LA police to review use of force

LOS ANGELES – A day of mostly calm immigration rallies around the nation ended with a clash in Los Angeles, where officers fired rubber bullets and used batons against demonstrators. The police chief said officers may have used inappropriate force and promised a review.\nSeveral people, including about a dozen officers, were hurt during skirmishes at MacArthur Park west of downtown late Tuesday. About 10 people were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries including cuts, authorities said. None of the injuries was believed to be serious.\nAt least one person was arrested, Officer Mike Lopez said late Tuesday.\nMay Day marches in Los Angeles brought out about 25,000 people, only a fraction of the 650,000 who rallied last year. Turnout nationwide was also light compared with a year ago.\nOrganizers said fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven’t pushed Congress to pass reform kept many people at home. They said those who did march felt a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from being overshadowed by the 2008 presidential elections.\nThe 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 people of the few thousand still at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers, who fired rubber bullets and used batons to push the crowd back onto the sidewalk.\n“(Police) started moving in and forcing them out of the park, people with children, strollers,” said Angela Sambrano, director of the Central American Resource Center.\nMaria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the trouble was instigated by “a group of anarchists, not associated with the rally.” She also criticized the police response, saying the rubber bullets were fired on a peaceful crowd with little warning.\nPolice Chief William Bratton said “certain elements of the crowd” started the disturbance, but the “vast, vast majority of the people who were here were behaving appropriately.”\nLate Tuesday he promised an investigation to “determine if the use of force was appropriate.”\nIn an interview early Wednesday with KNX radio, Bratton said “some of what I’ve seen as chief of the department does not look appropriate.”\nSpanish-language TV station Telemundo said one of its reporters and three camera operators had been injured and taken to the hospital by police. Fox 11 aired video of a station camerawoman apparently being struck by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear.\nThe Radio and Television News Association of Southern California called for an investigation into “violent treatment of journalists.”\nMayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was traveling in El Salvador during a trade mission, said the incident was “a most unfortunate end to a peaceful day.”\nThough fewer in number, protesters marched in cities from Miami to Detroit to San Antonio. Many of those waving flags, chanting, and carrying hand-painted signs said they were frustrated by what they see as little progress.\nIn Chicago, where more than 400,000 swarmed the streets last year, police put initial estimates at 150,000, by far the country’s largest turnout.