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(AP) "To me it was like all of a sudden I was not in Los Angeles or in California, I was in a country of real conflict where we see it every day on TV and we wonder, 'Oh wow! How can they treat people like that?' Well, it happened in the USA."
-- Telemundo 52 reporter Maria Garcia.

"I'm sore and I'm sore about what happened. It was like open season -- take a whack, have at it."
-- Carl Stein, a KCAL 9 cameraman who was thrown to the ground.

"Finally at one point, we weren't moving fast enough I guess, some cop takes a club and jabs Carl hard in the ribs with it. He goes flying in one direction, the camera goes the other -- it bounces on the lawn. As he's trying to get up, I go over to the camera to try and pick it up and I've got it in my one hand and as I'm starting to get up the cop hits me in the back and I go down nose first in the grass. About this time I get up and ask who's in charge of the operation here and nobody's talking."
-- KCAL 9 reporter Mark Coogan.

"My responsibility and obligation as chief of police is to investigate what happened, why it happened and to address and correct identified problems and issues, and in this instance to specifically focus on command and control of our officers, our strategic planning efforts and tactics, and most importantly our significant use of force while attempting to address disruptive actions of 50 to 100 agitators who were part of the larger group of thousands of peaceful demonstrators."
-- William Bratton, speaking at a City Hall news conference.

"As Chief Bratton says, 'sometimes policing isnt pretty and there is little if any time for reflection and discussion before action.' The clash at MacArthur Park started when officers tried to disperse demonstrators who had moved off the sidewalk onto the street. Several people at the rally threw rocks and bottles at officers. Our officers gave a legal dispersal order and were met with violence. In the coming days it will become clear what transpired. Until then there should be no rush to judgment."
-- Bob Baker, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League.

"Fox Television Stations is concerned by the actions of the Los Angeles Police Department during yesterday's demonstration in MacArthur Park. While trying to cover the events, KTTV-FOX 11 reporter Christina Gonzales and camera person Patti Ballaz suffered serious injuries as a result of actions by the LAPD."
-- Jack Abernethy, chief executive officer of Fox Television Stations.

"Video footage, second-hand reporting and first-person accounts by reporters and crews for several broadcast outlets strongly suggest that officers may have overreacted and assaulted news personnel who were either appropriately attempting to cover a breaking news story, or were attempting to comply with police orders to clear the area."
-- Statement from the board of directors of the Greater Los Angeles Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists.

"There is evidence that officers knocked reporters to the ground, used batons on photographers and damaged cameras, possibly motivated by anger over journalists photographing efforts by officers to control the movements of marchers."
-- Statement from the Radio and Television News Association.

"Shooting rubber bullets or foam bullets at innocent bystanders is not the way to contain a bad situation. Clearly, there's no reports of anybody brandishing a gun and shooting at the police, so it wasn't like somebody's life was in danger when this all happened. But yet the LAPD found it necessary to put women and children in danger as they were in pursuit of a couple of bad apples."
-- California Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez.

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