LAPD braces for May Day protest

Hillmann was preparing to retire last May, but Bratton asked him to stay on to coordinate the policing of this year's event. Over the last year, all of the roughly 9,400 LAPD officers have had to go through an updated crowd-control training course; more than two dozen standouts throughout the department have been tapped to head "incident management teams" that will take charge of large events in the future.

Since February, however, the soft-spoken, detailed-oriented Hillmann has been focused almost entirely on Thursday, refining and redoing plans.

A draft of his hour-by-hour schedule for the day runs from 6 in the morning to 10 at night and includes plans for more than 60 deployments of various units, briefings and other details.

At a recent meeting, he posed a series of worst-case scenarios -- including a car plowing into a crowd of marchers and a counter-protest by anti-illegal immigration groups -- to supervisors with roles Thursday and pushed them to devise response plans.

Bratton, Hillmann and other LAPD leaders have also included march organizers in the planning and have reached out to civic leaders.

"It was pretty unusual; I was pleasantly surprised. But they were wise to reach out and make it clear that they are interested in seeing that there isn't a repeat of last year," Ramona Ripston, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, said of a meeting Bratton asked her to attend.

This year, immigrant rights activists will march to push for legislation that would include a path to citizenship and urge the presidential candidates to present their reform plans.

They also are emphasizing the economic and political contributions of immigrants and calling for an end to raids and deportations. Marches are planned across the country, including cities in Texas, North Carolina and Florida.

In Los Angeles, protesters will gather at two sites: the corner of Olympic Boulevard and Broadway, and MacArthur Park, and at 2 p.m. will begin marching toward City Hall, converging at 5th Street and Broadway.

Some of the people caught up in last year's melee don't plan to return this year. Guatemalan immigrant Jazmin Marroquin, 32, was listening to music in MacArthur Park with her youngest children -- ages 3 and 4 -- when she heard shots and saw police closing in. She dropped to the ground, covering her children, but she said an officer kicked her in the back and hit her with a baton.

Marroquin said that when she saw the news about the upcoming rally, the dread of last year returned. Her children are still afraid of police and the family avoids the park, she said.

"It's something I will never forget," she said. "Instead of taking care of us, they were the ones who attacked us."

But many will return, said Kristina Campbell, staff attorney at MALDEF. They are shaken and angry about what happened to them, she said, but still want to be heard. Campbell said she expects the tone of this year's march to be much different.

"What happened last year was unfortunate and unlawful, but that doesn't mean that people should be fearful," she said. "It's a new day, and we are going to continue to go forward."

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joel.rubin@latimes.com

anna.gorman@latimes.com