Police response at MacArthur Park

Re “Chief vows full inquiry into violence,” May 3

What I saw at MacArthur Park was a poorly led police force taking the bait from a small group of agitators on the fringe of a peaceful crowd, one gathered at twilight in a public park with their children, flags, hot dogs and pride. By throwing a few objects at dozens of police standing on the park’s edge, then running back into the park, a few fringe agitators hoped to be met by violent police action. The agitators won.

Nearly every night there is a crime in MacArthur Park far worse than a few sticks or bottles being thrown. Why on this night did the park have to be cleared? We don’t chase speeding cars through our neighborhoods. The same rule should apply to chasing a few bad apples through a public park filled with peaceful Americans. STEVE NUTTER

Venice

*

When people in the United States throw things at the police, they should be arrested. When people in the United States exercise their freedom of speech and their right to peacefully assemble, the police have a duty to protect and serve them.

When the Los Angeles Police Department tramples law-abiding demonstrators and journalists, they trample the Constitution as well, and they protect and serve no one. The 1st Amendment is the 1st Amendment for all people in the United States. And a thug is a thug whether he wields a bottle and a rock or a baton and a badge.

ART VERITY

Van Nuys

*

I am very angry that the LAPD is now attacked for its response to thugs. What do we expect of our police? Rocks and bottles are thrown at them by laughing miscreants, and they are supposed to stand by and watch? Of course a few innocents were hurt, but they chose to be there in the midst of the march. They are lucky they weren’t hurt more.

Our police did what they had to do, and Los Angeles Police Chief William J. Bratton should be proud of them.

ROBERTA M. BLANK

Los Angeles

*

Bratton has largely done a good job for this city. He is responsive to the community, has innovative ideas and has provided aggressive leadership in dealing with gangs. Yet about every six months this entire city is embarrassed in the eyes of this nation and the world by the brazen acts of out-of-control cops.

I’ve always defended cops and realize they have a difficult job. But that doesn’t excuse this kind of horrific behavior. This behavior must stop. The question is, can Bratton achieve this? If not, maybe we should find someone who can.

RICHARD EMBARDO

Encino

*

Watching the video footage from MacArthur Park makes me shudder from memories of dragging my pregnant wife out of the path of Los Angeles police motorcycles in front of the Century Plaza Hotel as we assembled to protest the war presidency of Lyndon Johnson in 1967. Forty years later, it is sad to see that not much has changed at the LAPD.

MARK ZUCKERMAN

Culver City