VIDEO: L.A. Journalists Amber Lyon, Tim Pool, Steven Gregory Shot at by Anaheim Police

By Simone Wilson Wed., Jul. 25 2012 at 3:05 PM

Tim Pool via Twitter

"Various projectiles fired at journalists, protesters, and bystanders in #Anaheim"

Approximately 500 protesters, majority Latino, were showered in police beanbags, rubber bullets and pepper balls last night outside Anaheim City Hall as they rioted over two recent officer-involved shootings in the Orange County town. (And the fight wasn't one-sided: Protesters reportedly hurtled bottles, rocks and traffic cones right back in the face of riot police.)

But you know the police response has waxed indiscriminate when two journalists walking along the sidewalk, just doing their job, come under fire:

Amber Lyon, a former CNN correspondent who was reporting for L.A. radio station KPFK last night, and Tim Pool, another L.A.-based freelancer best known for his extensive coverage of the Occupy Wall Street protests, can be seen fleeing from a round of non-lethal bullets in a video that Pool posted to YouTube this morning.

Pool writes beneath the video that "Neither Tim nor Amber were hurt. Amber was pinned between two trucks and Tim was fired at multiple times after this video but is unscathed."

@KFINEWS via Twitter

Another L.A. reporter who says he narrowly avoided a big red pepper-ball bruise?

KFI radio's own Steven Gregory. He Tweeted the photo to the left at around 9:30 p.m., writing: "Pepper spray ball shot at me and 2 KFI staffers".

Police tried to turn the story around in a Los Angeles Times blog post this morning, informing the paper that a rock thrown by protesters had struck a reporter from the Orange County Register.

Guess that's what a journalist gets for entering the war zone that is Anaheim right now.

There has been violence on both sides, but we will say this: The police protests began very peacefully over the weekend. It was only once Anaheim cops (and other cops called in from surrounding cities) starting blasting groups of women and children with rubber bullets and sicking police dogs on them that all bets were called off.

Here are some insane photos that Lyon posted to her Twitter feed last night -- making all the bullet-dodging worth it, we'd say.

"Both of this woman's legs bleed after being shot by PD projectiles #anaheim"

"#anaheim on fire"

"more #Anaheim on fire"

"This man says he was hit in the leg by this projectile #Anaheim"

Head over to the OC Weekly's Anaheim police shooting archives for more.

Tags:

Amber Lyon, Anaheim police, KFI, protesters, riot, Steven Gregory, Tim Pool

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rebelzowsla

as refered to in industry jargon, they are less lethal rounds, not non lethal. lethality is a matter of placement and tens of thousands of people have already died as a result of being attacked with these sorts of munitions. a pencil is non lethal unless it pierces your brain, same with these rounds. get it together people

andreihp42 topcommenter

time to bring in the feds to clean up that department.

wornmatt

@andreihp42 Time for the people to clean up that department, AND the feds. The MOMENT a sworn law enforcement officer violates the civil rights of a citizen he ceases to be a LEO and becomes an armed felon. When an armed felon uses potentially lethal force against a citizen, that citizen is legally and morally authorized to respond with concomitant lethal force. As a former sworn LEO I know better than to put myself in the position of becoming an armed felonious assailant, I cannot see why those on active LEO duty are not similarly informed. Just saying.

prpetty

@wornmatt @andreihp42 I too am a former LEO and agree with wornmatt, however as he/she knows life on the street isn't always so black and white. You can find yourself in a situtation where you believe you are doing what is needed in order to maintain the security of civilians but in reality you are now the armed felon. It's a tricky world LEO's live in and while 'most' of them are there for the right reasons they depend on their supervisors to guide them in the right direction. The higher up you get in the chain in law enforcement, the more critical your understanding of the law, the constitutition and general right and wrong becomes.