Meeting with Local Sheriff Deputies
...by Bernadette Webster
I'd been hearing alarming reports of threatened and actual violence by local police officers. These involved some homeless folks as well as several people who had been the focus of or were witness to what should have been routine police activities. I went to see Sgt. Mike Downey, who oversees the officers operating out of this area's Sheriff substation, and told him some of the things I'd been hearing, explaining that I knew there was little he could do without official complaints, but that these people were too afraid to write up and sign their names to such documents. I said that I was afraid someone was going to get killed.
Sgt. Downey was very understanding, but quoted to me the old adage that in a bureaucracy, if it isn't on paper, it didn't happen. My response to that was that in reality, if it happened, it happened, and that if somebody died it would be blood on his/our hands. I asked him to at least speak informally to the officers in question - to tell them that Bernadette had been hearing things and was very concerned. (My feeling was that even if the men denied doing any of what they were accused of, they would be on warning and might modify their behavior enough that members of the community would not be endangered by them.)
Sgt. Downey then told me that every two or three months all of the southern Humboldt officers meet and that I would be welcome to come to the next meeting with perhaps one other person, to speak to them myself. Realizing what an incredible and unusual opportunity I had just been offered, I accepted immediately.
Bonnie Blackberry and I went to the substation on the September 1, and explained our concerns in general terms, trying to avoid fingerpointing in order to present the overall situation as we perceived it. Of the two officers I have heard the most complaints about, one kept his eyes focused on the opposite wall. He also kept his silence. The other was most vocal, giving very convincing testimony to the constant dangers law enforcement officers face on a daily basis.
My primary message to them was that I had not come to blame particular people in the department for problems, but that I believe that police departments were created by the People as a vehicle to protect the general populace, that citizens should be relieved when a police officer shows up on a scene, not afraid. I also believe that creating a fear of the police is counter-productive and I feel that because of the nature of the stories I'd been hearing (and I was hearing more than one a week without any solicitation on my part), it had become imperative that they be told of the alienation they have been creating. I don't feel that it is the job of me or Bonnie to try to fix the problems between the local cops and members of the community who have been frightened by them, except by facilitating a communication between the parties so that each can be aware of the concerns of the other. I hope that perhaps the officers involved could modify their behavior so that issues would be resolved naturally.
The Concerns of the Citizenry: I don't want to stir up a furor by relating all the nitty-gritty of what I've been hearing. Let me just say that it horrified me enough to go to the police to discuss it, much to the consternation of some of the people who had confided in me. In a nutshell: There had been threats of pistol-whipping, beating, being made "a project of." Witnesses to arrests and detainments had warrant checks run on them and had been threatened with arrest themselves if they didn't leave the scene. One man, ordered out of his car during a traffic stop, said that the cop jumped back, reaching for his gun, when the driver reached to unfasten his seatbelt. I personally watched the same officer stop a kid (mid-teens) in front of the laundromat in Redway for riding his (pedal) bike at dusk without a headlight. The cop ran a make on him, stood him close in front of his squadcar's headlights, handcuffed him, and moved around to the side of his car opposite myself and a couple other people who were observing, to "keep an eye on these people." The officer was so paranoid and twitchy that I could easily imagine him whipping his gun around and blowing someone away, probably an innocent bystander.
The Concerns of the Police: Foremost is "officer safety." We were told that just the night before our meeting, a new woman deputy had been so harassed by five witnesses that she could barely deal with her suspect. Supposedly people had come up so close behind her that they were leaning on her, asking questions about what she was doing and why. However, a while later, we heard about an arrest which I realized I had observed from start to finish. The officer telling the story had been called in as routine backup for such a situation. This was a very peaceable arrest. I had remained very integral to it to insure that it was. The way this officer told it, however, made it barely recognizable to me, and hearing this tainted everything else he had related to me.
The police assert a concern for the safety of people who enter the picture. If officers are dealing with a person who is potentially violent, and someone not involved comes sauntering onto the scene, the distraction can give the arrestee opportunity to pull out a weapon and do some real damage. . .and the officers would feel responsible for protecting the onlooker who just set it all off.
Suffice it to say that policemen are very paranoid and must be dealt with as such. All the more reason they should be monitored, but it must be handled in a way which is always sensitive to this great fear which some officers have of the general public. Hence: Give them space, don't make any furtive movements, keep your body language relaxed and your demeanor calm. Approach slowly in plain view so that the officer doesn't feel threatened. Don't interfere with what the officer is doing. Your value is in observing and witnessing. If you have questions about what's taking place, keep them until a later time. Maintain respect for all parties.
The Supreme Court ruled a couple years ago that a police officer can order the driver and all passengers out of a car because he is afraid for his own safety. An officer ordered two attorneys out of their car after one of them refused him permission to search, asserting his constitutional rights. According to an article by Gary Webb in last April's Esquire Magazine, "The officer was unmoved. He looked at the two attorneys calmly and ordered them out of the vehicle. 'I'm in fear of my life,' he informed them in a monotone. 'The passenger made suspicious motions, which gives me the right to search your car, for my own safety.' " The driver was dumbfounded. "The whole thing was about as illegal as you can get. He had no cause to pull me over. He had no reason to search my car. He knows I'm a lawyer, and he goes ahead and does it anyway!"
The police have a great deal of material power. The courts seem to back them up in this. However, in a democracy (literally, "ruled by the People"), it is the job (the work and the responsibility) of every citizen to see to it that the country is being run as it ought to be. This is a task which must be carried out diligently and faithfully to be done successfully.
It is always most important when we don't agree with someone to try to see a situation from their viewpoint. There are some major rifts between our community and the people who are policing it. The only way that I see to help mend these rifts is to establish lines of communication so that we can understand each other's concerns and expectations, and try to find some way to resolve our differences.
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