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EDITORIAL BOARD Christine Byrd  Editor in Chief

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More than 2,500 people protested against police brutality at Parker Center at the annual October 22 Rally. But when protesters began blocking the street, police began firing rubber bullets, leaving some in the peaceful crowd injured. Ironically, what should have been a wake-up call to the LAPD turned into yet another example of unnecessary police brutality.

UCLA student Xochitl Estrada was among those injured after receiving a rubber bullet to the eye. Along with the National Lawyer’s Guild and other protesters, Estrada plans to take part in a civil rights lawsuit against the LAPD. Yet this is only one of many examples of the LAPD’s strong-armed tactics to deal with protesters exercising their First Amendment rights.

This summer, the LAPD mismanaged the protests associated with the Democratic National Convention. Rather than protecting the protesters and observers, the LAPD, fully clad in riot gear, incited conflict by attempting to disburse non-violent crowds and by restricting the areas where people could protest. The LAPD’s hasty reaction to the crowd can be explained in part by its desire to avoid having a situation similar to the unrest that occurred when the Lakers won the NBA championship. Still, this does not give the LAPD the right to trample on constitutional rights.

The LAPD must learn to distinguish between cases of reckless violence and cases of people exercising their right to free speech. It’s unjust to give people permission to assemble and then to limit their protest by using unnecessary force.

  BRIDGET O'BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Officers in riot gear line the streets near the Santa Monica Pier during a riot in August. To serve and protect the people of Los Angeles with minimal conflict, the LAPD must stop employing violent tactics. This should have been considered on Oct. 22, when the protesters took to the streets to highlight such police abuses.

The LAPD can improve the way it handles these types of situations by keeping in touch with the community and by understanding its dynamics. The police must realize that a group of protesters against police brutality are not equivalent to a chaotic midnight shoot-out. This approach will help the LAPD adapt to specific cases involving large crowds of peaceful demonstrators.

Significant change, however, needs to start within the department. Officers entering the LAPD become students of the police system of brutality. What they need is a crash course in constitutional law and people’s basic civil liberties. Instead, experienced officers pass down brutal methods to new officers, creating a vicious cycle. As a result, officers who believe they are above the law.

The LAPD is now more inclined to use weapons to suppress protests because the new equipment is “less harmful.” Tell that to Estrada who may have permanent damage to her eye from a rubber bullet.

Though Chief Bernard Parks said he desires to improve the department, no serious changes have occurred. Parks either needs to implement meaningful change or to consider stepping down.

Policing is understandably not the easiest field of work, but the LAPD needs to stop using this as an excuse to justify its violent and often unnecessary actions.

We encourage the people present at the police brutality protest to come forward with their accounts of brutality by the LAPD. The bottom line is that the police department’s actions during the protest warrant a lawsuit. We can no longer continue to excuse the LAPD’s careless disregard for people’s constitutional rights.