Marchers denounce police actions

LA police face legal action over Monday's clashes

By BBC News Online's Kevin Anderson

Police and protesters avoided major confrontations during a third day of protests during the Democratic Party's national convention through careful negotiations.

Each day of the protests has focused on an individual issue.

On Wednesday, marchers decried police brutality and corruption, including recent scandals that have rocked the Los Angeles Police Department's Rampart Division.

And a civil liberties organisation announced it would file a federal lawsuit against the police department because of what it alleges were violations of civil rights during a clash between protesters and police on Monday night.

Police scandal

The protests against police brutality began early in the day and were attended by California State Senator Tom Hayden.

More than 180 protesters have been arrested

Senator Hayden was a member of the Chicago 7, a group that was charged with conspiring to disrupt the 1968 Democratic convention in Chicago.

Later the protest moved to Rampart station, just west of central Los Angeles.

The city's Rampart Division has been wracked by a scandal in which thousands of cases are being reviewed.

Based on information provided by Rafael Perez - an officer convicted of stealing cocaine from a police evidence locker - 70 officers are currently under investigation and 100 convictions have been overturned.

Other officers have been charged with filing false police reports, planting evidence and perjury.

The US Department of Justice has threatened to file a civil rights suit against the city unless the police department makes changes.

Illegal gathering

Protesters chanted "no justice, no peace, no racist police" as they marched to the station.

Investigations open into Rampart police division's scandals

Protesters had met police and mediators with the US Department of Justice's Community Services Division to work out a peaceable end to the protest.

The protesters were told to sit in front of the police station. The police then declared the gathering illegal. Protesters went limp as they were carried into the station.

The 37 arrests at the protest brought the total number of arrests to more than 180 during the three days of protests.

On Tuesday, 45 animal rights protesters were arrested outside a fur store in downtown Los Angeles.

Tension flares

Tensions rose briefly again Wednesday when police tried to move a truck through an intersection clogged with protesters near the site of the Democratic convention.

The media has been accused over its coverage

A few protesters threw bottles. Police split the crowd in half, firing several rubber bullets.

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday in response to the Monday clash when police fired rubber bullets, foam rounds and beanbags into a crowd.

The clash broke out after a small group of protesters began throwing bottles, concrete and signposts over a fence at police.

Non-violent action

One civil disobedience trainer involved with the protests said that the media was guilty of demonising the protesters and ignoring their peaceful efforts.

The Reverend James Lawson trained civil rights activists in the 1960s in the south, including black students in Nashville who successfully staged sit-ins to end segregation.

He criticises the media for not reporting about the protesters' non-violent efforts.

"Weeks ago, the press started using the term protester and acting as if they were terrorists, and meanwhile, those of us here in Los Angeles were teaching and practicing non-violence", he said.