Two high-ranking, veteran officers of the Los Angeles Police Department have been reassigned in the wake of last week's clash at an immigration rally in MacArthur Park.
Lt. Chief Lee Carter was demoted, and Commander Louis Gray was reassigned to a position of lesser authority. The officers were the top two commanders at MacArthur Park when police moved in to clear the group of largely peaceful protesters from the area. Police fired 150 rubber projectiles into the crowd, and TV news footage showed protesters and reporters being pushed and struck by officers.
LAPD Chief William Bratton has also taken 60 members of the department's elite Metro Unit off the street pending an investigation. The department's quick, punitive action is not typical of past cases in which the LAPD has come under fire.
Bratton says he has lost confidence in the command structure of LAPD's Central Division, and says that accountability for the incident rests at the top.
"I've not been shy about removing people that I felt were not doing the job at particular time," Bratton says. "That's the way I've always operated."
That might be the way Bratton has always operated, but not the LAPD, says Connie Rice, a Los Angeles civil rights lawyer.
"In the past, the LAPD has been criticized for always going after patrol and sergeants and the lower middle command," Rice says. "But they never hold the top command accountable, and there are never any consequences for the top commanders. And Chief Bratton is turning that upside down."
Rice says past chiefs have declared investigations over before the yellow crime tape is even up. The structure of Bratton's current investigation is the most thorough she's ever seen.
Bob Baker, president of the LAPD union, agrees, but he says the police chief and city officials should stop making declarations against officers until the investigations are complete.
"We need to get an investigation to get all the facts," Baker says, "and once we have the facts, we can have an intelligent dialogue about what really happened out there."
He says it's not fair to rush to judgment based on snippets of TV news video.
But Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, one of the organizers of the rally, applauds Bratton's swift action. She says, however, that Bratton must do more to change the culture of the LAPD.
The investigation into the May Day clash comes as Bratton is being reviewed for a second term. Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says that despite the incident, he supports the reappointment of the chief.
"Make no mistake about it: This chief is doing what he is supposed to be doing," Villaraigosa says.
Bratton says he also believes he's doing his job and is confident he will be reappointed for another five-year term.
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