LOS ANGELES — In a move immediately denounced as legally meritless by First Amendment and media rights experts, the city of Los Angeles has sued a local journalist and an activist group over the online publication of undercover Los Angeles Police Department officers’ pictures — images the city had itself provided.
Attorneys for the city claim the release of the images in response to a public records request and related litigation by Knock LA journalist Ben Camacho was “inadvertent” and posed a safety risk to the officers. Camacho subsequently provided the images to the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, which published them online.
“The City seeks the return of these inadvertently produced photos to protect the lives and work of these undercover officers,” the city’s attorneys wrote.
