Monitor praises May Day critique
Calling it a milestone, the federal monitor in charge of overseeing Los Angeles police reform praised the LAPD for its realistic -- and tough -- critique of its officers’ actions during the May Day rally at MacArthur Park, according to a report released Friday.
Michael Cherkasky said the Los Angeles Police Department also had made strides in improving its “early-warning” technology, known as TEAMS II, which identifies officers who routinely use force, are the subject of personnel complaints or pose other risk-management concerns.
Cherkasky was appointed by a federal judge in 2001 to oversee a consent decree requiring more than 100 reforms after the Rampart station corruption scandal.
Cherkasky’s upbeat assessment in a quarterly report ending Sept. 30 was in marked contrast to his post-May Day comments, in which he put the department on notice that he would be watching its handling of the incident and questioned whether elements of the LAPD were “reverting to the past.”
The May 1 clash injured 246 protesters and journalists and 18 officers and prompted more than 250 legal claims. Los Angeles County prosecutors and the FBI are continuing to investigate the case.
Following the incident, in which officers were captured on video beating protesters with batons and indiscriminately firing less-than-lethal rounds from riot guns, LAPD Chief William J. Bratton ordered a report that examined all aspects of the incident, from the actions of top commanders to those of the riot-gear-clad officers.
The resulting critique assailed commanders for failing to adequately plan for the rally and for not calling for more officers when tensions escalated. Supervisors were also faulted for issuing confusing and sometimes contradictory orders and for failing to control officers. The department’s report found that officers repeatedly broke department policies in the use of their weapons and appeared not to follow basic training guidelines.
At least 26 officers participating in the incident are under internal investigation.
Some City Council members and community activists criticized the report as being incomplete, short of the detailed accounting Bratton promised.
But in his quarterly review issued Thursday, Cherkasky said the department’s review demonstrated “a degree of transparency, introspection and a road map to remediation” that he not had seen before.
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