Human Rights Watch (HRW) stated on Monday that law enforcement officers used “excessive force and deliberate brutality” in response to protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, from June 6 to 14.

According to HRW, while the protests had largely been peaceful, the law enforcement officers frequently used a range of “less lethal” weapons, such as tear gas, pepper balls, hard foam rounds and flash-bang grenades, against protestors without apparent justification or clear, audible dispersal orders or warnings. HRW stated that these less deadly weapons can still potentially cause serious injury and death.

Ida Sawyer, the director for conflict and arms at Human Rights Watch, stated: “Local, state, and federal law enforcement’s aggressive response to these protests violently oppressed the public’s right to express outrage and the media’s right to report safely.”

HRW documented 39 cases of journalists injured by law enforcement, including Lauren Tomasi, an Australian reporter for 9News, who was fired at by a police officer using a kinetic impact projectile, resulting in a bruise on her leg. The events prompted injured journalists and protesters to file lawsuits against the County of Los Angeles and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).

HRW further stated that the use of force by the law enforcement violated the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), to which the United States is a party, the UN Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Personnel, as well as the First Amendment of the US Constitution.

Article 21 of ICCPR permits restrictions on the right to peaceful assembly only in limited circumstances that are “necessary in a democratic society” to protect public order, public safety, and the rights of others. Moreover, the UN Basic Principles stipulate that law enforcement officials should first use non-violent means to disperse protests, and avoid using force at all to disperse non-violent protests, regardless of whether the authorities consider the protests illegal.

Section 13652 of California’s Penal Code additionally forbids law enforcement from using “kinetic energy projectiles” to disperse a protest, except “to defend against a threat to life or serious bodily injury” or to “bring any objectively dangerous and unlawful situation safely under control.”

Thousands of people protested in and around Los Angeles between June 6 and 14 in response to US President Donald Trump’s administration’s orders to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency to increase daily arrests of undocumented immigrants. The orders led to the detention of those who were suspected of being undocumented by the heavily armed federal agents, with the aim of deporting them.

Following the protests, advocacy groups have called for a total ban on “less lethal” weapons.