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See also, from www.workingforchange.com:

Cops shoot homeless hero Ted Hayes
Rubber bullet to the chest of man who organized event to prevent violence

Matt Welch
NEWSFORCHANGE
08.15.00

LOS ANGELES (August 15, 2000) -– Ted Hayes, L.A.’s best-known homeless advocate, was shot in the chest with a rubber bullet last night just as President Bill Clinton was finishing off an inspirational address to the Democratic Convention.
Hayes, organizer of the concurrent “Homeless Convention” in the Dome Village homeless project a few blocks west of the Staples Center, has ironically spent much of this year advising the L.A. Police Department and Democratic Party how to avoid violent confrontations with street protesters Aug. 14-17.
"We are trying to educate these ignorant Democrats on the issue,” he told the L.A. New Times in June. “And the issue is that if things get ugly in the streets downtown, and that is shown all over TV, you know it's going to blow in South Central, on the Eastside, all over the place."
As has long been planned, Hayes and other demonstrators from the innovative Dome Village made a short vigil down Olympic Blvd. to Staples Center last night at around 8 p.m. – after a highly anticipated concert featuring political rap-metal band Rage Against the Machine and bilingual salsa-punk-hip-hop group Ozomatli had already finished, said Dome Village volunteer Frederick Graf.
Then, according to several witnesses, baton-wielding police forces on horseback and foot swept suddenly into the “protest pit” area by the concert stage, clearing out fans by firing pepper spray and rubber bullets. Witnesses said the cops did not adequately warn the young crowd to disperse.
“It was like, ‘Get outta here! Move on!’ And then two seconds later they were charging in,” said Tony Castrellon.
Some fans had reportedly started a bonfire, delegates and media were beginning to stream out of Staples, and Capt. Stuart Maislin of the LAPD said his forces gave ample warning to kids he said were throwing broken glass bottles. “We were giving them 15 minutes to disperse, after receiving information that bonfires were lit … and we went beyond that 15 minutes to 20 minutes, and the crowd did not disperse,” Maislin said. “Something had to be done to disperse the crowd, so that’s what happened.”
Meanwhile the homeless coalition, coming onto the scene at approximately 8:20, got caught up in the melee. One eyewitness said that Hayes “came out with a big flag, and the crowd went nuts.” So, apparently, did some of the several hundred cops marching and running through the streets of downtown L.A.
“They shot him right in the chest,” said an understandably shaken Graf. “He might be dead, for all I know. Then they shot bullets at me, and clubbed me in the back.”
Hayes collapsed on the sidewalk, suffered respiratory difficulties, and was sitting semi-conscious with electrodes taped to his bare chest for at least 20 minutes, before being hauled off in an ambulance. One paramedic described his condition as “stable.”
One hundred feet or so away, another bystander was trampled by a horse, and lay crumpled in the weeds for half an hour before being taken in an ambulance as well.
“It was so terrible,” said Rachel Bruhnke, a Green Party supporter and teacher, crying and shaking her head. “The cops were just in their full testosterone sickness.”

And, from salon.com:

The LAPD's unlikely defender

Homeless advocate Ted Hayes was shot by police, but he praised the cops and blasted violent protesters for drowning out his message.

By Cliff Barney
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August 18, 2000 | LOS ANGELES -- On Monday night, with no warning, Los Angeles police who were herding concertgoers from the Rage Against the Machine concert outside the Democratic National Convention shot homeless activist Ted Hayes with a steel beanbag; and then, while he lay barely conscious and gasping for breath on the ground, flipped him on his belly, stood on his head and neck and cuffed his hands behind him.
One of the night's most memorable images was a picture of Hayes, splayed on the ground on top of the American flag he carried, which ran prominently in the Los Angeles Times. It was the beginning of a week that featured a mild form of martial law as the Democrats gathered at Staples Center mostly oblivious.

The day after his shooting, just out of the hospital, Hayes rather predictably held an angry press conference. But unpredictably, he blasted the protesters and praised the police. In Hayes' view, the demonstrators were at best spoiled white kids, and at worst evil, violent anarchists up to no good.
"Those people robbed the homeless people's freedom of speech last night," he said. "Theyre quick to step over the homeless people, and our cause, to make their noise. Has anybody heard today what the message of the demonstrators is? Have you heard anything about corporate greed and how they are actually oppressing people? Have we heard anything about the corrupt politics of the Democrats?" Long drawn-out sneer: "Noooo-o-o ... all we hear about is ruckus and tear gas and fighting and cops and robbers."
Just to make sure people didn't misunderstand, on Wednesday Hayes went on Fox News Network from a skybox in the very Staples Center outside which he had been shot, and used the occasion to denounce the American Civil Liberties Union for filing suit against the police who had shot him...