At the May Day rally in Los Angeles for immigrant rights, police used “foam” bullets, batons and storm trooper tactics to break up a peaceful demonstration in and around MacArthur Park. If you haven’t seen any of the video of this massive assault on the 1st Amendment rights of the people of Los Angeles, My Left Wing has video taken by a participant in the rally on their front page. It should be more than enough evidence that the LA police acted like thugs, but if you need more, XicanoPwr at Para Justica y Libertad has posted raw video feeds from the LA affiliates of Telemundo and Fox which clearly show the violence was intentionally instigated by the police (even more videos of the incident can be viewed at Chicano Forums).

After the fact, and far too late to prevent this assault on the rights of the citizens of Los Angeles, Police Chief William J. Bratton has decided he needs to express his own moral outrage and concern at what the officers under his command did to break up a peaceful rally on Tuesday. I’ll let you be the judge of his motives:

Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton on Wednesday expressed “grave concern” about his officers’ tactics in dispersing a crowd at an immigration rights rally, where police wielded batons and fired 240 “less-than-lethal” rounds at demonstrators and reporters.

Bratton promised an aggressive investigation as public outrage grew over the police actions Tuesday that left at least 10 people with minor injuries — including seven reporters — and raised serious questions about whether officers overreacted when they moved aggressively to disperse a largely peaceful crowd. Eight officers were treated for minor injuries at the scene. […]

“The treatment you received yesterday from some Los Angeles police officers … we can’t tolerate and won’t tolerate,” Bratton told reporters at a City Hall news conference, extending his remarks to members of the public also caught up in the incident.

Bratton and top LAPD officials acknowledged Wednesday that there might have been significant problems with how the police handled the incident — including how the order to clear the crowd out of an area where organizers had a permit to stay until 9 p.m. was issued.

Based on the video I watched, I think there were far more than just 10 people with “minor injuries” and likely far more than 240 rounds of large “foam” bullets fired at a crowd that had done nothing I could see to justify such a brutal response by the police. I doubt the LA Times even knows the real number of people who were treated at local hospitals of clinics, much less the actual number of individuals who suffered “minor injuries.”

(cont.)
In any event, where was Bratton when his officers were attacking the demonstrators with such military precision? What the hell kind of Police Chief is so out of touch with his command that he doesn’t have a clue what his riot squad commandos are up to? It’s not like he didn’t know a rally was planned, because the organizers had obtained a permit to occupy the park until 9:00 pm that evening, and the presence of so many police at the scene only confirms that fact.

My guess? He was fully advised of what was going on at MacArthur Park, and probably approved the orders to break up the rally, or gave his subordinates in charge at the scene of the crime authorization to clear the park by any means necessary, at their “discretion.” Either that or he’s a complete incompetent. Take your pick.

Regardless, I smell a whitewash coming:

High-ranking LAPD sources, who spoke on the condition that they not be named, told The Times that neither the incident commander, Deputy Chief Caylor “Lee” Carter, nor the captain in charge of the deployment were on the skirmish line as officers confronted the crowd, raising questions about who was guiding the officers’ actions.

Sorry Deputy Chief Carter, but it looks like you’re the designated fall guy. Maybe you’re solely responsible, or maybe you’re not, but rest assured, Chief Bratton isn’t likely to be held accountable. My advice: get a good lawyer.

Meanwhile, the man likely to be in charge of this investigation is officially distressed at what went down:

Andre Birotte, the LAPD’s inspector general, said his office would focus in part on why officers used foam rounds on reporters and marchers that videotapes seemed to indicate were not posing a violent threat. According to the LAPD’s manual, “less-than-lethal” devices should used only on “violent or potentially violent suspects.”

Some of the images are very troubling,” Birotte said.

Troubling. Yes, they were “troubling” all right. Especially if you were one of the reporters getting his skull cracked, or one of the people hit with those “foam” pellets (check the My Left Wing video for a close-up view of those pellets and how “soft” they were, as well as the types of “minor injuries” they caused when coming into contact with human flesh). However, I’m not holding my breath, Mr. Inspector General, that you’ll do anything about this “troubling” incident. There are the poor police officers feeling to consider, after all:

Police union leaders urged Wednesday against a “rush to judgment.”

“Our officers gave a legal dispersal order and were met with violence. In the coming days it will become clear what transpired,” said Los Angeles Police Protective League President Bob Baker in a statement.

A “legal dispersal order.” Well, that explains everything:

In footage shot by Fox News and Telemundo reporters, police officers can be seen grabbing Fox reporter Christina Gonzalez and forcefully pushing her out of the way as she crouched to protect her camerawoman, who had fallen after being struck by a police baton. “I am helping her move, sir!” Gonzalez said, her voice agitated.

The officer is heard saying: “Move her back away from the skirmish line or you’re under arrest.”

As Gonzalez, whose husband is a retired LAPD officer, struggled to regain her footing, an officer pushed her by the shoulders, spinning her around.

“You can’t do that,” Gonzalez yelled at an officer, jabbing a finger in his direction. “You cannot do that and you know it.” […]

“The next thing I heard was the shotguns, and they were firing in our direction,” [Telemundo reporter Pedro Sevcec] said. “Suddenly I started seeing people falling on the ground…. It was completely ridiculous.”

Sevcec said a police officer took a camera and threw it about 15 or 20 feet. Then the police started hitting reporters and cameramen with their batons.

“Police ran us over,” he said. “Lights were flying, monitors were on the floor.”

At one point, a police officer pointed a weapon at his face. Sevcec said he was struck by a baton three times on his neck and back. […]

Maritza Alvarez, 36, a filmmaker, watched police from the northwest corner of the park.

“I can tell you they were just shooting indiscriminately,” she said. “I saw them beat up an elderly man, they knocked his knees down, children were crying.”

Alvarez said she and two others tried to help an old man get up as about five riot police officers kicked him after hitting his knees with a baton to knock him down.

“I’m telling you, it was military style, there was a commander there saying ‘1, 2, shoot,’ and we were trying to duck behind trees, running,” Alvarez said.

Those damn rabid reporters! They’re like a pack of wolves, I tell ya. They smell blood and just close in for the kill. No wonder the police don’t want us to rush to judgment. I’m sure anyone in a similar situation would have reacted to the media’s provocations in exactly the same manner. You can’t be too careful, after all. They might have been terrorists handling those fully loaded video cameras, after all.

Wanna place a bet on the outcome of all this? I’ll give you 10:1 odds no police officer gets suspended, and 1000:1 that no police officer gets indicted. For the demonstrators who were arrested, however, all bets are off. The DA’s office has probably already filed charges against those poor schmucks.