What should have been a walk of about 10 minutes between six blocks turned into 18 hours in solitary at the Springfield Municipal Jail for Daniel Vest, a University alumnus.
At 1:00 a.m. this Halloween, Vest was returning with a friend from a party on 17th Avenue and Ferry Street to his home on Alder Street. On 16th Avenue and Ferry Street the duo witnessed another individual in a orange frock walk out into the street moments before seeing this individual “converged upon by at least three cops.”
Vest and his friend decided to observe the police proceedings, as neither saw a crime happen. This turned out to be Vest’s crucial mistake.
“An officer approached me (later identified as Officer Bremer), asking me to back away from the scene. My friend was already about 10 feet behind me. I backed away but clearly not fast enough,” he said.
Vest was then arrested and loaded into the back of a police vehicle.
“After being arrested, I pretty much complied with everything they wanted me to do. I kept asking ‘What’s going on?’ Once in the car, I was told that I would be taken to the Springfield jail and not the Eugene jail because they were ‘anticipating a crowd,’” Vest said.
Upon arriving at the station, Vest was quickly processed.
“In front of me was that guy in the orange frock. He was immediately offered a low bail, which he accepted and was soon released.”
Vest was not so lucky. When he asked to understand what was the meaning of papers that an officer was trying to make him sign, the officer became progressively more frustrated. Fed up with Vest asking questions, the officer put Vest into a solitary holding cell.
“I was not offered bail or a phone call until the next morning,” he said.
Vest was released after 18 hours in solitary holding by posting his own bail.
Vest was not charged with anything related to alcohol, yet he was held longer than any of the hundreds of people detained over the weekend for open containers and minor in possessions. His crime was bearing witness to a publicly funded institution that is famous for overstepping its bounds.
None of the articles published after Halloween weekend questioned the aggressive behavior of the Eugene Police Department. If it had been property-owning adults, and not young, partying students who had been targeted by this roving band of armed kidnappers, it’s likely that the reporters covering the issue would have asked more questions. At the very least, they could have interviewed people who weren’t affiliated with the police department.
In the name of preventing rowdy parties, the police can arrest people with no cause and make up the reason later. Eugene residents are afraid to interact with the police or observe them in the line of duty. How does this make us safer? Journalists and politicians should do more to hold our civic employees accountable. Until then, there is a website for folks to share their unheard stories about Eugene law enforcement: epdwatch.wordpress.com. If the police won’t hold themselves accountable it’s up to us to make sure that the police are not abusing their power.
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