Photojournalist pepper-sprayed, camera smacked at clashing LA protests

Freelance photojournalist Shay Horse was pepper-sprayed and his camera smacked while documenting clashes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli protesters in Los Angeles, California, on June 23, 2024. At least nine journalists were assaulted while covering the violence that day.

The conflict began after the Southern California chapter of the Palestinian Youth Movement called for demonstrators to meet at noon outside the Adas Torah synagogue in the heavily Jewish Pico-Robertson neighborhood in west LA to protest the alleged sale of occupied Palestinian land in the West Bank, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Multiple journalists told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that scuffles, brawls and exchanges of pepper spray broke out in the streets nearby between the protesters and counterprotesters.

Individuals from both sides — including a rabbi and security volunteers from the Jewish community — attempted to intervene and prevent the violence from escalating. CNN reported that Los Angeles Police Department officers established a perimeter around the synagogue.

Horse wrote in a post to the social media platform X that his camera was smacked by a masked individual who demanded that he delete his footage after filming an attack on a pro-Palestinian demonstrator. In the video, the man can be heard telling Horse, “Put your camera away” before striking at it with an open palm.

In a post on Instagram about the day’s events, Horse wrote that he was also pepper-sprayed twice and that other journalists were targeted with violence as well.

“Even the insurrectionists weren’t this openly hostile to journalists,” wrote Horse, who covered the deadly riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. “I saw four other journalists getting assaulted, harassed or robbed by the pro Israel supporters.”

Horse did not respond to a request for additional comment.

The LAPD said in a news release that officers were investigating two reports of battery at the protest and that one individual had been arrested for having a spiked post. A spokesperson for the department told the Tracker via email June 27 that they have no further information.