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Posted by: kwflatbed

LOS ANGELES - A day of mostly calm immigration rallies around the nation ended with a clash between police and demonstrators in Los Angeles, and Police Chief William Bratton promised a department review to "determine if the use of force was appropriate".
Several people, including about a dozen officers, were hurt during skirmishes at MacArthur Park near downtown late Tuesday. About 10 people were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries including cuts, authorities said. None of the injuries was believed to be serious.
At least one person was arrested, said Officer Mike Lopez.
May Day marches in Los Angeles brought out about 25,000 people, only a fraction of the 650,000 who rallied last year. Turnout nationwide was also light compared with a year ago.
Organizers said fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven't pushed Congress to pass reform kept many people at home. They said those who did march felt a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from being overshadowed by the 2008 presidential elections.
The clash at MacArthur Park started after 6 p.m. when police tried to disperse demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk onto the street. Authorities said several people of the few thousand still at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers, who fired rubber bullets and used batons to push the crowd back onto the sidewalk.
"(Police) started moving in and forcing them out of the park, people with children, strollers," said Angela Sambrano, one of the rally's organizers.
Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the trouble was instigated by "a group of anarchists, not associated with the rally." She also criticized the police response, saying rubber bullets were fired on a peaceful crowd with little warning.
Bratton said "certain elements of the crowd" started the disturbance, but the "vast, vast majority of the people who were here were behaving appropriately."
He promised an investigation to determine what happened and whether police used excessive force.
Spanish-language TV station Telemundo said one of its reporters and three camera operators had been injured and taken to the hospital by police. Fox 11 aired video of a station camerawoman apparently being struck by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear.
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was traveling in El Salvador during a trade mission, said the incident was "a most unfortunate end to a peaceful day."
Though fewer in number, protesters marched in cities from Miami to Detroit to San Antonio. Many of those waving flags, chanting, and carrying hand-painted signs said they were frustrated by what they see as little progress.
In Chicago, where more than 400,000 swarmed the streets last year, police put initial estimates at 150,000, by far the country's largest turnout.
Magda Ortiz, a 27-year-old legal resident from Mexico and mother of two, pushed through crowds on the city's lakefront with a stroller bearing a sign that read: "Bush, think about the moms. Stop the raids."
March organizers had long predicted lower turnouts, blaming stepped-up raids, frustration that Congress hasn't passed immigration reform and an effort by many groups to shift their focus from street mobilizations to citizenship and voter registration drives.
"There's no reason a pro-immigration bill can't be passed. That's one of the messages being sent today," said Chicago protester Shaun Harkin, 34, of Northern Ireland, who has lived in the United States as a legal resident for 15 years.
After last year's marches, which drew a million-plus protesters, the Senate passed a sweeping bill that would have provided a path to citizenship for many of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants. But the bill was never reconciled with the then-Republican-controlled House, and legislation has languished since last summer. Subsequent bipartisan proposals have gotten more conservative.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070502/...ation_protests

Los Angeles Chief Says Inappropriate Force Used During Rally

LOS ANGELES --
Los Angeles' police chief said Wednesday some officers used inappropriate force when they fired rubber bullets into crowds that included children and wielded batons against demonstrators in an incident that marred an otherwise peaceful day of immigration rallies across the United States.
News footage aired Wednesday of the events from the day before showed police beating at least two television camera operators and shoving people who were walking away from officers. They also showed injuries from the rubber bullets, including images of a Hispanic man with a bleeding welt on his stomach.
"Quite frankly, I was disturbed at what I saw," Police Chief William Bratton told KNX-AM on Wednesday. "Some of the officers' action ... were inappropriate in terms of use of batons and possible use of nonlethal rounds fired."
The skirmishes at MacArthur Park, west of downtown Los Angeles, late Tuesday resulted in about 10 people being taken to hospital for treatment of injuries including cuts, authorities said. None of the injuries was believed to be serious.
Turnout nationwide for the May Day marches on Tuesday was light compared to a year ago. Los Angeles brought out about 25,000 people, only a fraction of the 650,000 who rallied last year. In Chicago, where more than 400,000 swarmed the streets a year earlier, police officials put initial estimates at about 150,000.
Organizers said fear about raids and frustration that the marches have not pushed Congress to pass reform kept many people at home. They said those who did march felt a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from being overshadowed by the 2008 presidential elections.
The clash in Los Angeles began Tuesday evening when police tried to disperse demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk onto the street. Authorities said several people of the few thousand still at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers, who fired rubber bullets and used batons to push the crowd back onto the sidewalk.
"(Police) started moving in and forcing them out of the park, people with children, strollers," said Angela Sambrano, director of the Central American Resource Center.
Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the trouble was instigated by "a group of anarchists, not associated with the rally." She also criticized the police response, saying the rubber bullets were fired on a peaceful crowd with little warning.
Bratton said "certain elements of the crowd" started the disturbance, but the "vast, vast majority of the people who were here were behaving appropriately." Late Tuesday, he promised an investigation.
Spanish-language TV station Telemundo said one of its reporters and three camera operators had been injured and taken to the hospital by police. In one incident, television station Fox 11 aired video of a station camerawoman apparently being struck by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear. Another video showed a cameraman being beaten to the ground by a baton-wielding officer in riot gear.
The Radio and Television News Association of Southern California called for an investigation into "violent treatment of journalists."
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was traveling in El Salvador during a trade mission, said the incident was "a most unfortunate end to a peaceful day."
Though fewer in number, protesters marched in cities from Miami to Detroit to San Antonio. Many of those waving flags, chanting, and carrying hand-painted signs said they were frustrated by what they see as little progress.
After last year's marches, which drew a million-plus protesters, the Senate passed a sweeping bill that would have provided a path to citizenship for many of the nation's 12 million illegal immigrants. But the bill was never reconciled with the then-Republican-controlled House of Representatives, and legislation has languished since last summer. Subsequent bipartisan proposals have gotten more conservative.

