Challenging the guiding principles on "riot control"

author : Mike Coday topic : use of force

by Mike Coday

The top law enforcement officers in Thurston County came out on May 9th with their “guiding principles” on riot control. Thurston County Sheriff Dan Kimball was quoted in the Olympian newspaper, “People expect us to show leadership, and I think this is a statement of leadership.”

These guiding principles pay lip service to civil liberties, but the only element of these principles that is powerfully stated and unequivocal is that there will be zero tolerance for property damage. These guiding principles suggest that the exercise of our most important civil liberties must be balanced against the inconvenience or difficulty that the exercise of these rights might cause to the “provision of necessary public functions.”

A law enforcement expectation that the exercise of critically important civil rights must have little or no impact on the “provision of necessary public functions” is frankly ludicrous. The exercise of these civil rights must include the possibility of an impact on provision of public functions or the right to assemble and to seek redress of grievances is an empty promise.

This right to assemble, to seek redress of grievances, to engage in free speech cannot be balanced against public functions or inconvenience by a law enforcement agency. Deciding that balance is a court function. Here is the language of the US Constitution regarding these rights:

Amendment #1: Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

When the justice and peace movement came off the sidewalks and stood in the street this past November, the purpose of standing in the street was to have an impact on the movement of war materials through the Port of Olympia. The majority of Americans now want the war in Iraq to stop. The war continues. We stood in the street in November specifically to disrupt and interfere with a public function that is immoral and criminal. We expected arrests, we encountered violence and assault by local law enforcement. Local law enforcement agencies have so far failed to understand how their heavy-handed response to the November mobilization has contributed to subsequent events like the Evergreen incident in February or the rock throwing incident on May Day. I challenge Sheriff Kimball and the other top law enforcement officers to develop and present their guiding principles on use of force.

When citizens come off the sidewalks and peacefully block the streets to impede a public function, arrests should be made if law enforcement believes laws are being broken. The prosecutor should bring charges and a court should decide whether impeding movement of war material through the community is a crime or an exercise of critical Constitutional rights. Law enforcement agencies that are found to have violated critical civil rights through arrests should face sanctions and consequences for the violation of these civil rights.

It is important for us all to remember how little accountability law enforcement agencies and officers actually have to face. The LAPD law enforcement officers videotaped beating Rodney King were acquitted of state charges. The four NYPD officers who fired 41 rounds, killing an unarmed Amadou Diallo in 1999, were found at trial to have committed no wrongdoing. The NYPD law enforcement officers who shot and killed an unarmed, fleeing Sean Bell in a hail of fifty bullets in 2006 were charged, tried and found not guilty of manslaughter and reckless endangerment. The wheels of justice grind slowly and poorly when law enforcement agencies or officers use too much force.

In the summer of 2007 the City of Seattle agreed to settle the 1999 WTO lawsuits brought by Public Justice by clearing arrest records, improving police training to prevent unconstitutional mass arrests in the future, and by paying $1 million dollars in compensation for the violation of civil rights. Has the City of Seattle learned a lesson about accountability and appropriate law enforcement response to the Constitutionally protected rights to assemble, to speak and to seek redress of grievances? Time will tell.

On May 16th, a civil suit brought against the City of Seattle was decided in favor of Romelle Bradford for false and unlawful arrest and excessive use of force. The jury awarded $268,000 plus attorney fees in this trial. Mr. Bradford's case has been covered in some detail by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer under a series of articles on obstruction arrests titled the “Strong Arm of the Law.” Mr. Bradford was supervising a club dance in August 2006 and summoned police because a potentially unruly crowd had gathered outside the club. Despite his identification badge and his Boys and Girls Club T-Shirt he was assaulted by a police officer, arrested for obstruction and held over night. The PI's investigation of obstruction arrests “found blacks were eight times more likely than whites to be arrested for obstruction, and that about half of the cases were dismissed by the City Attorney's Office before trial.” Needless to say, Mr. Bradford is black.

Law enforcement agencies should respect a citizen's right to impede a specific public function or they should move the matter to the courts through respectful arrests. The failures and misbehavior of local law enforcement agencies in the November mobilization will now proceed to the courts through civil litigation. A large group of citizens chose to exercise their right to assemble, to speak, and to seek redress of grievance and they were met with excessive use of force by law enforcement officers. The second round of the November 2007 mobilization has begun.

William Hamilton, an Olympia man, has recently filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Olympia for police misconduct in November and more federal lawsuits will be filed. These are not frivolous suits, they are serious attempts to institute accountability against a system that is largely unaccountable. The misconduct of the law enforcement officers at the Port in November has been largely overlooked as a contributory cause of escalating violence in the community.

I challenge Sheriff Dan Kimball to develop and present a set of guiding principles regarding the use of force by law enforcement against peaceful protesters and civil disobedience that reduces the violence of the law enforcement response. I challenge Sheriff Kimball to develop and present guiding principles that include zero tolerance for unnecessary use of force against individuals who peacefully engage in civil disobedience. I challenge Sheriff Kimball, Olympia Chief Gary Michel and others to be accountable for their decisions, for the leadership of their law enforcement agencies, for the violation of civil rights and unnecessary use of force by their agencies this past November.

(The following guiding principles to be in a box)

Here are the guiding principles released by Sheriff Kimball and the Cities of Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater, and the Thurston County Prosecuting Attorney released in May 2008:

1. We uphold the Constitution and support the rights of individuals to free speech under the First Amendment.

2. We recognize that individuals have the right to peaceably assemble, in celebration or protest.

3. We will continue to work with organizers and leaders of those assembling peaceably to ensure open and honest communications before, during, and after such an event.

4. We recognize that public safety shall be of paramount concern to law enforcement in dealing with civil demonstrations.

5. We expect that acts of assembly will not harm, endanger, or adversely limit the rights or freedoms of other individuals or the provision of necessary public functions.

6. We have zero-tolerance for acts of violence and property damage and that an individual committing such acts will be held accountable.

7. We acknowledge the benefit of interjurisdictional and multi-disciplinary training and exercises to foster a consistent and unified county-wide approach for law enforcement response during incidents of civil demonstrations.

8. We re-affirm these principles so that the law enforcement officers within Thurston County continue to have a unified response to incidents of civil demonstration that balances the rights of individuals to peaceably assemble and maintain the rule of law and order as mandated.

Mike Coday, Vietnam War conscientious objector, political activist and small business owner. Email: mike@smallblueplanet.org