LAPD SAYS IT'S AT FAULT FOR MELEE REPORT BLAMES LACK OF PLANNING, TRAINING.

Byline: RACHEL URANGA and RICK ORLOV

Staff Writers

The LAPD's poor planning, weak leadership and disjointed communication led to the chaos that unfolded during the May Day melee at MacArthur Park between riot gear-clad officers, immigrants-rights protesters and the media, according to a scathing internal report released Tuesday.

The long-anticipated report presented to the Los Angeles Police Commission revealed that Metropolitan Division officers assigned to keep the peace hadn't been trained in crowd control in more than 18 months; that many of them had no idea who was in charge; and that the department was caught off guard despite a similar protest a year earlier in which hundreds of thousands more people participated.

And when things spun out of control, "not a single supervisor or member of the command staff involved attempted to intervene," according to the report.

Now, 26 officers are under investigation and could face disciplinary action, and prosecutors are weighing possible criminal charges.

"This is an event that I regret deeply. I accept full responsibility for it because it occurred on my watch," Los Angeles Police Department Chief William Bratton said. "My apologies to the men and women of the LAPD and to the public for the events of that day."

Images of cops shoving reporters and cameramen and firing into a crowd of women and children were broadcast worldwide and forced Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to cut short a trade trip.

Communication that day was so poor that it was Villaraigosa -- thousands of miles away in El Salvador -- who told Bratton of the unraveling events in MacArthur Park, according to the report.

While the report stopped short of naming specific officers who used force, it singled out Capt. John Egan, Deputy Chief Cayler "Lee" Carter and Cmdr. Luis Gray for their failure to control the situation.

Bratton demoted Carter and Gray shortly after the incident. Carter later retired.

A disciplinary review board has been created, and over the next couple of months the LAPD will begin its internal use-of-force investigation.

"The LAPD today has prepared and presented a critical self-evaluation, making no excuses for its errors and laying the blame for what happened on May 1 squarely on its own shoulders," Villaraigosa said. "This report is a promising first step, but it's just that -- a first step."

On May 1, between 15,000 and 25,000 immigrants-rights activists marched peacefully to MacArthur Park in a continuing effort to bring attention to the immigrants' contribution to the American work force.

The event came a year after about 500,000 people rallied for the same cause and ended up at the same park. That rally became unruly near the end, but police eventually cleared the park with little damage done.

This year, dozens of people, including members of the media and protesters, were injured and, since the fracas, more than a dozen lawsuits are pending and 240 people have filed claims of injury ranging from broken bones to emotional distress.

Villaraigosa has admitted it will cost the city millions in legal fees. Meanwhile, the city attorney has requested $1.1 million to cover the cost of investigating the claims.

Written by the head of the department's consent-decree bureau, Gerald Chaleff, and the new crowd-control bureau deputy chief, Michael Hillmann, the 124-page report details a series of misjudgments by the command staff and a belief among many involved that "contrary to department policy, baton strikes could be used to compel a person to disperse, even if they were merely standing in front of the officers, failing to respond to direction."

In fact, many of the Metro Division officers who swept thousands from the park that day had been in the unit less than a year -- starting after Bratton approved scaling back training so officers could be deployed on special crime-suppression details -- and had not been trained in basic crowd-control tactics.

Bratton acknowledged Tuesday that a stepped-up effort on training could force him to sacrifice some crime-fighting efforts.

Egan, the incident commander who was supposed to be in charge that day, cowered after the higher-ranking Carter and Gray began barking orders without properly announcing they would take charge, the report says.

The turnover in command left those on the ground confused.

But the "proverbial tipping point," the report says, came when motor officers tried to push a crowd of 200 to 300 who had spilled out onto Wilshire Boulevard into the northern side of the park. The situation became tense, and the three top officers decided to declare an unlawful assembly.

Although 20 or 30 agitators were throwing bottles and rocks at police just outside the northern section of the park, Carter ordered that nobody be arrested.

So those agitators -- who police have said sparked the decision to clear the park -- were never isolated. Two 14-year-olds were later arrested.

"There were a number of instances where the events paused long enough so that what was happening in the park could have been stopped," the report states. "Instead, the failing leadership, breakdown in supervision and breakdown in personal discipline caused those without full situational awareness to take action without understanding how their decisions might affect the final outcome."

Noting the department's candid assessment, Carol Sobel of the May Day Litigation Team, representing individuals who are suing the LAPD, said the report did not go far enough.

"There are some mea culpas in there, but more are needed," Sobel said. "It was encouraging in some respects, but it was also discouraging in that it failed to recognize the responsibility of the officers.

"We have a different view in that we believe it was the actions of the officers that provoked some of the problems. The way they approach and contact people provokes some of the response they get. The department needs to address why this culture is so embedded in this department, and they can't get rid of it."

The Metro unit has come under fire in the past for having an overly aggressive culture cultivated by its isolation from the rest of the department. And the report doesn't address that culture, said Peter Bibring, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

"If the department fails to respond to these systemic problems, then it has slept through another wake-up call," he said. "The department cannot, once again, look past the conditions that are pushing officers to ignore their training and use force that they should know is inappropriate."

But the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union that represents the department's rank and file, said the report places enough blame.

"The report properly acknowledges poor planning and communication problems. As we have consistently said, training is the backbone of police work," said Tim Sands, LAPPL president.

The report "revealed the downside of the department's decision ... to abandon introductory training for new Metropolitan Division officers, and to not train all officers for large tactical situations."

In response to the melee, Bratton created the Incident Management and Training Bureau headed by Hillmann and set in motion a series of reforms, including departmentwide training on crowd control.

Hillmann said he believes the department has reached a turning point and that Bratton is institutionalizing change.

"We have done a lot," Hillmann said. "There is no question we could have done better. But we are turning around an entire organization that we will bring up to a standard. This has to be a continuing process and something that you have to stay on top of."

But the promises sounded hollow to some of the protesters.

"They violated my rights, and there needs to be some repercussions, not only to the 26 officers, but all the police officers," said Pedro Romuldo, a 34-year-old protester, who said he was shot in the back with a rubber bullet that day. "Something needs to be done."

The report's authors made clear the department's intentions, especially to critics like Romuldo.

"Many may speculate that this report will be put on a shelf with the others that came before it, and that life in the department will go on unchanged and unaffected, eventually leading to another similar incident," the authors wrote. "The intention is the opposite."

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

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A closer look

The Los Angeles Police Department report on the May Day melee includes a series of recommendations to be implemented by June. They include:

Regularizing the Incident Management and Training Bureau.

Reviewing policies regarding crowd management.

Including rank, serial numbers and names on ballistic helmets and tactical vests.

Developing protocols for LAPD videographers.

Coordinating with event organizers prior to major events.

Reasonably accommodating credentialed members of the media.

Requesting Air Support Division to provide aerial video documentation of specialized events.

Establishing a clear chain of command.

Standardizing the criteria for After-Action Reports.

Updating the 1996 Training Bulletins in regard to crowd control.

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A closer look (see text)