In Portland, most protests follow a predictable and
peaceful course. Protesters practice their First Amendment
rights to free speech and assembly, and police go along
for the ride to keep marchers from tying up traffic.
That's essentially what happened Oct. 15, when 200-plus
Portlanders, supporting the cause of a Pennsylvania
prisoner, marched through downtown. That is, until a
5:36 pm clash with the cops at the end of the march
sent one of the city's best-known activists to the emergency
room with a severely broken arm.
The incident, which is now the subject of a Police
Bureau internal review, certainly doesn't rise to Rodney
King status. The officers involved clearly did not intend
to snap Craig Rosebraugh's humerus. But his injury raises
questions about precisely what happened two weeks ago
and what should happen now.
On Oct. 13, two days before the march, Pennsylvania
Gov. Tom Ridge signed a death warrant for Mumia Abu-Jamal.
Depending on your point of view, Abu-Jamal is either
a convicted cop-killer or an innocent man framed for
the 1981 murder of a Philadelphia police officer.
Rosebraugh falls into the latter camp and was among
those who marched to the Federal Building in Portland
that Friday evening. According to police and the Portland
Free Mumia Coalition, the march had been incident-free,
and 90 percent of the protesters had melted away from
the area in front of the Federal Building after the
last of several speeches. They'd even placed their signs
in a pile to be tossed onto a truck by organizers and
toted away.
Approximately 15 marchers, however, had wandered across
Southwest 3rd Avenue to Terry Schrunk Plaza to continue
their protest. Witnesses say they were not particularly
boisterous or confrontational. But when Chad Hapshe
dropped a flower in the public park, police arrested
him for littering and led him off in handcuffs.
Rosebraugh was watching Hapshe's arrest from across
the street. Rosebraugh, a 27-year-old Northeast Portlander,
is the leader of the fringe Liberation Collective and
an occasional spokesman for groups like the Animal Liberation
Front ("Saving the World, One Cat at a Time," WW,
Dec. 3, 1997).
Rosebraugh was carrying a 7-foot pole with a banner
reading "End Institutional Racism." His girlfriend,
Elaine Close, was next to him. Decked out in a black
vinyl jacket and dungarees, with a canvas bag slung
over his shoulder, Rosebraugh crossed the street at
about 5:30 pm and approached Sgt. Dave Poole, an equestrian
officer.
What happened next is in dispute.
Poole's incident report specifies that he twice told
Rosebraugh he was "going to give an order to disperse
and he [Rosebraugh] would be arrested if he stood there."
According to Poole's report, Rosebraugh twice answered,
"Then arrest me."
An abbreviated police videotape viewed by WW
shows Poole reaching down and grabbing a handful of
Rosebraugh's jacket. Police spokeswoman Det. Sgt. Cheryl
Kanzler, who reviewed the police tape with WW,
says that at this point Poole had arrested Rosebraugh
for failure to comply with a park officer and disorderly
conduct, both misdemeanor charges.
The videotape shows that Rosebraugh had his right hand
on the banner's pole and his right arm around Close.
As Poole's horse starts to move, Rosebraugh raises his
left hand. Police claim this was an act of resistance.
At this point Poole released Rosebraugh, and another
equestrian officer, whom the bureau declined to identify,
grabbed at him.
On the police videotape, both Rosebraugh and the second
officer then move out of the frame, but the pole Rosebraugh
was holding can be seen swinging sharply at Poole and
his horse's backside. Police say Rosebraugh was swinging
the pole at Poole.
At this point, the video shows Rosebraugh, standing
as still as a statue, holding the pole at a 90 degree
angle as Poole circles his horse in front of him. Lt.
Scott Winnegar, a Central Precinct shift lieutenant
who was in charge of helmeted crowd-control officers
that evening, can be seen walking up behind Rosebraugh.
He grabs him by his left arm, extends it in an "arm
bar," throws the shaved-headed protester to the turf
and cuffs him--a standard takedown, says Kanzler, just
like "officers are taught at the Academy."
The result, however, was not quite textbook. Rosebraugh's
left arm sustained a spiral fracture. On the videotape,
Winnegar hoists Rosebraugh by his uninjured arm and
drags him off to jail.
Rosebraugh offers a different version of events, and
another video, taped by the Free Mumia Coalition, supports
some of his key points.
First, Rosebraugh says he approached Poole to ask why
Hapshe had been arrested. Rosebraugh told WW
he doesn't recall any warning from Poole and is sure
he never asked to be arrested. He says Poole, who had
arrested him in 1997, said, "What do you want to do,
Craig, what do you want to do?" Rosebraugh says he told
the sergeant, "I want to talk to you."
The coalition's tape doesn't include that dialogue,
but it does capture Poole uttering two distinct phrases
just a bit later. First, in a prophetic statement, Poole
says, "Craig, you've made yourself a martyr." Second,
as Rosebraugh brings his left hand up toward Poole,
the officer says, "Don't get shitty with me."
Rosebraugh says he raised his hand simply to keep his
balance while in the grip of a police officer mounted
on a moving horse.
As for the charge that Rosebraugh --an animal-rights
activist--swung his pole at a mounted officer, the coalition's
video is very clear. Instead of collaring Rosebraugh,
the other mounted officer can be seen hitting the pole,
sending it angling sharply toward Poole.
No one is suggesting that Winnegar intended to break
Rosebraugh's arm. But the dramatic footage begs the
question: Why did police put Rosebraugh in the position
where he could, in Poole's own words, become a martyr?
And did they really need to arrest someone who dropped
a flower in a public park?
Interim Police Chief Lynnae Berg says police make "targeted
arrests" of uncooperative protesters as a means of "calming"
an unruly crowd.
It's actually a common police tactic, says Dan Handelman,
a founding member of Portland Copwatch, which monitors
police conduct. He says police often stretch the municipal
code to slap cuffs on someone and that it usually happens
at the end of protests.
Berg says police will review the incident, which is
the subject of an internal-affairs complaint. If there
are any "issues of training," she says, "we will address
that."
At this point, no one in the bureau has seen the coalition's
videotape. But that could change. Rosebraugh has contacted
Raymond Thomas, a prominent Portland plaintiffs' lawyer,
and is considering a civil claim against the bureau.
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Willamette Week | originally
published October 27,
1999
