Clip from Florida misrepresented as 'woman caught in Los Angeles protests'
- Published on June 17, 2025 at 09:54
- 3 min read
- By Akshita KUMARI, AFP India
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"The situation in America is bad right now. This video is from Los Angeles, America," reads part of a Hindi-language Facebook post published on June 10, 2025.
"A mother with young children in her car was stuck -- and she was screaming, pleading to be released..." the caption continues.
The woman can be heard screaming, "there's a baby in the car!" as the surrounding crowd howls.
Protests in Los Angeles broke out on June 6 following dozens of arrests of what authorities said were illegal migrants and gang members.
Demonstrators took over streets in downtown LA, torching cars and looting stores, while law enforcement responded with tear gas and rubber bullets (archived link).
US President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard and active-duty Marines into the city in response to the unrest, drawing criticism from state leaders (archived link).
The clip also spread on Facebook, X and Instagram with the false claim.
But a reverse image search using keyframes found a clip showing a similar scene was posted on Instagram on December 10, 2024 (archived link).
Its caption contains hashtags that indicate it shows a street takeover -- impromptu events where drivers take turns doing doughnuts in intersections (archived link).
Further searches reveal the Orange County Sheriff's Office in Florida published a video showing the same scene on its Facebook page on December 13, 2024 (archived link).
The post appealed for information on a group of drivers who shut down a highway intersection to do doughnuts in their cars.
"The situation escalated as participants harassed innocent drivers, blocked them from passing, and in some cases, climbed on and damaged vehicles," it goes on to say.
Media outlets, including The Mirror US and Fox News, also used the clip in their reports about the incident (archived here and here).
In another post on X, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said that the incident occurred at an intersection in South John Young Parkway and Central Florida Parkway (archived link).
Google Street View imagery of the intersection shows that the false video was filmed in the area (archived link).
Read more of AFP's reporting on misinformation related to the LA protests here.
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