The LAPD has pinpointed 17 officers and two sergeants for misconduct during last year's May Day march, when police shot rubber bullets and used batons to clear hundreds of peaceful immigration protestors from MacArthur Park, officials said today.

The unnamed officers are the only rank and file to be singled out for punishment by the department in an incident that sparked frank mea culpas from LAPD Chief William Bratton and prompted a scathing self-critical report.

Still, critics question whether the LAPD went far enough.

"It's encouraging the department felt that discipline was warranted," said Peter Bibring, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. "There's no excuse to get this wrong, but officers and supervisors need to be held accountable."

And officers on the ground argue that those in charge escaped punishment.

"The fact that officers have been served recommended discipline by the department does not mean that the administrative process is over for the officers," said Tim Sands, president of the Los Angeles Police Protective League, the union representing 9,700 officers. "As Chief Bratton once said, `Policing isn't pretty.' Skirmish lines are not pretty, and, as we all know, the events of that day were exacerbated by command and control problems that have already been brought to light."

Shortly after May Day, Bratton demoted the commander in charge that day, then-Deputy Chief Caylor "Lee" Carter, and reassigned his second in command, Cmdr. Louis Gray. Carter has since retired.

Bratton also issued a report that put most of the blame squarely on the department, created a new office to handle crowd control and changed qualifications to enter the elite Metro Unit, which responded that day. The unit had long been seen by outside observers as overly aggressive and isolated.

Internal affairs investigators examined videos to find officers they could identify using excessive force against the crowd filled with women and children. Last month, they delivered the allegations to officers, who have 30 days to respond.

Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is still conducting a criminal investigation of 29 officers.

Attorney Carol Sobel, a long-time police critic who is suing the LAPD on behalf of 190 protesters, said it appears the department was going light on those involved.

"I think more than 17 officers were involved in beating and shooting people," she said. "It means they are only charging the officers that they can actually see hitting people."

In a report released last year, the department stopped short of naming officers but did single out Carter, Gray and Capt. John Egan for their failure to control the situation.

Though the LAPD has placed blame on poor leadership and communications, only two of the upper ranks have been punished, including Egan. Scott Kroeber, then-captain of the Metro Unit, has since been promoted.

"The fact that the only discipline action proposed by the department is at the police officer and sergeant level raises the question, what is the level of individual accountability and remediation at higher ranks other than the two mid-level officers affected immediately after May 1?" said Alan Skobin, a member of the civilian Police Commission. "This is a question, not a condemnation. We just want to be sure that every level within the department is reviewed with the same level of scrutiny