On July 4, I find myself reflective. I’m grateful to be an American for many reasons. But as we commemorate one military victory from 1776 that set us free from Britain, we must remember how the United States has created a culture of war, has become so hyper-militarized that we now use drones on our own soil and supply local police forces with military weapons and vehicles. I’m posting my letter to the Chapel Hill Town Council during the aftermath of an unnecessary and dangerous display of force by the local police department in 2011. This occurred near the beginning of the Occupy movement, and a group affiliated with yet not endorsed by Occupy Chapel Hill-Carrboro took over a long-abandoned auto showroom in downtown Chapel Hill for all of 18 hours, planning to create a community space. Eight were arrested by police in full SWAT gear and brandishing automatic rifles. In the end, the Council’s own appointed Community Police Advisory Committee requested, in order to do their job, what many in the public had asked for, an independent investigation.The Council denied those requests, saying they couldn’t justify the costs, even though undisclosed donors had offered to fund the investigation. What’s the cost of justice, of preventing this from happening again? Apparently too high for local elected officials to risk their reputations.
Dear Mr. Mayor, Councilwomen, and Councilmen:
I am writing about the paramilitary police squadron that was sent into an abandoned building in Chapel Hill to remove peaceful, unarmed occupants on November 13, 2011. I have always felt safe in my home town, but now that sense of safety, and trust in local government and law enforcement, has been severely shaken. I am currently a resident of Durham, but having been born and raised in Chapel Hill, I have a strong allegiance to the town, and now a deep concern for the safety of its residents.
The decision to use this type of militarized police team was made, according to Police Chief Blue, because “known anarchists” were residing in the building, and they were circulating “literature.” This hardly seems cause for 25 policemen armed with assault rifles to attack the occupiers. Even journalists, doing their job, were detained, and thus prevented from fully exposing the police’s actions. As a military veteran said at the Town Council meeting, the police did not attempt to conduct an undercover survey of the building, which was open to anyone, to determine the level of danger before arriving with dangerous, automatic weapons and riot gear. However, Mr. Mayor, you claimed otherwise, that “…there was no way of knowing exactly what [the police] were going to be met with inside [the Yates building].” It seems the preemptive strike enacted by the police dramatically increased the safety risks it was supposedly trying to eliminate.
All around the nation, police have been using excessive force. They have bludgeoned and pepper sprayed peaceful protestors in New York and at public California universities. In Oakland, an Iraq war veteran named Scott Olsen was struck in the head with a tear-gas canister, fired by police, resulting in a cracked skull and brain surgery. A week later in the same city, police beat another Iraq war veteran to the point of lacerating his spleen. In Seattle, police pepper sprayed an 84-year-old woman and a pregnant woman. The excessive use of force is not limited to protest events; in Arizona earlier this year, a SWAT raid went wrong and ended up killing a former Marine. The militarization of the police force since 9/11 has steadily grown and is now dangerously out of control. In the face of these abuses by our law enforcement, the people entrusted by our government to protect the peace, how can you support these paramilitary police units that introduce unnecessary risks to our citizens?
Please make a statement condemning this inappropriate use of force in what was once a liberal and safe town. I attended the Town Council meeting on November 21, where Jim Neal voiced a petition for an independent investigation as to why and how this decision to deploy such a police squadron was made. It appears it is up to the Mayor, the City Manager, the Council, and the Police Department whether to subject themselves to this type of unbiased scrutiny. From the comments at the meeting, it seems doubtful that they will commit to this type of an investigation. Mr. Mayor, you said openly to a full house at the meeting that you trust the police. What you refused to acknowledge is the enormous conflict of interest in including the police in an investigation of their own conduct. Mr. Mayor, you are stating that the usual procedures, and the Community Policing Advisory Committee – which is appointed by the Town Council itself – are sufficient to evaluate what happened. To me, and to the growing number of people who have signed Mr. Neal’s online petition, we need an independent commission, instead of the police and local government itself, to investigate what happened. As of today, nearly 200 people have signed this online petition, and that number is increasing rapidly.
It is obvious that elected officials and the Police Department would be wary of a ruling that criticizes the choices they themselves made. You may think it is best to continue with the normal internal investigation and prevent a truly meaningful, constructive analysis of the decision to deploy a Special Emergency Response Team, that could expose a possible lapse in judgment. However, as this event has already bruised the reputation of Chapel Hill, and raised the concern of many of the town’s residents, a more responsible and mutually beneficial move would be to appoint this outside commission. This is a chance for Chapel Hill to lead the way to change this nationwide trend of excessive use of force in law enforcement. Chapel Hill can set an example for other cities by taking seriously the danger these SERT teams pose, and addressing them directly. Right now, news stories around the world paint Chapel Hill as a town with a dangerous police force, and display pictures of the event that could have been taken in Iraq or Afghanistan. The event is being lumped together with police brutality stories from Oakland, UC Davis, and elsewhere. We can change this image, as a town, not by avoiding an unbiased investigation, but by supporting one.
Mr. Mayor, you have stated the town’s willingness to work with the Occupy Chapel Hill movement. It is commendable that, unlike in many cities, the encampment on Franklin Street has been allowed to endure. However, the occupation of the Yates building was not affiliated with the Occupy movement, and this event and the issues at hand have nothing to do with Occupy Chapel Hill. In continuously mentioning the town’s cooperation with Occupy Chapel Hill, you are deflecting attention from the real issues at hand with respect to the Yates building incident. Mr. Mayor, you have also repeatedly stated your history of working for the ACLU and other progressive organization and causes; I respect your work experience, but your past does not justify or change your current political decisions and their results.
Councilwoman Eastholm, I applaud your proposal at the Town Council meeting to apologize to the reporters who were handcuffed and prevented from doing their job at the scene. [As you know, the town of Carrboro has already made two formal apologies, one to these two journalists, and another to the protesters who were outside the building.] Your proposal to apologize to the journalists, while admirable, took attention away from the unnecessarily violent arrests of the seven occupiers, and the exposure of those outside the building to police armed with assault rifles. The police did not just prevent two journalists from doing their jobs, but they endangered many people, both inside and outside the Yates building, and subjected many to the trauma, and the danger, of being held at gunpoint.
Mr. Mayor, you inappropriately referenced the Eve Carson murder in a recent interview with WCHL. These two events have nothing in common, and I think it disrespectful to the memory of Eve, to her friends and family, as well as to the peaceful occupiers, that you mention her tragic death in an interview about the police’s excessive display of lethal force. But in bringing this up, you did express that you are grateful that no murder occurred. Don’t take that risk by continuing to support the paramilitary police tactics that have become more and more frequent in recent years.
As elected officials, it is your duty to represent the interests of the people of Chapel Hill. From the protest outside of the Police Headquarters and at the Town Council meeting, Jim Neal’s petition’s nearly 200 signatures, and the archive of council email, it is clear that many in this community are deeply disturbed by the SERT team’s deployment. Please earn back the faith of your constituents with regards to this recent, frightening situation by appointing an independent investigation of the events leading up to the paramilitary police raid of the Yates building.
