There has been a very dangerous development in the Los Angeles protests, although so far it seems to be a series of isolated incidents as opposed to any sort of blanket policy. Journalists covering the protests and the police response have been targeted by police using what is now being called "less-than-lethal" weapons (non-lethal rounds such as rubber bullets). And so far, it appears that this targeting has happened not from the members of the National Guard or U.S. military (who have now been deployed, in a serious escalation of the situation by Donald Trump) but rather from local and state police forces. Which is almost more worrisome, since it can't be chalked up to the federal militarization of the response to the protests.

I should begin by stating clearly that not all the facts are known in every single case. But there have been a few that have been pretty egregious. The first of these was caught on video by the journalist who was hit, a New York Post reporter who was filming protesters on the US-101 freeway being cleared off the road by the California Highway Patrol (the highway runs right next to the complex with the federal buildings that were the target of the protest). Here's how the Post reported the incident (the article includes his video):

Harrowing footage captured the moment California police shot a New York Post photographer in the head with a rubber bullet during Los Angeles' violent protest Sunday evening.

Toby Canham, who was on assignment for The Post and standing just off the 101 Freeway at an elevated level, was filming video of the chaos between cops and rioters when a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer suddenly turned his weapon toward him and fired from about 100 yards away.

Canham, 59, who was wearing his press pass, was struck in the forehead and quickly fell to the ground, according to the disturbing footage he captured.

The veteran photographer, who served in the British Army and is based out of LA, spent Monday at the hospital for whiplash and neck pain. He was left with a giant bruise on his forehead.

"When I got whacked, to my best recollection it was just me filming with my cameras on and then I got shot," said Canham.

"Where I was hit, I was the only person overlooking the freeway. I wasn't surrounded so I was an easy target."

To be fair, there were at least some extenuating circumstances, as the article goes on to explain:

Before he was hit with the rubber bullet, a flashbang initially exploded a few feet from him, causing shrapnel to kick up and leave two holes in his pants.

He then saw someone to his left throw a water bottle filled with a liquid at authorities and then retreat, which led him to start recording with his camera 20 seconds before he was struck.

. . .

While Canham was taking photos, protesters could be seen standing on the sides of the elevated platform next to the freeway while law enforcement was still on the highway and sheltered under an overpass.

Rioters have thrown various items, including water bottles and rocks, at law enforcement, since the violence erupted.

"It's a real shame. I completely understand being in the position where you could get injured, but at the same time, there was no justification for even aiming the rifle at me and pulling the trigger, so I'm a bit pissed off about that, to be honest," Canham said, noting he could have lost an eye or some teeth.

Since the officer was "about 100 yards away," think of the length of a football field. That's a long enough distance that the officer probably couldn't see his press pass and didn't know that he wasn't one of the protesters throwing things.

The second notable incident involved a more serious wound, which required emergency surgery. And, unlike with Canham, the journalist was shot from behind. Here is how the Guardian reported the incident:

Nick Stern, a British news photographer based in Los Angeles... told the Guardian he had been covering the protest near a branch of Home Depot in [the city of] Paramount, where immigrants workers [sic] are typically hired for day work, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg.

"I'm walking around taking photos and was untouched until around 9pm. I was walking across the road when I felt a mighty pain in my leg. I put my hand down and felt a lump kind of sticking out the back of my leg," he said.

Stern believes he was probably hit by a non-lethal round that deputies were using along with flash-bang stun grenades for crowd control.

"People came over to help and got me on the curb. A medic was called, who cut off my clothes. In my leg was what felt like a five-centimeter [two-inch] hole with muscle hanging out of it and blood all down my leg. The medic put a tourniquet on it, and a journalist I was with took me to ER."

"It hurt so much that I thought they might be firing live rounds," he said. "I've been with non-lethal rounds before. They hurt like hell but generally don't break the skin. But the blood made me think it was a live round."

This was far from the federal building in Los Angeles, it bears mentioning, which makes it easy to identify the police force involved. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department was the only one to deploy deputies to the protest.

But the one that has gotten the most media attention so far involves an Australian television journalist who was doing an on-air report when she was shot.

The reporter, Lauren Tomasi of 9News Australia, a CNN affiliate, was conducting a live broadcast from the scene of a protest on Sunday afternoon when she was hit.

