Immigration rally turns violent

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police promised to review the use of force after officers fired rubber bullets and used batons against demonstrators during an immigration rally.

Several people, including about a dozen officers, were hurt during skirmishes at MacArthur Park near downtown late Tuesday. About 10 people were taken to hospitals for treatment of injuries including cuts, authorities said. None of the injuries was believed to be serious.

At least one person was arrested, Officer Mike Lopez said late Tuesday.

May Day marches in Los Angeles brought out about 25,000 people, only a fraction of the 650,000 who rallied last year. Turnout nationwide was also light compared with a year ago.

Organizers said fear about raids and frustration that the marches haven’t pushed Congress to pass reform kept many people at home. They said those who did march felt a sense of urgency to keep immigration reform from being overshadowed by the 2008 presidential elections.

The clash at MacArthur Park started after 6 p.m. when police tried to disperse demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk onto the street. Authorities said several people of the few thousand still at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers, who fired rubber bullets and used batons to push the crowd back onto the sidewalk.

“(Police) started moving in and forcing them out of the park, people with children, strollers,” said Angela Sambrano, one of the rally’s organizers.

Maria Elena Durazo, the executive secretary-treasurer at the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, said the trouble was instigated by “a group of anarchists, not associated with the rally.” She also criticized the police response, saying the rubber bullets were fired on a peaceful crowd with little warning.

Police Chief William Bratton said “certain elements of the crowd” started the disturbance, but the “vast, vast majority of the people who were here were behaving appropriately.”

He promised an investigation to “determine if the use of force was appropriate.”

Spanish-language TV station Telemundo said one of its reporters and three camera operators had been injured and taken to the hospital by police. Fox 11 aired video of a station camerawoman apparently being struck by a baton-wielding police officer in riot gear.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, who was traveling in El Salvador during a trade mission, said the incident was “a most unfortunate end to a peaceful day.”

Though fewer in number, protesters marched in cities from Miami to Detroit to San Antonio. Many of those waving flags, chanting, and carrying hand-painted signs said they were frustrated by what they see as little progress.

In Chicago, where more than 400,000 swarmed the streets last year, police put initial estimates at 150,000, by far the country’s largest turnout.

Magda Ortiz, a 27-year-old legal resident from Mexico and mother of two, pushed through crowds on the city’s lakefront with a stroller bearing a sign that read: “Bush, think about the moms. Stop the raids.”

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