Police, protesters clash outside Democratic convention

LOS ANGELES -- A few bottles and rubber bullets flew through the air outside the Democratic National Convention on Wednesday evening, when police tried to clear protesters from an intersection near the convention site.

Riot police, equipped with batons and guns, stood several deep outside the Staples Center convention hall as a crowd of about 2,000 gathered to denounce perceived abuses in the criminal justice system and police brutality.

Trouble broke out briefly as officers tried to get a truck through the intersection and protesters threw bottles and other objects.

Police responded by splitting the crowd in half and taking over the intersection, using batons. Several rubber bullets were fired.

During the standoff, a CNN photographer dropped his cellular telephone, which was picked up by a police officer. When a CNN sound technician leaned forward to take the phone from the officer, she said another police officer jabbed her in the stomach with a baton.

Protesters clash with police outside the Democratic convention site

Even while the confrontation took place, speakers on the protest stage continued their calls for justice and denounced the federal case against Wen Ho Lee, the Asian-born scientist accused of mishandling nuclear secrets at the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

The crowd, waving banners and sometimes chanting obscenities, had marched to the convention site from Parker Center, headquarters of the Los Angeles Police Department.

"We're not violent, how about you?" protesters shouted. "No more Rampart!"

Earlier in the day, police arrested 37 people after they sat in front of the entrance to the Rampart Division police station, blocking it, in a protest against alleged police corruption and brutality.

Those arrested were among 500 protesters who marched from MacArthur Park about a mile away. The Rampart Division is the target of several investigations into alleged corruption, with more than 70 current and former officers being scrutinized.

GALLERY Images of protesters in Los Angeles

A total of 189 protesters have now been arrested in convention-related incidents since Saturday. On Tuesday, 116 people were arrested at two separate events.

In the Rampart division scandal, Rogue officers allegedly framed, shot or roughed up some people they arrested and then lied to convict them. Five officers now face prosecution, and more than 20 officers have left active duty.

More than 100 convictions have been overturned since last September in the wake of the scandal. Most of those cases involve Rafael Perez, a former officer who became an informant as part of a plea bargain for stealing cocaine from an evidence room.

"No justice, no peace, no racist police!" protesters shouted. "Racist, sexist, anti-gay, LAPD go away!"

Protesters wearing white gags sat in front of the steps to the Rampart station's entrance. As police arrested them for blocking a public building, demonstrators went limp. Officers then carried them into the Rampart station.

"It has been peaceful so far, and the people are sitting down and demanding to be arrested, and the police are facilitating their request," said Commander David Kalish, a police spokesman.

The Rampart area is a gritty 8 square miles populated predominantly by poor immigrants plagued by drug dealers and gangs.

The Rampart scandal was not the only issue raised by the chanting and banner-waving protesters. They also marched in opposition to the death penalty and for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal, who is on death row for killing a Philadelphia police officer in 1981.

Throughout the Democratic convention week, police have been everywhere in downtown Los Angeles, and it was no different Wednesday as protesters geared up for a third day of demonstrations.

Los Angeles police try to clear protesters from an intersection near the Democratic National Convention site

"Overall, we are quite pleased with how things are going," Kalish told an earlier news conference. "We did have a few challenges. But we reacted and were pleased with how things went."

Pre-convention police estimates had put the expected numbers of protesters in the tens of thousands. So far, there has been no evidence of that large a presence.

In the first of Tuesday's two incidents, 45 protesters were arrested outside a fur shop near Pershing Square after police became aware, "through intelligence," that they planned to attack several area businesses -- including a McDonald's restaurant and the fur store -- about seven blocks from the Staples Center, said Kalish.

"We determined they planned to engage in criminal activity," said Kalish. Police arrested the protesters, 15 of whom are juveniles, after they allegedly removed a metal door from the store and threatened the people inside.

Police confiscated "improvised weapons" from the suspects' backpacks, Kalish said --- slingshots with paint balls, plastic eggs with fuses attached, cans of lighter fluid, aerosol cans and lighters, which he said could have been used as crude flame-throwers. Also found in the backpacks were several gas masks and bulletproof vests, Kalish said.

In the second incident, police arrested 70 adults and one juvenile on bicycles, and cited them for reckless driving. The bicyclists were riding against traffic and through red lights, Kalish said.

Among those arrested were two newspeople, one a photographer for The Associated Press, Kalish said.

Protesters clash with police outside the Democratic National Convention site

"Apparently they got so wrapped up in it, perhaps trying to cover the story, I don't know," said Kalish. "But they were committing the same violations as everybody else, and so they were treated just as everyone else."

Several members of the news media said they had been caught in the hail of pepper spray and rubber bullets used by police Monday night to speed the departure of concert fans from a protest area 100 yards from the convention center.

Some complained to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, which said it was planning to file a lawsuit against the Los Angeles police charging the department with targeting journalists.

"Absolutely, positively not," said Kalish, who said he had not seen the lawsuit. "We attempt to work together, to facilitate journalists."

He said police were working hard to "maintain public order, ensure the city continues to function and to facilitate individuals who want to express their First Amendment rights."

Kalish acknowledged that 2,000 police have been working under stressful conditions: 12-hour shifts have sometimes been extended by several hours, and vacations and days off have been canceled.

"It's been physically challenging and psychologically draining," he said. "The city's proud of our police force."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.