Sherman R. Frederick/Properly Subversive
I have a new hero and it’s Jennifer Upshaw Swartz. She’s the managing editor of the Independent journal newspaper, which announced this week it was suing the City of San Rafael for refusing to release a report on the bloody arrest of a day worker who was public drinking on a city curb.
You will likely remember the case.
Julio Jimenez Lopez was sitting on the curb in the Canal neighborhood last summer drinking beer with his buddies. Police stopped and asked him to provide ID. He stood up to presumably get it out of his pocket and the officers told him to sit down and provide it. He stood up again and was wrestled to the ground and arrested.
In the grand scale of police activity, this was a minor encounter. Except for one thing: It was caught on video. And the video makes the arrest look excessively violent for the “crime” at hand.
We live in a world where the job of law enforcement is increasingly under scrutiny. The release of this video, compliments of Lopez’ lawyer, stirred strong feelings in the community. I understand that and very much support a community demanding accountability.
But now the City of San Rafael is refusing to make public a report it commissioned from an outside source to look into the facts of the incident.
That’s a horrible mistake. Yet the town’s moms and dads have stuck to that for almost a year.
So, here’s to you Jennifer Upshaw Swartz and the IJ. That report, paid for by public money, should be public. Hiding it while Lopez is suing the city may make good strategy from an inside-baseball lawyer liability standpoint, but it makes no sense for the community.
Release the report and let the chips fall where they may. It’s the right thing to do.
(“Properly Subversive” is a commentary written by Sherman R. Frederick for Marinscope Community Newspapers, the “mother ship” of the Novato Advance, San Rafael News-Pointer, Mill Valley Herald, Ross Valley Reporter, Twin City Times and the Sausalito Marin Scope. Mr. Frederick is an award-winning journalist and co-founder of Battle Born Media, a news organization dedicated to the preservation of community newspapers. You can reach him by email at shermfrederick@gmail.com.)
Having watched the video several times near when it happened, I think I see where the encounter started escalating. From memory:
Female office asks the three men for ID. Two produce ID from rear pockets while sitting on he curb where they presumably were when approached. One has to stand up to get wallet from his front pocket (as I would have to do) and he does. She commands to sit back down (no vulgarities at that time). He does but in that process the male officer in a raised voice asks him to produce his ID. The man stands back up to demonstrate that he had to stand to get his wallet .and the male officer barks “SIT THE F___ DOWN!”. The guy, (who does appear buzzed but gentle from the female officer’s body cam) takes offense at this and while taking a small leaning step toward the male officer says something like “Hey! You don’t, you don’t need to talk to me that way.” The movement toward the office is likely perceived as a threat and is ordered to again “Sit the F___ down!” It did not appear that he had enough time to respond in his apparently buzzed state and was then taken down to the ground. So here we are today.
One thing that I have heard military men say about women in combat is they feel like they have to protect them as women. Maybe that is part of this, maybe not, but he was backing up his team mate. Would he have done so in the same manner had she been a he? It is not hard to imagine that men who have an encounter with law enforcement have a higher percentage of machismo and do not respect women as much as they should. Maybe that what was what the male officer reacting to based on experience and demand for respect of his team mate.
Take aways:
Better training for the police because this escalated after the “SIT THE F___ DOWN!” command. They may see it as when he stood up again ergo the offending coarse command.
Do things that will minimize your contact with the police e.g. do not drink in public because when you are buzzed or drunk you talk differently and may a move like an innocent step towards a cop or maybe just to balance yourself and their training kicks in because there are drunks who will fight them. They never know who it is, when they will burst into an attack and so may react fast to keep themselves or partners safe. Keep your wits about you.
Cops need to watch their adrenaline triggers and manage their training.
Yes accountability is necessary but so is not acting the fool for the Authorities. Cops are like my table saw. It is there to serve and beautiful things can be made by its presence but if I disrespect it, I open myself for potential of a world of hurt. I hear this to about the people who do things like tease a dog then cry about getting bit. Often from the dog society I will hear the dog is just being a dog though my mother would say to me “What did you THINK would happen?!!” While most dogs do not bite, that ones that do ruin it for the others.