Comments on Dead Prez concert events

author : Pete Bohmer topic : Dead Prez | Police Misconduct | The Evergreen State College

by Pete Bohmer

I would like to expand and explain more the comments I made at the February 19, 2008, noon forum called by Evergreen President Les Purce to discuss the events connected to the Dead Prez concert. Although I did not attend the concert, I have spoken to many eyewitnesses and I am also relying on the eyewitness accounts collected and posted by Tony Zaragoza, Tuesday morning on the TESC Talk mailing list [and reprinted here on page 1]. President Les Purce in setting terms for this forum in his opening comments, focused on the overturning of the police car, not what led up to it. This is similar to what the Olympian newspaper did in their sensationalist reporting on February 16. They both omitted or downplayed the context.

1) So-called security people who tried to grab someone for smoking what may have been a marijuana joint. If they had not tried to physically grab this person, it would have been a really powerful and peaceful evening with socially relevant music. These “security people” picked a fight, escalated the situation, and acted in a very aggressive manner.

2) The only person detained by the Evergreen police officer was not a major participant in the fighting, and was the only African-American near the fighting. Other people told the officer the person detained was not central to the fighting and may have been trying to break up the fight, yet she ignored that evidence. Racism is far more than intent. Whether or not the Evergreen police officer is racially prejudiced, I am sure she does not intend to be—the effect of her actions was to single out an African-American based on incomplete evidence and handcuff him while the whites who very involved in the fighting were her main witnesses.

3) The growing crowd outside the CRC was at first peaceful although loud and asked for the person detained for the charge of misdemeanor assault and in handcuffs to be let go. This is commendable--to show support and solidarity for an unjustly arrested person.

4) At least one of the Thurston County Sheriffs who arrived said they believed the person detained should be released. The Evergreen police officer refused to do so. This would have ended the growing confrontation as the crowd would have met its objectives and had not yet been subject to any police violence.

5) The growing crowd blocked the police car but they were not doing property damage or any violence. The Olympia Police Department then arrived and began clubbing people. A few members of the crowd reacted by throwing empty water bottles at the attacking police who responded by firing large amounts of pepper spray or mace with no warning whatsoever. During this time, the person who had been detained was released but by now the crowd was much angrier because of being attacked by the police and some were no longer satisfied by the person’s release.

6) The police and sheriffs retreated leaving a police car behind which was turned over and trashed.

The behavior mainly being criticized and discussed is what occurred after the Olympia police began clubbing people, and makes invisible what happened before. This is why words such as “mob” and “violent behavior” are used. Actions have causes. We need to analyze the whole set of events and past and present police behavior.

President Purce and many others at the Tuesday noon forum talked about the Evergreen community. But a healthy and real community must be based on equality—not where one side makes the rules and has the guns and the power to arrest and imprison people.

Whether one supports the overturning and destruction of the police car, it needs to be contextualized, and people should not be facing prison time or felony charges over what happened last Thursday night. The person detained should not be charged with any crime. We need to have a real community discussion and about what happened, democratic decision-making about possible consequences and policy changes for the future. Are some police going to be charged, disciplined for assaulting people with clubs and pepper spray? I am certain they won’t be.

The top administration at Evergreen and the Evergreen police force is working with various law enforcement agencies to try to identify people for prosecution. If we had a community that dealt with problems internally and democratically, then we could be open and cooperative. However, given the growing attempt by those in power, nationally, to criminalize those who resist injustice, and their attempts to limit protest, we should not cooperate with this investigation and ask that our administration at Evergreen not pursue a witch-hunt and not select scapegoats; and that they not press charges against the person detained or others present last Thursday night during or after the concert.

The larger context is a society that is more and more unequal, a government waging an immoral war in Iraq, one that openly tortures people and is becoming more and more repressive, e.g., attacks on immigrants, the Patriot Act, more and more surveillance. Dead Prez is speaking about these injustices and oppression. Let us invite and welcome them back.

Let us think more about the consequences of our actions and explain better to members of the Evergreen and broader Olympia community our ideas and actions. Let us also oppose the collaboration of the Evergreen administration and some students and staff with police agencies, as this will result in the arrest and prosecution of people who were reacting to provocation.

This is why I suggested at the forum called by President Purce, non-cooperation and remaining silent if questioned by law enforcement or TESC administrators and staff working with law enforcement.