FC: How police handled, and allegedly mistreated, protesters in DC

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

The below message, forwarded with permission, is an account from the 
streets of DC during the protests on Saturday.

I was there, too, photographing the march from Dupont Circle that went east 
along P street and then south on 14th street. When a critical mass got 
between K and L streets, the police cut off the march with lines of cops 
who swooped in prevented anyone from leaving that block of 14th street. 
That included journalists; I was stuck there and they wouldn't let me leave.

I was closer to L street and didn't see everything described below at the K 
street barricade. Some photos here:
http://www.mccullagh.org/cgi-bin/photosearch.cgi?name=14th
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/2001-bush-inauguration-highlights.html

-Declan

**********

Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 17:21:51 -0500
From: "Michael T. Shinn" <mike () shinn net>
Organization: Collosus: The Voice of World Control
To: declan () well com
Subject: Re: FC: Photos from George W. Bush inauguration celebration, protests

Declan,

I'm so glad to hear that you were at 14th and K where it seems like most
the real big action happened on Saturday (although another large protest
was supposedly going down at the Navy Memorial later on that morning/early
afternoon).  At least some big name reporter was there to cover it! *grin*

I was also at 14th and K (with Macki from 2600 and few other friends) video
taping the protests (for IMC).  I got alot of video tape from inside the
police lines when the MPD had that small group of protestors, including me
and some other reporters, pressed up against the wall on 14th and K, even
though I had a nice big press badge on.  I guess the police have reading
comprehension skills too.  It was a tense time when the police started
beating a few protestors up and then, basically, arrested us for a period
of time (not letting me leave is something I call an "arrest", especially
when I haven't committed a crime or anything.  The last time I checked, I
still had the right to be free to go about my business, but not yesterday.
The police wouldn't even tell us what they wanted to us to do, or not do.
Or what they were going to do with us or why they wouldn't let us go.  I
guess *not* telling protestors to do anything is their new Sup3R SeKriT
plan for getting protestors to dispurse!  Hurrah for the new psychic powers
of the DC police department!)

Regardless of all this I managed to video tape them beating a few people up
and other interesting moments during the day.  The IMC will hopefully put
this online soon.

One rather comical moment I want to share with you was when a few stern
faced police offices facing us became sweet as punch when an ostensibly
republican couple (obviously lost) came up behind the police line and
innocently asked how to get to their reserved seats for the inauguration.
I almost wanted to yell "When are you going to tell us to eat cake?!" to
the republican couple, but I figured it was better to just cover the story
than to become the story, and, in fairness, they weren't the ones using
excessive force on the protestors (and myself) nor did they have any direct
hand in causing it (indirectly, perhaps *grin*).  Especially since it was
pretty clear that the MPD officers were not honoring press badges and
didn't seem to appreciate the finer points of freedom of speech, I was in
no mood to have my camera broken (or possibly my skull... they really split
one protestors head open, which was one too many IMNHO).  It was really
bizarre that they wouldn't let myself and about a dozen other reporters out
of the box they made around the protestors we were covering.  Somehow, in
their minds, we were no better than the protestors and so our civil rights
meant nothing to them either.  I, and the people with me, took great
delight in the mass paniced retreat of the thugs... er... I mean "police"
when another protestor group totally surrounded them and forced them to
back off.  Yep, a really good day for the police it would seem.  They get
to beat some people up, suspend civil rights, illegal detain/arrest some
people, then fail to do their jobs and of course utterly fail to stop the
protestors in the end.  All in all, a total and complete waste of tax payer
money.

