Law enforcement officers responded to protests against immigration raids in and around Los Angeles, California, between June 6 and 14, 2025, with excessive force and deliberate brutality, Human Rights Watch said today.
Officers fired tear gas, pepper balls, hard foam rounds, and flash-bang grenades directly at protesters, journalists, and other observers, often at close range and often without sufficient warning or provocation. Scores of people suffered injuries, ranging from severe bruising and lacerations to broken bones, concussions, an amputated finger, and severe eye damage.
"Sweeping immigration raids have terrorized communities across Los Angeles and driven thousands of people to the streets in protest," said Ida Sawyer, crisis, conflict and arms director at Human Rights Watch. "Local, state, and federal law enforcement's aggressive response to these protests violently oppressed the public's right to express outrage and the media's right to report safely."
The protests were sparked by a dramatic escalation of immigration raids across Los Angeles and the surrounding area, following the Trump administration's orders to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to increase daily arrests of undocumented immigrants. Heavily armed federal agents have stormed stores, warehouses, hotels, restaurants, farms, car washes, taco stands, and other workplaces and detained those they suspect of being undocumented with the aim of deporting them.
Human Rights Watch observed protests and visited locations of ICE raids in and around Los Angeles from June 10 to 14, and interviewed 39 people, including protesters, journalists, legal observers, volunteer street medics, immigration rights advocates and organizers, and others affected by the raids. Researchers analyzed lawsuits, documentation by the Los Angeles Press Club, media reports, and photos and videos recorded during the protests and posted on social media or shared directly with researchers.
Human Rights Watch documented 65 cases in which law enforcement officers from various local, state, and federal agencies injured protesters, journalists, and other observers. The actual number is most likely much higher. In the three weeks following June 6, more than 280 people contacted the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California, most reporting that they had been personally injured by law enforcement agents while engaged in protest activity.
The first major protests began on June 6, when ICE agents raided several locations, including two Ambiance Apparel facilities in the Los Angeles Fashion District. On June 7, a group of protesters encountered armed federal agents and Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department (LASD) deputies in the suburb of Paramount, across from a Home Depot store outside an office park where there were reports of a planned raid.
In a directive issued on June 7, US President Donald Trump claimed the Los Angeles protests "constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States," called in the National Guard, and authorized the deployment of "any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary." On June 9, the administration mobilized 700 active-duty Marines to join several thousand National Guard soldiers, who primarily guarded federal buildings. Local and state officials objected to Trump's actions, though local police themselves acted to aggressively shut down the protests.
Starting on June 6 and at least through June 14, protesters gathered every day outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where agents detained many undocumented people. Protesters also demonstrated at other government buildings in the surrounding area of downtown Los Angeles.
Human Rights Watch repeatedly witnessed and documented law enforcement officers forcing protesters to leave certain areas, often with no apparent justification and without delivering clear, audible dispersal orders or warnings. Officers frequently aimed and fired their "less lethal" launchers directly at protesters, sometimes at close range, including using tear gas, pepper balls, hard foam rounds, and flash-bang grenades. These weapons, while less deadly than bullets, can cause serious injury and death.
Human Rights Watch documented 39 cases of journalists injured by law enforcement, most of whom were holding cameras and wearing visible press credentials. Several appear to have been deliberately targeted. On June 8, a police officer fired a kinetic impact projectile directly at Lauren Tomasi, an Australian journalist from 9News, while she was reporting live on television from downtown Los Angeles, leaving a bruise on her leg.
A deputy from the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department fired a flash-bang device directly at British photojournalist Nick Stern, as he was covering the protest in Paramount and neighboring Compton, on June 7, 2025. Doctors later performed surgery to remove a three-inch canister from Stern's leg, which had left a gaping hole that exposed muscle tissue.
Los Angeles Daily News reporter Ryanne Mena was hit with kinetic impact projectiles fired by Department of Homeland Security officers twice, first in her leg on June 6 in downtown Los Angeles, and then to her head in Paramount on June 7, giving her a concussion.
