a Times article published over the weekend<\/a> that included accounts from protesters injured by LAPD officers who fired hard foam projectiles and other so-called less-lethal munitions. The conduct of police units mounted on horseback during the protests has also faced scrutiny after video footage showed people being trampled and hit with batons.<\/p>\nMcDonnell, who has repeatedly declined interview requests, said the story \u201ccontains serious accusations, and I do not take them lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said what was missing from the public narrative was the \u201cdangerous, fluid and ultimately violent conditions our officers encountered.\u201d While the protests have \u201cmost often been marked by peaceful expression,\u201d he said, at times they have been \u201chijacked by violence, vandalism, and criminal aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen demonstrators began throwing objects, setting fires, and refusing to disperse after repeated lawful orders were given, officers were justified in taking swift and measured action to prevent further harm and restore public safety,\u201d McDonnell said. <\/p>\n
The chief\u2019s statement cited numerous \u201cdocumented\u201d cases in which officers were \u201cviolently attacked\u201d with bottles, bricks, Molotov cocktails and commercial-grade fireworks. Fifty-two officers suffered injuries that required medical treatment, he said. <\/p>\n
The department\u2019s critics, he said, were using \u201cedited video clips or anecdotal accounts as definitive evidence of misconduct.\u201d<\/p>\n
McDonnell disputed the allegation that officers failed to give dispersal orders before firing hard-foam projectiles or tear gas, saying demonstrators were given notice to leave in both English and Spanish \u2014 \u201cusing ground-level amplified systems or, when necessary, by helicopter.\u201d<\/p>\n
He also denied officers used force indiscriminately, saying actions against protesters were \u201ctargeted, proportional, and made in direct response to immediate, credible threats.\u201d<\/p>\n
But numerous eyewitness accounts from protesters \u2014 along with several video clips that have gone viral online in recent weeks \u2014 raise questions about whether LAPD officers used force on people who posed no threat.<\/p>\n
After paying out millions over the last decade for protest-related lawsuits, the department again likely faces a wave of civil litigation by plaintiffs alleging excessive force. <\/p>\n
A coalition of press rights organizations filed a lawsuit earlier this month that described journalists being shot with less-lethal police rounds, tear-gassed and detained without cause by LAPD officers during the protests.<\/p>\n
John Burton, an attorney who is representing three injured protesters \u2014 including one whose testicle was ruptured by a foam projectile \u2014 said that video footage from the demonstrations shows officers routinely flouting state regulations that govern crowd control tactics.<\/p>\n
\u201cHave these people learned nothing?\u201d Burton said. \u201cWe went through this with George Floyd and how many times before.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended his department\u2019s handling of recent protests, saying officers acted appropriately to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":9993,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[11033,11030,1582,276,4539,3040,2530,2961,4530,11031,224,5337,11032,4531,3546,1809,11034,4532,11035,11004],"class_list":{"0":"post-9992","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-account","9":"tag-action","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-demonstrator","13":"tag-department","14":"tag-force","15":"tag-la","16":"tag-lapd","17":"tag-lapd-chief","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-mcdonnell","21":"tag-officer","22":"tag-people","23":"tag-protest","24":"tag-protest-related-lawsuit","25":"tag-protester","26":"tag-recent-protest-tactic","27":"tag-statement"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9992","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9992"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9992\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9992"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9992"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9992"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}