The following statement by ACLU of Southern California staff attorney Peter Bibring is in response to the L.A. Police Department's investigation into excessive use of force at MacArthur Park on May 1. The results of the investigation were presented at a special meeting of the L.A. Police Commission on Tuesday, Oct. 9:

The Los Angeles Police Department's report on officers' actions against peaceful demonstrators at MacArthur Park on May 1 is a constructive step toward addressing the root causes of improper use of force on that day.

The Department identified and took responsibility for a set of clear failures in command and control, tactics, and training. Among its significant findings, the report noted that units within LAPD have developed their own use-of-force training, without central oversight over what is taught. The ACLU/SC hopes the new Incident Management and Training Bureau set up in response to the May 1 incident will improve and standardize training across the Department, so that what is promised in City Hall is practiced on the streets.

Today's report contained a startling finding: it revealed that officers and supervisors believed they were free to use their batons and rubber bullets if peaceful protesters failed to respond to dispersal orders quickly enough. Knowledge that this is wrong is basic use of force policy - it is the first thing an officer should learn and the last thing he or she should forget. It is policing 101.

The report's recommendations, though significant, do not adequately address the culture of excessive use of force in the Department. If the Department fails to respond to these systemic problems, then it has slept through another wake-up call. 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. Instead, the Commission must seize this opportunity to address those issues.

The Consent Decree adopted after the Rampart scandal implements significant reforms, and this Commission can voluntarily adopt some of its best practices, including heightened requirements on eligibility, supervision, and length of assignment for officers in the specialized Metro unit. Assignment rotation, a common practice in other departments, should also be implemented Department-wide, and would help reduce an insular culture within units, combat the Code of Silence, and limit pressure for officers to forget what they are told in training when they hit the streets. The events of May 1 shocked this city. Do not miss the moment for real reform.

The L.A. Police Department's investigation into officers' excessive use of force at MacArthur Park on May 1 is a "constructive step toward addressing the root causes of improper use of force," the ACLU/SC said in a statement today. The long-awaited report was delivered to the L.A. Police Commission five months after officers beat and fired rubber bullets at peaceful protesters. It included some shocking admissions:
- Officers and supervisors believed they were free to use batons and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters who were not moving quickly enough.
- LAPD units have developed their own use-of-force training, without central oversight over what is taught.
"If the Department fails to respond to these systemic problems, then it has slept through another wake-up call," ACLU/SC staff attorney Peter Bibring told the commissioners and dozens of victims of May 1 at City Hall.

Free speech is back in style at a local high school where 14 students were stopped from wearing "Free the Jena 6" T-shirts last month. After protests from students and parents and a sharply worded letter from the ACLU of Southern California, the principal of Alta Loma High School near Rancho Cucamonga cancelled the ban.

"The ban on the 'Free the Jena 6' T-shirts is obviously unlawful," ACLU/SC staff attorney Peter Bibring wrote. Parts of the ACLU/SC's letter were read at a rally of several hundred students, teachers, and parents at the school. Principal Jim Woolery rescinded the restriction the next day.

The students were responding to the prosecution of six black high-school students after racially motivated violence broke out in Jena, Louisiana. The six were originally charged with second-degree attempted murder and conspiracy. The final student was released Sept. 27 after more than 9 months in jail. White students who sparked the confrontations when they hung nooses from a tree at the high school received three-day suspensions.

The ACLU has called for Louisiana's attorney general to examine the actions of the local prosecutor, and helped the Jena 6 families arrange legal defense.

The Alta Loma rally was arranged after Principal Woolery ordered 14 students to turn their T-shirts inside out on Sept. 20, a national day of protest involving tens of thousands of people nationwide.

Under federal and state law, school administrators are allowed to limit student speech only if it poses a clear threat of causing an on-campus disruption. The principal's action failed to meet that test.

"The students' expression of their views on a national issue by wearing T-shirts supporting the Jena defendants is political speech that lies at the heart of the First Amendment's protections," wrote Bibring.