SENATOR, ACLU BLAST POLICE GROUP PLANS TO SUE OVER RESPONSE TO PROTEST.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Claiming hundreds of innocent demonstrators were injured by police during a melee outside Staples Center, state Sen. Tom Hayden and ACLU officials on Tuesday called for an independent investigation of the LAPD's ``orchestrated riot'' against protesters.

Hayden, who said son Troy was among the injured, was joined in his call for an investigation by D2KLA protest leaders and the American Civil Liberties Union, which condemned the Los Angeles Police Department's ``incredibly poor judgment.'' The ACLU is planning to sue the city today over the action.

``I am convinced that the investigation will show there are hundreds of people who are victims of last night's arsenal of exotic weaponry that the police and security forces wanted to use experimentally, psychologically and physically against demonstrators,'' said Hayden, a Los Angeles Democrat who was one of the ``Chicago Seven'' defendants after the violent clashes of the 1968 Democratic convention.

Hayden said his son was hit during by a rubber bullet during Monday night's melee. He also said he believes police used various kinds of new gas weapons, adding that the type of pepper spray police said they were using can damage the nervous system.

``I think there will be evidence that hundreds of people who were treated medically and hundreds of people who will give affidavits as to what happened,'' Hayden said.

Cmdr. David Kalish, the LAPD's lead spokesman, said there was no new type of gas or pepper spray used.

``It is unfortunate that some politicos have escalated the level of the rhetoric and participated in the dissemination of disinformation,'' Kalish said.

Police cleared the Rage Against the Machine concert outside the Democratic National Convention in Staples Center on Monday night with officers on horseback wielding batons and other officers firing pepper spray and rubber bullets.

Kalish said protesters threw chunks of concrete, metal poles, bottles containing caustic chemicals and possibly urine, pieces of rebar and steel, and batteries, and fired ball bearings from sling shots at police.

He said officers gave warnings in English and Spanish and waited 20 minutes before moving in.

``Anyone with common sense would have left the area on their own volition when the violence reached such a high level,'' Kalish said.

Protesters said police stopped the concert, trapping thousands of people in the area, and then hit the crowd with pepper spray and rubber bullets. They said other protesters were trampled by the horses.

ACLU attorney Dan Tokaji said he has sent a letter to the City Attorney's Office demanding an immediate meeting. The letter details the ``outrageous abuse of power created by the LAPD.''

``If they don't meet with us, we'll seek a third injunction against the LAPD,'' Tokaji said. ``Last night is nothing less than an orchestrated police riot.''

Hayden said those injured in the melee - along with their attorneys - were going to meet with LAPD Inspector General Jeff Eglash.

Tokaji said reports are streaming into his office detailing gross violations of individual's civil rights.

Arianna Huffington, an organizer of the Shadow Convention at Patriotic Hall, said people at the convention Tuesday were dismayed at the exaggerated and disproportional use of force by the LAPD.

``Instead of concentrating on the few troublemakers, they treated everyone, including children, reporters and even some delegates caught in the melee, as a threat to public safety,'' she said.

Protester Garrick Luiz, who showed reporters the red welts on his arms, legs and back, said he was hit by rubber bullets after the concert was shut down.

``This is the response we get for speaking out when it's supposedly a democracy,'' he said. ``I was repaid for with at least one bullet for each of the issues I came here to speak to.''

Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the Global Exchange and a Green Party candidate for state Senate, said she was appalled by the excessive use of force by police.

``We were there dancing and all of a sudden mayhem broke loose,'' she said. ``I can't believe the police called it 'appropriate measures and strategic use of force.' There is nothing further from the truth.

``To use pepper spray, rubber bullets, bean bag bullets on people enjoying a concert is not appropriate, is not measured and it certainly is not strategic,'' she said.