May Day Cops Keep Their Jobs
LAPD officers near MacArthur Park on May Day 2008, a year after the Melee. Photo by Tom Andrews.
All the police officers accused of using excessive force in the 2007 May Day protests will keep their jobs, the LA Times reported this morning:
Of the four officers Bratton sent to the boards, one received an official reprimand for being guilty of unauthorized force but was found not guilty of misleading statements. A second officer charged with seven incidents of unauthorized force was found guilty of two of them and given a 12-day suspension. A third officer was found guilty of unauthorized force, conduct unbecoming an officer and misleading statements and given a 20-day suspension. A fourth officer was found guilty of two of seven counts of unauthorized force and received an official reprimand. Citing police personnel privacy rules, the department has not named the officers. Deputy Chief Mark Perez reported the panels’ decisions to the Police Commission. He said that officers repeatedly defended themselves by citing a “lack of training.” An internal investigation into the incident that left more than 200 demonstrators and journalists reporting injuries blamed poor leadership, overly aggressive tactics and lack of training.
Since both the investigators and the officers mentioned “a lack of training,” I asked a spokesperson at the LAPD what sort of new training will be given to officers who work with large crowd-disperal situations. I’m told it will take 10 days to get a response.
I wish, I really really wish this wasn’t true! freakin’ unbelievable! thanks for staying on it MPM, I’ll be back in 10 days for the update, if you’re lucky enough to get a straight answer!
The update, as of 4:47 PM, is that Officer Harding with the LAPD called me (personally, on the phone) to amend the last sentence of this post so that it shall now say: “I’m told it will take up to 10 days to get a response.” She was not happy with the inclusion of the window of time that the LAPD Media Relations department allows to reply to queries, calling the reference both “snarky” and “unwarranted.” MPM remains flattered all the same that the LAPD took the time to visit our site and read our stories.
Although I certainly don’t condone the misconduct of some of the officers involved with the Mayday melee, I do want to commend the LAPD’s Noise Enforccement Team. We have had problems with waste removal trucks operating as early as 4:45 am. After several calls this past year to the garbage companies and to the Rampart division nothing would happen. These garbage truck drivers are quite aware that the majoriy of residents on my block are undocumented aliens, elderly Koreans, and elderly people with mental disabilities who would not call to complain. Twice in the past two weeks the Noise Enforcement Team has arrested garbage truck drivers dumping garbage loudly before the allowed time by city code of 6 a.m. On behalf of families with young children, the elderly, and working people who often find it difficult getting back to sleep, thak you Noise Enforcement Team.