LASD Faces Legal Claim After Journalist Wounded at Anti-Ice Rally
Independent photojournalist Nick Stern has filed a civil rights claim against the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, alleging deputies violated a federal injunction when they fired a projectile that seriously injured him while he was covering an anti-ICE protest in Compton earlier this month.
Stern, 60, was struck in the thigh by debris from what is believed to be a 40-millimeter less-lethal explosive round while documenting the June 7 demonstration. The impact caused severe bleeding and required emergency surgery to remove a plastic cap lodged deep in his leg. The injury has since left him unable to walk without assistance and suffering ongoing pain, according to the claim filed by his attorney, civil rights lawyer V. James DeSimone.
According to DeSimone, during the press conference held in Marina del Rey, this is the first, but certainly not the last lawsuit, since he’s being contacted daily by numerous people who have brain bleeds, traumatic brain injuries, broken facial bones, broken nose, and eye injuries from the actions of LAPD and LASD during protests in the last two weeks.
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For approximately six hours before he was wounded, Stern had been photographing and recording the protest, a gathering of the public outraged over ICE enforcement and immigration policy. At around 9:00 p.m., while stationed on the south side of Alondra Boulevard, he was filming a small group of demonstrators waving Mexican flags and chanting peacefully. Across the street, other protesters had taken cover behind a makeshift barricade.
Despite no immediate threat from the group surrounding Stern, deputies deployed so-called “less-lethal” munitions into the crowd. Stern, who repeatedly identified himself as a member of the press, was hit by shrapnel from the explosion, which embedded a hard plastic casing three inches into his thigh.
The deputies’ actions, the claim alleges, breached Stern’s constitutional rights and flouted court-ordered restrictions on the use of crowd control munitions, particularly against journalists and nonviolent demonstrators.
