In June, 81-year-old Robert Detrano said he was hit in the face with a spray by federal agents as he was out protesting immigration raids in Santa Ana, with no provocation or warning.
“ It made me sick and made me cough, and I fell down to the ground,” the retired UC Irvine medical professor said.
He still doesn’t know what hit him. And he wasn’t the only one.
Injured journalists and protesters together with the Los Angeles Press Club and the media union the NewsGuild sued the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in June, arguing that federal agents’ use of force during anti-ICE protests “punishes and suppresses the exercise of First Amendment-protected rights.” The press club also sued the Los Angeles Police Department, citing violations of journalists’ rights while covering protests…