They were there to observe a Jacob Blake protest. Why did Raleigh police arrest them?
A state chapter of a national lawyers group called on city leaders to condemn the Raleigh Police Department’s actions during a protest Friday night in which officers arrested two people it sent to observe the demonstration.
The North Carolina National Lawyers Guild says its “legal observers” are well known to police and wear bright green hats that say “National Lawyers Guild Legal Observer.”
The arrests are part of a national trend of targeting observers who are holding law enforcement accountable for its interactions with activists, a news release from the group on Saturday stated.
“We call on Mayor Baldwin and members of the Raleigh City Council to condemn the conduct of the Raleigh Police Department during protests last night, to lift the Curfew Order, and to clearly exempt Legal Observers from any future curfew orders,” the release states.
Mayor Mary-Ann Baldwin didn’t respond to an email and a voicemail left Sunday asking about the guild’s concerns.
Donna-maria Harris, a spokesperson for the Police Department, wrote in an email that the agency doesn’t distinguish between those who contend they are legal observers and other people violating curfew.
“Unless explicitly exempt according to the language in the curfew, everyone is subject to complying with the imposed curfew,” she wrote. “Therefore, those who identified themselves as ‘legal observers’ were required to comply with the curfew.”
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild is “dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system,” according to its website.
Liliya Oliferuk, southern regional vice president for the guild, wrote in an email that legal observers are attorneys, law students and “civic-minded community members” trained to observe and document law enforcement’s actions.
The program was established in response to antiwar and civil rights protest in New York in 1968, according to the guild website. The observations are used to assist attorneys who defend activists.
Legal observers have attended protests across the state and in Raleigh without being arrested, she wrote.
The News & Observer asked for the names and to interview the two observers who were among the total 14 people charged with violating curfew Friday.
Oliferuk declined, saying the observers asked not to be identified and can’t talk about their experience because it may become a part of legal proceedings.
Protest over police shooting of Jacob Blake
The Friday night protest in Raleigh was organized after a white police officer fired seven shots at Jacob Blake, who is Black, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Aug. 23.
Blake, who briefly scuffled with police as they tried to arrest him on an outstanding warrant, was hit four times and is paralyzed, his family has said. The protest also followed Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman saying a white police officer acted lawfully when he fatally shot Keith Collins, who is Black, in January. Collins had run from the officer carrying a BB gun.
On Friday, city representatives on Raleigh’s curfew hotline indicated that legal observers and members of the media would be exempt from the curfew that took effect at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oliferuk wrote.
“When we tried to get that representation in writing, the City’s Communications Department informed us after 5pm on Friday that the City Attorney did not consider Legal Observers exempt,” she wrote in an email.
Baldwin said she set the curfew to prevent the kind of looting and vandalism that followed protests May 30 and 31 over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
On Friday night there was also a stronger police presence than before, Baldwin told The N&O Saturday, but police kept their distance from protesters most of the night.
At least one window at the county public safety building was broken and doors, sidewalks and a monument memorializing fallen deputies was covered in red paint.
The guild and some protesters criticized the curfew, saying city officials used it to silence protesters.
Warnings issued
At 10 p.m. Friday, Raleigh police started to issue warnings and then took a more aggressive approach when protesters started throwing fireworks and water bottles, some frozen, at officers, Baldwin said.
“RPD arrested individuals who were engaged in criminal behavior, and those who were in violation of the curfew after numerous warnings and at least one hour past the curfew,” Harris wrote in an email.
In its press release, the guild criticized the Police Department’s tactics.
“Raleigh police brandished assault weapons with live rounds, used dangerous and unwarranted crowd-control tools including rubber bullets and pepper spray, beat a handcuffed protester in custody and refused medical care to another,” the press release states. “In addition to sending riot police to seek out and arrest two clearly identified Legal Observers, RPD officers threatened multiple members of the media with arrest despite a specific exemption for journalists in the City’s Curfew Order.”
A Raleigh police officer also told a reporter from The N&O that they were subject to the curfew.
“In some cases, media credentials were not displayed in a conspicuous manner that made media personnel immediately and readily identifiable,” Harris wrote, but no one who identified as media was arrested.
No rubber bullets, police said
Harris also wrote that Raleigh officers, who are trained and authorized to carry firearms, didn’t use pepper spray or tear gas Friday night. The police department doesn’t use rubber bullets, she wrote
A single “foam projectile” was used, Harris wrote, as an officer was assaulted by a member of the crowd as he attempted to make an arrest, a preliminary investigation indicates.
The department isn’t aware of a use of force complaint related to someone who was in custody or a medical situation, Harris wrote. Anyone with information about police misconduct should contact the department’s Internal Affairs Office, she wrote.
Oliferuk wrote that if the charges aren’t dropped the guild will help those arrested obtain legal representation and support them throughout the process, “in part by using evidence gathered by Legal Observers.”
Harris said the Police Department doesn’t plan to ask the district attorney to drop the charges.
This story was originally published August 31, 2020 at 12:30 PM with the headline "They were there to observe a Jacob Blake protest. Why did Raleigh police arrest them?."
