LOS ANGELES -- Los Angeles police officers fired over 1,000 projectiles at protesters on a single day in June as demonstrators pushed back against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown and decision to deploy the National Guard to the nation’s second largest city.The police department released a state-mandated report Monday on use of force against protesters that included numbers on bean bags, rubber and foam rounds, and tear gas deployed during days of protests in Los Angeles.On June 6, police fired 34 rounds at about 100 people.
On June 8, police fired 1,040 projectiles at about 6,000 people, including 20 rounds of CS gas, a type of tear gas.Six injuries were reported as a result of those projectiles.There were 584 police officers responding that day, the department said.
Protesters had blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire.The report was concerning to Josh Parker, deputy director of policy at the New York University School of Law Policing Project.“The sense that I got from that data is that if that’s how you police a protest, then you’re policing it wrong,” Parker said.The protests have put the use of these types of munitions by law enforcement under scrutiny.After journalists were shot, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order that blocked LA police from using rubber projectiles and other munitions against reporters.A protester who was hit and lost a finger filed a civil rights lawsuit against the city of LA and county sheriff’s department.California in 2021 restricted the use of less lethal munitions until alternatives to force have been tried to control a crowd.
Police cannot aim “indiscriminately” into a crowd or at the head, neck or any other vital organs.They also cannot fire solely for a curfew violation, verbal threats toward officers, or not complying with directions given by law enforcement, such as when they order an unlawful assembly to disperse.
“To see such a high number of proje...