Will No Longer Fire Wooden Projectiles
By Jim Herron Zamora, The San Francisco Chronicle
Oakland’s police chief announced sweeping changes Thursday in how police control rowdy protesters, saying officers no longer will be allowed to fire wooden projectiles and use motorcycles to break up crowds.
The changes, detailed by Chief Richard Word at a meeting of the Oakland Citizens Police Review Board, follow criticism -- and lawsuits -- against police for firing wooden dowels and using motorcycles to disperse crowds during an April 7 demonstration against the Iraq war outside the Port of Oakland.
At least two dozen people -- including protesters and longshoremen -- were injured when officers shot dowels, beanbags and rubber pellets at protesters trying to block gates to two shippers with government contracts related to the war.
After an internal review of the protest, Word said the department will no longer fire the wooden projectiles at protesters and instead use softer “beanbag” rounds. The department is also stopping its policy of deploying officers on motorcycles to bump protesters in an effort to push back larger crowds.
“We have learned many lessons in light of the April 7 anti-war demonstration,” Word said. “My goal is to see that something like April 7 never happens again in Oakland.”
Attorney Jim Chanin, who is co-representing many of the 46 people who have filed lawsuits or claims against the city of Oakland following the protest, said Thursday night that Word’s announcement is “a good start.”
“But for it to have any lasting meaning,” he added, “it needs to be followed up by a written policy, by new training and by accountability if any officers violate the policy.”
Chanin called the April 7 police action the “most violent response to an anti-war (on Iraq) protest in the nation” and an embarrassment to the city.
In the days after the protest, Word defended the controversial decision to fire projectiles and use motorcycles, saying he did not have enough officers to use other techniques.
On Thursday night, Word said the wooden projectiles were ineffective and hard to control. He said the department will only fire beanbags at protesters in order to prevent imminent injury to a person, such as to prevent a person from throwing a rock.
Civil rights groups said Oakland was the only police department in the nation to fire projectiles at demonstrators during the Iraq war. Most police agencies use other tactics to clear areas, such as skirmish lines of officers with clubs and shields. Other police departments, including San Francisco, surround protesters who refuse to leave, and then corral large groups for arrest or detention.
Many protesters criticized Oakland’s tactics, saying police did not give them a safe route to retreat and created an unsafe situation for those who wished to be peacefully arrested for civil disobedience.
At many demonstrations, protesters lock arms, sit down and are arrested. But at the April demonstration, protesters were fired on with projectiles before getting to that point.
Word said Oakland police will also begin to work more closely with protest organizers to establish ground rules, to ensure that everyone can express their First Amendment right while ensuring public safety.
The chief cited a much larger protest in Oakland two days before April 7 and a more peaceful protest at the port on May 12 as examples of advance communication. There were no arrests at either of those protests.
Another policy change is that police officers’ helmets will be numbered so they can be easily identified in any police action.
Word said he is circulating the basic ideas in the new policy to the public to get feedback before drawing up a final, more detailed version early next year. Twenty-five of the April 7 protesters face misdemeanor charges of creating a public nuisance, interfering with a business and failing to disperse. They are scheduled to return to Alameda County Superior Court on Jan. 9.