"Failure to disperse"
July 10, 2020 9:45 AM Subscribe
"After an hour in a holding cell, the handcuffs still on, somebody again put leg irons around my ankles, and connected the two with a piece of chain pulled tight around my stomach." UK newspaper The Independent’s Chief US Correspondent Andrew Buncombe describes what happened to a journalist covering the shutdown of Seattle's CHOP protest.
Perhaps now that this has happened to a White British journalist at a major newspaper, we can take more seriously what Seattle's Black and allied protesters have been telling us about police violence all along.
Perhaps now that this has happened to a White British journalist at a major newspaper, we can take more seriously what Seattle's Black and allied protesters have been telling us about police violence all along.
I'm starting to think that disbanding and defunding the police isn't going anywhere near as far as it needs to. We (The US) are so far down the slope toward fascism that I'm not confident whatsoever that it's recoverable.
That being said, threatening prisoners under the color of law should be prosecutable. These malicious police/correctional personnel should be indicted and prosecuted.
posted by Sphinx at 10:36 AM on July 10, 2020 [17 favorites]
That being said, threatening prisoners under the color of law should be prosecutable. These malicious police/correctional personnel should be indicted and prosecuted.
posted by Sphinx at 10:36 AM on July 10, 2020 [17 favorites]
Buncombe is an .... unfortunate name for a journalist.
posted by chavenet at 10:53 AM on July 10, 2020
posted by chavenet at 10:53 AM on July 10, 2020
Gotta admire the British ability to English.
Most folk can't string a half a dozen words together in print. Describing; not to mention explaining any of his experiences is beyond a bit of folk - folk that might just suffer this treatment more often than our journalist friend here.
posted by Afghan Stan at 11:17 AM on July 10, 2020
Most folk can't string a half a dozen words together in print. Describing; not to mention explaining any of his experiences is beyond a bit of folk - folk that might just suffer this treatment more often than our journalist friend here.
posted by Afghan Stan at 11:17 AM on July 10, 2020
In 30 years as journalist, this was the third time I had been detained by the authorities. The first was in Cuba in 2006, while covering the announcement by Fidel Castro that he was standing aside. The second was in 2011 in Pakistan, while taking photographs outside Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, six months after he had been killed by US Special Forces.
I like this part. Land of the free etc.
posted by dmh at 12:56 PM on July 10, 2020 [18 favorites]
I like this part. Land of the free etc.
posted by dmh at 12:56 PM on July 10, 2020 [18 favorites]
In addition to defunding/disbanding the police we need to empty the prisons.
Every single person in prison or jail for a non violent crime needs to be out of jail. And a need a REALLY strict definition of "violent crime" that explicitly does not include resisting arrest.
posted by sotonohito at 2:10 PM on July 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
Every single person in prison or jail for a non violent crime needs to be out of jail. And a need a REALLY strict definition of "violent crime" that explicitly does not include resisting arrest.
posted by sotonohito at 2:10 PM on July 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
"Resisting arrest" ... so, after receiving a baton in the stomach; you did allegedly then bend, and fall forward so as to attack the Peace Officer? HOW DO YOU PLEAD!?!
posted by Afghan Stan at 4:31 PM on July 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by Afghan Stan at 4:31 PM on July 10, 2020 [2 favorites]
"Resisting arrest" ... so, after receiving a baton in the stomach; you did allegedly then bend, and fall forward so as to attack the Peace Officer? HOW DO YOU PLEAD!?!
That's (almost) nothing compared to police using nerve pinches and joint locks that result in "he went for my gun" when your arm jerks involutarily to alleviate it. Also, pulling away is defined in a lot of places as "assault on a police officer."
posted by rhizome at 4:34 PM on July 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
That's (almost) nothing compared to police using nerve pinches and joint locks that result in "he went for my gun" when your arm jerks involutarily to alleviate it. Also, pulling away is defined in a lot of places as "assault on a police officer."
posted by rhizome at 4:34 PM on July 10, 2020 [7 favorites]
This was an incredible article, and it also shows an outside perspective on "This Is How America Is Now." I am so embarrassed. We need to be honest about what laws we must discontinue. I wanted to highlight a few paragraphs that were buried in the narrative -
I was being charged with “failure to disperse”, a Seattle municipal code that requires the accused to have been part of a group of four or more. I had been standing by myself.posted by rebent at 7:04 PM on July 10, 2020 [4 favorites]
The maximum penalty is 364 days in jail and a fine of $5,000. Journalists are largely exempt from the law. “No such order shall apply to a news reporter or other person observing or recording the events on behalf of the public press or other news media, unless he is physically obstructing lawful efforts by such officer to disperse the group,” says the code.
...
Momentarily, it appeared the situation was about to improve. The shackles and handcuffs were removed, but only so I could be ordered to remove all my clothes, and put on a blood-red prison “uniform” of trousers and jacket, and orange flip-flops.
