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Recent
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May
1, 2003
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April
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The Mumia Abu-Jamal Case in Its True Colors
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Bush's War Web Log 4/26
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Springtime in Iraq
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Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/25
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Rev. Pat Robertson's Message in the Temple
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Will They Hate Us Forever?
Stew Albert
Big Brother in Bed
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/24
Website
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Abroad
April
23, 2003
Anthony
Gancarski
When Young Mothers Die in Combat
Chris
Floyd
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Marjorie
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Tax the War Profiteers
William
Lind
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Nina Simone: Freedom Singer
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Bush's War Web Log 4/23
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April
22, 2003
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Said
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Shi'a Will to Power
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Bush's "Christian" Blood Cult
Stew
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Creep
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Bush's War Web Log 4/22
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Critical Media Literacy in Times of War
April
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An Administration in Contempt
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Michael
Berry
The Friedman Absurdities
Gray
Brechin
Hang Black Banners: Mourning the Cultural Loss
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The Taliban from Texas
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Perry
Bush's War Web Log 4/21
April
19, 2003
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The Rape of History
Saul
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Shop, Go to Church, Support Bush's
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Off With Their Heads: the Constitution According to Scalia
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Barghouti
Sharon's Bloody Beat
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Gancarski
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Mickey
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Animals: the Other Collateral Damage
Will
Potter
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America's In-Bedded Journalism
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Gordon
Haunted by History
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Engel
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Susan Block
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Steve
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Baghdad to Basra
April
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Operation "Syrian Freedom":
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Syria and the Road to World War IV
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Jews Like Us
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Allen
My Lai Revisited
Carl Estabrook
Support Our Euphemism
Steve
Perry
War Web Log 4/18
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Meet the Victims of War
April
17, 2003
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Patriot Gore: the Fatal Flaws in
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Mariner
Looting Antiquity: the Legal Implications
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Issam
Nashashibi
Zalmay Khalilzad: the Neocon's Bagman
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Stanley
Heller
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Iraq After the War
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May 3,
2003
Jerry Brown, Oakland's
Richard Daley?
Getting
Shot on the Docks
By SCOTT FLEMING
Remarks to the Oakland City Council.
My name is Scott Fleming. I am an Oakland resident
and an attorney. On April 7, the Oakland Police Department shot
me five times with wooden bullets, four times in the back, as
I ran away from them during a completely peaceful protest at
the Port of Oakland. I am speaking here today on behalf of all
of the anti-war protesters who were attacked and injured by the
Oakland Police Department.
On the morning of April 7, a number of
protesters gathered at the port and set up peaceful pickets in
front of a handful of shipping lines. The protesters were doing
nothing more than carrying signs and walking in circles. There
was a brass band there which helped create what can only be described
as a festive atmosphere. There were a number of middle-aged and
senior citizens in the crowd. There was nothing about the tone
of the protest or the actions of the protesters that could have
led the Oakland Police Department to fear violence or confrontation.
Nevertheless, when the police arrived
on the scene, all of them were wearing gas masks, and a number
of them were armed with what we later learned were wooden bullets,
beanbag-firing shotguns, and grenades. I have been to countless
demonstrations over the years, and I cannot recall a single instance
in which any Bay Area police agency has displayed these kinds
of weapons or worn gas masks to a political demonstration. I
can only surmise that the Oakland Police Department would not
have arrived at the demonstration with this type of weaponry
unless they had a pre-planned intent to use it.
The officers lined up on Middle Harbor
Road in front of the entrance to American Presidents Line. When
they ordered the demonstrators to clear the intersection, the
demonstrators complied and the entrance was cleared. Unfortunately,
there was nowhere for the demonstrators to go after they cleared
the intersection. By blocking Middle Harbor Road, the police
denied the demonstrators the nearest and most direct route to
leave the port.
