L.A. pledges to end police brutality

By Dan Whitcomb

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Some 16 years after Rodney King's beating and seven since police brawled with protesters at a political convention, the reaction in Los Angeles to images of cops pummelling pro-immigration marchers has not been "How could this happen?" so much as: "Here we go again."

The Los Angeles Police Department, once considered one of the finest law enforcement agencies in the world, has spent much of the past two decades fighting a reputation for senseless brutality.

Televised images of an elite LAPD squad in riot gear swinging batons and firing rubber bullets as they plowed through a throng of pro-immigration demonstrators at the city's MacArthur Park last week were seen by some critics as proof the department would never reform.

Los Angeles Times columnist Tim Rutten wrote that it was tempting to believe: "The sun will rise in the East every morning, the swallows will come back to Capistrano every March and every few years the LAPD will stage another of these police riots. Hands will be wrung, reports will be issued, yawns will be stifled and nothing of any consequence will change ..."

Possibly sensing that exasperation, Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and police chief William Bratton have been quick to condemn the May Day clash, a shift from the sometimes cautious, wait-and-see approach of their predecessors.

"We don't need a long and lengthy investigation to stand up and speak the truth. What happened on May 1 was wrong and I'm here to make it right," Villaraigosa, a former Latino activist and immigrant rights crusader who is widely thought to have designs on higher office, told the city after cutting short a trip to Latin America.

'SERIOUS ABUSE OF FORCE'

Villaraigosa said he wanted results from a preliminary investigation next week.