Police say projectile launchers are safer than other ‘less lethal’ alternatives. Injured protesters disagree

An LAPD officer holds a less-lethal launcher as fellow officers take a protester into custody during recent demonstrations in the Fairfax District. Instead, the less-lethal launchers, or “LLLs,” as the LAPD calls them, have drawn the same kind of objections from protesters and civil libertarians as shotgun “beanbag” rounds and hard rubber pellets that were the dominant weapons used by police during previous crowd-control efforts. That looms as a massive undertaking, given thousands of formal complaints, phone calls, videos and social media postings about officers firing what civilians generically label as “rubber bullets.” An LAPD spokeswoman said the department is reviewing use of the 40-millimeter launcher and plans to release the findings “at a later time.” An LAPD officer holds a less-lethal launcher during demonstrations recently in downtown Los Angeles. One police tactics expert said he was told that the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies used so many “non-lethal” weapons that the agency had to resupply its ammunition. A Sheriff’s Department representative confirmed the resupply, necessitated by its “involvement in widespread incidents throughout the County.” Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti last week said that he had directed the LAPD to “minimize” use of the less-lethal weapons when dealing with peaceful protesters.