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As Los Angeles officials sought to mend fractured community relations Thursday by joining a march denouncing the police confrontation at a May Day rally, the ACLU filed a scathing petition asking a federal judge to consider expanding a consent decree against the LAPD.
The strongly worded petition - which calls for a special hearing before the judge - argues that the violent police action earlier this month exposes an entrenched, aggressive culture despite years of hard work to turn the Los Angeles Police Department around.
"The LAPD's apparently deliberate and widespread use of excessive force on May 1 suggests an institution permissive of excessive force - a suggestion that is all too familiar regarding the LAPD," says the petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and constitutional lawyer Erwin Chemerinsky.
The federal consent decree was imposed on the LAPD in 2001 after the Rampart scandal revealed widespread police abuse and corruption.
Details from staff writer Rachel Uranga in the Daily News.