Handcuffing Police: Minnesota and LA judges limit officers' ability to confront violent protesters

Both courts in Los Angeles and Minnesota have issued rulings that weaken the ability of police to confront large crowds of demonstrators should protests turn violent.

In Minnesota, where local and federal law enforcement are facing violent demonstrations following the death by a shooting of an ICE agent of Renee Good in Minneapolis and where immigration officials are suffering ambushes, Judge Katherine Menendez ordered officers not to stop protesters in vehicles that "are not obstructing" law enforcement activity and prohibited them from using pepper spray against them.

DHS: "We remind the public that rioting is dangerous"

Following the ruling, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, issued a statement assuring that agents are taking the "appropriate and constitutional measures to uphold the rule of law and protect our agents and the public from dangerous rioters."

McLaughlin recalled that many of the "peaceful" rioters attacked agents, vandalized vehicles and federal property, and attempted to prevent officers from carrying out their jobs. "We remind the public that rioting is dangerous: obstructing law enforcement is a federal crime and assaulting law enforcement is a felony," McLaughlin added.

According to the judge, throwing fireworks at officers "is not a threat of physical harm"

In the California case, Judge Consuelo B. Marshall banned the use of a powerful nonlethal weapon in her ruling Thursday, finding the L.A. Police Department violated an existing court order by deploying non lethal 40 mm and 37 mm rubber projectile launchers against protesters who, according to her assessment, "did not pose an immediate threat of physical harm" to officers.

Marshall dismissed the video presented by the Police Department, which showed protesters at anti-ICE marches in 2025 confronting law enforcement officers throwing fireworks at them. The officers responded by firing these non-lethal instruments while trying to stay under cover so as not to be hit by the vandals' projectiles.

Ban for violating a post-George Floyd law

However, the judge, in her ruling, found that, "In this case, plaintiffs provide evidence that defendants used 40mm ammunition against demonstrators who did not pose an immediate threat of violence or physical harm failed to provide warnings before using the ammunition, and fired at demonstrators in restricted areas of the body."

Therefore, and in the face of the "failures of the L.A. Police" to comply with the regulations imposed on the use of these non-lethal weapons following the riots over the death of George Floyd, the judge held the city in civil contempt and placed an immediate ban on these weapons for Los Angeles police as a crowd control tool.