Immigration Rally Sees Violence
It started out as a quiet and normal protest, but ended in violence. The immigration rally, in Los Angeles, ended with a fight between the demonstraters and the police. The Police Chief William Bratton promised a department review to “determine if the use of force was appropriate.”
Several people, including about a dozen officers, were hurt during skirmishes at MacArthur Park near downtown. About 10 people were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries including cuts, authorities said. None of the injuries seem to be serious. So far only one person has been arrested.
May 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. Organizers 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.
The 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.
“(Police) started moving in and forcing them out of the park, people with children, strollers,” said Angela Sambrano, one of the rally’s organizers. ‘A most unfortunate end to a peaceful day’. Maria 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 rubber bullets were fired on a peaceful crowd with little warning.
Bratton said “certain elements of the crowd” started the disturbance, but the “vast, vast majority of the people who were here were behaving appropriately.” He promised an investigation to determine what happened and whether police used excessive force.
Spanish-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.