Police officers fired kinetic impact projectiles at journalist Jeremy Cuenca in downtown Los Angeles in the early afternoon on June 8, at close range, nearly severing the top of his little finger, damaging his camera, and leaving a large bruise on his inner thigh. Cuenca was in surgery for four hours later that day, as doctors worked to reattach his finger.
On June 14 in downtown Los Angeles, police officers fired less lethal projectiles at Marshall Woodruff, a filmmaker and photographer documenting police conduct during the protests, hitting him in the face and arm. The injuries caused a fracture to his face, serious bruising on his arm, and severe eye damage. Two months later, Woodruff remains unable to see out of his right eye.
On June 9, a Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officer shot three people-all known advocates for police accountability-at very close range with kinetic impact projectiles, leaving each of them in serious pain for days, according to two of the advocates and video footage Human Rights Watch reviewed. Before shooting one of them in the groin, the officer said: "I'm going to pop you, as you are taking up my focus."
A volunteer street medic, who was himself hospitalized after being lacerated by a hard foam round that caused a deep, gaping wound, said he spent several hours in downtown Los Angeles on June 14 responding to people yelling for help. They included protesters hit by projectiles and bleeding from their heads or faces, one with a broken leg, and others with difficulty seeing and hearing because of the flash-bangs and tear gas.
There were some acts of violence against police and property destruction by protesters, primarily in the early days of the protests. Human Rights Watch found evidence that most of the violence by protesters occurred after acts of violence by law enforcement officers, and that only a small portion of the protesting crowd engaged in destructive acts. To the extent individuals engaged in violent or destructive acts, law enforcement officers did not limit their aggressive actions and response to those individuals.
Human Rights Watch found that law enforcement officers committed clear violations of international human rights law. These findings also implicate civil rights protections under the US Constitution, as well as recently amended California state law, which includes strict restrictions on when and how law enforcement officers may use force to disperse protests and provides protections for journalists covering protests.
Human Rights Watch wrote to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the LAPD, and the LASD on July 31, but has not received responses.
In a June 23 statement, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department would conduct a "comprehensive evaluation of each use-of-force incident" and act against any officer "who has fallen short" of the department's standards. While he said the protests had "most often been marked by peaceful expression," they were at times "hijacked by violence, vandalism, and criminal aggression" and "officers were justified in taking swift and measured action to prevent further harm and restore public safety."
Journalists, protesters, and legal observers have filed several lawsuits against the City and County of Los Angeles and the DHS regarding the harm caused during these protests. Past lawsuits regarding law enforcement misconduct during protests in Los Angeles have cost taxpayers millions of dollars in settlements, but secured little to no accountability for the agencies and senior officials responsible for the abuse nor changes in law enforcement practice.
"Law enforcement officers in Los Angeles used brutal, excessive, and unnecessary force against people standing up for human rights and those reporting on the protests," Sawyer said. "All law enforcement agencies involved should respect the right to free speech and protest, protect journalists, and ensure that those responsible for abuse are held to account."
Applicable Legal Standards
International Law
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the United States is a party, protects the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. US obligations under the covenant extend to authorities at every level of government, federal, state, and local. The Unites States is thus obliged to ensure that all law enforcement personnel respect fundamental rights.
The ICCPR allows only for limited restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly that are "necessary in a democratic society" to protect a narrow range of important interests including public order, public safety, and the rights of others. The United Nations Human Rights Committee, an international expert body that monitors compliance with the ICCPR, issued a General Comment in September 2020 that offers detailed practical guidance on how governments should approach their obligation to respect the right to peaceful assembly.
It emphasizes that restrictions on the right should be carefully tailored; more specifically, they should both be necessary for and proportionate to a permissible ground for restriction. It also emphasizes that restrictions justified on grounds of public safety require the authorities to demonstrate "a real and significant risk to the safety of persons (to life and security of person) or a similar risk of serious damage to property."
