Yesterday's immigration protest went from a peaceful, family-and-food-filled affair downtown to a violent, rubber-bullet-ridden scene in MacArthur Park. Today, The Times and local bloggers posted personal reactions, eyewitness accounts, and video footage.

The L.A. Weekly's Daniel Hernandez describes what happened and has a Spanish language media round-up. Hernandez notes that "the LAPD trampled upon the rosy optimism of countless L.A. families asserting their rights and dignity in the heart of the city's Central American community." ELCHAVO!, Spencer Cross (5000!), and benjamin post video footage and media accounts on blogging.la. ELCHAVO wonders how the police's harsh treatment of journalists — including Fox 11's Christina Gonzalez and KPCC's Patricia Nazario — would impact press coverage, and links to eyewitness accounts on indymedia. Andy Sternberg notes on LAist that there was some violence in MacArthur Park on May Day 2006 as well.

Times staff writer Jill Leovy has a detailed report of what she saw, describing the police advance across the park, the taunts from some members of the crowd, and the launch of batons and bullets:

A large metal truck hubcap was sent spinning into the street toward people. An older man began hitting a Metro bus pulled up to the curb with a large piece of wood. A dozen men stood in the middle of the street taunting the advancing police line.

At least two of these taunters had bandanas over their faces. But most of them seemed a different crowd than those who had confronted police at the east side of the park. They were in jeans and T-shirts and had no protest regalia. When a patrol car pulled up just east of Lafayette Park, it was bombarded with bottles and debris thrown by this group.

At 3 p.m., Police Chief William Bratton — currently under evaluation for a second term — will hold a press conference. In a brief statement last night, Bratton said, "Missiles were being thrown at the officers, and officers [were] responding." This morning, he called the actions "inappropriate" and has launched investigations.