CHANGING
THE NARRATIVE: APD, ARRESTED PROTESTORS & THE RIGHT TO DISSENT
By Jim Chambers
January 12, 2015, Atlanta, GA- In the wake of the now notorious decision of a Grand Jury in Ferguson, MO, not to indict Ofc. Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, the nation-at-large has seen a torrent of protests, marches, rallies, and actions of civil disobedience.
January 12, 2015, Atlanta, GA- In the wake of the now notorious decision of a Grand Jury in Ferguson, MO, not to indict Ofc. Darren Wilson for the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teen, the nation-at-large has seen a torrent of protests, marches, rallies, and actions of civil disobedience.
In
Atlanta, arguably the most significant, and unquestionably most heavily
attended such action (estimates in the low thousands) was a 4-hour rally at
Underground Atlanta, a shopping area in the heart of downtown, on November 25th,
2014, the day after the non-indictment. The rally was organized by a coalition
of civil rights activist groups known as the “Shut It Down ATL Coalition.” In
the wake of this rally, a series of spontaneous marches developed, dominantly
propelled by young people of color. The marches largely coalesced on Atlanta’s
main thoroughfare, Peachtree St., and in the surrounding areas, commencing
early that evening and continuing into the next morning. A number of protestors
were arrested by the Atlanta Police Dept., all but one of whom were represented
in a group of 23 that appeared Wednesday, January 7th, for
arraignment at Atlanta Municipal Court. The vast majority of these arrestees
were charged with “pedestrian in roadway,” or “impeding traffic.” Arrests began after dispersal orders had been
given, with APD citing instances of property damage as cause to label the
marches “illegal.” The genesis of the decision to disperse, and the nature of
the arrests/police response are key points, which have heretofore been largely
overlooked.
Quite
laudably, a coalition of over 20 volunteer attorneys, spearheaded by the Davis-Bozeman
Law Firm of Atlanta, appeared on behalf of the protestors; most of these
attorneys were not dedicated activist/civil rights attorneys, but rather, had
stepped aside from their customary work to assist in representing, pro bono, a
group which they felt had been wrongly arrested, and wrongly charged whilst
exercising their constitutional rights.
In a statement issued by Davis-Bozeman, it was affirmed that “none of
the protestors represented were charged with any acts of vandalism…{and they}
maintain their innocence and 1st Amendment right to protest and
assemble.” The attorney group was also given furtherance and aid from a collection
of local law students and professors.
In
order to thoroughly address these cases, a chronology of events that preceded
the arrests, accompanied the arrests, and occurred thereafter must be properly
examined.
To
begin with, law enforcement communities nationwide predictably took measures to
prepare for what would inevitably be a significant reaction to the Ferguson
decision; protests in Missouri had been ongoing since early August, when
Michael Brown’s killing occurred, and it was largely anticipated that
regardless of the decision, some kind of national response would be heard.
Preparation and response was visibly multifarious amongst law enforcement
agencies in different cities, but in Atlanta, given the historical backdrop of
civil rights action, measures were taken to foster pre-emptive dialogue between
the rally’s organizers and APD. At APD’s behest, members of the Shut It Down
Coalition agreed to a sit-down with APD officials, including Chief George Turner,
the week before the event. In that meeting, assurances were given by the
organizers that the rally, and any associated actions, would remain non-violent.
In turn, Law Enforcement officials assured that excessive use of force in
response to the rally would not occur, including, but not limited to, pepper
spray, teargas, and riot gear; in
essence, there was to be no militarized response.
This
is the point at which the narrative sharply turns; by Mayor Reed’s account,
which was buttressed by that of Chief Turner, a “splinter group of 150 or so”
protestors led the post-rally march, and it was this “group’s” alleged
complicity in a blockage of the I-75/85 Downtown connector, and property damage
(a broken window at Meehan’s Pub, a broken Taxi window, and a handful of
toppled objects), which spurned the arrests. In effect, the litany of events
provided by Reed/Turner, the latter of whom at one point in the night announced
that “We {Atlanta} are better than this,” was that APD was honoring its pledge
to stand back, and this only changed once the protestors, rhetorically
monolithic, reneged on their pledge of non-violence.
