Bridget Coberg arrived near Los Angeles City Hall for the “King’s Day” festival on June 14th and found what she described as a peaceful scene. As far as she knows, no one was discussing with the police.

The city’s curfew enforcement has not started for hours. But at first glance, officers began firing rubber bullets and smoke bombs at nearby crowds, gathering to protest the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement campaign.

Covelli, 23, grabbed an electric bike and climbed the third street, with another police blocking part of the road. Deciding to go home, she left, about two blocks when she felt a pain impact in her arm as she fell off her bike and crashed into the sidewalk.

Absentminded, she found herself bleeding after being hit by a violent projectile shot by an unidentified LAPD officer. They continued firing as she lay on the ground, she said.

“There is no order of variance. There is nothing,” she said. “We were doing everything right. There was no attack on them.”

Young tattoo artist has been hospitalized Injuries including broken forearmthat was her unable to work.

“I couldn’t draw, I can’t even brush my teeth properly,” she said.

She is one of the protesters and journalists injured this month by LAPD officers with weapons like foam projectiles, tear gas, flash bang hand rena bullets and paintballs.

Despite years of expensive litigation, surveillance measures and promises by leaders to curb indiscriminate use of force during protests, LAPD is once again facing sharp criticism and litigation of the tactics used in the past two weeks.

At a press conference at police headquarters last week, LAPD chief Jim McDonnell promised a “comprehensive review when this is all over,” but said he was dealing with “a very confusing, dynamic situation.”

Officers said the army was only used after a group of agitators began attacking bottles, fireworks and other objects. At least 12 police injuries occurred during the conflict, including one example of protesters driving motorcycles to police lines. LA County prosecutors have charged several defendants with assault on law enforcement.

Behind the scenes, tensions could be heightened between LAPD commanders and city hall officials, pushing for restraint early in the downtown protest, according to communications reviewed by the Times, who requested anonymity because they were not allowed to speak publicly.

June 6th – Friday when demonstrations began – Communication records show Mayor Karen Bass called incident commanders, Colonel Raul Jovel and McDonnell. Over the next few days, sources said that members of the base or senior staff were always present in command posts in Elysian Park, where local and federal officials are monitoring development on the ground.

Some LAPD officials have personally complained that protesters will not be allowed to arrest earlier before they are poured downtown. Mostly peaceful, but a few people who flooded shops, vehicles and other property destroyed on the streets. LAPD leaders also point to improvements over the past few years, including restrictions on the use of Bean-Bag shotguns for crowd control and efforts to free people arrested more quickly.

However, among long-time LAPD observers, the latest response to protests is widely seen as another step back. After paying millions over the past decade for protest-related lawsuits, the city is now staring at a string of expensive court battles.

“City leaders like Mayor Bass [are] “Yeah, this is Trump’s fault, this is the Fed’s fault,” he conveniently says. No, look at your own troops,” longtime civil rights attorney James Desimone recently filed some excess troop claims against the city and county.

“We have heard of many accusations about LAPD,” ​​Bus said in a statement.

“[Y]Because OU, like many other cities, everything about our city is videotaped, including law enforcement and people who are protesting.

McDonnell, a member of the LAPD Command Staff during an aggressive police crackdown on immigration rights protesters on May Day in 2007, fell on defense when he appeared before the city council last week about whether more could be done to prevent property damage.

“We see and see, are there any training issues, are there any tactics? [issues]are there any non-fatal issues that need to be addressed?” McDonnell told reporters a few days later.

One of the most embarrassing incidents at Saturday’s “No Kings Day” rally was able to be heard on public radio channels, saying LAPD officials were causing a friendly fire after LA County Sheriff’s deputies shot dead in a so-called non-fatal round.

Three LAPD sources not authorized to publicly confirm that an incident occurred. A Sheriff’s Department spokesman said in a statement that the agency “has not been reported to a “friendly fire” incident.”

