Police panel presses LAPD to act on officer abuse during melee

Los Angeles Police Department officials said they expect to complete an internal review of police behavior during the MacArthur Park May Day melee in December. But members of the civilian Police Commission asked why some of the more obvious cases of abuse couldn’t be handled sooner.

Commission members, meeting Tuesday, questioned LAPD brass about why they had yet to recommend discipline for officers who were captured on videotape striking journalists with batons and firing foam pellets at protesters during the immigration demonstration.

Some of the commissioners said the department should give priority to the most egregious excessive force incidents.

“Some of them strike me as no-brainers,” said Shelley Freeman, one of five members of the civilian panel, who said she had watched a lot of video from the demonstration.

LAPD officials have strongly defended their approach in the investigation, saying the entire episode must be examined before they can judge individual incidents.

They said this was particularly true of videotaped incidents, which, while appearing obvious, could be tied to previous incidents not included in the videotape.

They said the findings will be turned over to LAPD commanders, who will advise Chief William J. Bratton whether disciplinary action is appropriate.

“Just because we think we know something now. . . . Sometimes we get information later that can alter that,” said Deputy Chief Mark Perez, head of the Professional Standards Bureau, which oversees internal probes. “We don’t want to jump the gun.”

Freeman, however, questioned whether the facts will change between now and December.

“What is going to change?” she asked. “We have been at this for six months.”

Fellow Commissioner Andrea Sheridan Ordin, a former U.S. attorney, also questioned why some of the cases weren’t ready yet. She suggested that instead of delivering the findings in one big drop, a steady flow of cases should be generated.

Perez told commissioners that the probe involves actions by Metro Division’s B and C platoons and is more complex than any shooting investigation, because of the size of the event.

LAPD officials said Tuesday that they had so far questioned 48 officers about incidents at the rally.

And, despite a scathing post-incident report by department leaders, LAPD officials said that not a single officer or supervisor made a complaint about a fellow officer that day. In all, the department has received 27 complaints of misconduct from the media and 289 from the public.

Perez said that numerous officers used force during the rally and that most “self-reported” their actions. Investigators are trying to match police officers’ reports with public complaints. In some instances, investigators have identified an officer from a video clip but do not know the identity of the person being struck, he said.

Pinning down cases involving the firing of foam bullets and bean-bag rounds is even more problematic, because it is difficult to link a projectile to the officer who fired it.

Bratton said he expects to receive recommendations in January. But the chief cautioned that because of the number of complaints, he is not about to say how long it will take to decide on the appropriate action.

Police commissioners have requested another update on the probe next month.

richard.winton@latimes.com