Anyone who’s had a police billy club slammed into his gut, without warrant, knows how easy it is to feel distrustful toward cops. It happened to me in a SWAT sweep down Haight Street in 1968. I’m afraid it might happen in Denver during the Democratic National Convention. Who knows how things will go when the protesters arrive?
Safely, I hope. But, under pressure, all armored up, I don’t trust cops to always do the right thing.
Recent news stories show (literally, on a witness’ video) a Denver undercover cop smashing a poor guy’s face into the street outside Coors Field, then apparently lying about it. There are similar stories every day, from all over the nation, that give pause about the credibility of the police. Undoubtedly, there are arrests that are misguided at best.
In November 2007, Denver voters passed Initiative 100, which instructed the Denver Police Department to make the possession of small amounts of marijuana (for those 22 and older) “the lowest law-enforcement priority.” Of course, there’s a Colorado state law contradicting the Denver policy that ostensibly lets Denver police ignore voters’ wishes. Apparently, the cops have been doing just that: In the past four years, misdemeanor arrests for small amounts of marijuana (for those 22 and older) in Denver have risen almost 50 percent.
That’s why I’m calling on the Denver City Council to publicly declare several “radical” policies:
• Exercise civic wisdom regarding how the protesters act, and where (and how) those young people eventually congregate. From all the talk of “security” surrounding the convention, you’d think authorities expect an urban war. But the “fog” of war, as the Prussian general Clausewitz warned, “gives to things exaggerated dimensions and unnatural appearance.”
That’s why you can’t always trust the cops to do the right thing. Imagine how it must feel to gird yourself in all that police gear, and have SWAT emblazoned across your back. At what point does “invincible” begin?
Remember the Food Not Bombs tussle a while back? Parks and Rec said that this most peaceful of groups could no longer feed the homeless in Civic Center Park. (It was against the rules.) Food Not Bombs refused to stop.
Eventually, it was agreed that: Food Not Bombs would continue to serve the homeless in Civic Center; the rule against it would continue; and Denver’s Department of Human Services would distribute brochures urging the homeless to seek indoor eating spots.
That’s the application of civic wisdom. Just because it’s against the rules doesn’t make it wrong.
• Tell police to make the possession of small amounts of marijuana “the lowest law-enforcement priority.” If the protesters are not doing anything else to illegally disrupt, then leave them alone. And keep the Denver Police’s drug-sniffing dogs in their kennels.
• Don’t worry about where the protesters will sleep. If they crash on the grass in Cuernavaca Park after 11 p.m. instead of making the trek back to the protest area outside the Pepsi Center to “feign sleep” on the pavement, let it be. Expecting thousands of youngsters not to sleep in Cuernavaca Park is about as realistic as turning a pumpkin into a Prius.
Certainly, these are special times for Denver, and our leaders need to apply civic wisdom about protest activities.
Stephen Terence Gould (stgould@peoplepc.com) is an independent scholar and member of the Denver Com- mission to End Homelessness.
