Thread: Melee prompts changes in LAPD command staff

Melee prompts changes in LAPD command staff
By Daily News
LA Daily News
Article Last Updated:05/07/2007 01:06:06 PM PDT

The fallout continued today from the May Day melee at an immigration rally, with the City Council creating a task force to monitor the police probe and changes pending in the LAPD's command staff.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAPD Chief William Bratton and Police Commission President John Mack have scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference to discuss "accountability measures" being taken in the wake of last Tuesday's clash between police and demonstrators. The officials are expected to discuss changes in command staff.

The council's Special Task Force on May 1 Protests will be headed up by Councilmen Jack Weiss and Ed Reyes. Council members Wendy Greuel, Jan Perry and Jose Huizar also will sit on the panel.

"This is another step that we, as a council, are taking to demonstrate to the public that we are adamant about holding those responsible for the actions on May 1 accountable," said Reyes, whose 1st District includes MacArthur Park, where much of the disturbance occurred.

The task force also will serve as a forum for the public to express opinions about the confrontation, according to City Council President Eric Garcetti, who formed the task force.

"The health of our city depends even more now on our swift action, rigorous investigation, and on our conduct of the people's business in broad daylight," Garcetti said.

Earlier today, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said "bad tactics" led to the confrontation between police and demonstrators last Tuesday.

"There was clearly a breakdown in the command structure here," Villaraigosa said during an interview on CNN today. "There was, without question, bad tactics."

Demonstrators, journalists and police officers were injured in the park Tuesday afternoon when police ordered the crowd to disperse at the end of a pro- immigration march and rally that drew tens of thousands of people. Officers clad in riot gear used batons and fired foam-rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Four separate agencies are investigating the clash at MacArthur Park, including the FBI.

Bratton announced Sunday that about five dozen officers in the elite Metropolitan Division's B Platoon were reassigned. The division is the city's premier police squad, made up of experienced, career officers with extensive training and modern equipment in crowd control tactics.

Some of the officers likely "will not be returning to the Metropolitan function, as a result of some of our investigation into the actions of some of our officers," Bratton said.

"This was not the idea that my least-trained, my least-experienced officers were the ones engaged in the activities," Bratton said. "This was my best, and that was what was extraordinarily disturbing about this."

He said further disciplinary action will await the preliminary results of an LAPD investigation, which will be reviewed by the City Council May 30.

Bratton said 146 foam-rubber bullets were fired at a crowd he said was peaceful and lawful -- down from an earlier estimate of 240 projectiles.

CNS-05-07-2007 11:22

http://www.dailynews.com/ci_5838530

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, LAPD Chief William Bratton and Police Commission President John Mack have scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference to discuss "accountability measures" being taken in the wake of last Tuesday's clash between police and demonstrators. The officials are expected to discuss changes in command staff.

Now its beginnig to look like the officers were set up for this. Why the news conference about a change of command even before the investigation opens or ends. Something is way out of wack here. There were probably OBLers in the crowd paid to cause problems so that they could get the police to react..and now they are being accused. How do we know Ramos and Compean weren't set up?