Even when law enforcement personnel may have a legitimate basis to confront or curtail demonstrators, their use of force should be carefully calibrated. Under the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Personnel, law enforcement officials should use nonviolent means before resorting to force and avoid using force to disperse nonviolent protests, regardless of whether the authorities deem the protests illegal.
Using force is only appropriate if other measures to address a genuine threat have proved ineffective or have no likelihood of achieving the intended result. When using force, law enforcement should provide clear warnings, exercise restraint, and act proportionately, taking into account both the seriousness of the offense and the legitimate objective to be achieved.
Federal Law
The First Amendment of the US Constitution guarantees the right to free speech and peaceful assembly and treats these rights as a core pillar of the country's system of governance. US courts have evolved a deep jurisprudence governing permissible regulation of, and limitations on, the exercise of these rights. The Fourth Amendment protects against unreasonable search and seizures by law enforcement, including the use of excessive force during an arrest or other seizure.
State Law
Following the 2020 George Floyd protests, California passed laws restricting the use of less lethal weapons during protests and protecting the rights of journalists and others. Section 13652 of California's Penal Code forbids law enforcement from using "kinetic energy projectiles" to disperse an assembly, protest, or demonstration, except "to defend against a threat to life or serious bodily injury" or to "bring any objectively dangerous and unlawful situation safely under control."
Even under those circumstances, such use of force is permitted only when a list of other requirements are met, including making reasonable efforts to identify violent individuals and not shooting indiscriminately into a crowd; not targeting heads, neck, or vital organs; giving clear, audible warnings; allowing people a chance to leave; and attempting reasonable de-escalation techniques. Law enforcement may not use these weapons solely to confront curfew violations, verbal threats, or noncompliance with law enforcement directives. The same provision requires officers to minimize use of these weapons on bystanders, journalists, medical personnel, and others.
Penal Code section 409.7 states that journalists may enter areas closed by law enforcement during protests and that law enforcement officers shall not remove or otherwise interfere with individuals who are lawfully gathering news at these events.
The Los Angeles Police and Sheriff's departments issued directives in late 2021 outlining how officers should comply with these laws.
Law Enforcement Agencies Deployed to Los Angeles Protests
A range of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies were deployed to protests in the Los Angeles area from June 6 to 14.
Los Angeles police officers and sheriff's deputies were present at nearly all protests and led efforts to police or disperse these protests. Officers from the California Highway Patrol (CHP) primarily blocked entry points to the 101 Freeway in downtown Los Angeles.
Federal agents from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS)-including from ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP)-as well as agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) engaged with protesters at immigration raids and deployed outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, a federal facility, along with other federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles.
Following President Trump's June 7 directive, approximately 2,000 National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles under federal authority. On June 9, the administration sent an additional 2,000 troops and mobilized 700 active-duty Marines to join them. They primarily guarded federal buildings. All but around 250 National Guard personnel have since been withdrawn.
Less Lethal Weapons Used Against Protesters and Observers
Law enforcement officers fired a range of less lethal weapons at protesters. They included chemical irritants, including tear gas, pepper spray, and pepper balls, all of which are designed to temporarily incapacitate people through severe irritation to the eyes, nose, face, lungs, and skin. Officers also fired kinetic impact projectiles, including sponge or hard foam rounds, which are designed to cause pain upon impact without penetrating the skin, and flash-bang grenades, which are meant to disorient people by temporarily disrupting sight and hearing.
Police officers also used horses, batons, shields, and their hands to knock protesters and observers over, push them back, or beat them.
Excessive Force by Law Enforcement
Human Rights Watch documented the 65 cases of individuals injured by law enforcement officers during the protests based on interviews with victims and witnesses, analysis of photos and videos, and reviews of lawsuits, credible media reporting, and documentation by the Los Angeles Press Club.
