Los Angeles - Los Angeles police chief William Bratton has
ordered up to 60 officers off the streets for their role in using
rubber bullets and batons to break up a mostly peaceful immigration
rally last week, the Los Angeles Times reported Monday.
The officers served in the force's Metropolitan Division, which
is the city's premier police squad with extensive training in crowd
control tactics. Police and the FBI are investigating why the
officers fired some 150 rubber bullets without making any arrests,
and beat many onlookers, including some journalists, with batons.
Officers in the Metropolitan Division's B Platoon 'in all
likelihood will not remain in that unit and some of them will not be
returning to the Metropolitan function, as a result of some of our
investigation into the actions of some of our officers,' Bratton
said.
'This was not the idea that my least-trained, my least-experienced
officers were the ones engaged in the activities,' Bratton said.
'This was my best, and that was what was extraordinarily disturbing
about this.'
He said further disciplinary action will await the completion of
an LAPD investigation to be presented to the City Council on May 30.
But he also acknowledged the responsibility he and other senior
officers bore for the scenes of police brutality that were broadcast
around the world.
'One thing I know about them [police] is you have to control them,
because they go out of control faster than any human being in the
world' because of the traumatic circumstances of their work, he said.
The chief also said that the entire chain of responsibility within
the police department will be examined for responsibility.
'I feel very comfortable apologizing in general, particularly to
the press corps that were subject to what I believe were
inappropriate actions on the part of some members of that unit,'
Bratton said. 'Corruption, brutality, inappropriate behaviour, I'm
not going to defend. I'm not going make a fool of myself. A lot of
what happened on that field that day is indefensible.'
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
USA
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