As the Eugene community continues to struggle with questions and concerns relating to the pro-anarchist rally that turned into an arrest spree, the city’s Human Rights Commission is looking at the bigger question of, “What now?”
Approximately 25 people, including members of the HRC’s neutral observer program and several individuals from the total of 67 arrested during the weekend of June 17-18, spoke out Tuesday evening at the Lane County Courthouse. Some people connected to the anarchist movement have said that the city’s neutral observer program can’t be trusted to make fair assessments during protest situations and is just an extension of the Eugene Police Department.
The event’s total attendance was close to 100, a number that Eugene’s Human Rights Program Manager Greg Rikhoff said was lower because of what he calls a sense of mistrust among certain segments of the population.
“There’s a large chunk of the community who still feel unsafe to participate,” Rikhoff said, referring to the lack of Eugene police officers at the forum. “We need to ask them the question, ‘What do you need to have your voice heard?’
“We are still polarized and nothing has changed because of this meeting. All of the work is ahead of us,” he said.
Several participants at the two-hour session repeated earlier claims by Eugene residents that they were unfairly swept up and roughed up that weekend in an excessive show of police force. Eugene Police Chief Jim Hill has denied that any of his officers used excessive force during arrest procedures, a response that didn’t sit well with a few speakers.
“The police in this community scare me because they’ve never had to deal with a riot that they didn’t instigate,” said Will Winget, who was arrested June 18.
The HRC designed Tuesday’s forum in a back-and-forth format, with four citizens getting the opportunity to voice their side, then four neutral observers having an opportunity to give their eyewitness reports. Each speaker was given three minutes to speak his or her mind.
“I saw an amazing show of intimidation [by police at the protest] … but I saw no overbearing violence,” observer Jason Thelen said. He was arrested June 17 on a charge of disorderly conduct, after he and others walked to the Lane County Jail following the presentation of a pro-anarchist video at Prince Lucien Campbell Hall. Thelen was eventually released to his parents’ custody because he is 17 years-old.
Thelen said police in riot gear surrounded protesters at the jail, sometimes using bicycles as tools to keep the crowd at bay, and left them few alternatives to comply with police orders to disperse.
City Councilor David Kelly used a portion of his allotted time to dispel any notions that he is “pro-anarchist.” Kelly said his earlier criticisms of certain police actions during the weekend protest were misconstrued. He also said that one of the most important issues surrounding the city’s discord is to communicate, because the facts likely won’t change anytime soon.
“Some folks in this town want the protesters to vanish, some folks in this town want the police to vanish,” Kelly said. “In my best guess, that’s not going to happen.”
Edwin Coleman, a former University English professor who retired in June 1998, spoke as a neutral observer and said he objects to the protesters implying that they are following in the footsteps of civil rights’ protesters during the 1960s.
“That’s bunk,” said Coleman, who has received the Martin Luther King, Jr. Lifetime Achievement Award from the city of Eugene. The deceased civil rights leader “would turn over in his grave if he saw some of the shenanigans and machinations being carried out in his name.”
Rikhoff said that all comments he heard at the forum are going to be useful in designing a more widely-accepted neutral observer program and to also raise the discussions to the next level.
“It’s up to the Human Rights Commission — how do we take this divisiveness and turn it into a dialogue?” he said.
The Eugene Police Commission, another group designed to foster better communication and interaction between the community and police, meets today at 5 p.m. in the McNutt Room of City Hall, 777 Pearl Street, to discuss recent protest activity.
The public is welcome to attend, but no public testimony will be heard.
Eugene PeaceWorks, a local activist group, has also set up a legal defense fund for Jeffrey “Free” Michael Luers and Craig “Critter” Andrew Marshall, who were arrested June 16 on charges of two counts of first-degree arson, first-degree criminal mischief, two counts of both unlawful manufacture and possession of a bomb, two counts of attempted arson, and attempted first-degree criminal mischief.
They have pleaded not guilty and contributions to help pay their legal fees can be made to the “Free Free and Critter Legal Defense Fund,” c/o the O.U.R. Credit Union, 715 Lincoln Street. For more information, contact Phil Weaver at 343-8548.
Commission looks aheadafter public discussion
Daily Emerald
June 28, 2000
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