Most were hit and injured by kinetic impact projectiles, including hard foam rounds, pepper balls, or the canisters delivering tear gas and flash-bang grenades. In many cases, officers fired directly at individuals, sometimes from very close range, and targeted their upper body, head, or groin area. Several others were injured by officers on horseback, using their horses to trample or ram into people and beating people from atop their horses with batons, or when officers not on horseback beat individuals with their batons or hands.
The injuries included severe bruising, lacerations, hematomas, concussions, broken bones (including to the ribs, hand, fingers, and nose), near-severing of a finger in one case and an amputated finger in another, severe eye damage resulting in loss of vision in one eye, and large gaping wounds caused by projectiles that entered or hit legs.
Of these injuries, it appears that police officers were responsible for 36 cases, federal agents were responsible for 13 cases, sheriff's deputies were responsible for 8 cases, and Highway Patrol officers were responsible for 1 case. In seven cases, it is not clear which agency was responsible.
Human Rights Watch also documented many incidents of officers firing tear gas and other chemical irritants into crowds, causing temporary incapacitation. These cases are not included among the 65 injured.
The actual number of injured is likely much greater than those documented, including those with more minor injuries who did not seek medical attention or speak out publicly.
The Los Angeles Times reported on July 10 that the police department was investigating 86 complaints against officers from the recent protests, including 59 cases of possible excessive force and 3 in which people were hospitalized.
Researchers repeatedly observed and documented law enforcement officers using force to disperse protesters and others, without giving clear, audible dispersal orders or a reasonable opportunity to disperse. Protesters and observers also expressed frustration about the lack of clarity about where they were allowed to go. In many cases, a line of officers would forcibly push the protesters in one direction, only for them to meet another line of officers pushing them in the opposite direction. In at least one case, officers clearly "kettled" or contained protesters, without giving them a way to disperse, before detaining them.
Violence by Protesters
Human Rights Watch researchers were present on June 11, 12, and 13 and saw no acts of protester violence. During protests earlier in the week, particularly on June 8, some protesters threw water bottles and rocks in the direction of law enforcement officers, lit fireworks, set a tire on fire, and wrote graffiti on government buildings, based on accounts from protesters and observers and videos Human Rights Watch reviewed. A few people set five empty Waymos, self-driving vehicles, on fire that day. Some people threw objects at police cars on the freeway. In the most serious incident documented, also on June 8, a video Human Rights Watch analyzed shows an individual throwing a rock from an overpass over the 101 Freeway near City Hall, hitting a police officer's protective face gear. The officer then runs for cover under the overpass. Witnesses and a Los Angeles Times reporter covering the protest said the crowd had been peaceful until police initiated the use of force.
On June 14, Human Rights Watch observed and documented a few instances in which protesters threw bottles at police officers, after police had charged the crowd with horses and fired large quantities of less lethal ammunition at them. There may have been isolated incidents by individual protesters earlier that day, but otherwise the protest was not violent or destructive.
Los Angeles Police Chief McDonnell said that 52 officers suffered injuries requiring medical treatment, but did not elaborate on the extent of those injuries or how they occurred.
Selection of Incidents Documented by Human Rights Watch
Below is a selection of the incidents documented in which law enforcement officers used force against protesters.
Ambiance Apparel Warehouse and Store, June 6
In the late morning on June 6, federal agents, including from ICE and the FBI, conducted a series of coordinated raids of workplaces. Masked and dressed in tactical gear, they went to the Ambiance Apparel headquarters on 15th Street and their clothing showroom and warehouse on Towne Street, both in the Fashion District near downtown Los Angeles. They arrested over 40 people, handcuffed them, loaded them into vans and SUVs, and took them to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown.
According to the US Attorney for the Central District of California, federal officials had a judicial warrant to search the business for "fictitious employee documents." It is unclear how they determined who to detain and take from these workplaces.
