The Other Side of the Law: Former City Attorney Says Brush with Police Cause for Concern

By Jorge Casuso

Former City Attorney Robert Myers had a brush with the law at Sunday's protest against police brutality in downtown Los Angeles and, if anything, he said it strengthened his conviction that reform is needed.

In an interview with The Lookout, Myers, who was City Attorney from 1981 to 1992, detailed his experience as one of the Lawyers Guild observers at the mostly peaceful protest by about 1,000 demonstrators. According to police, there were no serious injuries and only three arrests.

Contrary to reports published in The Los Angeles Times, Myers said it was police who spurred the confrontation, firing rubber bullets at the protestors.

"The police started shooting, then the people started throwing things," said Myers, adding that he had a front row view from the sidewalk. "I was on the front lines. I got hit in the back and started running. At the end, they were ramming people with their motorcycles."

Myers, who was wearing a cap identifying him as an attorney monitoring the protest, said he was roughed up by one of the officers, who rammed him with his motorcycle.

"He grabbed me and shoved me and told me to get out of there," said Myers, who as City Attorney championed the rights of the homeless before he was fired by the City Council for refusing to draft an anti-encampment ordinance.

"For some reason, the LAPD think they can use force to bully people instead of to effectuate an arrest," Myers said. "That's just wrong for police to ram people with motorcycles on public sidewalks you have a right to be on."

When Myers tried to make a citizen's arrest, he said he was roughed up further by the officer's superior.

"What is the police policy when a citizen wants to make a citizen's arrest of a police officer?" Myers said. "The response I got was to get further assaulted by a superior."

Myers is waiting to see if LAPD investigators call him after he was quoted in the Monday edition of the Times saying that an officer "pushed me and would not allow me to talk to a supervisor."

Then Myers, who was the architect of Santa Monica's rent control law, plans to write a formal letter of complaint to the department.

"We've got lawyers with caps on. They know we're lawyers, that we're watching, and they engage in this abuse," Myers said. "Think about what happens when there are no lawyers around."