A British news photographer was taken into emergency surgery after being hit by non-lethal rounds while covering Los Angeles demonstrations.
Nick Stern was reporting on a clash between anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) protesters and police outside a Home Depot in Paramount, an LA County city renowned as a place where day laborers congregate. During the encounter, a 14mm ‘sponge bullet’ struck his thigh.
Surgery Underway
Referring to the PA news agency, Stern explained, “My first concern was, were they shooting live rounds?” The protesters rushed to his rescue, carrying him away as he observed blood running down his leg. One medic who was present asked him to go to hospital for treatment. For a brief moment, Stern fainted due to the pain. He is now recuperating at Long Beach Memorial Medical Centre after undergoing the surgery.
Stern, who moved to the US in 2007, mentioned that he usually makes himself ‘as visible as possible’ while working in dangerous situations, explaining, “That way you’re less likely to get hit because they know you’re media.”
Not the First Time for Stern!
This incident marks the second time Stern has been hit by police fire while covering protests. During the George Floyd demonstrations in 2020, he suffered ‘substantial’ bruising from another live round. He mentioned the high level of community cohesion in LA, stating, “The communities in LA are very close and very tight. So an external organisation such as Ice coming in and taking out whatever you want to call it, taking out, kidnapping, abducting people from the community is not going to be well received at all.”
The wound was sustained during a heightening of protests set off by immigration raids conducted by the Trump administration. President Donald Trump replied to the uproar by sending 2,000 National Guard soldiers to California. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt explained the action as ‘essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States’.
But the move was met with fierce resistance from Democratic leaders, including California Governor Gavin Newsom, who deemed it as ‘purposefully inflammatory’. The protests kicked off on Friday in downtown Los Angeles and spread fast, with protesters against the immigration enforcement measures, which sought to detain up to 3,000 individuals every day.
Stern was determined to go back to the work of chronicling the events despite the injury. “I plan, as soon as I am capable, to go back out there,” he stated. “This is too important and it must be documented.”