There
are a number of major issues with this account. First, had one been in the
vicinity of the rally & the marches, as was this author and myriad
eyewitnesses, it was clear that there was no such “splinter group.” As stated
earlier, the postliminary marches were almost entirely organic, and consisted
of the bulk of those who remained at Underground at the original rally’s
conclusion. The numbers were well over 150; groups were scattered around
downtown, including a handful on the connector, but it’s worth noting that not one
of those arraigned Wednesday were amongst that group. The largest culmination
of the spontaneous marches was at Peachtree St and Ivan Allen Blvd. There,
protestors were met by police clad in full riot gear, and this is where the
bulk of the arrests took place.
If
one observes the timeline, something does not add up: I myself “splintered off”
from the initial rally, gathering a handful of students in need of rides to
MARTA, and when I learned that marches were ongoing, I parked, and began to
walk back towards downtown from the GSU area, in order to cover further
ongoings. En route, at least 10 witnesses, including my fiancée and I, observed
and photographed a staging area of dozens of APD already clad in full riot
gear. The officers performed a series of what appeared to be drills, and
proceeded to load into at least 3 full sized buses, including a MARTA commuter
bus and a GSU student shuttle, headed towards the marches downtown. A small
group of us followed the buses, and were actually led towards the bulk of the
remaining crowd by them. When we arrived to Peachtree St., we observed a
handful of protestors actually replacing those few toppled objects, including a
display of Christmas trees and a magazine dispenser. Simultaneously, the first
round of reports of property damage began to circulate, and clearly, the two
windows broken, which represent the extent of any meaningful damage, had been
broken within minutes of our arrival on to Peachtree.
For
the sake of argument, let’s assume that this author’s photographically
documentable timeline is somehow errant by, say, 15 minutes. Let’s give
authorities the benefit of the doubt, and say that all militarized response and
arrests occurred only upon notification of property damage. If it takes at
least 5-10 minutes for an officer to don full riot gear, another 15 minutes of
preparation, and another 10 to load a few buses, that’s at least 30 minutes
required, notwithstanding orders/organization from above, if not far longer, to
mobilize such units to a scene. Other eyewitnesses claimed to have seen such
stirring as early as 4pm that day in pockets of the city. Clearly,
comprehensive preparation had been in place for hours, if not days, to send
riot squad response teams. If APD’s promise had been in earnest, and they had
no intent of escalating interactions with protestors, why would this have been
the case? The reality is that these units were mobilized and ready well before
any alleged breach of commitment had occurred on the parts of protestors, and
basic human behavior dictates that if one shows up dressed for hostility, one
being whoever was commanding APD’s actions, one is obliquely inciting
hostility.
There’s
another substantial problem with the APD’s decision to declare the Peachtree
march “unlawful,” and to accuse the protestors and organizers en masse of
breaking a vow of non-violence; in the midst of a crowd of thousands of mostly
young black people, already justifiably agitated by the slayings of other
innocent young black people, at the hands of police, and already aware of a
looming, ominous police force descending upon them, we’re looking at two broken windows, and a handful of
items which were knocked over, and subsequently replaced by protestors, 2 of whom, Sarah Garrett and Corina Cruz, were later
arrested. It is this author’s opinion, alluding to Chief Turner, that “we”
would be hard-pressed to be much “better than this.” In point of fact, in a
metro area that roughly 2 million black people call home, seated in the heart
of the South, where race has always been an issue of greater tension, an
astonishing level of restraint was shown. What was shown was collective
punishment, something that should be quite alien to law enforcement in an
advanced democracy.
APD staging riot squads on DeKalb Ave.