...
Examining data from Chicago’s Cook County jail, which started testing new arrivals earlier this spring, Reinhart found one in six of all cases of Covid-19 in Chicago and the state of Illinois was linked to people jailed and released from this one establishment. He and a colleague, Daniel Chen, calculated that for each person cycled through the jail, an additional 2.1 infections were reported in that individual’s neighbourhood within a month. Around 60 per cent were in black-majority ZIP codes.
...
Like everyone else, Kai had been charged with a minor offence, failure to disperse. Another man, Josh, 29, had not even been at the protest but was detained when he set off to get food from a local restaurant and turned the wrong corner. He was charged with “pedestrian obstruction”. Another man, Daniel, who had been chanting “Black Lives Matter” in the prison van, was arrested in his car and charged with “vehicular obstruction”.
There's a screenshot of a tweet circulating on imgur, reddit etc: "The rest of the world is watching America like America watched Tiger King". Which sums it up nicely: horrified amazement.
My own little snowflake drama this week is that I broke one of two pint glasses which I bought at Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas last year. I joked to my girlfriend "well, we're going to have go back to Las Vegas now". But to be honest, there is no fucking way I can imagine going to (collectively) your very broken country in the foreseeable future. I'm very sad about that.
posted by illongruci at 3:58 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
My own little snowflake drama this week is that I broke one of two pint glasses which I bought at Hard Rock Cafe Las Vegas last year. I joked to my girlfriend "well, we're going to have go back to Las Vegas now". But to be honest, there is no fucking way I can imagine going to (collectively) your very broken country in the foreseeable future. I'm very sad about that.
posted by illongruci at 3:58 AM on July 11, 2020 [3 favorites]
Anyone who has been surprised by the Seattle Police Department's behavior clearly forgot about this incident from 2011. They have been doing this to protesters for literally decades, ever since the WTO meeting. The biggest surprise is that someone's finally taking real action.
posted by rednikki at 3:55 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by rednikki at 3:55 PM on July 11, 2020 [2 favorites]
Don't like the framing of this being "Trump's America" when it takes place in a Democratic run city with a police department that has been a problem for decades.
posted by MartinWisse at 3:17 AM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by MartinWisse at 3:17 AM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
You're absolutely correct. I think it can be argued that the pigs feel emboldened by Trump, but the fault clearly lies with ostensibly liberal cities that have maintained the policing status quo so that they have a PD which can feel emboldened by Trump.
We see here a total failure of the incremental and reform model. Seattle has been undelete a consent order for years now. The Seattle PD has a black women as chief. They had a program to hire more black police. And the Seattle PD is still a horribly brutal and racist organization.
It is clear that reform simply will not work. I think Seattle was genuinely giving reform a real effort, and it still failed.
Which is why we need to move on to a less reform oriented and more restructuring oriented approach.
posted by sotonohito at 5:38 AM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
We see here a total failure of the incremental and reform model. Seattle has been undelete a consent order for years now. The Seattle PD has a black women as chief. They had a program to hire more black police. And the Seattle PD is still a horribly brutal and racist organization.
It is clear that reform simply will not work. I think Seattle was genuinely giving reform a real effort, and it still failed.
Which is why we need to move on to a less reform oriented and more restructuring oriented approach.
posted by sotonohito at 5:38 AM on July 14, 2020 [2 favorites]
Don't like the framing of this being "Trump's America" when it takes place in a Democratic run city with a police department that has been a problem for decades.
I just wanted to second this as strongly as humanly possible. (Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, fuck Mayor Jenny Durkan. So much of the recent incidences lie at her feet and inability to lead.) As sotonohito says, maybe the cops are slightly emboldened by Trump. But SPD have been rotten through for years, really decades now. I'm not as convinced that reform was legitimately being attempted, at least not recently. Maybe when the consent decree was first laid out, but in general, reform has not worked in Seattle. We need to tear it down and build something new.
posted by kalimac at 7:45 AM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
I just wanted to second this as strongly as humanly possible. (Also, and I cannot emphasize this enough, fuck Mayor Jenny Durkan. So much of the recent incidences lie at her feet and inability to lead.) As sotonohito says, maybe the cops are slightly emboldened by Trump. But SPD have been rotten through for years, really decades now. I'm not as convinced that reform was legitimately being attempted, at least not recently. Maybe when the consent decree was first laid out, but in general, reform has not worked in Seattle. We need to tear it down and build something new.
posted by kalimac at 7:45 AM on July 14, 2020 [1 favorite]
I would be curious if there's an emboldening effect of police steamrolling policies in blue parts of the country, over Democratic mayors/governors/etc. who can be bullied that they're soft on crime.
posted by rhizome at 2:17 PM on July 14, 2020
posted by rhizome at 2:17 PM on July 14, 2020
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posted by azuresunday at 10:08 AM on July 10, 2020 [37 favorites]