Who will police the police?

By Brendan Conley

This week’s reports of Philadelphia police brutalizing activists arrested during the Republican convention protests are just the latest example of police misconduct in this country. The United States is in the grip of an epidemic of police corruption. Police brutality and misconduct are on the rise throughout the nation, and in our own backyard. In the face of repression, people are organizing, whether in the streets, or by forming citizen watchdog groups to monitor police actions.

The national epidemic

One of the defining moments of the past decade was the Los Angeles uprising of 1991. Thousands of city residents of all races took to the streets to express their rage when white LA police officers were acquitted of criminal charges for a crime that millions of Americans watched them commit: the televised beating of black motorist Rodney King. The verdict told King and all of America that there is no justice when the criminals are in uniform. Unfortunately, the acquittal also sent a message to the nation’s law enforcement officers: you can beat people up and get away with it. It was a message that would be repeated again and again.

In 1997, when California cops tortured four young women by applying pepper spray directly to their eyeballs as they conducted a sit-in at a government office, it was front-page news, and a national scandal. Now this type of torture is commonplace and conducted wholesale. Many activists who participated in protests against corporate globalization in April reported that police removed the activists’ protective bandannas in order to pepper-spray them directly in the face.

New York City residents, particularly African-Americans, have been repeatedly abused by police recently. Police committed an act of sexual torture against Abner Louima, fired 41 shots at unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo, killing him, and shot and killed Patrick Dorismond when he refused to buy marijuana from an undercover cop. Anthony Vasquez, the cop who killed Dorismond, will go free. Even more chilling, police from the same precinct later killed a man who had protested Dorismond’s murder.

Philadelphia police are notorious for their 1985 bombing of the home of black activists, an attack that killed 11 people, including 5 children, and destroyed a neighborhood. Philly cops were recently caught on videotape beating Thomas Jones, an African-American man. Now the same department has used violence against citizens protesting the Republican national convention.

Close to home

Police violence and misconduct are not just big-city issues; they are problems here in western North Carolina as well. Sheila Olvera can testify to that. Her husband Rigoberto Olvera was killed by Henderson county sheriffs’ deputies as he sat in his pickup truck, unarmed, in April of last year. Police claimed that Olvera was drunk and used his truck as a “deadly weapon,” ramming a police car. Sheila Olvera says the incident is an example of police brutality.

The town of Woodfin has what one might call a tradition of police misconduct, at the highest level. In June of 1994, E.F. Rice resigned as Woodfin Police Chief following his suspension from the force months earlier. Rice was charged with misdemeanor assault for firing a gun at an occupied vehicle while off-duty. Rice was followed in his post by Darrell Rathburn, a man who was not qualified to be a police officer at all, due to his earlier misdemeanor assault conviction for beating his wife – the charge barred him from ever carrying a gun again. Rathburn resigned as Woodfin Police Chief in November of 1998, and on May 10 of this year, he was found guilty of seven counts of violating citizens’ civil rights against unreasonable search and seizure. Woodfin residents and fellow police officers testified that Rathburn regularly beat and harassed many people during his tenure.

The Asheville Police Department has also been criticized for misconduct. During the 1998 Bele Chere festival, Asheville cops violently broke up a non-permitted puppet parade. Officer Forrest Weaver was observed by several witnesses choking and assaulting local citizen Evar Hecht.

At a city council meeting last year, Asheville police videotaped local citizens who had come to speak in favor of the proposed initiative to decriminalize marijuana. Members of Community of Compassion, the group organizing the initiative, say that the videotaping violated national police accreditation standards, which prohibit surveillance of citizens because of their political beliefs. Though the activists testified to that effect at a public hearing on the APD’s re-accreditation, the APD was re-accredited anyway.

An African-American small business owner in Asheville reported to me that he and several other people were assaulted by police in an Asheville restaurant last year. The man said he was arrested and charged with assault, and the charges were later dropped. He went on to organize a petition drive, and he showed me more than a hundred signatures of people, many of them black public housing residents, who said they have witnessed police brutality in Buncombe county.

