document: A controversial videotape being shown among activists nationwide shows Los Angeles police officers intentionally hurting the nonviolent demonstrators they are arresting . They press fingers under their noses . They dig their knuckles into protesters ' necks , and torque martial arts weapons around their wrists . At one point , two officers twist a woman 's arm till she rises from the ground , her face wrenched in agony . In another scene , a young man winces as officers lead him along . His arm , contorted behind his back , finally snaps . The law enforcement name for these techniques is `` pain-compliance . '' Police departments nationwide say it 's a tried and true way to make uncooperative protesters cooperate . But opponents call the term a euphemism for torture . Demonstrators have alleged police brutality at least since Freedom Riders launched their sit-down strikes in Alabama almost 30 years ago . This time , however , the outcry -- including the videotapes of police in action -- comes from anti-abortion protesters with Operation Rescue , whose members tend to see themselves as law-and-order conservatives . As a result , traditional political alliances have been turned topsy-turvy . Suddenly , some pro-choice liberals are as supportive of the police as conservative hawks were during 1960s demonstrations , while some anti-abortion Republicans are voicing the sort of `` police state '' rhetoric once associated with anti-war radicals . In introducing a measure to limit the police use of force in arresting nonviolent protesters , William Armstrong , Colorado 's conservative Republican senator , decried pain-compliance as `` something we expect to hear about in Nicaragua or Nazi Germany -- but not in the United States of America . '' Other conservative lawmakers have echoed his concerns , and on Nov. 15 , with little media attention , President Bush signed legislation withholding certain federal grants from cities whose police use excessive force . Meanwhile , police officers , many of whom are sympathetic to the anti-abortion cause , claim that religious zeal -- and perhaps the use of muscle relaxants -- has given Operation Rescue anti-abortion protesters an unusually high tolerance to pain -- or even a martyr 's appetite for it . Caught off guard by an ambush from their conservative allies , police are howling that the new law -- which could deprive Los Angeles alone of more than $ 50 million a year in federal aid -- will handcuff them . `` I think it 's utter stupidity , '' Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates said . `` Utter , complete stupidity . '' In reaction to the uproar , the LAPD is quickly phasing out the term pain-compliance , but not the techniques , which have been used `` in civil rights demonstrations , student demonstrations , Vietnam demonstrations ... all through the '60s , all through the '70s , '' Gates said . He smiled . `` You did n't hear any Republicans complain then , did you ? '' While Gates acknowledged that this issue stirs up memories of the controversy about `` chokeholds '' -- a restraint the LAPD now uses only in life-threatening situations as a result of fierce public pressure -- he argues that `` come-along '' techniques , properly used , are the safest , most effective way to arrest nonviolent demonstrators . His officers , he added , are as well-trained in the use of these holds as any in the country . On a recent morning , for example , the Los Angeles Police Academy gym echoed with the unmistakable sounds of force being exerted , as pairs of recruits , dressed in dark blue sweats , kicked , jabbed , swung their night sticks , or grappled one another into chokeholds or pain-compliance holds . Reacting to one phase of the exam , a woman cadet knocked back an assailant 's hand , backed up quickly and leveled her weapon at the man 's chest , shouting : `` Put your hands up , lock your elbows , spread your fingers . '' Had this been a real incident , she would have had to decide in a flash of synapses whether `` reasonable force '' included opening fire with her handgun . Deadly force is one extreme among the techniques officers must choose from in confronting suspected lawbreakers , explained Sgt. Fred Nichols , the academy 's expert on the use of force . The least forceful tactic is a simple request -- `` Would you do this ? '' Pain-compliance techniques fit into the scale above talk but below the use of a Taser gun , tear gas , and the police baton . Among the most simple `` come-along '' compliance techniques are twist - and wrist-locks , in which a subject 's arm or wrists are manipulated so that soft tissue and nerves press against bone , Nichols said . Another trick of the trade : the `` mastoid lift , '' in which officers press the nerves along each side of the neck . Demonstrated on recruits who had seated themselves like protesters on the Academy 's playing field , each of these techniques worked promptly . But while some Operation Rescue demonstrators use a standard civil-disobedience technique and `` go limp '' when asked to move , others link arms . They become `` human worm-balls '' and make themselves tense , rendering standard compliance techniques ineffective , officers say . Trying to carry away protesters in these cases becomes even more dangerous to them and arresting officers , police say . So LAPD and other police forces around the country , including several in Orange County and the San Diego Police Department , began using a modified martial arts tool called a nunchaku -- now termed a `` police control device '' -- consisting of two 12-inch lengths of plastic connected by a length of nylon . To demonstrate , instructors jabbed the device between an arm and the chest of a cadet , and twisted it around in what is known as a `` trap-and-wrap '' maneuver . The gentlest twist triggered enough pain to make the recruit comply promptly . Nichols is puzzled by those who call pain-compliance excessive force , or compare it to the cattle prods police use in South Africa . Protesters are given every chance to move on their own . Police actually plead with Operation Rescue demonstrators in some cases , he said . Then `` they 're told they 'll be subjected to excruciating pain . It 's a pain control technique , '' he said . `` It 's going to hurt . That 's what pain-compliance means . '' But protesters in Los Angeles and elsewhere assert that the nunchakus and more conventional come-along holds produced not only agony while being applied , but lingering pain , broken bones , torn ligaments , and , in some cases , long-lasting nerve damage . As a result , they have filed lawsuits against police in Los Angeles , Sacramento , Atlanta and other cities . Nichols and other officers are suspicious of Operation Rescue 's charges . `` The first time pressure is applied , most people fall to the ground , '' Nichols said . `` With Right-to-Lifers , you feel something 's rotten in Denmark . It 's kind of like watching a movie where someone gets shot 10 times and keeps walking . You say , something 's wrong here . '' In the 25 years that he has been a policeman , Capt. Patrick E. McKinley of LAPD 's Metro Division has worked at demonstrations by the Revolutionary Communist Party and the Jewish Defense League , and at protests for or against everything from apartheid to animal rights . Operation Rescue protesters stand out , he said . `` Pain for many of the demonstrators is a catharsis for past failure to take action against abortion , '' he said in a sworn statement last August , given as part of a court challenge against pain-compliance devices . Nichols and others have alleged that some demonstrators simply take muscle relaxants to increase their tolerance -- a charge an Operation Rescue spokeswoman called `` 100 % incorrect . '' In either case , the results are dangerous , said McKinley . `` I 'm no doctor . But pain has a purpose . It 's telling you to stop doing what you 're doing . If you do n't respond to pain , and it is applied with more force , injuries are possible . '' In fact , injuries have been mounting ever since police and Operation Rescue protesters squared off at the 1988 Democratic convention in Atlanta . As Operation Rescue built momentum , engaging in civil disobedience at clinics around the country , the allegations of police brutality increased : * In San Diego , an officer reportedly moved through the demonstrators singing : `` Do n't try to understand 'em , just round 'em up and brand 'em . '' * In Pittsburgh , women claimed they were sexually molested by officers . * In West Hartford , Conn. , officers removed their badges and name tags -- purportedly to avoid cutting demonstrators -- and then allegedly hauled protesters away with come-along holds , by lifting them with sharp-edged plastic handcuffs , or with `` crotch carries '' in which a night stick is stuck between the protester 's legs . A priest testified that the police seemed to enjoy inflicting pain : `` The demonic element entered in here . '' A woman arrested this year in Los Angeles said : `` By the time they got my arms all the way back the pain was so intense I was just screaming ... ` Jesus ! Jesus ! ' '' In demonstrations in those cities and others , including Boston , Atlanta and Denver , protesters alleged that officers continued to apply come-along holds after demonstrators had complied with their commands , administering pain as a form of `` curbside justice . '' Implicit in the protesters ' complaints is a sense that they have been betrayed by kindred spirits . `` It was n't at all like the old anti-war demonstrations where people were calling the police pigs , being belligerent , '' said Dan Bruno , an accountant for the city of Orange , whose right wrist was broken at a March 25 Los Angeles demonstration . `` Frankly , I lead a very middle-class life . I 've never been roughed up like that before . Maybe I just got a little insight into what it was like to be a black demonstrating for civil rights . '' Operation Rescue has not gone limp after its encounters with police . Rather , leaders began an aggressive letter-writing campaign , encouraging those who felt they had been abused and people who saw videotapes of the abuse to file complaints against the officers , and write to their senators , congressmen , the Department of Justice , and the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights . A group called Pro-Life Police was formed , and a member testified that he had witnessed `` real atrocities '' by the LAPD . But others said the LAPD had behaved with restraint . For example , feminist lawyer Gloria Allred , never hesitant to criticize official abuses , said she believes