Cops are only here to hurt you.
This is all that my eyes could see as my friends and family were harassed with questions as they left their home late Saturday night/early Sunday morning on Nov. 23. Cooperative members of the Campbell Club were trapped within in their own homes, Lorax Co-opers unable to return home as they were forced without choice to stay inside or face the consequences brought on by the EPD. How old are you? What is your name? Where do you live?
Questions asked as they shined their flashlights uncomfortably in victims’ faces. Across the alleyway, the Lorax Co-opers shouted back, “You do not have to answer any of these questions.”
These questions and continuous harassment went on from midnight until the better half of the morning. Squad and undercover police cars congested the bike lane areas, idling their vehicles as they proceeded to give out as many emissions into our atmosphere as tickets inside the Campbell Club.
The co-ops have a special place in my heart and to see the type of destruction that came with the raid made me wonder if this violent scene of oppression was at the top of priorities for the EPD, silencing the voice of those who speak freedom? Was it really necessary to keep members of the cooperative and party attendees out in the cold for several hours without allowing them to get proper clothing or to use restrooms? Was it necessary to beat down and break down several doors within the cooperative even when there was compliance after the police had entered? Two lovely co-opers were taken in for “interfering with a police officer” and taken to jail. Ian’s was for questioning the police and refusing entry. Aaron was documenting the situation with his camera. These seem necessary if one is protecting their home from invaders.
The co-ops are a space for community and compassion in activism that have now been attacked even further by the EPD as part of the ongoing pattern of harassment against Eugene’s activist community. These are people within our community whose rights have been taken away. People who do not deserve to have their home destroyed and privacy violated, people who do not deserve to be bludgeoned with questions in their home, people who do not deserve the enormous fines put forth by the state. This convinces me more than ever that an (independent) EPD police auditor is in order and should be instilled immediately, because if peaceful and conscientious co-opers living low-impact sustainable lives are getting hassled, where will I ever feel safe?
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