Wire Services

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Posted by: DVET1979

The LAPD should didnt use enough force.

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Posted by: masscopguy

L.A. chief criticizes cops' tactics in rally
Use of rubber bullets, batons in immigration protest to be probed
By Peter Prengaman, Associated Press
Article Last Updated: 05/03/2007 02:53:14 AM PDT


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Rally organizers denounced Tuesday's police action as brutal and unnecessary, and worried what the incident could mean for an immigration rights movement known for its peaceful rallies.
Images showed police hitting a television cameraman to the ground, shoving people who were walking away from officers and injuries from the rubber bullets — such as a Hispanic man with bleeding welts on his stomach and back. Lines of officers moved through the park firing the rubber rounds.
"Quite frankly, I was disturbed at what I saw," Bratton told KNX-AM. "Some of the officers' action... were inappropriate in terms of use of batons and possible use of nonlethal rounds fired."
Bratton and city leaders later held a televised news conference to outline wide-ranging investigations.
With Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa away in El Salvador on city mission, City Council President Eric Garcetti spoke to viewers in English and Spanish, stressing the duty to protect the people's right to assemble and for "a free and unencumbered news media." John Mack, president of the five-member Police Commission, said he was "deeply disturbed and very disappointed" by the images
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Posted by: HousingCop

This, from a guy who saw minimal street duty. When he was a "working" cop, all he did was study for upcoming exams. It's easy to be a critic when you never did the job for any amount of time.
Hey Bill, there's a reason you've been married 3 times you know. I bet wife #2's family sent you a message, loud & clear.

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Posted by: bbelichick

Quote:

Originally Posted by HousingCop This, from a guy who saw minimal street duty. When he was a "working" cop, all he did was study for upcoming exams. It's easy to be a critic when you never did the job for any amount of time.

Ed Flynn in a nutshell.

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Posted by: dcs2244

Quote:

Originally Posted by HousingCop This, from a guy who saw minimal street duty. When he was a "working" cop, all he did was study for upcoming exams. It's easy to be a critic when you never did the job for any amount of time.

Study? Why study when Gerry Clemente had the tests for him!

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Posted by: pahapoika

the cops pull back and wait , watching the city burn during the rodney king riots and the police are bad !

the illegals riot, they are brought under control and the police are bad !

make up your freak'n mind LA !

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Posted by: HousingCop

Jack Dunphy on the L.A. May Day Riot
May Day Madness
Police work meets politics on the streets of L.A.

By Jack Dunphy

Yes, it was ugly. But before exploring the details of what made it so, let’s dispense with the hyperbolic claims that LAPD officers were themselves “rioting” or “out of control” when they dispersed the crowd at L.A.’s MacArthur Park Tuesday evening. This was not Bloody Sunday at the Edmund Pettus Bridge and it was not the summer of ‘68 in Chicago. It was a deliberate exercise in crowd control, one that saw displays of police restraint as well as the application of force. It is the force, naturally, that will be remembered and discussed.

By now you’ve surely seen the video and still images taken at around 6 P.M. Tuesday, when a phalanx of officers in riot gear swept through the park at the end of what had been a peaceful day of marches and demonstrations. Some people, including a few reporters and news cameramen, were knocked down, roughed up, or otherwise manhandled in the process. I was part of a reserve force and nowhere near the park when this occurred, but I’ve spoken with people who were directly involved and I’ve pieced together what I’m confident is an accurate if incomplete description of the events.

There were two separate marches on Tuesday in Los Angeles, one in the morning in the civic-center area, the second in the afternoon at MacArthur Park, just west of downtown. The first was uneventful, as indeed was the second until the very end, when a relatively small group of demonstrators provoked police officers by blocking the street when the terms of their march permit expressly prohibited it. Several times marchers came out into the street but were turned back by ranks of police officers, some on foot, others on bicycles and motorcycles. These demonstrators, their faces hidden behind bandanas, became bolder with each successive foray into the street, taunting officers with the customary “F*** the police” chants and a litany of similar verbal provocations.