The real irony in this story is that I *look like a cop* and yet the police
were still treated me in a very heavy handed and excessive manner.  So you
can only imagine how they were treating the rest of the protestors I was
with (one Black Bloc protestor early on even tried to "out" me a cop!).  I
was also an Army officer and spent almost 10 years in the Infantry in the
US Army.  And, I've trained police officers to respond to CD (Civil
Distrubances, also known as riots, which yesterday was *not*) so I have an
educated and expert knowledge of what the police are supposed to do and not
do - and they were definitely NOT operating within the bounds of the law or
accepted procedures for conducting CD operations.  They not only endangered
the protestors, but they placed a number of their own in foolishly over
extended skirmish lines that caused them to quickly become surrounded (and,
if you believe the police, they could have been hurt or possibly killed!).
I have never seen, firsthand, such a bunch of incompetent fools respond to
a mostly peaceful protest, and ANOTHER larger completely peaceful protest
and I have seen ALOT of police departments and Army units conduct CD ops,
and these guys were the worst at it I've witnessed first hand.  We can only
be thankful that things didnt further out of hand, or the police might have
ended up hurting more people.  If I were evaluating these officers, they
would get a big fat F from me.

One cop with obviously low self estime yelled at me (as I had my back to
him video taping another group of police roughing and then beating someone
up, so you can imagine what a dangerous threat I posed to this tough guy
with my video camera and my lethal weapon back exposed to him) "Do you want
some of this?!" and then hit me in the back with his night stick repeatedly
and kept yelling at first my back and then into my face, when I finally
hand a chance to turn around "Oh, you want some more of this!".  Frankly,
as suprised as I was, I was also a bit amused by this obviously freightened
and out of control thug/cop clearly lashing out at someone with his back to
him that could clearly not fight back (legally at least).  I had a nice big
PRESS badge on too, plus I told him numerous time, ratherly loudly towards
the end of the beatings/shovings, that I was a reporter and that I would
happily move if he would just stop shoving and hitting me. This only seemed
to further incourage his need to use excessive force on this obviously
highly dangerous and heavily armed camera man.  Quite a day indeed.  Maybe
the police just hate the press.  Seems like a stupid thing to, opening
attack someone holding a camera to your face, in a sea of people with
cameras rolling too. LOL!

I have a new found disrespect for the police, which is a really new thing
for me.  I didn't consider them flawless before, but I expected them to be
better at doing their jobs and more aware of a little concept called
"rights".  The MPD and the other uniformed officers there seemed unable to
control themselves and clearly added to, if not outright caused, the very
civil disturbances they claimed to be trying to prevent.  Again, as someone
trained in CD operations and as one that has trained company sized units in
CD operations, I can unequivocacly say that the MPD of DC operated in an
unprofessional and possibly illegal manner yesterday that only made matters
worse and caused a number of people, including apparently one of their own,
to get hurt.  I'm all the more dismayed with the police because many of my
friends are police officers or agents, and this is a group of people that I
myself have worked with in the past, both federally and locally.

To further digress, something is seriously wrong with the police in this
country and it seems to be getting worse.  I noticed the beginnings of it
about 6 years ago with the military training the US army was providing
certain law enforcement agencies and police departments with.  The police
seemed more interested in treating suspects as the "enemy", instead of as
citizens with rights, presumed to be INNOCENT.  This is a dangerous mindset
to be in when you are working with the people you are supposed to be
working for and protecting (read: not the enemy).  When training our own
troops in the US Army to conduct CD operations (riot control) we
continuously teach them that the protestors are NOT the enemy.  That they
are the *very* people you are there to protect.

Yesterday, many of the police at 14th and K clearly though everyone without
a police badge was the "enemy" (I even have video tape of the chief running
around directing things himself!  It goes all the way to the top it
seems).  Until the mentality of treating anyone that is not a cop as the
enemy changes, the police will continue to degrade into a even more
dangerous threat to the public at large.  I now fear the police more than
the criminals.  At least you can do something about criminals.  The police
it would seem are above the law.

--
Michael T. Shinn        PGPKey: 0x2F7EB57C       GnuPG Key: BC626A27
GnuPG fingerprint = 75D2 325D 7121 0B60 C28681C4 8B48 7F9F BC62 6A27
PGP fingerprint =  B2D9 2678 6167 1C5B 2B89 C185 7EC5 E49B 2F7E B57C 




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