As
the march progressed up Peachtree, towards Ivan Allen Blvd., the visible
presence of riot squads steadily grew, and a hefty perimeter was formed around
protestors, the weightiest contingency grouped across Ivan Allen, thereby
stopping the march in its tracks. At this point, dispersal orders were given
from various officers, most notably a diminutive, well-groomed ranking officer
with a megaphone. The mantra, “you have destroyed property, this assembly is
unlawful, you will be arrested if you do not disperse,” was repeated. At the SW
corner of that intersection, a group of 4-5 officers took it upon themselves to
forcibly seize what had been a wide banner, supported by wooden posts, which
read, “Black Lives Matter” from a group of protestors. The banner was torn, and
in a particularly heightened moment, the posts were pointed back at protestors,
conjuring an image eerily reminiscent of the famous photo of an American flag
being jousted at a young man of color during Boston’s busing riots in the
1960’s. It was immediately after this that arrests began, seemingly randomly;
if one happened to be in the front line of marchers, or in the wrong spot along
the sidewalk, one was at risk of being apprehended. Indeed, to a man, not one
of those arrested had been complicit in any way, shape, or form in the earlier
destruction of property, and most were detained arbitrarily, as marchers
attempted to re-route away from the blockades.
Aside
from being effectively innocent bystanders, as were all of those arraigned
Wednesday, a number of arrestees were detained amidst uniquely shabby
circumstances, and a few sustained injuries at the hands of police:
Nile
Bean was working at the downtown Hyatt hotel, adjacent to the dispersing march.
He stepped outside, curious as to what was transpiring, and began to film the
scene. As one of his feet flirted with the curb, he was grabbed, slammed to the
ground, and arrested. Local photographer Steve Eberhardt was able to document
much of this.
A
young, interracial couple, Renzo Marches and Natasha Stewart, became alarmed
when they saw the presence of militarized police units. They turned away from
the main group, and pulled scarves across their faces, anticipating a possible
pepper spray/teargas deployment. As soon as they had done so, they were accused
of “inciting” and “wearing masks.” Ms. Stewart was pulled, by the scarf,
incurring bruising to her neck, and Mr. Marches was thrown to the street;
injuries to his leg and face were displayed in photographs at a press conference
which followed Wednesday’s arraignment.
Corey
Toole, a young black student, was also apprehended at random, and managed to
gain access to his phone from the back of a prisoner van; he posted a troubling
image of a bloodied, beaten face to Twitter, while the march was still ongoing,
and his injuries remain visible to this day.
Corey Toole's photo, tweeted from APD Prisoner Transport Vehicle
Samuel
Albanez, a Hispanic male who has worked for some time with local NAACP
chapters, sustained injuries excessive enough to keep him at Grady Hospital
overnight, resulting in a booking the following day.
The
rest of the arrests occurred over the next two hours. Arrestees were released
between 3am-8am the following day, and appeared in court that afternoon,
November 26th, where arraignment was postponed until January. Two
members of the press had also been detained, but per the Mayor’s orders,
charges against them were dropped in the morning.
Following
Wednesday’s court proceedings, 14 of those initially charged pled not guilty,
and await a hearing on January 21st to determine a trial date,
presumably to be set for mid-February. Six of the remaining defendants were
granted dismissals, due to “ticket discrepancies,” on the part of arresting
officers, while one man, a member of CopWatch, had charges dismissed due to
video evidence provided to the prosecution amidst court proceedings by
Atlanta’s NBC affiliate, 11Alive News. The footage clearly demonstrated that he
had been filming the events on the street, and had violated no appreciable
laws. Regrettably, another member of CopWatch also appeared in the video in the
same capacity, but had already pled not guilty when the video appeared; as
such, he will have to re-appear when a trial date is set. One remaining
arrestee sought private counsel, and chose to plead no contest for personal
reasons, receiving a commuted 2-day sentence and a small fine.
The
assemblage of volunteer attorneys have indicated that their aim in this case is
to achieve general dismissals, and have expressed vigorous confidence to that
end, and no less. Without reserve, it is this author’s unwavering opinion that
anything but dismissal would be an odious moment for the City and its
administration; this is an opportunity for city officials to concede their own
error, unfortunately disproportionate response, or perhaps even more germane to
the issue at-large, to retract the narrative of irresponsibility and
criminality previously ascribed to a group of well-intentioned, non-violent
protestors. It would behoove the mayor, and the courts, to provide a show of
magnanimousness, and embrace Atlanta’s Civil Rights legacy in a meaningful way,
rather than persisting on a path of punitive chicanery, and politics of fear.
