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As day four rolled around, protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles continued, with vehicles set on fire and reports of looting.
President Trump has sent in another 2,000 National Guard troops, with an additional 600 Marines also called up to deal with the chaos.
Some of the footage we’re seeing, however, bears a striking and uncomfortable resemblance to reports from war-torn countries, except in most of those places, journalists are not used as target practice.
An Australian foreign correspondent was hit by what was understood to be a rubber bullet while reporting from Los Angeles.
Channel Nine’s Lauren Tomasi is seen jumping in pain after the incident in which she was struck in the leg on Sunday. A law enforcement officer can be seen turning towards news cameras and firing the round before Tomasi was struck.
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In a separate incident, British news photographer Nick Stern was hit with what doctors believe was a 40mm high-velocity “sponge bullet” that tore into his thigh while he was taking pictures, resulting in emergency surgery being carried out.
In another incident, a New York Post photographer, Toby Canham, was shot in the head with a rubber bullet while taking pictures of the chaotic scenes. Unfortunately for the fuzz, the cameraman managed to capture the whole incident on film.
The veteran photographer, who served in the British Army and is based out of LA, spent Monday at the hospital for whiplash and neck pain. He was left with a giant bruise on his forehead.
“When I got whacked, to my best recollection, it was just me filming with my cameras on and then I got shot,” said Canham. “Where I was hit, I was the only person overlooking the freeway. I wasn’t surrounded so I was an easy target.”
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The Los Angeles police chief, Jim McDonnell, said at a press conference on Monday that he was aware members of the media had likely been hit with crowd-control munitions, saying, “We’re very concerned about it and we’re looking into that.”
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has accused the federal government of using her city as a ‘test case’ for the federal government taking over from local and state authorities and said the intervention was completely unwarranted.
“I don’t think our city should be used for an experiment,” said Bass.
The experiment continues while the whole world watches.
