LAPD chief defends police tactics during protests: 'Swift and measured action'
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended his department's handling of recent protests, saying officers acted appropriately to quell unrest — pushing back against criticism about aggressive crowd control tactics used during demonstrations against President Trump's immigration crackdown.
McDonnell said in a statement released Monday that the department would conduct a "comprehensive evaluation of each use-of-force incident." The chief said the LAPD wouldn't shy away from scrutiny — and would take action against any officer "who has fallen short" of the department's standards.
The statement referenced a Times article published over the weekend that included accounts from protesters injured by LAPD officers who fired hard foam projectiles and other so-called less-lethal munitions. The conduct of police units mounted on horseback during the protests has also faced scrutiny after video footage showed people being trampled and hit with batons.
Read more: How the LAPD's protest response once again triggered outrage, injuries and lawsuits
McDonnell, who has repeatedly declined interview requests, said the story "contains serious accusations, and I do not take them lightly."
He said what was missing from the public narrative was the "dangerous, fluid and ultimately violent conditions our officers encountered." While the protests have "most often been marked by peaceful expression," he said, at times they have been "hijacked by violence, vandalism, and criminal aggression."
"When demonstrators began throwing objects, setting fires, and refusing to disperse after repeated lawful orders were given, officers were justified in taking swift and measured action to prevent further harm and restore public safety," McDonnell said.
The chief's statement cited numerous "documented" cases in which officers were "violently attacked" with bottles, bricks, Molotov cocktails and commercial-grade fireworks. Fifty-two officers suffered injuries that required medical treatment, he said.
The department's critics, he said, were using "edited video clips or anecdotal accounts as definitive evidence of misconduct."
McDonnell disputed the allegation that officers failed to give dispersal orders before firing hard-foam projectiles or tear gas, saying demonstrators were given notice to leave in both English and Spanish — "using ground-level amplified systems or, when necessary, by helicopter."
He also denied officers used force indiscriminately, saying actions against protesters were "targeted, proportional, and made in direct response to immediate, credible threats."
But numerous eyewitness accounts from protesters — along with several video clips that have gone viral online in recent weeks — raise questions about whether LAPD officers used force on people who posed no threat.
After paying out millions over the last decade for protest-related lawsuits, the department again likely faces a wave of civil litigation by plaintiffs alleging excessive force.
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 without cause by LAPD officers during the protests.
Read more: Press groups sue LAPD over use of force against journalists during protests
John Burton, an attorney who is representing three injured protesters — including one whose testicle was ruptured by a foam projectile — said that video footage from the demonstrations shows officers routinely flouting state regulations that govern crowd control tactics.
"Have these people learned nothing?" Burton said. "We went through this with George Floyd and how many times before."
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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