The first day that demonstrators gathered in Seattle in November 1999 to protest the WTO conference, things went well, recalled Norm Stamper, who was at the time the city's police chief. But on day two, when a growing number of demonstrators converged on a downtown intersection, Stamper got a directive from the field commander: "We have to clear the intersection."
Stamper agreed. He gave the order, then watched downtown Seattle descend into chaos. "My support for a militaristic solution caused all hell to break loose," Stamper wrote in the Nov. 28, 2011, issue of The Nation.
These days, Stamper believes paramilitary thinking has infused the ranks of the men and women in blue. On Thursday, March 22, he'll lead a discussion on how to change that attitude.
Stamper will speak that evening at a Town Hall forum called "Safe and Just Policing: Toward a Police Culture Beyond the War on Drugs." During the forum, put on by the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (ACLU-WA), Stamper will discuss how the pepper spraying of protesters in the Occupy movement has a direct link to the wars on drugs and terror.
In his essay for the Nation, which has been shared on Facebook more than 13,000 times, Stamper said that clashes between ordinary citizens and police have become more violent since the "Battle of Seattle." "And young people, poor people and people of color will forever experience the institution as an abusive, militaristic force," he wrote, "not just during demonstrations but every day, in neighborhoods across the country."
Seattle is no exception. In December, the Department of Justice released a damning report that revealed the Seattle Police Department exhibits a pattern of using unnecessary or excessive force ("DOJ hammers SPD for use of excessive force," RC, Dec. 21, 2011). The 67-page report found that more than 50 percent of cases using unnecessary or excessive force involved minorities.
Doug Honig, communications director for ACLU-WA, said the forum is important because it addresses longstanding concerns about police practices in Seattle and elsewhere. Honig said the December 2011 DOJ report came a year after 35 local organizations, including ACLU-WA, requested the Justice Department investigate SPD. And prior to that request, his organization asked Mayor Mike McGinn and current SPD chief John Diaz to change the "mindset and training" within the local police department.
While some local groups are calling on Chief Diaz to step down, Honig said the ACLU-WA is not asking for the chief's resignation.
Instead, the ACLU-WA hopes that Stamper, with the knowledge he gained as Seattle's police chief from 1994 to 2000, can help pass along a deeper perspective on why excessive force occurs. And Stamper also grasps that better police training could help change the current mindset that leads to excessive force, said Honig.
After all, Honig said, Stamper understands that police play an important role in our community -- public safety: "And he wants to make that work."