A Burnsville man told me that he criticized local police at a town council meeting, and was later harassed. He was pulled over near his home, and eight police officers searched his car. The man is filing a lawsuit against the Burnsville police.

David Thundershield, a Native American man, reports being stopped and forcibly searched by Asheville police while taking a walk in his own neighborhood.

Citizen action

Recent police violence against protesters in Seattle, Washington, DC, Minneapolis, and Philadelphia has demonstrated a chilling aspect of repression: its capacity to suppress democratic dissent. Yet dissent itself is essential to reining in police power. We must be willing to speak out against police abuses, because only when the public is informed can we make changes.

Copwatch is a national network of groups that monitor police misconduct. Copwatch groups have successfully prosecuted police in Columbus, Ohio for brutality. Portland, Oregon Copwatch has launched a Police Accountability Campaign, intended to create a system of strong civilian oversight of police. The Greensboro, North Carolina group publishes a newspaper that documents local cases of police misconduct.

Part of the difficulty in organizing against police brutality is the fact that no national record is kept of instances of police abuse. The October 22nd Coalition to Stop Police Brutality is beginning to rectify this situation, with the publication of Stolen Lives, a book that records police killings of civilians in the United States. More than 2,000 cases are presented. The October 22nd Coalition organizes demonstrations against police brutality, which turn a spotlight on a problem that is often ignored by the mainstream media.

Unfortunately, the corporate press can be part of the problem. As reports of police abuse of activists in Philadelphia came to light this past week from independent reporters, the mainstream media dropped the story. As imprisoned protesters continue to be beaten and denied their rights in Philadelphia jails, the Asheville Citizen-Times has maintained official silence. Last week’s “revenge” raid by Minneapolis police and FBI on a house that had been the headquarters for protesters of a genetics conference, during which people’s heads were covered with hoods by police, also went unreported by the Citizen-Times. If you’re concerned about this lack of coverage, be sure to let George Benge, executive editor of the Citizen-Times, know how you feel. (232-5954 or gbenge@citizen-times.com)

Making information about police misconduct public is essential to working toward an end to the problem. Asheville citizens will have the opportunity to learn more, and speak out, at a public forum, “Who Will Police the Police?” Thursday, August 17. The forum is at 6:30pm at Lord Auditorium, Pack Library, downtown Asheville. A featured speaker will be Efia Nwangaza, an African-American lawyer and civil rights activist in Greenville, South Carolina. Nwangaza is an organizer of the October 22nd Coalition. Mickey Mahaffey, an activist for social justice here in Asheville, will speak on local police misconduct. Mahaffey is an advocate for the poor and homeless, and a government watchdog. In addition, a representative of Greensboro Copwatch will be present to discuss how Copwatch monitors police misconduct. Asheville citizens are invited to speak out on the issue. The forum is presented by Town Hall Project, and co-sponsored by Anti-Racist Action, Asheville Global Report, Copwatch, October 22nd Coalition, and War Resisters League. For more information, call 271-1032.

Selling American Indian spirituality – cheating us, cheating them

By Brenda Jo McManama

We have come to a point in this society where everything has a price. Water is sold, dirt is sold, children are sold, and now in some areas even air is sold. So it’s no wonder that many people, with otherwise innocent intentions, will pay for American Indian spiritual teachings. Why would it be wrong? Everything has a price, doesn’t it? What most people do not understand is that this is the paradigm of the dominant culture. You don’t own the land, you don’t own spirituality, and therefore you can’t sell something you don’t own.

When the Europeans first arrived on this land, the slaughter of the people began when it was realized that the “natives” would not “sell” their land. The choices were clear to the invaders: kill or dominate the “savages” to acquire the land necessary for the influx of thousands of newcomers. They did this by any means available. Smallpox-infested blankets were distributed to many nations throughout the time of early US expansionism, as well as withholding provisions after they were prisoners of the state, giving rancid meat and spoiled grain, changing the rules and laws, breaking treaties, sterilizing women without their permission, relocation, and the list goes on. The new government made it “illegal” for the Indian nations to continue their spiritual and community ways for generations. The practice of genocide and assimilation is still practiced within the borders of the Western Hemisphere and especially in the United States.