Some protesters claim that LAPD officials deliberately targeted individuals who pose no threat.

Shakeer Rahman, a civil rights lawyer and community organizer who halted the LAPD Spy Coalition, said he was passing LAPD headquarters on June 8 to monitor the demonstration.

In the recordings he shares the incident, Rahman can be heard confronting officers who are threatening to fire in front and back pace on the elevated platform.

“I’m going to pop you now because you’re taking my focus,” the officer lifts his weapon onto the glass partition that separates them, fires two form rounds with Rahman, almost hitting him with his gro caliber.

“I’m an officer who doesn’t want to be questioned and I know I can get away by firing these shots,” he said the 2021 court injunction bans the use of 40mm launchers in most crowd-controlled situations.

Later on June 8, department leaders allowed the use of tear gas on crowds as clashes between officers and protesters escalated in other parts of downtown.

“In these circumstances, it was necessary for officers to deploy when commercial fireworks began to hit. “It’s another day and we’re using tools that we can access.”

City and state leaders opposed the deployment of Trump’s soldiers to LA claimed that the LAPD is more suited to handle demonstrations than federal forces. They say local officers regularly train tactics that are beneficial for crowd control, including de-escalation, and know the downtown terrain where most demonstrations occur.

However, many protesters who spoke with the Times said they felt that LAPD officials were using violence faster than in any time in recent years.

Rafael Mimoun, 36, continued from City Hall on June 8th to the Federal Metropolis Detention Center on Alameda Street. Mimoun, who works at Digital Security, said his group eventually merged with other protesters and was bottlenecked by the LAPD near the intersection of Temple and Alameda Streets.

About an hour later, he said, the chaos erupted without warning.

“I don’t know if they announced it or if they gave a dispersing order, but basically you’re like a police line coming behind the police officers on foot, they just started charging, they moved forward very quickly, pushing people, screaming at people, shooting rubber bullets,” he said.

Mimoun’s complaints reflected complaints from other protesters and observations of reporters repeating multiple protest scenes throughout the week. The LAPD distribution order could only be heard when delivered from an overhead helicopter. Towards the end of the “king” protests for several hours on Saturday, many protesters claimed that officers used their force against the crowds, which were relatively peaceful all day.

The use of LAPD horses has also raised widespread concern, with some protesters saying that the department’s installed units caused injuries and confusion rather than bringing something similar to the order.

1 Video captured on June 8th Independent journalist Tina Decily Berg shows the line of officers advancing into the crowd on horseback, while other officers fire less deadly rounds with protesters defending themselves with chairs and road signs. The protester fell to the ground and appears to have been injured at first glance. Even if people desperately try not to get in the way, the mounted unit continues to move forward. Several horses trample on the person’s bento body before the officers arrest them.

In other scenes, mounted officers were weaving traffic and running alongside vehicles that were not involved in the demonstration. In one incident on June 10th, Times reporters saw cavalry repeatedly smashing the roof of their cars with wooden sticks.

“They seem to be doing whatever they want to get protesters and hurting protesters,” Mimon said.

Screenwriter and teacher Audrey Knox, 32, was also marching with a group at City Hall on June 8th. She stopped to watch a tense skirmish near Grand Park Metrostop as officers began firing projectiles at the crowd.

Some protesters said they fired a group of people in what is called a less lethal round in response to officers being attacked by flying objects. She said she was on track to her side, but she was hit in the head by one of her still intense form rounds.

Other protesters helped her go to the hospital. There, Knox said he received five staples to close the wounds on his head. In a follow-up later in the week, doctors said they had postconcussion symptoms. The incident made her reluctant to demonstrate again despite her total dislike for the Trump administration’s actions in Los Angeles.

“Even if you think you’re in a low-risk situation, it’s obviously not so it doesn’t seem wise to go back,” she said. “I feel that my freedom of speech was intentionally and directly attacked.”

Times staff writers Julia Wick, Conner Sheets and Richard Winton contributed to this report.