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ACLU Decries Use of Force by Police
At Bush Event
A Response to a Jacksonville Protest, Lawyers Contend,
Is an Ominous Example of Burgeoning Militarization
By Beth Quinn
MEDFORD -- Friday, January 07, 2005: The force riot police used last
fall against a crowd of peaceful demonstrators protesting a presidential visit
was one of the worst examples nationwide of the growing police militarization
since Sept. 11, 2001, civil liberties advocates said
Thursday.
When police wearing face shields and body armor moved without warning
against a crowd of 200, they struck six people with batons and five others with
plastic balls fired from rifles, said three lawyers who investigated the Oct.
14 incident in Jacksonville for the local chapter of the
American Civil Liberties Union.
Dozens more became ill when the plastic balls released pepper spray, the
investigators said. The crowd was made up of mostly middle-age people, but also
included at least 20 children, elderly people and local residents who were
passing by, protest organizers said.
Police were clearing demonstrators from the sidewalks outside the
Jacksonville Inn, where President Bush decided to dine instead of eating at his
private cottage after a political rally.
Police didn't ask organizers to move the demonstrators and didn't give
people time to get out of the way after issuing a bullhorn order to disperse
that most in the crowd couldn't hear because of the roar of a helicopter
overhead, the investigators said.
"This was an exceptionally small demonstration for a problem like this
to arise," said Ralph Temple, one of the investigators and a retired staff
attorney in the ACLU's Washington, DC, office. "I don't think most police departments in the country
would bring out riot police with this kind of a crowd.
"You're supposed to use these weapons as a substitute for lethal
weapons," he said at a news conference. "You don't use them just to
make people move."
Temple and two attorneys, Jan Lofthouse
and David Berger, reviewed witness statements, videotapes and news reports.
The Jackson County sheriff's department didn't return phone calls for comment.
Jacksonville City Manager Paul Wyntergreen said earlier this week the city's
attorney had advised officials not to comment because of possible lawsuits.
"There's a bigger issue here in this country," said Paul Copeland,
a board member of the Southern Oregon ACLU chapter. "More and more we're
finding a militarization of police in the way that they relate to the citizens.
"We have to get the police to understand that dressing up as the army
and assaulting citizens is not OK."
Last fall, city and county police officials said the Secret Service gave
authorities a maximum of five minutes to clear the sidewalks when Bush was en
route to the inn.
But Andrew Hasbun, a Medford TV reporter who was part of a news pool, said
Bush was at the restaurant when the confrontation began and remained there for
another 30 to 45 minutes.
The investigators have recommended that state ACLU officials take legal
action, and have asked for internal investigations by city, county and police
officials.