Did a viral image showing a pile of bricks capture a scene in Los Angeles during anti-ICE protests in June 2025? No, that's not true: The photo was taken on the opposite coast of this country, thousands of miles away. The bricks in question were stacked up in New Jersey for construction work, as confirmed by local reporting.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X where it was published on June 8, 2025. It opened:
It's not like these "protests" are organized though...
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot by Lead Stories.)
The entry was published over the weekend marked by protests against ICE that grew into clashes with law enforcement in Los Angeles (archived here). It implied that the image showed a pile of bricks prepared for use by the protesters in the next round of escalation.
Lead Stories geolocated the image. It showed a residential community at West New York's waterfront in New Jersey overlooking Manhattan. That is roughly 2,700 miles away from Los Angeles (archived here).
When a Lead Stories reporter arrived on the scene, the area was quiet. The only audible sounds were the waves of the Hudson River, and no rallies were happening nearby.
As of the afternoon of June 9, 2025, the bricks were still there -- as well as the speed hump sign missing from the 2022 image of the intersection on Google Maps (archived here).
(Source: photo by Lead Stories.)
The bricks were surrounded by construction equipment, and a large container in between two piles had the identifiable markings linking it to New Jersey.
(Source: photo by Lead Stories.)
(Source: photo by Lead Stories.)
(Source: photo By Lead Stories.)
Behind the container, Lead Stories observed construction workers who appeared to have been doing facade repairs:
(Source: photo by Lead Stories.)
(Source: photo by Lead Stories.)
A search on Google News for the keywords seen here didn't show any credible reports about protests or demonstrations occurring in West New York, New Jersey, on the day of the post's publication:
(Source: Google News screenshot by Lead Stories)
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Other Lead Stories fact checks concerning current events are here.
