Inquiry Into Strike Violence Ordered : Labor: Mayor Bradley directs Police Commission to investigate clash between officers and demonstrating janitors so it ‘doesn’t happen again.’

Mayor Tom Bradley on Monday ordered the Los Angeles Police Commission to investigate Friday’s violent confrontation between nearly 100 police officers and 400 supporters of striking Century City janitors that resulted in 40 arrests and 16 injuries.

After a one-hour meeting with Los Angeles labor leaders and representatives of the Los Angeles Police Department, Bradley said through a spokesman that the incident deeply disturbed him because it was the first time during his tenure that significant violence had grown out of a clash between strikers and police.

“I am determined to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” Bradley said.

Bradley rarely orders Police Commission inquiries. The last time he did was in 1988, after an investigation by The Times found that a 19-member Police Department unit had often failed to prevent the violent criminals it had under surveillance from attacking people in armed robberies and burglaries.

The commission last year responded by amending the department manual to state that “reverence for human life must always be the first priority . . . during a stakeout.”

Friday’s violence occurred after the Police Department made a last-minute decision to close off a major street in Century City, effectively cutting short a march by about 100 striking janitors and 300 other supporters from the Service Employees International Union and other labor groups.

The demonstrators had rallied in a Beverly Hills park a few blocks away, then marched west on Olympic, planning to demonstrate outside office towers on Century Park East where the strikers had worked until May 30.

When police ordered the marchers to turn around and head east on Olympic, they refused. That triggered a standoff that ended with police clubbing and shoving the crowd back toward the park.

The confrontation was a particularly sticky one for Bradley because organized labor has long been one of his most loyal segments of support, particularly during the months in which the mayor was under intense public criticism for his controversial investments and financial dealings.

One of the labor leaders at the head of Friday’s march was Jim Wood, the No. 2 official in the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor and a Bradley appointee to the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency. Wood oversees the CRA Board of Commissioners, which determines how hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on development in Los Angeles.

Police had indicated on Thursday that the march could proceed as long as it was not disruptive. Officers would not tell demonstrators at the scene why they had decided to close Century Park East. In the wake of the violence police said they had received intelligence indicating that demonstrators planned to disrupt traffic and dump trash at the office towers.

Bradley said he told participants in Monday’s meeting, including Wood and Assistant Police Chief Jesse Brewer, that “for as long as the labor dispute in Century City continues, I want the LAPD to know what the union has planned. And I want the union to know what the LAPD has planned. In this way the union can exercise its First Amendment rights, and the LAPD can perform its duties in Century City.”

The janitors went on strike after alleging unfair labor practices by a major cleaning contractor. The union, through its national “Justice for Janitors” effort, is trying to organize janitors in the currently non-union office towers of Century City.