police acted with professionalism last March , issuing fair warnings and acting only after demonstrators failed to comply . `` I ca n't have much sympathy for them , '' she said of the anti-abortion `` rescuers , '' as she stood among a vociferous group of pro-choice `` clinic defenders '' at a Dec. 9 demonstration and counterdemonstration in Fullerton . `` The pain inflicted on women 's lives by Operation Rescue people is enormous . What they are suffering in pain-compliance is a drop in the ocean compared to what we 've endured in exercising our constitutional rights . '' At demonstrations , throngs of pro-choice demonstrators , some of whom might well have been on the wrong end of night sticks in another era , watched the police twist protesters ' arms and chanted : `` L.A. blue , we 're with you . '' Chief Gates , an outspoken conservative , does not bask in this new-found support . `` I felt like the people in the stands were cheering as we threw the Christians to the lions , '' he said . In fact , the emotional volatility of the abortion issue has shaken the way many think in the debate over police uses of force . Village Voice columnist Nat Hentoff has skewered liberal civil libertarians for letting their ideology stop them from supporting anti-abortion protesters ' fight to restrain what he calls `` the torture police . '' He also has charged that his media colleagues have turned their backs on the uncomfortably complex issue . William B. Allen , a controversial Ronald Reagan appointee to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights , has similar views : `` We like to value tolerance . But you never know how tolerant you are until you 're challenged on something you care about . This issue has touched some very raw nerves , and we find we 're not as tolerant as we pretend to be . '' At a commission briefing on police brutality charges , organized by Allen in September , Robert McCue , chief of the West Hartford police , defended his officers . `` I have never heard of training that consists of using stretchers for one class of prisoner and come-along holds for others based on the motivation of a crime , '' he said . `` All I want my officers to think of at the time that they 're taking somebody into custody is the resistance to the arrest . I do n't want them concerned with abortions , nuclear freezes , saving the whales or whatever . '' Even before the commission met , conservative lawmakers were joining Sen. Armstrong in lashing out against police pain-compliance tactics and pushing legislation to restrain them . Rep. Robert Dornan -LRB- R-Garden Grove -RRB- read into the Congressional Record a column by William F. Buckley Jr. comparing the West Hartford demonstrations to civil rights demonstrations in Alabama three decades ago : `` It is hard to believe that Bull Connor , directing white redneck policemen , caused more brutality in the treatment of blacks than was caused by the police of West Hartford in their treatment of members of Operation Rescue . '' An amendment introduced by conservative lawmakers in the House and Senate , and tagged onto a HUD bill later signed by the President , states that no Community Planning and Development grants may be paid `` to any municipality that fails to adopt and enforce a policy prohibiting the use of excessive force by law enforcement agencies within the jurisdiction of said municipality against any individuals engaged in nonviolent civil rights demonstrations . '' Los Angeles received almost $ 56 million in such grants in fiscal year 1989 . `` This is what the Democrats used to do all the time , blackmailing cities into doing what the federal government wants it to do , '' said Gates . `` Now we 've got Republicans doing it . '' The Justice Department already investigates charges of police abuse , Gates pointed out . But if this `` horrendous '' new measure has its intended effect , eliminating the use of painful control techniques in nonviolent demonstrations , his department may have no choice but to watch as demonstrators of any stripe take over any facility they choose , he said . Carol Sobel , staff attorney for the Los Angeles Chapter of the ACLU , shares Gates ' assessment that the government acted in this case because conservative lawmakers were sympathetic to the anti-abortion cause . But , unlike Gates , she believes that using pain-compliance against any nonviolent demonstrator is often `` barbaric , '' and she supports restraints on the police . Sobel was `` amused '' at how quickly lawmakers addressed complaints of police brutality that , she said , have been raised for years by protesters against U.S. policy in El Salvador by members of the Revolutionary Communist Party and other groups generally viewed less sympathetically by conservatives . Still , she believes the new measure will help assure `` that the cost of demonstrating in this town does n't escalate . I just hope conservatives remember that it includes everyone . '' Jim Cady in the Times Editorial Library assisted in the research for this article . * NEW USE FOR OLD TOOL An ancient Asian farm tool has become a cutting edge weapon for many police officers in Southern California . E1 .
extractive_keyphrases: los angeles police officers nonviolent protesters police brutality charges police abuse
abstractive_keyphrases: anti-abortion cause