As the crowd milled about, it seemed
that nobody knew what to do or where to go. Many of the protesters,
including myself, had never been to the port before and were
unfamiliar with the geography there. After a few minutes, and
for no obvious or apparent reason, the morning quiet was pierced
by explosions as the Oakland Police Department opened fire on
the crowd. Neither I nor anyone else I have spoken to is aware
of any act on the part of any demonstrator that could have provoked
this violence.
From this point on, the Oakland Police
Department swept down Middle Harbor Road and Maritime Street
firing repeated barrages, over and over again, into the crowd.
They fired on the crowd for approximately an hour and a half
to two hours as they pursued us for more than a mile. For much
of this time, the Oakland Police Department repeatedly drove
a line of large police motorcycles into the crowd. It is my understanding
that a number of those who were injured by the motorcycles were
terrified young women who were run over as they pleaded with
the officers to allow them to escape from the violence.
The munitions used upon us, especially
the wooden and beanbag bullets, are extremely dangerous weapons,
which was evidenced by the severity of the injuries that day.
As we continued down the road, more and more people in the crowd
were bleeding and bruised. A law student who was clearly identified
as a legal observer by a bright green armband was shot in the
head and had blood pouring down his face. A man who works as
an environmental engineer for a federal agency was shot in the
face and looked to me as if part of his nose was missing. I am
told that one young woman had tire tracks up her leg after being
run down by a motorcycle officer. And I think we have all seen
the sickening and grotesque photograph of Sri Louise, the woman
who was shot in the jaw and neck.
I want to make clear that the use of
these types of weapons against peaceful protesters is unacceptable
under any circumstances. However, it is also clear that the severity
of the injuries we saw that day was significantly increased because
the Oakland Police Department disregarded the manufacturers1
safety warnings and misused these weapons. For example, we recovered
a shell casing used to fire wooden bullets. The casing indicated
that it was manufactured by Federal Laboratories in Casper, Wyoming,
and fires 264W wooden baton rounds. The casing includes a very
clear warning, which states: 3Do not fire directly at persons
or serious injury or death may result.2 The warning then admonishes
officers to fire the weapons at the ground, from which they are
intended to ricochet into peoples1 legs. The fact that so many
people that day received injuries to their heads, arms, and torsos
strongly indicates that the officers were not firing these weapons
as the manufacturers intended. The fact that so many people,
like myself, were shot in the back, underscores the fact that
the Oakland Police Department was firing on people who were running
away.
As reported by the San Francisco Bay
Guardian, the manufacturer1s training manual states that, when
firing wooden bullets, 3areas such as the head, neck, spine,
and groin . . . should be avoided unless it is the intent to
deliver deadly force.2 Oakland Police Departmental General Order
K-3, governing the use of force, similarly requires officers
to avoid firing these weapons at these areas of the body. According
to the Department1s use of force policy, beanbag (and presumably
wooden) bullets are classified as the second most severe use
of force in the police arsenal, second only to firearms. In fact,
these weapons are classified as being more severe than a police
canine bite. Therefore, according to the stated policy of the
Oakland Police Department, if the police had been justified on
April 7 in shooting us with wooden bullets, they would also have
been justified in unleashing police dogs on the crowd. I think
we all know exactly which images that evokes, and we all know
exactly how wrong that would have been.
The actions of the Oakland Police Department
on April 7 evidenced not only an enthusiastic desire to use grossly
unreasonable force against peaceful protesters, but also contempt
for the exercise of First Amendment rights. The San Francisco
Chronicle reported that Chief Word sought to justify the shootings
by stating that, 3the police decided to fire because they feared
that more protesters would arrive later in the day.2 To me, this
amounts to an admission by the police chief that he approved
the shooting of demonstrators because he hoped the shootings
would deter other people from exercising their First Amendment
rights. I hope we can all agree that this is unacceptable.
