According to one neighbor,
a public school teacher, who was walking to her car to go to work that
A testosterone-driven, pre-dawn
paramilitary raid by Oregon law enforcement officers looking for a marijuana
grow operation in a Eugene neighborhood last October will result in a federal
lawsuit against participating agencies, according to the raid's victims
and their attorneys.
The raid involved some 59
heavily-armed police officers from the Oregon State Police, the Lane County
Sheriff's Department, the Eugene Police Department, the Springfield Police
Department, the Portland Police Bureau, and the Oregon National Guard,
who swarmed into Eugene's Whiteaker neighborhood accompanied by a tank-like
National Guard Light Armored Vehicle. Throwing flash-bang grenades
that shook the windows in neighboring houses and kicking down doors, the
marauders broke into three homes, detaining two couples. Marcella
Monroe and Tam Davage and Elizabeth Redetzke and Jor Havens were dragged
naked from their beds by masked and armored police, then held for hours
as police ransacked their homes. Police placed a black hood over
Monroe's head until she agreed to cooperate. No evidence of a marijuana
grow operation was found, but that didn't stop police from arresting all
four and threatening to seize their homes. State prosecutors eventually
dropped all charges.
According to one neighbor,
a public school teacher, who was walking to her car to go to work that
morning, "We opened the front door to find a swath of police officers,
a huge armored personnel carrier, and several men in camouflage lurking
around the shrubbery with assault rifles." Gesturing toward one of
the machine-gun-toting lawmen standing between her and her car, the teacher
said, "I just want to make sure I'm not going to be shot leaving the house."
"I haven't shot anyone in
two weeks," was the officer's response, according to the teacher.
"They came in here and scared
everyone to death," Monroe told the Eugene Register-Guard a few weeks after
the ordeal. "They trashed our houses and accused us of a crime that
they have no evidence for. They found no seeds, no pot, not one single
plant -- nothing."
Monroe and Davage, a well-liked
couple who owned all three houses, quickly drew support from neighbors.
The Whiteaker Community Council denounced the raid and demanded that the
Eugene Police Commission investigate the incident. "It was completely
inappropriate to have that kind of militaristic action there," said council
president Majeska Seese-Green. "We don't want it to happen in Whiteaker
again, or any other neighborhood," she told the Register-Guard.
Now the four raid victims
and their attorneys are acting to ensure that it doesn't. Attorneys
Ben Rosenfeld and Lauren Regan officially notified Eugene's insurance agency
on April 11 that they will file suit in federal court to rein in over-agressive
police practices. "The police clearly violated the 4th Amendment,
which protects citizens from unreasonable search and false arrest," said
Rosenfeld in an April 30 statement. "We intend to hold these police
officers accountable, lest we allow them to further erode fundamental Constitutional
rights, and put this community in jeopardy of serious physical injury at
the hands of law enforcement."
"Either the police just really
screwed up, or they should have done far more investigation before entering
a residential neighborhood in this manner," Regan said. "Before you
drive a tank up to someone's house with 50 SWAT officers brandishing automatic
assault weapons, you should be darn certain that you've got very dangerous
pot growers in that house, and should be equally certain there is not a
safer way to conduct such a raid. This, and other recent SWAT incidents,
illustrate a total disregard for community safety where police are endangering
the lives and safety of the neighborhood residents."
Law enforcement spokesmen
attempted to defend the raid, claiming the Whiteaker raid was not much
different from other drug raids except in magnitude. "Society at
large wants us to do this, and the community at large wants us to do this,"
Lieutenant Lee Thoming of the Interagency Narcotics Task Force told the
Register Guard.
"This type of raid is contrary
to the way our community wants the police to conduct themselves," countered
Regan. "The deployment of SWAT units should be limited to extraordinary
circumstances such as a hostage situation, a sniper, or a bomb threat.
We hope that Eugene will follow in the paths of several other cities and
reign in the abuses perpetuated by rogue police agencies."
The Whiteaker Community Council
agreed. "We all need to learn more about the encroachment of paramilitarized
policing in the United States, we need to watch law enforcement, we need
to watch out for each others' civil rights, and we need to work for a genuinely
independent police review board," said council head Seese-Green.
"What is at stake is not only the livability of our city, but also -- potentially
-- the very life of any one of us or our children."
As for Davage and Monroe,
the raid has been a rude awakening. "There is a deep sense of betrayal
and loss of trust," said Davage. "We believed that our police were
supposed to protect our safety and our Constitutional rights. Instead
they attacked us with machine guns without cause. They have destroyed
my sense of security."
"How can we ever feel safe
again? What is happening to our country?" asked Monroe.
Visit htttp://www.drcnet.org/wol/267.html#outofcontrol
for our previous coverage of this story.