As news of the raids spread, people gathered outside the two Ambiance Apparel facilities to support the workers and voice opposition to the raids, including family members of workers, people living and working in the surrounding community, and labor and immigrant rights advocates. Human Rights Watch spoke to several witnesses who saw the federal agents loading people into unmarked vans and said the agents prevented detainees from speaking with their family members. One person, who watched agents take his father, said the agents were aggressive with the people they detained, even though they were compliant. Advocates yelled out to the detained workers, advising them in Spanish to exercise their right to remain silent.
At the 15th Street facility, some people stood in front of the ICE vans attempting to enter the facility through the front gate. David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West (SEIU-USWW), positioned himself at the gate until federal agents pushed him to the ground, injuring him, and then arrested him. The US Attorney filed criminal charges against Huerta, alleging "conspiracy to impede an officer." Los Angeles Police Department officers later formed a skirmish line and moved protesters away from the front gate, assisting the federal agents leaving the facility.
Family members and protesters similarly gathered at the Towne Street facility. Masked and helmeted FBI agents, in combat gear and brandishing assault rifles, forcibly cleared the crowd, knocking people down with batons and shields to allow ICE agents and their vans to leave with their prisoners. After the vans left, FBI agents backed away from the facility as the crowd followed them. A couple of people threw plastic bottles at the well-armored and shielded agents, who fired flash-bang grenades at the crowd as they left the area.
Paramount, June 7
On June 7, federal agents in full tactical gear from the DHS, including CBP, deployed outside a commercial park across from a Home Depot store on Alondra Boulevard in Paramount, a southern suburb of Los Angeles. As word spread of the agents' presence, people from the neighborhood and around Los Angeles gathered in protest. From late morning into the evening, federal agents repeatedly fired tear gas, pepper balls, and hard foam projectiles at the crowd, who mostly stayed across the street, with people often hiding behind trees, based on witness accounts and video footage Human Rights Watch reviewed.
An immigrant rights advocate said that around noon, federal agents shot him repeatedly with less lethal munitions: "They had just done a round of tear gas. I had a gas mask on and no one else did, so I went … to move the [tear gas] canister away from the families protesting." He said that he put the canister into a container and turned around to go back, when he "heard lots of shooting and felt the impact on my back."
They hit him at least four times with what appear to have been 40mm blue-capped foam rounds that left large bruises on his buttocks, lower-left thigh, back of his right knee, and back of his right ankle, based on the injuries seen and photographs Human Rights Watch reviewed. He said they also hit him in the back with pepper balls, which did not leave longer-term marks, but made him feel like his "back was on fire."
The advocate said there was no dispersal order before the officers fired at him, that his back was to them, and that he was "not even approaching them," leading him to view the shooting as arbitrary and unwarranted.
Federal agents also injured Ryanne Mena, a reporter from the Los Angeles Daily News, shooting her in the head above the ear with a less lethal projectile, then unleashing a large amount of tear gas. "I've been teargassed a number of times," she said. "But nothing like this. I have asthma, and it was really tough for me to breathe or see. My friend [another journalist, who was also hit above his eye with a projectile] helped lead me around the corner to get away from this really big cloud of tear gas. We were just coughing, struggling to breathe." Mena suffered a concussion and shared her medical report with Human Rights Watch.
Sheriff's deputies deployed to surrounding streets, where protesters had also gathered.
Nick Stern, a Los Angeles-based British photojournalist, arrived in the area at around 3 p.m., and saw a skirmish line of sheriff's deputies and a group of about 150 protesters further west along Alondra Boulevard. "We pulled up to the sound of less lethals being fired," he said. Stern said it appeared that deputies were firing projectiles at the crowd and that some in the crowd responded by throwing plastic water bottles. Later in the day, he said, some protesters also threw stones and set off fireworks. But, Stern said, the protesters were 150 to 200 feet away from the deputies, and so the objects they threw hit the ground without reaching the officers.
