Protesters call for improvement.Byline: Diane Dietz The Register-Guard Eugene police admitted they have room for improvement. Protesters said it's urgent that the department get its civil disobedience civil disobedience, refusal to obey a law or follow a policy believed to be unjust. Practitioners of civil disobediance basing their actions on moral right and usually employ the nonviolent technique of passive resistance in order to bring wider attention to the enforcement act together for the coming days of protest - including a large-scale vigil tonight at the Federal Courthouse. "They've got to learn quickly so our city can be safe and peaceful," said Hope Marston, a member of Justice Not War who criticized police in a City Hall news conference Wednesday. Police spokeswoman Pam Olshanski - while stopping short of agreeing that police made mistakes - said officers can study how they handled last Saturday's massive demonstration for better ways to accomplish their enforcement goals. Sirens Sirens with song, bird-women lure sailors to death. [Gk. Myth.: Odyssey] See : Enchantment sirens their singing so sweet, it lured sailors to their death. [Gk. Myth.: Hamilton, 48] See : Singer blaring on patrol cars that converged on the rally "had an unintended effect of drawing people into the streets," she said. Better equipment also could improve communications, she said. Still, Olshanski said: "The bottom line is a lawful order is a lawful order." Protesters contended that officers didn't clearly communicate what they wanted from the crowd at first and then became unnecessarily aggressive when protesters didn't comply. "It was a series of poor decisions and miscalculations that led them to do those things," said Henry Snow, a member of the Nonviolence Response Network. City Councilor coun·cil·or also coun·cil·lor n. A member of a council, as one convened to advise a governor. See Usage Note at council. coun Betty Taylor, who was at the protest and also the news conference, said she's concerned about the stories she's heard and will bring the matter up with acting City Manager Jim Carlson. Olshanski said police acted properly. "It did not necessarily go as intended, but that doesn't mean mistakes were made." During the afternoon protest that drew from 2,500 to 5,000 people to the Federal Courthouse in downtown Eugene, police diverted traffic from two blocks of Seventh Avenue to keep the crowds safe. Protesters said they got a permit from federal officials to use the courthouse plaza until 5 p.m. and that the lion's share of protesters spent the day peacefully, listening to speeches, singing, dancing and painting signs. About 2:30 p.m., a group of about 100 protesters made a foray east on Seventh Avenue toward the Ferry Street Ferry Street (Chinese: 渡船街) is a street between Ferry Point and Mong Kok Tsui in Kowloon, Hong Kong. The street was on the shore of old reclamation before the new West Kowloon reclamation in 1990s. Bridge, but police blocked their passage. Soon after, five squad cars approached the main rally with lights flashing and sirens sounding. Officers issued instructions through a tinny tin·ny adj. tin·ni·er, tin·ni·est 1. Of, containing, or yielding tin. 2. Tasting or smelling of tin: tinny canned food. 3. loud speaker: "Disperse disperse /dis·perse/ (dis-pers´) to scatter the component parts, as of a tumor or the fine particles in a colloid system; also, the particles so dispersed. dis·perse v. 1. immediately, leave the area." Seven protesters linked arms across Seventh Avenue, sat down and were eventually arrested. Protesters said the problem was that the main crowd couldn't make out the officers' orders and didn't know what to do. Olshanski said police weren't trying to break up the main rally. Officers had simply decided it was time to open Seventh Avenue to traffic and were trying to clear the street. "We were not telling them to end their rally," Olshanski said. "There was clearly a communication problem there." The music was so loud officers couldn't hear each other talk and they couldn't get through on the organizers' cell phones, she said. Officers perceived a threat to their safety from protesters who were darting in and out of the crowd, she said. They raised bean bag rifles and shot three of them. Eugene resident Zachary Vishanoff said he was one of the three shot. The bean bag - about the size of a baby booty BOOTY, war. The capture of personal property by a public enemy on land, in contradistinction to prize, which is a capture of such property by such an enemy, on the sea. 2. with the toe filled with granular material A granular material is a conglomeration of discrete solid, macroscopic particles characterized by a loss of energy whenever the particles interact (the most common example would be friction when grains collide). - broke through his pants at the groin and left a deep bruise bruise or contusion Visible bluish or purplish mark beneath the surface of unbroken skin, indicating burst blood vessels in deeper tissue layers. Bruises are usually caused by a blow or pressure, but they may occur spontaneously in elderly persons. and abraded the skin, he said. Olshanski said the three people who were shot are likely to face charges. Police haven't identified them yet, she said. Police in riot gear riot gear n → uniforme m antidisturbios inv riot gear n in riot gear → casqué et portant un bouclier riot gear n may look intimidating in·tim·i·date tr.v. in·tim·i·dat·ed, in·tim·i·dat·ing, in·tim·i·dates 1. To make timid; fill with fear. 2. To coerce or inhibit by or as if by threats. , but the equipment they use is strictly for their protection, Olshanski said. Officers were just doing their job, she said. PEACE VIGIL When/where: 5 p.m. tonight, Federal Courthouse, 211 E. Seventh Ave. CAPTION(S): Zachary Vishanoff says a police bean bag struck him in the groin. Protest: Police weren't trying to break up the rally Continued from Page D1 Please turn to PROTEST, Page D3 |
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