Inquiries, anger follow police violence at immigration rally

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa cut short a trade mission to Mexico to deal with fallout from his police department's use of batons and more than 200 rounds of rubber bullets to clear out a park where immigration rights activists were holding a rally on May 1. The highest police official at the scene of the clash was demoted on May 7, and his second-in-command was moved. Deputy Chief Cayler "Lee" Carter Jr., commanding officer of the operations central bureau, was demoted to commander and ordered to work from home. Cmdr. Louis Gray was moved to a post with less authority. "I think it is necessary to make sure people know everything is in order and we will conduct a thorough and transparent investigation," the mayor said on May 3 in Mexico City. On May 3, the FBI said it will also open a preliminary inquiry to determine "whether the civil rights of protesters taking part in the May 1 immigration rally were violated." The FBI probe is the fourth official investigation of the incident. The police department opened two investigations, one to create an "after-action report" that evaluates planning and operations, and another by internal affairs to probe complaints against officers. An independent review also has been undertaken by the investigative arm of the Police Commission, a five-member board of mayoral appointees that sets policy for the Police Department. Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton said he hoped a federal review would show the department has nothing to hide while dispelling any claims that police targeted immigrants or immigrant rights activists. On May 1, officers say they came under attack with plastic bottles and other objects from a group of agitators. Commanders decided to clear the park. Police issued a warning from a chopper, but officials have acknowledged that some people didn't hear it. Officers dressed in riot gear then moved in, pushing people back toward the park, hitting some with batons and firing 240 "less-than-lethal" projectiles. Reporters and others seemed surprised and later said they had no warning. Civil rights attorney Carol Sobel said it appeared the department did not isolate from the crowd those who were throwing objects. "They could have isolated them to the side, but instead they pushed them back into the park where the protesters and families were," she said. Police Chief William J. Bratton initially said that as many as 100 anarchists touched off the clash by throwing rocks and bottles at officers. He later described them more generally as "the agitators or the anarchists as they are more commonly called." Bratton said news video showed that they were "more organized than we are in some respects," as they approached the police in triangle formation, backed by a line of projectile tossers. The chief said a conspiracy investigation would attempt to identify the people in the footage. In contrast, some organizers of the immigration march said they spotted fewer than 10 protesters wearing the anarchists' signature black T-shirts and masks. Jonathan Santi of the Multi-ethnic Immigrant Workers Organizing Network said that he counted only eight anarchists taunting the police outside MacArthur Park and that he saw none of them throw anything. Santi said they shouted vulgarities at the advancing officers and refused commands to disperse. The marchers tried to herd the "anarchists" away from the police, but the eight broke free, he said. The "anarchists" fled as the police moved into the park, striking demonstrators with batons and firing rubber bullets into the crowd, according to Santi and others. Criticism of the May 1 police action at MacArthur Park is growing, along with potential legal and political consequences arising from scenes of rally-goers and journalists being struck by officers. KTTV television news camerawoman Patti Ballaz filed a claim for unspecified damages against the city and Police Department. Kathy Pinckert, a spokeswoman for Ballaz's attorneys, said the claim alleges civil rights violations. Ballaz suffered a fractured wrist and injuries to her ankle and was hit in the breast with a police baton, Pinckert said. There was no official count of how many reporters were struck by police. State legislators, immigration activists and others gathered on May 5 at MacArthur Park to denounce police conduct. "There are no excuses, a simple apology is not going to suffice," said state Assembly Speaker Fabian Nuñez. "To say we are outraged is an understatement. We want those responsible in the highest levels of the LAPD to pay consequences." Victor Narro, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild who helped organize the May Day event, said police had promised to keep him abreast of any potential trouble but his liaison, a police captain, was unreachable. The guild is reviewing videotape and determining whether to sue the Police Department. He noted that in one tape he saw police fire a rubber round at a boy who appeared to be 10 and "toss him aside like a piece of meat." Villaraigosa and other officials questioned why officers ignored rules established after a similar incident outside the 2000 Democratic National Convention (DNC). The department ended up paying reporters and demonstrators more than $4 million for actions during the convention and agreed to a sweeping series of restrictions on how officers deal with large crowds. "There were protocols that were supposed to happen in these kinds of situations," Villaraigosa said. "Clearly, those protocols weren't followed. We've got to ask why, who was responsible and what consequences there are for not following those protocols." The restrictions ban officers from using "less-than-lethal" weapons on individuals and crowds unless they are combative, require police to give protesters time to clear out of an area before force is used and establish "safe areas" where the media can operate without LAPD interference. The department's failure to adhere to the rules will be a major issue in what potentially could be dozens of lawsuits against the city, the first of which were filed on May 4. "Nothing that they agreed to happened," said Sobel, one of the civil rights attorneys who handled the lawsuit against the LAPD over the 2000 demonstration. Paul Hoffman, one of the attorneys who won the DNC settlement, agreed that the MacArthur Park actions violated the rules of engagement. "They didn't give people a chance to leave the area, which was exactly the problem at the DNC," Hoffman said. "It's ridiculous." Bratton said he was concerned about history repeating itself. "It has many of the same elements that the DNC event had now seven years ago," he said.