|
Police faulted for mass arrests { December 18 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9939-2003Dec17.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A9939-2003Dec17.html
At Hearing, D.C. Police Faulted on Mass Arrests
By Arthur Santana
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 18, 2003; Page B03
D.C. Council member Kathy Patterson said yesterday that the D.C. police department has been accused of a pattern of misconduct during recent mass demonstrations that could have a chilling effect on free expression in the District.
Patterson (D-Ward 3), chairman of the council's Judiciary Committee, made her comments at the start of two days of hearings into the conduct of the D.C. police during anti-globalization demonstrations in April 2000 and antiwar and anti-globalization demonstrations in September 2002.
A host of witnesses accused D.C. police of unprovoked assault, wrongful arrest, spying on demonstrators' meetings and cruel detention, among other abuses.
"What we are discussing is part of a larger, and a national, debate on how to protect civil liberties while also assuring public safety," Patterson said. "My own view is that the scales have tipped away from free speech."
Council member Sharon Ambrose (D-Ward 6) spoke out against the "repressive tactics" of D.C. police, who turned out in full force in April 2000 and September 2002 to control thousands of protesters occupying parts of downtown.
Those protests occurred during meetings of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund. A vast majority of the demonstrators were peaceful, said some of the organizers and activists who testified at yesterday's hearing. But they said police showed little patience for the crowds in general and tried to disperse them. Failing that, in September 2000, police wrongfully arrested about 400 people in Pershing Park alone, they said.
Ralph Temple, former legal director of the D.C. chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, delivered a report that accused the department of failing to properly handle every incident of mass arrest going back to the civil rights era of the 1960s.
Temple said that in recent years, an overreacting police culture has been cultivated by sympathetic news media and a police chief who is determined to avoid the sort of mayhem seen in Seattle during the anti-globalization protests there in 1999.
"When D.C. police management directs and permits its officers to act outside the law, it imposes upon them the attributes of a uniformed and armed street gang," Temple said.
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey said in an interview yesterday that he had not seen the ACLU report, but he denied an assertion in the report that he planned mass arrests in advance. "That's just not true," Ramsey said.
He said he planned to tell the committee today that after the September 2002 demonstrations, police revised procedures to emphasize that officers should issue clear warnings before making arrests.
"We did not go into it thinking about making mass arrests," Ramsey said. "And in fact, we do everything we could to avoid that kind of thing."
At his weekly news briefing yesterday, Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) acknowledged that "mistakes were made" in handling protests, but he defended Ramsey.
"We're trying to balance openness and order," Williams said. "I think, by and large, the chief has struck the right balance."
Adam Eidinger, 30, an organizer of both the 2000 and 2002 demonstrations, said that before the last presidential inauguration, D.C. police infiltrated protesters' planning meetings. He contended that at one meeting, an undercover officer even proposed calling in bomb threats.
"Police are actually endangering the safety of the residents of the city," Eidinger said. "They are making suggestions to commit acts of terrorism among peaceful demonstrators."
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, an attorney for many of the protesters, said about seven protester-related lawsuits are pending in U.S. District Court, alleging police brutality, preemptive mass arrests and the use of D.C. police as agents provocateurs, among other things.
D.C. Police Assistant Chief Alfred J. Broadbent Sr. defended the department, saying that since the beginning of the year, D.C. police have handled 291 demonstrations, for which only 49 permits were obtained. "That fact stands alone in supporting [the department's] apparent willingness to negotiate with demonstrators who, on the face of it, are acting unlawfully without a permit," Broadbent said.
Broadbent was unapologetic about undercover officers attending protesters' meetings. He said "police don't infiltrate, but they do attend meetings that they are invited to" as undercover officers.
George Washington University law professor Mary Cheh, who is serving as a special counsel to the Judiciary Committee, pressed Broadbent to explain the difference. Broadbent said that the officers, who learn about meetings from Internet sites and other sources, are invited by meeting planners who are not aware that they are officers. "They're undercover," he repeated, "not infiltrators."
Other city officials, including Ramsey, are scheduled to appear before the committee today.
Staff writers David A. Fahrenthold and Craig Timberg contributed to this report.
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
|
|
