Thread: L.A. mayor cuts short Mexico trip over police clash

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The mayor of Los Angeles cut short a trip to Mexico on Friday to address the furor over a clash this week between police and pro-immigrant protesters.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who has been traveling in El Salvador and Mexico and was out of town when police used rubber bullets and batons to clear protesters from a city park, was expected to hold a news conference on his return.

"It's time to go back; they want me to be there," Villaraigosa said in Mexico City. "We all know ... this is a serious matter." He was to have been in Mexico until May 9.

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Televised images show a line of police in riot gear shoving mostly Latino demonstrators from the city's MacArthur Park on Tuesday. Most of the crowd had just taken part in a day of nationwide protests to demand citizenship rights for illegal immigrants.

The police swung batons and fired rubber bullets as people fell to the ground and several journalists were caught in the fray.

At least four investigations have been opened into the incident, including two by the Los Angeles Police Department as well as probes by the FBI and the city's police commission.

And Patricia Ballaz, a local TV camera operator who said she was attacked an injured by officers while filming events in MacArthur Park, on Friday filed a claim for damages with the city.

Ballaz said in the claim, often a precursor to a lawsuit, that she suffered a wrist fracture, chest bruises and ankle injuries in the incident.

Villaraigosa, a former Latino activist and crusader for immigrant rights who is considered a rising star in the Democratic Party, met with Mexican President Felipe Calderon on Thursday.

Villaraigosa has said he would welcome an FBI probe of Los Angeles police officers for possible civil rights violations.

The Los Angeles Police Department has struggled for years to repair its image after the videotaped 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by four officers.

America's second-largest city erupted into some of the worst urban riots in modern U.S. history a year later when the officers were acquitted in court. Two were later convicted in federal court and sentenced to prison terms.

Some 25,000 people marched through Los Angeles on May 1 as part of nationwide protests intended to demonstrate the political might of Latinos and help win amnesty for illegal immigrants.

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