Video of the broadcast shows Ms. Tomasi standing off to the side of an intersection in downtown Los Angeles. Armed police officers, some on horseback, are seen behind her, squaring off against protesters as booms are heard in the background.

"The situation has now rapidly deteriorated, the L.A.P.D. moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets," Ms. Tomasi says in the report, referring to officers from the Los Angeles Police Department.

Then, the video shows a law enforcement officer pointing a weapon toward Ms. Tomasi and firing it. She shrieks and limps away. According to the broadcaster, Ms. Tomasi was hit with a projectile and left sore but not seriously hurt.

According to CNN, Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued a statement in support of Ms. Tomasi, saying "all journalists should be able to do their work safely."

This one is hard to justify in any way (the AP version of the story includes the video). Tomasi was in the midst of a group of journalists. The video clearly shows this. There are even journalists (photographers) who approach the police line much closer than Tomasi is standing, without being shot at. Tomasi is quite obviously giving a live report, with a large microphone in her hand standing in front of a television camera. It is broad daylight, not night. Her back is to the police line. She is in no way threatening the police or presenting any sort of risk to their safety. She was shot in the back of the leg. You can clearly see the officer raise his weapon at almost point-blank range, aim it at her, and fire. This was not some shot that went astray -- at that distance that is an impossible argument to make. After she is shot, she retreats in pain while the camera still rolls and you can see that all the people in her immediate vicinity are also journalists (most toting cameras), and not protesters. In fact, there are very few actual protesters to be seen.

The officer was almost certainly a member of the L.A.P.D. The California Highway Patrol stated that it was not involved in the incident, and there are no National Guard soldiers in sight.

These aren't the only incidents where journalists were shot. Journalists from the LA Daily News and the New York Times have also been hit with non-lethal rounds.

Again, to be scrupulously fair, so far these appear to be isolated incidents. There is the extenuating circumstance of "the fog of war," where tensions are running high and adrenaline is flowing and officers are fearful for their own safety. Mistakes are admittedly made in the heat of the battle, where the situation requires split-second decisions. There is also the question of how much training in crowd control all of the officers deployed to these incidents have actually had. There are many factors that should be considered before leaping to judgments.

However, these incidents are still extremely disturbing. Two of the three most prominent incidents involve reporters being shot from behind. In the case of the Australian reporter there is simply no justification for her being targeted at all. There were other journalists who approached the police line much closer than she did, she was quite obviously in the midst of an on-air report -- standing in front of a television camera operator with a large and obvious microphone in her hand, and she was facing away from the police. She was shot not with a stray bullet at night (where things get exponentially more confusing for everyone due to the darkness) but with a clearly-aimed shot in broad daylight at incredibly close range. This didn't take place during a confusing volley of shots from multiple officers -- only one officer in the entire police line fires his weapon. There's really no possible excuse for this one, in other words.

Journalism is the only profession mentioned in the United States Constitution, in the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment guarantees the freedom of the press, period. Journalists wear visible press passes to indicate to the police that they are not participants in the protest but instead neutral observers and chroniclers of it. Which means the police aren't supposed to shoot at them even with non-lethal rounds, to state the plainly (and constitutionally) obvious.

The Pentagon, so far, has stated that all the soldiers deployed to Los Angeles -- both the California National Guard and the Marines -- have been trained in crowd control and de-escalation techniques. Their mission has been stated as protecting federal buildings and federal officers -- which is a purely defensive thing to do. If all of this is true, then hopefully the federal officers will be more disciplined than the local and state police who seem to be the ones shooting journalists so far.

I should close by stating that there are other concerning and dangerous developments in all this, not least of which is the fact that the National Guard and the Marines have been deployed over the objections of the mayor and California governor. The number of the forces involved (up to 4,700 troops deployed) seems completely disproportionate to what is actually going on in Los Angeles (these are not massive protests with tens of thousands of people, they are in fact pretty small and the violence has not been widespread). Those are all important subjects for another day. But I did want to focus today on the disturbing reports of journalists covering these protests being shot by non-lethal rounds, and in one blatant example (at the very least) being actively targeted for their reporting. Because as I said, that is a very dangerous development indeed and should worry anyone who values the free press in America.

-- Chris Weigant

Follow Chris on Twitter: @ChrisWeigant