Oakland Cop Probe Ordered 

LAURA COUNTS, CECILY BURT & MIKE ADAMICK / Oakland Tribune 30apr03

Council votes to investigate

[Background: Counterpunch article 8apr03]

OAKLAND—Longshoremen, protesters and hundreds of sympathizers outraged by police tactics during an April 7 protest at the Port of Oakland told city officials Tuesday they want an independent investigation, policy changes, and even the firing of Police Chief Richard Word.

Though the City Council's Public Safety Committee took no action, the full council met in closed session after the hearing and voted 7-1 to hire a panel to investigate that day's events.

City Manager Robert Bobb and City Attorney John Russo were directed to come back with recommendations for the panel, which the council hopes to choose at its next meeting May 6.

No funding has been set aside for the investigation, however, and Vice Mayor Nancy Nadel (Downtown-West Oakland) said she hopes it can be done pro bono. Council President Ignacio De La Fuente (San Antonio-Fruitvale) cast the dissenting vote, arguing that the city should ask its Citizens Police Review Board to do the work and use any money spent on an outside panel to hire in-house investigators.

"Are we going to appoint a new panel for every complaint we get?" De La Fuente asked.

The city is bracing for lawsuits over the April 7 clash, which came on the heels of a $10.9 million settlement in February of the Riders police misconduct case. That settlement also includes $10 million in reforms to overhaul the way the department does business and restore community trust -- though they do not specifically deal with crowd control policies.

Attorney James Chanin of Oakland, who represented some of the Riders plaintiffs, said Oakland already spends more per capita on police payouts than other cities. Meanwhile, the city is facing a deficit that could cause libraries to close. He compared the April 7 events to police in the south turning dogs and hoses on civil rights protesters.

Several protesters gave graphic accounts of the early-morning demonstration and aired an edited video that showed police repeatedly firing on protesters who appeared to be walking away.

The City Attorney's office limited the police response to a brief presentation from Chief Word -- who was repeatedly interrupted with boos and catcalls from the crowd. Council member Jane Brunner (North Oakland) argued that police should have been able to give a more detailed explanation.

The April 7 protest began at 5:30 a.m. when activists organized by Direct Action to Stop the War formed picket lines to block the gates of the SSA and APL shipping terminals. They maintained the companies were profiting from war-related government contracts.

Protester Scott Fleming described the mood on the picket line as peaceful and even "festive," thanks to a brass band.

Rather than arresting those who failed to disperse, which had been the practice in San Francisco anti-war protests, Oakland police donned riot gear and fired on the crowd with the so-called "less-lethal" ammunition: shooting beanbags and wooden dowels and throwing "stinger grenades" that spew rubber pellets and tear gas.

Dozens of people were reportedly injured, including nine longshoremen. Billy Kepoo, a crane operator at the SSA terminal, said he was just trying to get to work that day. He suffered a compound fracture of his right thumb when he was struck by a police-fired projectile and had to have surgery later that day.

Several speakers Tuesday maintained that the multiple injuries to protesters' faces, backs and upper bodies indicated that police aimed directly at the demonstrators. Some reported being hit by police motorcycles.

Mayor Jerry Brown has defended Police Chief Word and the officers at the scene. However, some elected officials have publicly questioned the action and have called for an independent investigation in the tactics used by the police that day.

Word began his remarks Tuesday by stating that the Oakland police department "supports and vigorously defends the right to free speech in a peaceful manner."

Although he said he was concerned about the injuries inflicted on the protesters, he continued to defend police tactics, saying that several orders were given to disperse the crowd before any force was used.

He read excerpts of reports filed by officers, sergeants and lieutenants at the scene, recounting the few instances where rocks, bolts or bottles were thrown at them by some protesters, usually without striking anyone. No officers were injured.

When asked later if the extent of injuries suffered by the protesters indicated ammunition was used incorrectly, Word said the stinger grenades and wooden dowels were aimed at the ground or feet of the protesters, and only the bean bags were shot at their bodies. He said that only 20 of the roughly 165 officers at the port that day were trained and authorized to use less lethal- ammunition.

The department's plan, formulated in the days before April 7, called for allowing protesters to assemble and block one gate, while ensuring the free flow of traffic to the other. Officers were instructed to avoid direct confrontation and hand-to-hand combat with the protesters by maintaining a large space between the two, because of fears that somebody would grab an officer's gun or baton.

Still, Word announced that he will launch his own major incident investigation into how events were handled that day, which will cover the policies, planning, practices and use of force.

"We have an obligation to review (the event), separate from the City Council," Word said. "The findings ... may result in ... changes in our use of force."

Jack Heyman, business agent for ILWU Local 10 who was on duty at the port that morning and was later arrested, criticized Mayor Jerry Brown for supporting the police action. Heyman said Brown himself helped form a human blockade that stopped traffic coming in or out of the Port of Oakland in 1997, in protest of Liverpool dock workers who had been sacked.

Jerry Brown stands before us as
the biggest hypocrite in the Bay Area

"The person in charge of this atrocity, Police Chief Word, should be fired," said Heyman, who was detained for 18 hours at Santa Rita jail that day. "And Jerry Brown stands before us as the biggest hypocrite in the Bay Area."

But Brown said the 1997 protest -- which he said he joined spontaneously after hearing about it on KPFA after his "We the People" radio show, "was a small, peaceful picket. If there were 50 people there I would have been surprised. They talked to some truckers but I don't think they blocked traffic. There were no orders to disperse."

"This (April 7) was a massive thing. They wanted to shut down the port," he said.

Brown said edited video shown by protesters did not show the repeated orders to disperse that he says police captured on tape.

"They saw what they saw and they tried to do the best job they could," Brown said, referring to officers' statements that protesters threw things at them.

Only one person spoke in defense of the police, and she was heckled by the crowd.

"An act of civil disobedience is not free speech and it is not covered by the First Amendment," said community activist Thordie Ashley. "I am for the Oakland police and any other police department that protects citizens like me."

Protesters vowed to be back at the port on May 12, for another protest that is being billed as a "nonviolent community picket for peace and justice at the Oakland docks."