City Settles Police Brutality Suit Over Incident at Gay Rights Protest

Settling one of a pair of lawsuits by demonstrators who say Los Angeles police beat them during gay rights protests in 1991, the city has agreed to pay $87,000 to a man who says he was struck in the face by a baton-wielding officer.

“I hope it sends a clear message . . . that lesbian and gay people will not just lie down and get beat up,” Peter J. Mackler said as he stood next to an enlargement of a photo taken several days after he was injured at a Woodland Hills protest. The photo shows his right eye shot through with blood, and the skin beneath is bruised black. Mackler said he was also grabbed by his collar and tossed several times across a parking lot by two police officers.

Other than confirming the terms of the settlement, the city attorney’s office had no comment on the matter. The Police Department also declined to discuss the suit. Then-Police Chief Daryl F. Gates denied any police misconduct at the time of the protests, and the city admitted no wrongdoing in the settlement, which was signed Thursday.

A second lawsuit, filed by 28 protesters alleging police brutality at a Century City demonstration, is still pending.

The Nov. 15, 1991, demonstration at the Warner Center Marriott in Woodland Hills was one of a series of Los Angeles-area protests held that fall after Gov. Pete Wilson vetoed legislation barring job discrimination against gay men and lesbians.

The protests were largely peaceful. But there were some clashes with police, and activists complained bitterly that they had been needlessly beaten and shoved by officers.

Macker, 39, was one of a crowd of demonstrators who gathered outside the hotel where Wilson was attending a Republican fund-raiser. As the protest was breaking up in the parking lot, Mackler said, police wearing latex gloves began pushing him and several others.

He said he turned to get the badge number of the officer who was pushing him and was then knocked to the ground with a baton blow to his face.

“I saw the venom in Officer [David] Peck’s face,” Mackler said. “He did that because I was gay and was wearing a gay rights sweatshirt and had asked for his badge number.”

Peck, named in the lawsuit, is now working for the Tacoma Police Department in Washington state, according to Mackler’s attorneys, who said Peck maintained he had acted in self-defense.

Along with the payment, the settlement calls for the LAPD to clarify its policy that officers must--if they are physically able--identify themselves to anyone seeking their name or badge number. Officers are also barred from retaliating against those who request their identity.