California Post reporter Jamie Paige said she was aggressively harassed by what she described as “radical leftist agitators” during a Los Angeles Police Department meeting Tuesday, claiming the group screamed insults, obstructed her reporting, and created an unsafe environment that ultimately forced her to leave.
According to Paige, roughly 40 protesters descended on the meeting, many concealing their identities with medical masks or keffiyeh scarves. She said the group initially targeted police officers, chanting “F— the police” and calling officers “pigs,” before redirecting their anger toward her as she attempted to document the event.
Paige recounted that the protesters’ hostility escalated quickly once they noticed her reporting. She described what she called a “deranged fury” directed at her and her photographer as the group closed in.
“They got in our space, blocking our cameras, and covered our lenses, physically boxing me in to stop filming,” Paige wrote. She said others screamed insults and attempted to undermine her work, even as she was simply reporting what was happening at the meeting.
In what Paige described as an ironic twist, one protester told her they were there to “protect journalists,” despite actively interfering with her ability to do her job.
Video from the meeting shows protesters flipping off cameras and placing their hands directly in front of lenses in an apparent effort to prevent filming. At one point, a protester identified as Jason Reedy was heard confronting Paige directly.
“You are afraid of me, aren’t you?” Reedy said, according to Paige’s account.
Paige said she and the California Post photographer ultimately left after protesters disrupted the meeting to the point that it was shut down. She emphasized that the decision to leave was not a surrender to intimidation, but a judgment call based on safety and professionalism.
“We did not leave because we were intimidated into silence,” Paige wrote. “We left because the situation had become unsafe and our job was to report.”
The incident occurred just one day after the California Post launched as the West Coast counterpart to the New York Post, a timing that underscored the paper’s assertion that hostile political activism is increasingly targeting journalists who do not align with progressive orthodoxy.
In response, the Post published an editorial titled “We will not be intimidated,” defending Paige and condemning the behavior of the protesters. The editorial described how Paige was assigned to cover the LAPD meeting and instead found herself confronted by a hostile mob.
“Protesters had arrived and tried to intimidate the chief of the LAPD, rather than to air their grievances in an ordinary fashion,” the editorial stated. It added that the activists drowned out other residents who had come to participate and then turned on the reporter.
“They shouted at her; they shoved their hands in her face; they blocked her camera; and they eventually forced her to leave the meeting for her own safety,” the editorial said. “That is completely outrageous.”
The editorial board noted that while the incident was shocking, it was not entirely surprising given what it described as California’s increasingly hostile political climate. The board said residents are living under what it called a “political climate of fear,” comparing it to authoritarian environments where dissenting voices are routinely silenced.
The Post said it stands firmly behind Paige and rejected the idea that journalists should be harassed or threatened for doing their jobs. The outlet also published photos and video from the meeting to document the confrontation, vowing that intimidation tactics will not deter its reporting.
For Paige, the episode served as a stark example of how aggressive activism can turn on members of the press, even as protesters claim to be acting in the name of justice or accountability.
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