Los Angeles – Police Chief William Bratton said Wednesday that some of the police tactics used to clear immigration protesters from a park were inappropriate, as news videos showed officers striking people with batons and firing rubber bullets into crowds that included children.
Images showed police hitting a TV cameraman to the ground and shoving people who were walking away from officers at Tuesday’s demonstration. Some injured people were seen in the videos, including a Latino man with a bleeding welt on his abdomen and one on his back.
Bratton promised an investigation and said he would discuss the matter further at a news conference later.
“I was disturbed at what I saw,” Bratton told KNX-AM. He said the actions of some officers “were inappropriate in terms of use of batons and possible use of nonlethal rounds fired.”
The Police Commission, a five-member board appointed by the mayor, has opened its own investigation, said panel spokeswoman Tami Catania. Officers who violated policy could receive discipline ranging from written warnings to firing.
Andre Birotte, the department’s inspector general, said his office was trying to determine what exactly officers said to disperse the crowd and whether the order was in Spanish – the native language of most protesters.
Rally organizers denounced police actions as brutal and unnecessary and worried what the clash could mean for an immigration-rights movement known for its peaceful rallies.
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 of the few thousand people still at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers, who fired rubber bullets and used batons to push the crowd back.
“They were pushing children, elderly, mothers with their babies and beating up on the media,” said Angela Sambrano, director of the Central American Resource Center. “The aggressiveness against the immigrant community is unbelievable.”
Several people, including about a dozen officers, were hurt. About 10 people were taken to hospitals.
Spanish-language TV station Telemundo said one of its reporters and three camera operators were injured and taken to the hospital by police. Fox 11 aired video of a station camerawoman apparently being struck by a baton-wielding officer in riot gear.