Word also told the Contra Costa Times
that his decision to shoot at us was influenced by one of the
shipping lines. According to the Times, Chief Word said that
3APL told us, 3You have to clear the property.2 This sounds frighteningly
like Chief Word allowed American Presidents Line to assist him
in deciding when to use force against the citizens of Oakland.
Those of us who were fired upon on April
7 demand that the Oakland City Council take immediate action
by exercising the authority that you have over the Oakland Police
Department. We support the idea of a truly independent investigation
of the shootings, and believe that such an investigation should
lead to terminations up to, and including the police chief, as
well as a comprehensive reformulation of police crowd control
and use of force policies. However, we also believe that the
City Council should not wait for such an investigation before
conducting its own inquiries. We demand that the City Council,
at the very least, take the following three actions:
1. We want to know who made the decision
to fire on us on April 7 and how that decision was made. It is
obvious to those of us who were there that morning that the police
were armed, wearing gas masks, and prepared to shoot and injure
us from the moment they arrived. With only a few exceptions,
the Oakland Police Department did not attempt to arrest us before
they opened fire. These facts strongly suggest that the Oakland
Police Department had decided sometime prior to April 7 to violently
attack the port protest.
We know from press accounts that the
Oakland Police Department conducted prior meetings with individuals
from the Port of Oakland, several shipping lines, and the San
Francisco Police Department. Mayor Jerry Brown has enthusiastically
supported the shootings. We want to know what role these individuals
and organizations played in this decision. We also want to know
whether or not the Oakland Police Department had any discussions
with state or federal authorities prior to making this decision.
2. We want the officers who fired on
us that day to be suspended from the Oakland Police Department.
The Oakland Police Departmental General Order governing the use
of force states that, 3any member or employee whose use of force
results in the . . . serious physical injury of any person shall
be placed on paid administrative leave for a period of not less
than two days, unless otherwise ordered by the Chief of Police.2
The officers who injured us that day should be suspended. If
Chief Word has overridden this policy and prevented any suspensions
from occurring, the City Council should be asking why.
3. The Oakland Police Department should
immediately cease the use of so-called 3less-lethal2 weapons.
On April 7, the police showed that they are incapable of determining
when this level of force is appropriate and they are incapable
of following clear warnings on the proper use of these weapons,
even when those warnings are written right on the side of the
ammunition. The City Council should demand that the Police Department
enact guidelines that prohibit the use of these weapons against
demonstrators.
If the Oakland Police Department is truly
a democratically accountable institution, then all three of these
demands can easily be met.
In closing, I would simply like to say
that the City Council is in a better position than most to know
that the Oakland Police Department has an ugly and intolerable
history of abusing the citizens of this city. The ongoing Riders
scandal showed that the department has a culture which tolerates
the abuse and brutalization of citizens in Oakland1s poorer neighborhoods.
The jury verdicts in the Judi Bari lawsuit
last year showed that the Department has manufactured evidence
in order to discredit political activists. And the shootings
of April 7 show that the Oakland Police Department is now willing
to shoot and injure peaceful demonstrators for the apparent purpose
of chilling and deterring First Amendment expression in the City
of Oakland. The City Council must exercise its authority to get
to the bottom of these abuses and bring them to an end.
Scott Fleming,
an attorney and peace activist, lives in Oakland.
Yesterday's
Features
Jeffrey
St. Clair
Santorum: That's Latin for Asshole
Iain
Boal
A May Day Message to the FCC: "We
Are Many; They are Few"
Diana
Johnstone
About Cuba
Sam
Hamod
Killings at Al Fallujah, City of Mosques
Veteran
Intelligence Professionals for Sanity
Intelligence Fiasco
Lee Sustar
Greed Air: Airline Workers Agree to Pay Cuts, While Bosses Stuff
Their Pockets
Peter
Linebaugh
May Day at Kut and Kenthal
Stew Albert
Straight Shooters
Steve
Perry
Bush's War Web Log 5/01
Website
of the Day
South Bay Mobilization
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