Starting around 7:30 p.m., Stern said, "the LASD just launched this barrage of less lethals: high foam impact devices, flash-bangs, pepper balls. It resembled a war zone." Stern said he was clearly identified as a journalist, holding up his press card and carrying a large professional camera. At 8:50 p.m., he was standing in the street near a group of people. At that moment, Stern said, "no one had stones, bottles, or fireworks at all near me. They were just waving flags." Then, he suddenly "felt this excruciating pain in my right thigh. I instinctively put my hand down and felt something solid sticking out of my leg."
A bystander captured the moment on camera. In the video, Stern is standing in the middle of the street, about 150 feet from the police line, when a sudden bang and flash of light erupts just a meter in front of him. Clutching his leg in pain, Stern begins to stagger away.
A group of protesters carried Stern to the curb, where a volunteer medic cut his pants off and applied a bandage to stop the bleeding. Stern briefly passed out. "It was really scary," he said. "When I came back, I had no clue where I was or who these people were." They rushed him to the hospital. He had surgery the next day to remove a 3-inch (7.5-centimeter) long, hard plastic object that appears to have housed an explosive warning device or flash-bang.
Stern remained in the hospital for three nights. When Human Rights Watch interviewed him a week after the incident, he was still in pain and largely bedridden.
Downtown Los Angeles, June 6 to 14
After the detainees from Ambiance Apparel were taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center on June 6, protesters gathered outside and in the surrounding neighborhood every afternoon and evening through at least June 14. Protests varied in size, with the largest on June 8 and 14. Following are some of the incidents Human Rights Watch documented.
June 8
Thousands of protesters were in downtown Los Angeles on June 8. National Guard soldiers deployed outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, police officers set up lines throughout the surrounding area, and large numbers of California Highway Patrol personnel were on and around the nearby 101 Freeway. Human Rights Watch interviewed six protest participants.
The National Guard fired tear gas at the crowd starting in the early afternoon, two witnesses said. A Los Angeles Times reporter who was present described the protest as "peaceful" until National Guardsmen charged the crowd and launched tear gas and smoke grenades. By 2 or 3 p.m., large groups of protesters had gathered on Alameda Street between Temple and Aliso Streets, on either side of the detention center. At Alameda and Temple, the police arrived in riot gear and started firing less lethal projectiles at the crowd, three witnesses said.
The police actions scattered the crowd as another larger group of protesters marched into the area. Some went to Los Angeles and Temple Streets, by City Hall, where police officers fired kinetic impact projectiles and pushed the protesters back with horses. Two witnesses said they saw officers striking one person with batons.
Meanwhile, another group of protesters was near the 101 Freeway, north of the Metropolitan Detention Center. A witness in that area said that Highway Patrol officers had initially blocked the entrance to the freeway, but then moved. Once the ramp was clear, a few dozen protesters went down the ramp and onto the freeway, unfurling a banner. Highway Patrol officers formed a skirmish line and pushed the protesters off the freeway using force, including tear gas, and arrested some of them.
As police were firing on the protesters near City Hall and addressing the situation at the freeway, a separate group of people vandalized and burned five empty Waymo driverless cars on Alameda Street, just north of the protest. Police did not appear to respond. Later in the day and into the evening, after the bigger protests had largely dispersed, small groups of people vandalized government buildings with graffiti and some people on the street above the freeway threw things, including chunks of concrete, at Highway Patrol cars and officers on the freeway below them.
Two street medics said they treated multiple people for injuries from the projectiles on June 8. One described the spent ammunition propellent cartridges she saw lining the streets. The other said that after treating dozens of injuries, including many head injuries, she was shot in the head with a projectile while in her car near the Federal Building at around 6 p.m. She said she experienced headaches, nausea, blurred vision, and an inability to concentrate for almost a week afterwards. She also said that police shot her husband in the foot, causing him pain for weeks.
