LOS ANGELES (AP) — A lawsuit filed by two independent journalists alleges the Los Angeles Police Department violated their civil rights when the pair was arrested last year while reporting on a confrontation over the removal of a large homeless encampment at a city park.
Jon Peltz and Kate Gallagher are reporters for the nonprofit news website KnockLA. They were among more than 180 protesters and several members of the news media detained in March 2021 during demonstrations at LA’s Echo Park Lake.
All charges were dropped. But Peltz and Gallagher allege their arrests for failure to disperse violated their First Amendment rights and a California law protecting journalists.
