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last month, but researcher Scott Reynhout of the nonprofit Physicians for Human Rights says the department still utilizes other crowd control weapons that can be just as dangerous — if not more so.Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have used thousands of crowd control weapons against protesters in L.
A. since June 2025, when federal immigration raids began escalating tensions in the region. Many people who were never accused of breaking the law have still been struck by what are known as “less-lethal” crowd-control weapons, including rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bang grenades.The LAPD uses a 37mm launcher that is inherently risky, Reynhout said. Even though the 37mm rubber bullets are smaller than the 40mm projectiles the LAPD was banned from using at protests, they are more likely to hit sensitive areas like the face and neck because they fire multiple projectiles in each shell.Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies have reported using thousands of crowd control munitions against protesters in L.A. since June 2025, when federal immigration sweeps began escalating tensions in the region. Many people who were never accused of breaking the law nonetheless have been struck by what are known as “less-lethal” crowd control weapons, including rubber bullets, tear gas and flash bang grenades.at protests last month, the department still uses other crowd control weapons. According to Scott Reynhout, who researches these weapons for Physicians for Human Rights, a nonpartisan nonprofit, some of these weapons can be just as dangerous as the banned projectiles — if not more so. LAist spoke with Reynhout to better understand what they do and how people protesting lawfully can protect themselves. Reynhout said it's very important that people pay attention if law enforcement declares an unlawful assembly, which they are required to do before using crowd control weapons in most cases. “ If the police have declared an illegal assembly, it would behoove you to take steps to isolate yourself from that particular situation,” Reynhout said. “If that is not possible for you, for whatever reason — say, you live in the particular area where you are — then you could consider yourself from chemical irritants or potentially from impact projectiles.”, found weapons that fire multiple projectiles at once were “far and away the most dangerous” type of crowd control weapons. "82% of all the recorded injuries in the medical literature that came from impact projectiles were from ... multiple projectile impact projectiles,” Reynhout told LAist. “And 96% of all the ocular injuries from impact projectiles were from these multiple projectile impact projectiles." He said the LAPD is the only police department in the U.S. he is aware of that uses this type of weapon. The department uses aAccording to reports required by Assembly Bill 48, the department used more than 600 of these shells — that’s over 3,000 projectiles — against anti-ICE protesters last June. They have continued to report using the 37mm launcher, most recently to disperse crowds after the Dodgers World Series win on Nov. 2, according to AB 48 reports. The 37mm launcher is inherently risky, Reynhout said. Even though the 37mm rubber bullets are smaller than the 40mm projectiles the LAPD was banned from using at protests, they are more likely to hit sensitive areas like the face and neck. The use of multiple projectiles causes the 37mm projectiles to scatter in a cone shape once they leave the launcher, making them much more difficult to control than a single projectile. He said LAPD’s policy of “skip firing,” which means officers are instructed to aim 5 to 10 feet in front of the person they are shooting at, also adds randomness.“ The real risk behind these multi-shot impact projectiles,” he said, “is that you just really don't have any control over where these bullets go in the end.” Reynhout said people standing beside or behind the intended target could very easily get hit, which he believes was likely the case when when it closed, other than a letter from the Attorney General, but actually taking a legal stance is good. Somebody’s standing up for our families.” Moehlig also pointed to the “slow drip” of actions taken by Rady Children’s Health to restrict access to its gender-affirming health care services, and noted that the state Attorney General’s office appears not to have been notified about any of them. TransFamily Support Services regularly works to connect families seeking gender-affirming health services with providers, including at CHOC and other Rady’s Health hospitals. Moehlig also familiar with the health care system for another reason: Her son was the first patient treated at Rady Children’s Hospital’s gender-affirming care clinic in San Diego 14 years ago, well before the care began to become restricted in Republican-led states and nationally. The rare move from Bonta follows protests and blowback from the community in Southern California, as protests were held outside Bonta’s lawsuit marks a new enforcement mechanism in the state’s tactics to protect gender-affirming care for youth. Up to this point, Bonta has not directly intervened with hospitals in closures and restrictions for trans youth health care through lawsuits, opting instead to send hospitals letters warning them of potential legal action. Many of the legal issues around gender-affirming care for youth, and whether the federal government's actions to restrict it are legal, have still yet to be settled. There are multiple ongoing and expected lawsuits to settle the issue of whether the federal HHS can act to restrict trans youth health care by outlawing the allocation of Medicare and Medicaid funds for healthcare providers that offer it. Many advocates have accused the federal government of overreach and using improper enforcement mechanisms to strong-arm hospitals into closing or limiting access to clinics for trans youth.
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