Evergreen State College riots: the footage
In a case that made national headlines this past Valentines Day, a concert by the rap group Dead prez ended in violence as concertgoing students rioted after one of their peers was arrested. Now, a two-part video - each segment almost 9 minutes long - of the footage has been released by the Geoduck Student Union. Watch them both below.
Part I:
Part II:
These have been out for a few days now, but we hadn't thought to watch them until seeing a thoughtful commentary on the case at Injustice in Seattle (which is where we found the links to the footage above). The blog that it initially came from - Digital Crossroads, produced by students from an Olympia radio station - had this to say:
Our impressions at Seattle Crime Blog? Both sides behaved with some indiscretion, which seemed to ultimately allow the situation to get out of hand. After all, Injustice in Seattle asks a good question:
But the camera isn't capturing audio for what's happening down around that police car; for all we know, the officers were yelling that they were going to use pepper spray if the crowd didn't disperse. Note how in Digital Crossroads' post, they note that there is "no audible warning given to disperse." The key word is "audible"; just because we can't hear it on the tape - which was filmed from a distance - there's no way to know for sure. And until we know whether the release of pepper spray was announced or out of the blue, it isn't safe to criticize the officers for it.
Ultimately, final responsibility for this fiasco rests with the students; they had dozens of opportunities to quell the situation and allow things to calm down. Instead, they seemed bent on escalating it.
When the 6 officers on foot first arrive, they're met with resistance - the group won't even let them get to the car - and are almost immediately assailed with flying objects. We can't forget that the police officers here were just doing their jobs and probably didn't want to be in this situation any more than the students wanted them to be. Just watch the officer who comes on camera around the 7:10 mark of the first video. He seems like a reasonable man who is willing to discuss the issues, but the students badgering him with questions seem more concerned with why the cops had to kill their vibe.
The irresponsibility of the concertgoers is fairly evident just by listening to the commentary and watching the footage (which we would venture to guess will hurt, not help, the students when they face the consequences with their university and the police agencies involved). Pay attention to some of their chants: "Freedom to assemble!" "Freedom to dissent!" We at SCB fully support their freedoms to assemble and dissent...these tenets are key foundations of American liberty. But last we checked, freedom to assemble does not include aggressive obstruction of justice and assaulting police officers. And after you destroy a police car, don't be surprised when command-barking riot squads come in to hold down the fort.
Part I:
Part II:
These have been out for a few days now, but we hadn't thought to watch them until seeing a thoughtful commentary on the case at Injustice in Seattle (which is where we found the links to the footage above). The blog that it initially came from - Digital Crossroads, produced by students from an Olympia radio station - had this to say:
The footage contains key evidence about the actions by Olympia police department following the Dead Prez concert on Valentine’s Day– entering a nonviolent crowd, beating on concert attendees, and then indiscriminately pepper-spraying. There is no audible warning given to disperse, and perhaps most importantly, note the OPD vehicles shortly after leaving the scene as quickly as possible.Not so fast, hippie. The picture isn't as clear as you make it.
Our impressions at Seattle Crime Blog? Both sides behaved with some indiscretion, which seemed to ultimately allow the situation to get out of hand. After all, Injustice in Seattle asks a good question:
Why did the OPD officers rush in aggressively, pepper-spray everyone, and get in over their heads instead of trying to talk the crowd down while waiting for sufficient backup?By watching the video, it does seem true that the officers were rather hasty in their spraying. And Injustice in Seattle is right: had the cops thought the situation through, they would have waited to bust out the pepper spray until they were damn sure it wasn't going to further enrage the group that, by this point, already had them well-outnumbered.
But the camera isn't capturing audio for what's happening down around that police car; for all we know, the officers were yelling that they were going to use pepper spray if the crowd didn't disperse. Note how in Digital Crossroads' post, they note that there is "no audible warning given to disperse." The key word is "audible"; just because we can't hear it on the tape - which was filmed from a distance - there's no way to know for sure. And until we know whether the release of pepper spray was announced or out of the blue, it isn't safe to criticize the officers for it.
Ultimately, final responsibility for this fiasco rests with the students; they had dozens of opportunities to quell the situation and allow things to calm down. Instead, they seemed bent on escalating it.
When the 6 officers on foot first arrive, they're met with resistance - the group won't even let them get to the car - and are almost immediately assailed with flying objects. We can't forget that the police officers here were just doing their jobs and probably didn't want to be in this situation any more than the students wanted them to be. Just watch the officer who comes on camera around the 7:10 mark of the first video. He seems like a reasonable man who is willing to discuss the issues, but the students badgering him with questions seem more concerned with why the cops had to kill their vibe.
The irresponsibility of the concertgoers is fairly evident just by listening to the commentary and watching the footage (which we would venture to guess will hurt, not help, the students when they face the consequences with their university and the police agencies involved). Pay attention to some of their chants: "Freedom to assemble!" "Freedom to dissent!" We at SCB fully support their freedoms to assemble and dissent...these tenets are key foundations of American liberty. But last we checked, freedom to assemble does not include aggressive obstruction of justice and assaulting police officers. And after you destroy a police car, don't be surprised when command-barking riot squads come in to hold down the fort.
