Torture in the Redwoods (protester's day in court - pepper spray assault)

[G_j]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/090704A.shtml

Torture in the Redwoods
By Kelpie Wilson
t r u t h o u t | Report

Tuesday 07 September 2004

This week, in San Francisco, a group of young forest activists will finally get their day in court. In 1997 they were subjected to torture at the hands of police and Pacific Lumber goons. The weapon of torture was the chemical Oleoresin Capsicum, known as pepper spray, swabbed into their eyes with a Q-tip.

In three separate incidents that fall, activists as young as 16 were assaulted as they were chained and helpless. Here is what happened in the words of activist Spring Lundberg:
A shocking police video shows deputies swabbing liquid pepper spray directly in the eye of nonviolent protester Jennifer Schneider, whose arms were locked to those of adjacent protesters.

"Humboldt County Sheriff deputies grabbed me by the head and dragged a Q-tip drenched in pepper spray across my eyes. I was completely nonviolent that day, rooted to the floor of Pacific Lumber's lobby like one of the ancient redwoods we defend. PL employees, mingling with law enforcement, told us that we 'had an education coming.' In the lobby of company headquarters in a company town in northern California, they covered the windows with butcher paper so no one could see what they did to us. But the world saw into that room when police videotape of the incident and two others aired on television internationally."

Amnesty International characterized the incidents as "tantamount to torture." The activists sued Humboldt County and the City of Eureka for use of excessive force and the first trial ended in 1998 with a hung jury. The judge attempted to dismiss the case, but appeals court decisions and finally the US Supreme Court have sent the trial back to federal court in San Francisco.


..more..

[quaoar]

1. I just wish I could be on that jury

So I could bankrupt those assholes.

[rumguy]

2. interesting read

this is the first I'd heard of this case...

[G_j]

5. I've seen the video

It was sick, I couldn't believe what I was watching.

[Lefta Dissenter]

3. That video has always haunted me

for some reason. I guess because I have never thought of pepper spray (which I own) as anything other than self-defense. To see the restrained people being abused in this way really affected me strongly. I thought about that recently during the repug convention, wondering if the same abuse would be inflicted on any of the protesters there.

[AbbeyRoad]

14. I've seen the video as well

and it had the same effect on me. As far as I'm concerned, it was inexcusable, vicious brutality. It pissed me off to put it mildly. Don't the girls ask the cops at one point how they would feel if they were their daughters? I felt so bad for them.

[Judi Lynn]

4. How on earth can they justify this?

They already have the people handcuffed. They're not going anywhere.


Spring Lundberg and friends locked to a stump in the offices of Pacific Lumber just before they are tortured with pepper spray.

This must be stopped. You'd think they'd have more sense than this, wouldn't you? Jeezus.

[quaoar]

6. Pacific Lumber needs to be shut down

I've always thought that a concerted effort should be launched by liberals to buy up a majority interest in Pacific Lumber in order to shut them down.

[derby378]

7. I remember seeing the video

If the police needed to break them up using tear gas, they should have used OC sprays or (in a worst-case scenario) an OC grenade. I thought the swabbings were barbaric, even if the police fell back on the "You could have left, but you chose to stay" argument.

Besides, shouldn't cops use tear gas in situations like a riot, not a peaceful sit-down protest? This was unthinkable.

I tried eating a habanero pepper once, and I remember how much it burned. OC is the active ingredient in some peppers - that stuff can be extremely painful if put to use by sick minds.

By the way, if you try eating a habanero pepper (which I really cannot recommend), don't try to be macho - keep plenty of solid food handy, plus a glass of milk if your stomach acts up. Drinking water or cola will not relieve the burn - the active ingredients are oil-based and cannot be washed away with soda pop. At least some foods may sop up a portion of the oil (I used a cheeseburger with some success).

[progressivebydesign]

12. I'm deathly allergic to the strongest peppers..

..had they done this to me, they would be facing manslaughter charges. I can't even be around someone cooking those types of peppers... I hope I'm never pepper sprayed, it might be the end of me.

[Dogmudgeon]

13. OC treatment

Vegetable or mineral oil; follow with a degreasing detergent if there is no tissue damage.

Pure OC has a Scofield index of around 2 million. For comparison, a Scotch Bonnet Habañero pepper weighs in at about 200k. OC can blind if applied to the eyes.

Throw the book at the goons.

--bkl

[Victimerican]

27. I've had up to 1 million...

Scovilles (not scofields), and one dab of that took me out of commission for a good half an hour. I could only imagine what the protestors experienced. :/

Oh, wait, what am I saying? This was only a frat prank! Come on, guy!

[Downtown Hound]

8. I live in Eureka

where this happened. It still divides the community to this day. Pacific Lumber has a lot of clout in this area, and they have a lot of enemies as well. The judges in this town are extremely sympathetic to PL. It should come as no surprise that the Humboldt County Republican Party is made up almost entirely of former and current PL employees.

[chenGOD]

9. As is always the case in logging towns....

The timber companies spend tons of cash to greenwash their activities and their company image.

Destruction of old growth forest does more than just kill tress as i'm sure you know. Every liberal with a conscience needs to do what they can to stop the destruction of old growth forests.

[mike_c]

10. hey neighbor....

I'm in Blue Lake.

[Downtown Hound]

11. Well hello

I knew there had to be some fellow DU'ers somewhere in this area. Nice to meecha!

