LOS ANGELES — Los Angeles police officers fired over 1,000 projectiles at protesters on a single day in June as demonstrators pushed back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and decision to deploy the National Guard to the nation’s second largest city.
The police department released a state-mandated report Monday on use of force against protesters that included numbers on bean bags, rubber and foam rounds, and tear gas deployed during days of protests in Los Angeles.
On June 6, police fired 34 rounds at about 100 people. On June 8, police fired 1,040 projectiles at about 6,000 people, including 20 rounds of CS gas, a type of tear gas. Six injuries were reported as a result of those projectiles.
There were 584 police officers responding that day, the department said. Protesters had blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire.
The report was concerning to Josh Parker, deputy director of policy at the New York University School of Law Policing Project.
“The sense that I got from that data is that if that’s how you police a protest, then you’re policing it wrong,” Parker said.
The protests have put the use of these types of munitions by law enforcement under scrutiny. After journalists were shot, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order that blocked LA police from using rubber projectiles and other munitions against reporters.
A protester who was hit and lost a finger filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of LA and county sheriff’s department.
California in 2021 restricted the use of less lethal munitions until alternatives to force have been tried to control a crowd. Police cannot aim “indiscriminately” into a crowd or at the head, neck or any other vital organs. They also cannot fire solely for a curfew violation, verbal threats toward officers, or not complying with directions given by law enforcement, such as when they order an unlawful assembly to disperse.
“To see such a high number of projectiles discharged in a relatively short time period gives me grave concern that the law and those best practices were violated,” Parker said.
A spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. LAPD was planning a “comprehensive evaluation of each use-of-force incident,” said Chief Jim McDonnell in a statement reported June 23 by the Los Angeles Times.
The days of protests in “dangerous, fluid and ultimately violent conditions” left 52 officers with injuries that required medical treatment, McDonnell said. Officers were justified in their actions to prevent further harm, he said.
Tensions escalated in downtown Los Angeles on June 8 as National Guard troops arrived to patrol federal buildings.
“Agitators in the crowd vandalized buildings, threw rocks, broken pieces of concrete, Molotov cocktails, and other objects toward law enforcement officers,” the report said.
Many protesters left by evening, but some formed a barricade of chairs on one street and threw objects at police on the other side. Others standing above the closed southbound 101 Freeway threw chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the highway.
Police issued multiple unlawful assembly orders shutting down demonstrations in several blocks of downtown Los Angeles but the crowd remained and munitions were used to bring the situation under control, the report said.
A box that read, “Other de-escalation techniques or other alternatives to force attempted,” was blank.
Parker said departments should plan for when a crowd begins throwing objects or being unruly, drawing on crowd management techniques.
“It’s important that law enforcement agencies not needlessly provoke the crowd” with aggressive language or weapons on display, he said.
Los Angeles sheriff’s deputies far outpaced the LAPD’s use of projectiles. With more than 80 deputies responding, the department deployed over 2,500 projectiles on June 8, the agency reported last week. It also said there were “hundreds to thousands” of people.
The California Highway Patrol, whose 153 officers responded to protesters blocking a major downtown freeway, estimated a crowd of about 2,000 people and used 271 rounds.
The tallies reported by LA police and deputies are high, especially considering the small number of deputies sent by the sheriff’s department, said retired LAPD Lt. Jeff Wenninger, who provides expert testimony for court cases.
“I don’t believe law enforcement officers or commanders truly understand the extent of this law, the restriction it provides,” he said. “And they just default back to old practices.”
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