an injunction originally issued after repeated police violence during demonstrations in 2020 and 2021.
Judge Hernán D. Vera denied the request in full, keeping all existing protections for journalists in place. The ruling follows a unanimous rebuke from the Los Angeles City Council, which had urged the City Attorney’s office to withdraw the motion earlier in the day.
LAPD’s argument, described in court filings as a “public safety measure,” effectively sought permission to treat reporters as participants if they refused to disperse during crowd control operations, a remarkable request in any country with a free press. The court was not convinced and outright rejected the request from the police force made famous in the song “Fuck the Police.”
The injunction at issue was established through a lawsuit by the Los Angeles Press Club and several journalists after officers repeatedly used batons, rubber bullets, and chemical agents on clearly identified members of the media. The department’s latest attempt to undermine those restrictions was widely seen as an effort to pre-empt accountability during the No Kings demonstrations, a protest movement calling for an end to police impunity and the abolition of ICE’s domestic enforcement network.
The ruling is a rare pre-emptive victory for civil liberties in a city that has long blurred the line between policing and repression. By refusing to give LAPD permission to target the press, the court has sided with the free press, a rarity in modern day USA.