• Tools:
• Save |
• Print |
• E-mail |
• Most Popular |

Top LAPD cop demoted in wake of rally controversy

Adjust font size:

LOS ANGELES, California (CNN) -- A top Los Angeles police official has been demoted and his deputy reassigned after officers under their command attacked demonstrators at an immigration rally, the city's mayor and police chief said Monday.

Lee Carter, the deputy chief in charge of LAPD's central bureau, was demoted a grade to commander and put on paid leave, Police Chief William Bratton announced.

Carter's second-in-command, Cmdr. Lou Gray, was moved out of that job "pending further reassignment by the chief," Bratton said.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa ordered a "comprehensive, open review" of the incident after demonstrators and journalists raised allegations of excessive force.

"We're not going to shift the responsibility down the chain of command," Villaraigosa said Monday.

"Accountability begins at the top. What happened on May 1 was wrong, and we're taking immediate action to address it."

Villaraigosa said most police serve "with distinction and honor," but he promised that every "breakdown" in the May 1 rally would be reviewed.

Bratton said officers fired nearly 240 rounds of rubber bullets against participants in the May 1 rally, one of many held across the country in support of legislation that would allow illegal immigrants to eventually earn legal status.

Video showed police shoving and swinging clubs at participants in the rally and some have said they plan to sue the officers. (Watch an L.A. hospital worker say he was struck several times and saw women and children being targeted )

Some of the roughly 600 officers assigned to the demonstration said they had been pelted with stones and other debris, the Los Angeles Police Protective League said.

Get up-to-the minute news from CNN CNN.com gives you the latest stories and video from the around the world, with in-depth coverage of U.S. news, politics, entertainment, health, crime, tech and more.

---

• Brittany Murphy autopsy conducted Monday
• Asian tsunami survivor still rebuilding life
• Opinion: Hollywood security trumps Pentagon
• Philippines volcano to explode 'within days'
• TV talent show exposes China's race issue

• Irish PM to quit over payments scandal
• NATO chief: Afghan troop increase likely
• Militants hunted as calm retuns to Basra
• Pressure on Bush to skip Olympics
• BA sending misplaced T5 baggage to Milan

• Recruiting suicide bombers (2:50)
• London was lucky (2:36)
• Cars in London rigged as bombs (3:48)
• Second explosives-packed car foun (2:32)
• Soviet culture returns (3:47)