June 9
Protesters again gathered in downtown Los Angeles on June 9. Human Rights Watch documented several instances in which police officers fired less lethal munitions at close range at people without justification, causing injuries.
Jeremy Lindenfeld, a reporter, was filming police officers as they rushed toward a group of protesters near Little Tokyo at around 7:30 p.m. "I had my press helmet on, my press badge, and I was videotaping them detain a protester right in front of me," he said. "They tackled him, got him down to the ground, detained him, and then, a few seconds later … one of the LAPD officers raised the foam baton launcher at me and just fired." A video shows him backing away from the line of police after the arrest is made. An officer standing a few meters away fires a projectile directly at Lindenfeld, without warning. Lindenfeld said it left him with a bruise on his stomach.
At around 9:30 p.m., a police officer shot three people, all known advocates for police accountability, at very close range with less lethal projectiles, just outside police headquarters. An officer "had his less lethal 40mm pointed at us as we were walking by the headquarters," one of the advocates said. "We were like, 'What are you doing? Are you going to shoot us right now?' Within a minute, he shot my buddy in the leg. He had his hands up when he was shot… I back up into the street, clearly not a threat," and then the officer pointed his weapon "directly at me and gets me in the stomach."
The officer didn't have his name or badge number on his helmet, so the third advocate then approached him, while filming, and asked for his name and badge number. The officer said: "I'm going to pop you, as you are taking up my focus," and shot him in the groin at close range. Moments later, the officer shot him again as he was backing away.
All three were still in pain several days later. One said: "It felt like I got hit by a 90 miles-per-hour fastball in my stomach. It hurts to move or get up when I'm sitting."
June 11
On June 11, protesters marched from Pershing Square to Grand Park, across the street from City Hall. Police officers and sheriff's deputies were there by the time protesters arrived, around 6:15 p.m., with skirmish lines on the steps of City Hall and at the north end of the block by Temple and Spring Streets. The protesters were chanting and standing in the park and on the street. One witness said police gave a dispersal order at Temple and Spring Streets, but that it was not audible in the park where most people were, and it was not repeated.
By about 6:30 p.m., Human Rights Watch observed police officers forming lines sealing off the area and firing flash-bang grenades. Around 6:45 p.m., police officers and sheriff's deputies were firing what appeared to be pepper balls and other kinetic impact projectiles at people in the park.
At 6:53 p.m., Human Rights Watch saw police officers on horseback moving in on protesters who were fleeing that section of the park. One officer on horseback rammed a protester to the ground using their horse as the protester was moving away with her back turned. Several other mounted officers immediately moved toward her. Other protesters rushed in to assist her. One officer drew a baton, swung it, and struck another officer's horse on the head, then hit a protester. Another officer fired a projectile at close range toward the protesters.
The officers continued pushing the crowd from the area. At around 7:20 p.m., on Hill Street by 1st Street, researchers saw officers form a line at 1st Street blocking protesters who were being moved down Hill Street from the park by another line of officers, trapping them in a "kettle." The officers detained dozens of protesters and several legal observers, wearing clearly identifiable green hats, and took them to a police station over seven miles away. Those arrested were given citations and released later that night, said one arrested person and a lawyer who represented the group.
"No Kings" Protest, June 14
On June 14, tens of thousands of people gathered downtown to protest the Trump administration generally, some as part of the national "No Kings" protests, and more specifically to protest the Los Angeles-area ICE raids.
A Human Rights Watch researcher arriving in the early afternoon observed a festive atmosphere until around 3:30 p.m. At that time, a line of police officers moved south down Alameda Street toward the Metropolitan Detention Center, while another group formed a line at Temple Street, indicating they might intend to trap or kettle protesters. The researcher and others left the area up Temple Street to avoid possible detention.