The cops on the line remained impassive to these insults, but when the crowd began pelting them with bottles (some filled with urine), cans, batteries, and almost anything else that can be picked up and thrown, police commanders declared the gathering an unlawful assembly and gave an order to disperse. Some news reports have made the claim that no such order was given, but it was broadcast from a police helicopter circling the park, from police cars, and from hand-held bullhorns as the police moved in. These warnings can be heard on some of the videos of the incident now circulating on the Internet.

The officers who entered the park in riot gear were from Metropolitan Division, an elite group specially trained and equipped to control and disperse large crowds with minimal force. They formed a skirmish line of officers with batons, backed up by others armed with “less lethal munitions,” i.e. weapons that fire small beanbags or rubber projectiles about the size of a votive candle. Yes, they hurt, and yes, they leave a welt. They’re supposed to, with the objective of getting recalcitrant individuals within a crowd to get up and scram.

The skirmish line advanced slowly, about 50 feet at a time, allowing those complying with the dispersal order to retreat unmolested. Those who stood their ground were met with batons and rubber bullets. Los Angeles Times reporter Jill Leovy wrote a firsthand account of the incident, including this description of a confrontation between police and a group that refused to disperse:

The lingerers were a mix of protesters and reporters. Some were reporters from established news organizations watching or recording what police were doing, and some were self-styled grassroots reporters — protesters with cameras — some of whom were both filming officers closely and yelling challenges at them. At least three men in this mixed group lingered long enough to be caught by the advancing line of officers and they were batoned. They received one or two baton strokes each.

Sections 407 through 409 of the California penal code read as follows:

407. Whenever two or more persons assemble together to do an unlawful act, or do a lawful act in a violent, boisterous, or tumultuous manner, such assembly is an unlawful assembly.

408. Every person who participates in any rout or unlawful assembly is guilty of a misdemeanor.

409. Every person remaining present at the place of any riot, rout, or unlawful assembly, after the same has been lawfully warned to disperse, except public officers and persons assisting them in attempting to disperse the same, is guilty of a misdemeanor.

Note that the law makes no exceptions for reporters, cameramen, lawyers, or anyone else who might see himself as immune from the consequences of remaining in an area after being lawfully ordered to leave. It’s possible that in the noise and confusion some people did not hear the dispersal order when it was first given from the helicopter and police cars, but as the officers advanced slowly through the park the command was given time and again by supervisors trailing the skirmish line. Any fool could have seen it was time to go, and some of those who didn’t were roughly treated.

Some reporters, reveling in the role of victim, have tried to turn the fracas into some kind of anti-press Kristallnacht, as though the involved cops were motivated by some long-repressed hatred for the fourth estate. “I was dumbfounded,” radio reporter Patricia Nazario told the Los Angeles Times on Wednesday. “I’ve covered riots. I’ve covered chaos. I was never hit or struck or humiliated the way the LAPD violated me yesterday.”

Predictably, LAPD chief William Bratton was critical of his officers, calling some of their actions “inappropriate.” “Quite frankly,” Bratton told an interviewer on a local radio station, “I was disturbed at what I saw.”

There is nothing in all of God’s creation that preoccupies Bratton more than the way he is covered in the media, so I have no doubt the he was good and disturbed at the sight of his friends in the press being jostled about and herded like goats across the park. As has become the rule, tactical decisions made in the heat of the moment will now be viewed through a political lens and judged on how they impact Bratton’s and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s reputations. The politicians will howl, but the cops on the ground will be the ones who suffer.

Bratton held a news conference Wednesday afternoon and promised a thorough and transparent investigation, which can be translated as meaning he’s looking for some scalps to pin on his wall over this. As he faced reporters he was flanked by grim-faced deputy chiefs and commanders, not a single one of whom was in any danger of being hit with a full soda can or urine-filled water bottle Tuesday evening, and not a single one of whom will share any blame for what happened. Look for a handful of cops, and maybe a sergeant or lieutenant or two, to take the fall. And look for the city to get out the checkbook and start throwing settlements at anyone who even threatens to sue.

As you’re bombarded with the many videos of the melee over the next several days, note that there are no broken bones or bleeding head gashes among the injuries, suggesting that the police might have been more retrained in their tactics than their critics are alleging. And also note how little mention is made of the 15 police officers who themselves were injured that night. Police work can be a dirty, dangerous business, but its got nothing on politics.

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Posted by: Delta784

Quote:

Originally Posted by HousingCop This, from a guy who saw minimal street duty. When he was a "working" cop, all he did was study for upcoming exams.

That seems to describe 99% of police upper brass. When you base the promotional system almost solely on memorizing and regurgitating written material, what other outcome can we expect?

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Posted by: HousingCop

From the Blogspot, you seem to live this nightmare every day. Groundhog Day should be your favorite movie!

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Posted by: dcs2244

Can anyone say "assessment center"? Unfortunately the majority of our bosses are merely political suckholes...law enforcement is merely their path to power, and most couldn't find their asses with both hands. DARE officers, unit neat-guys, et al: not street cops (or road troopers/deputies): Just politicians who are motivated by the accumulation of power. Duck-and dodge: avoid the job and wait for their moment to fellate their bosses...

Douchebags.

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