Blogtown, PDX

Tuesday, May 1, 2007

News Cop on pepper-sprayed protesters: “They can rinse their own eyes out…”

Posted by Matt Davis on Tue, May 1 at 3:20 PM

Earlier today Blogtown reported that the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center (NWCRC) and the National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG) are calling for the cops to stop using pepper spray, rubber bullets and mounted police to control first amendment protests in the city.

“The Portland police have a long history of aggressive and violent behavior towards demonstrators,” says Ashlee Albies, chair of the NLG Portland Chapter. “We believe the police bureau needs to move away from the practice of ‘controlling crowds’ through intimidation and force to one of ‘crowd facilitation’ as has been done in other cities.”

The police are not commenting on the NWCRC/NLG’s demands.

The NWCRC and NLG also released a video put together from the cops’ own footage, which they have gotten by doing public records requests, showing controversial incidents at various first amendment protests in Portland—which, thanks to our ingenious web editor Christine Blystone, is now yours for the watching courtesy of the Youtube:Commentary on the clips is after the jump…

Clips one to four (from the August 2002 anti-war protests) show indiscriminate pepper-spraying of protesters, in some cases while they are walking away. In clip three, "people who want to comply with the police bureau cannot do so," said Shauna Curphey—staff attorney for the NWCRC, "because there is no room behind them to move back."

In clip five from August 2003, the police video clearly shows one protester being targeted as a "leader," by videographers. In clip six, the same "leader" is forcibly arrested in March 2003, allegedly for "blocking traffic." The NWCRC is also calling for an end to police videography during first amendment protests.

In clip seven, from October 2006, freelance videographer Steve Geiger is shown being rushed by mounted police having been given no order to disperse after having left the permitted march of the World Can't Wait protest. In clip eight, from the same protest—a mounted policeman refuses to give his badge number or name to a legal observer—against police policy. In clip nine, the police penetrate the crowd to arrest someone during the same protest, having boxed the protesters in at 12th and Jefferson. Clip 10 shows the same incident, with a young woman sitting on the sidewalk being threatened with pepper spray and a bean bag rifle until she gets up. Clip 11 shows reaction to that incident.

The NWCRC wants the police to respond to unforeseen demonstrations like this one in the same manner as events that have been coordinated with the Bureau beforehand.

Clip 12 is from the police radio of the October 2006 incident commander, clearly directing officers to "box em in" between 11th and 12th avenues on Jefferson. Clip 13 is the police incident commander refusing medical access to that block, after two calls for service, saying "they can rinse their own eyes out," adding that the block is not yet secured. Despite this, says Curphey, the block was cleared for traffic access less than five minutes later.

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Clip 13: the police violate their own procedures.

From Section 1010.20 of the Portland Police Procedure Manual:

"(d) In the situation where pepper spray is used on the subject, every attempt shall be made to provide relief from the pepper spray exposure. The subject shall be removed from the exposure area into an area of open air. The area(s) of the subject exposed to the pepper spray shall be decontaminated by the most current approved method by EMS."

Posted by Aaron V. | May 1, 2007 4:39 PM

Not to undermine the NWCRC's point, but in this case, the cops might say, the protesters had gone off the route of their permitted march and the situation was not yet under control.

The NWCRC and NLG want the cops to treat such situations in the same way as regular permitted protests—based on the premise that permit constrictions impede free speech.

Here are some of the questions in my mind:

Should people leaving the permitted march route be subject to different kinds of policing? Like, for example, being "boxed-in" and pepper-sprayed?

Or, having gone off permitted routes, are they still entitled to behave as they choose?

Does the whole process of "permitting" a march give people something unnecessary to kick against?

Posted by Matt Davis | May 1, 2007 4:51 PM

Didn't WE THE PEOPLE force the Has-been Hag (Vera Cats) to fire Kroeker-the-Crock
about 3 years ago? Why are the PoPiggies
still using stupid tactics that this creep
from LAPD brought with him as he also let
the Rogues from Rampart Station come with
him to land new jobs here as PoPiggies?
Maybe it's high time to clean out the Central
Station and the other Piggy Halls of any
left behind "droppings" from Kroeker and
his gang of Rampart Rogues? It won't happen till
enough of us WE THE PEOPLE force Rosie
and Tom to get up off their asses and do
it. Let's do it!

Posted by Little Birdie | May 1, 2007 5:33 PM

Little Birdie: Your rhetoric is more likely to alienate people than get them to join your cause. How about addressing the issues at hand?

Posted by Matt Davis | May 1, 2007 8:04 PM

In response to Matt's comment posted at 4:51pm, the October 5 pepper spraying and rubber bullet incident occurred well AFTER the demonstrators had been purposely boxed in by the police on Jefferson between 11th and 12th. The situation at that time was well under control.

The police breached their own barricade of bicycle officers to violently arrest a man who was later acquitted of all charges. During this unnecessary arrest, the police forced people back with spray and rubber bullets. The video clips clearly show that there were very few people in the street at the time and those few that were were standing in streetside parking spots very close to the curb.

When the police breached their own barricade to attack the crowd, the crowd had no safe retreat, as there was another barricade of dozens of heavily armed officers at the other end of the block.

The Portland police should not be able to get away with such blatantly abusive actions.

Once again, the citizens of Portland reacted very calmly to being attacked by their heavily armored public servants. The police were once again the purveyors of street violence.

Posted by Reader | May 3, 2007 4:24 PM

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