Between 4 and 4:06 p.m., Human Rights Watch saw police officers, led by a line of horse-mounted officers just northeast of the Federal Building, charge at a large crowd of cheering, chanting people gathered on Los Angeles Street. Human Rights Watch heard no dispersal order and observed no violent or destructive acts that might have triggered a lawful dispersal order. Officers pushed those fleeing down Los Angeles Street, pointing less lethal launchers at the crowd, as horses nearly trampled some people. At Los Angeles and Temple Streets, officers fired tear gas and less lethal projectiles into the crowd.
At Los Angeles and Temple Streets, officers fired tear gas and less lethal projectiles into the crowd on June 14, 2025. (C) 2025 Jeremy Lindenfeld/Capital & Main
At Temple and Spring Streets, officers formed a skirmish line and fired a barrage of hard foam projectiles into the crowd. For the next several hours, police officers continued to fire less lethal weapons into crowds as they moved their lines down various downtown streets.
A protester said he had been impressed by the protest's "happy vibe" until the police, with no discernible dispersal order, attacked the crowd, seemingly at random. As the protester fled, he turned onto 4th Street from Broadway. Police officers shot him in the head with a less lethal projectile. He said it felt like getting hit with a baseball bat. He fell to the ground, losing consciousness. Other protesters helped him get away, and a street medic provided first aid. The protester learned at the emergency room the next day that he had a concussion with extensive bruising to the brain, in addition to a laceration on his ear and numbness in his arm.
Another protester, Sergio Espejo, a 28-year-old data engineer and artist, joined the protest waving an American flag and chanting "peaceful protest" alongside others. After he made his way to the courthouse by City Hall, he saw sheriff's deputies holding shields arrive on the opposite side of the street. Espejo said the deputies shouted something inaudible on loudspeakers before firing tear gas and throwing stun grenades at the crowd. At around 5 p.m., a sheriff's deputy fired a flash-bang device that exploded upon impact on Espejo's hand. "As soon as I got hit, I dropped to the ground and then immediately got teargassed," he said. "I couldn't catch my breath." A street medic helped Espejo before he was rushed to Los Angeles General Medical Center, where he underwent surgery the same day. The explosion resulted in the amputation of the top two inches of his left index finger. Espejo is left-handed and his ability to work and produce art have been seriously affected. Human Rights Watch reviewed Espejo's medical report and photos and videos of the injury.
Christopher Fernandez, an intensive care nurse at a local hospital, came to the protest with a wagon with medical gear to treat injured protesters. He said it was calm until about 4 p.m., when police officers started using tear gas and firing less lethal rounds at protesters. Over several hours, he treated 20 to 30 people, including about a dozen injured with kinetic impact projectiles, five of them with head injuries, including a pregnant woman. One man had lost his hearing and was bleeding from his right ear due to a flash-bang explosion. Fernandez used a flagpole to create a splint for another man with a broken leg. He helped many people wash chemical irritants out of their eyes.
In the midst of this, a police officer shot Fernandez in the back of his left thigh with what appeared to be a 40mm hard foam projectile, leaving a gaping 2-by-3-inch open wound that went down to his muscle.
From when he arrived at the protest at around 11 a.m., until he left just before 8 p.m., Fernandez said the only violence by protesters that he observed were two incidents later in the day when protesters threw empty plastic water bottles toward the police line. "Both times, a lot of [other protesters] yelled out saying, 'Hey, don't do that!' I never saw any police injured or any use of force against the police."
The overwhelming violence by police made Fernandez feel like he was in "a wartime movie." He said: "The chaos. The volume of everything. I was just going from people screaming, 'Medic, medic!,' one after another, for hours… People were bleeding from the head or the face, and they needed someone to look at them to tell them if they should go to the hospital. I have never experienced anything like this."
Fernandez never heard any police officers issue orders to protesters to disperse or warning that they would use force. The officers didn't respond when he and other protesters asked where they could safely go. "It was really frustrating," he said. "They gave us zero directions, and it was so disorienting."
When Human Rights Watch spoke with Fernandez, he had been unable to return to work for six weeks and still had difficulties walking or bending his knee.
