Thread by @josie_huang

Last night I was arrested and charged with obstructing a peace officer by @LASDHQ after videotaping their interactions with protesters in Lynwood. This is what I remember and what I have on video and audio.

I was at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood last night covering a press conference led by Sheriff Villanueva about the shooting of two deputies. One of the deputies is a mom of a 6 year-old. I felt my chest tighten thinking about the little boy.

https://twitter.com/josie_huang/status/1305013935205019649

After the press conference, I went to my car in the hospital garage and was tying things up on the phone with 1 of my editors. It was almost 11 pm. Then I heard loud shouting outside the garage, so I went to check things out. I had on a lanyard around my neck with a press ID.

A handful of men were on the sidewalk. A couple were carrying large flags. Others were filming deputies and taunting them. One deputy pointed a weapon at the protesters.

I started filming on my phone, standing off to the side. No one took issue with me being there.

I texted video to editors. When I looked up from my phone, the small group of men had dispersed & deputies were following at least 1 man down the street.

I walked behind, using the zoom on my camera so I could keep physical distance. A couple deputies looked at me as I filmed.

Here’s more of the video, the zoom is still on.

I saw a commotion ahead of me. Deputies rushed one man and chased another.

I was filming an arrest when suddenly deputies shout “back up.” Within seconds, I was getting shoved around. There was nowhere to back up.

Somehow I was able to start a new video right away. You see my phone clatter to the ground and I start shouting “I’m a reporter...I’m with KPCC.” I scream for help from the TV reporters I know are around the corner doing their 11 p.m. live hits

After my phone drops, it keeps recording and it captures two deputies damaging my phone by kicking and stepping on it. I can hear myself in the background shouting: “You guys are hurting me” and “Stop it.” It feels very out-of-body to play this back.

I was put in the back of a patrol car -- the start of some 5 hours in LASD custody that began with the deputy refusing to uncuff me so I could put my face covering back on, telling me I just had a “scrape” when I was bleeding from my foot and not giving me back a shoe

I’m grateful to the crew at @ABC7 @abc7leanne for filming what happened to me last night, and for Leanne and @OSV227Hex getting my phone back to me which let me share my videos. I know it is important to document what happened.

Said phone is somehow alive!

Thank you all for the support and to the loveliest colleagues at @KPCC and @LAist. Our newsroom works really hard to cover our community and is proud to exercise our 1st Amendment rights, along with all the rest of you.

Thank you onscene.tv for what is the clearest footage of my arrest by @LASDHQ.

It’s how I remember it — like being tossed around in the ocean and then slammed into rock