[Gregorian]

16. Hey, I'm in Hydesville

Cool to know you people are in the area.
Pacific Lumber SUCKS! I have watched more devastation in the last year, than I can believe. I now know what those protesters were protesting, first hand. I'm deeply saddened. I hope they win.
Hey, that Gallegos thing was a pissoff too. The fun never ends.
It really helps to know there are other DUers here. YAY!

[Downtown Hound]

18. Yes they do suck

It seems that every time I drive on the freeway up north, there's a new patch of forest destruction, courtesy of PL. Yeah, that Gallegos thing was a pissoff, but he kicked their asses royally! Ha ha! He's the coolest.

Here's to all the Humboldt County DU'ers!

:toast:

[nosmokes]

15. law enforcement was proud of that day.

i used to sit on the humboldt county human rights commission, and was liasion to the eureka chief of police. after that incident was b'cast on the news nationwide he received dozens of 'gifts' of hot sauce from his law enforcement pals across the country. he still had them decorating his office shelves 2 years later when i was dealing with him.

and palco and hurwitz definitely need to be put out of business. shining examples of what's wrong with unbridled capitalism.

[G_j]

17. wow

after all that sadistic gloating, I hope justice is finally served.

[Downtown Hound]

19. Yes they were

I used to work at the local ABC station here. Our secretary was the sweetest human being you could ever imagine. But she was married to a former Eureka cop, and one time the subject of the protesters came up on the TV screen in the lobby, and she launched into a tirade about them, defending the cops who did it as victims of "persecution" and the like. I couldn't believe it. How those cops were victims is beyond me. It was scary because she was the nicest person. Goes to show you how people can become so blinded by institutional power.

[beevul]

20. Absolutely SICKENING!

Someone needs to throw the participating officers a "blanket party"
or something. Normally, I wouldn't feel this way, but abuse of institutional power, combined with the fact that the protesters were completely defenseless (not to mention minors) really makes my blood BOIL. :mad: :mad: :mad:

[KT2000]

21. Local Control = Control of the Locals

One of the rw 's favorite mantras is local control and this incident shows why.

Those deputies thought they were going to be "protected" and so far they have been. I hope this means the case goes to the 9th Circuit, they are still human.

[pinniped]

22. I remember that video too and it was sick beyond words.

Look, more sick sadistic fucks:

------In 2002, Bush asked government lawyers for a ruling that set his administration above the rule of law and the Geneva Convention on torture. Just like George Bush, the officials of Humboldt County California insist that torture is an indispensable weapon in their fight against terrorism - in this case, the so-called eco-terrorism of a bunch of teenagers who had the audacity to dump a redwood stump in the middle of corporate offices and chain themselves to it.------

[truthspeaker]

23. Minneapolis cops used the same technique against chained protestors

a few years ago.

Effectively it's punishment before conviction. A judge threw out all charges against the protestors on that basis.

[G_j]

24. First They Came for the Protesters

'Protesters' have been getting 'special' treatment in America.
---------------------------


http://www.alternet.org/rights/19779 /

First They Came for the Protesters

By Rachel Neumann, AlterNet. Posted September 3, 2004.

The demonstrations in New York offer lessons on future strategies to get protesters' messages across to the public
---------

Tourists, old ladies and gentlemen, a building superintendent who was taking out the garbage, teenagers on their first date to a play, ministers, students, bicycle messengers and a good number of bruised and dirty yet singing and chanting protesters. It's the kind of diversity that New York City is famous for, and during this past week, the best place to find it was in the makeshift jail at Pier 57. The biggest underreported story of the Republican National Convention was not Laura Bush's Botox or conservative women making fools of themselves for California's manly governor. It was this: how could 1,800 people be arrested when they had done nothing wrong with the exception of crowding the sidewalks or block traffic? These events happen a thousand times every second in New York City. If these are crimes, all of New York should be arrested every single day.

In a country that engages in preemptive war against a small nation that had neither the intention nor the ability to attack us, preemptive suppression of dissent is the next logical step. But the word "preemptive" is misleading here, because it implies that a crime was about to be committed. It implies that Barbara Gates, 78, whose plans were as nefarious as walking at a slow pace to somewhere near the Convention and lying down, is a criminal and a threat to society. It implies that Julia Gross, 24, arrested while walking away from a "kiss-in," is a potential terrorist. These arrests, the lack of media attention concerning them, and the simultaneous pageantry within the convention imply that there is a legitimacy, in these "unsafe" times, for arresting anyone who has the audacity to even think about speaking up for dissent, even before they do so. After all, the Boy's Choir of Harlem is about to sing and the show must go on.

<snip>
At the 2000 Republican National Convention in Philadelphia, 420 people were arrested – more than 75 of whom were locked up for sleeping in a large space used for making puppets. It wasn't until April 2004, almost four years later, that the final arrestees stood trial and were acquitted on all charges. The arrests and protesters' subsequent treatment in jail brought heavy criticism from the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, the National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty International and other civil rights organizations, but so far there hasn't been either acknowledgement or compensation to people who experienced the excessive arrests.

..more..
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http://www.nynewsday.com/news/local/bronx/nyc-rncprotesters0906,0,1408812.story?coll=nyc-manheadlines-bronx

Protesters arrested early and often

----------------

[happyslug]

25. Here is some of the legal decisons and documents in this case:

Legal Documents Index:

http://www.nopepperspray.org/legal_documents_index.htm

[G_j]

26. thank you

excellent resourse!