Immigration Melee victims, city of L.A. reach tentative settlement

People close to the talks put the deal at about $10 million. Hundreds of marchers and journalists and 18 officers were hurt in the May Day clash at MacArthur Park involving LAPD officers.

By Joel Rubin
10:51 AM PST, November 19, 2008

Victims of the melee in MacArthur Park last year involving Los Angeles police have reached a tentative multimillion-dollar settlement with the city, people close to the settlement talks said today.

The sources declined to provide details of the settlement and spoke on condition that their names not be used because the terms of the agreement are confidential pending the City Council's approval of the deal. A couple of the sources, however, placed the proposed settlement at about $10 million.



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The council is expected to discuss and possibly vote on the settlement today.

Last year, as a May Day immigration march was concluding at the park, lines of police in riot gear moved in to clear the area. Reacting to a pocket of agitators throwing bottles and other objects, officers from the LAPD's elite Metro Division used batons and fired rubber bullets into the crowd of largely peaceful demonstrators. Hundreds of marchers and journalists and 18 officers suffered injuries. No one was killed.

In the immediate aftermath, Police Chief William J. Bratton removed two command-level officers from their posts; one later resigned. And in September, after a long internal investigation, he announced his plans to suspend 11 officers and called for the termination of four others for excessive use of force, failing to rein in other officers or lying to investigators during the inquiry.


A scathing internal report by senior LAPD officials placed blame on poor leadership and planning, as well as the overly aggressive tactics by officers in the field.

The settlement would resolve a class action lawsuit and several individual lawsuits filed in federal court -- the majority of the claims against the city. It does not include, however, lawsuits filed in state courts by journalists who were targeted by police, a source said.

Rubin is a Times staff writer.

joel.rubin@latimes.com

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