Also, to further perpetuate the problem, it has now become fashionable to “be Indian.” All over the country there are people claiming to be taught by direct descendants of well-known American Indian leaders. These people are not teachers in the old ways, nor are they taught by, descendants of or sanctioned by the nations they claim to be part of. They are what is commonly called “wannabes.” These are people who find a little of the ways, find unsuspecting future wannabes and form a “tribe.” They then start to create their own brand of Indian teachings – taking from this one and then adding to it. Then they learn a little more and change it just slightly to fit their purpose, add a little teachings from other religions, and the stage is set to go out and “teach” the people -- but for money.

There is nothing wrong with seeking knowledge – there is no harm in learning the ways of indigenous cultures. There is something very wrong in learning from people who have taken a little of this and a little of that and then created their own teachings. They cheat not only those they steal from, but also from those that pay for these teachings. There is no value and no healing in lying and making up ceremony and teachings that are created out of ego and greed.

Just last week I read an advertisement for a gathering not far from Asheville. This event is run by those calling themselves medicine people, claiming heritage and knowledge in the ways of the Medicine Wheel. They are, for a price -- a very high price -- offering these teachings, and for a higher price a vision quest.

There is no easy way to say this without challenging the integrity of the participants or the organizers of these gatherings. You are subverting and perpetuating the rape and destruction of American Indian people.

For those thinking of attending this or any other similar event, I urge you to reconsider. You will not only be paying for convoluted and false knowledge, you will most likely negate your chances to learn the true ways in the future. Consider this: it takes a lifetime to learn and use the knowledge gathered by our ancestors. You can not and you will not learn the ways in paying for a weekend of lectures. Real teaching is done one-on-one and over many years – not days. This is the way of most spiritual paths – not just American Indian. You don’t become a Buddhist priest in a weekend and you can’t absorb and use the teachings of Christianity in a week.

Life before the invasion was organized in the family circle or clan, and then the nation and sometimes confederacies. This was, and is, the way it has to be for humans to grow spiritually and to perpetuate the care of our environment. Learning began the moment a child was born. Each person of the family unit contributed to the well being of the group. There were teachers and wise ones, there were medicine people and warriors, there were hunters and there were craftspeople. Each and every person learned the ways of life and spirit from the day they were born until the day they passed over. And they learned from all life, not just humans. They learned from the winged and the four-legged, the water creatures, the plants and trees, and respected all for the knowledge and the gifts of life. They took only what they needed and used all that they took.

For many decades, Indian spirituality has been sincerely followed by many, not just those of Indian blood, and most respected the ways and have assisted in saving some of our culture and heritage. However, on the other side we have also been bombarded by those seeking a way to make a living from teaching what will sell. They subvert the very core of our connection to Creation, which those of truly traditional knowledge are trying to save from the spiritually blind and the greedy.

There are very few true Indian people that will deny anyone the knowledge they are meant to have. And there are ways to seek that knowledge if it is for you to know. If you truly want to learn, get involved with saving Mother Earth, find the real Indian people fighting to eliminate the degrading and disrespectful Indian mascots, lobby the educators to include truthful teaching of US history (i.e., Columbus was a slave trader, Custer was a coward and murdered innocent women, children and elderly, Thanksgiving is a celebration of an Indian massacre, etc.)

There are many cases of injustice that need to be corrected. Write your congressional representative and demand the release of Leonard Peltier. Arrange a fund drive to supply children on our many reservations with computers and other modern teaching tools, clothes, books, and supplies. Get to know the members of the urban Indian community. Lobby local, state, and federal government to honor the treaties and quit trying to further destroy by mining, logging, and dumping radioactive waste on Indian lands. If you want to be Indian, live Indian but don’t pay to be Indian.