Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended his division’s dealing with of latest protests, saying officers acted appropriately to quell unrest — pushing again in opposition to criticism about aggressive crowd management ways used throughout demonstrations in opposition to President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
McDonnell stated in a press release launched Monday that the division would conduct a “complete analysis of every use-of-force incident.” The chief stated the LAPD wouldn’t shrink back from scrutiny — and would take motion in opposition to any officer “who has fallen brief” of the division’s requirements.
The assertion referenced a Instances article printed over the weekend that included accounts from protesters injured by LAPD officers who fired arduous foam projectiles and different so-called less-lethal munitions. The conduct of police items mounted on horseback in the course of the protests has additionally confronted scrutiny after video footage confirmed individuals being trampled and hit with batons.
McDonnell, who has repeatedly declined interview requests, stated the story “incorporates critical accusations, and I don’t take them evenly.”
He stated what was lacking from the general public narrative was the “harmful, fluid and in the end violent situations our officers encountered.” Whereas the protests have “most frequently been marked by peaceable expression,” he stated, at instances they’ve been “hijacked by violence, vandalism, and legal aggression.”
“When demonstrators started throwing objects, setting fires, and refusing to disperse after repeated lawful orders got, officers have been justified in taking swift and measured motion to forestall additional hurt and restore public security,” McDonnell stated.
The chief’s assertion cited quite a few “documented” instances through which officers have been “violently attacked” with bottles, bricks, Molotov cocktails and commercial-grade fireworks. Fifty-two officers suffered accidents that required medical therapy, he stated.
The division’s critics, he stated, have been utilizing “edited video clips or anecdotal accounts as definitive proof of misconduct.”
McDonnell disputed the allegation that officers failed to provide dispersal orders earlier than firing hard-foam projectiles or tear fuel, saying demonstrators got discover to go away in each English and Spanish — “utilizing ground-level amplified programs or, when essential, by helicopter.”
He additionally denied officers used power indiscriminately, saying actions in opposition to protesters have been “focused, proportional, and made in direct response to quick, credible threats.”
However quite a few eyewitness accounts from protesters — together with a number of video clips which have gone viral on-line in latest weeks — elevate questions on whether or not LAPD officers used power on individuals who posed no risk.
After paying out tens of millions over the past decade for protest-related lawsuits, the division once more doubtless faces a wave of civil litigation by plaintiffs alleging extreme power.
A coalition of press rights organizations filed a lawsuit earlier this month that described journalists being shot with less-lethal police rounds, tear-gassed and detained with out trigger by LAPD officers in the course of the protests.
John Burton, an lawyer who’s representing three injured protesters — together with one whose testicle was ruptured by a foam projectile — stated that video footage from the demonstrations exhibits officers routinely flouting state rules that govern crowd management ways.
“Have these individuals discovered nothing?” Burton stated. “We went by this with George Floyd and what number of instances earlier than.”
