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Y
<br /> "They had a fairly clear way to get out from
<br /> - the back of the booth to where the patrol car was
<br /> WEDNESDAY, parked," Alberti said. "If they had just continued
<br /> JULY 26, 1995 to drag him, there were enough officers to form
<br /> a corridor (to the patrol car)."
<br /> NSTEAD, VIDEOS show police pausing and
<br /> laying Dalotto down under some trees, being
<br /> DON B I SHOFF surrounded, then starting to douse the crowd
<br /> with pepper spray. Police say somebody threw
<br /> dirt at them first. The videos don't show that, but
<br /> am the videos don't show everything
<br /> The real Iil A lberti had mediated between police and
<br /> vendors. He said the spraying was a key
<br /> mistake:'
<br /> or park riot "Once they started, that further infuriated
<br /> the crowd. When people see the police causing
<br /> pain to people they feel camaraderie with, it's
<br /> F I WERE a cop, I don't think I would have But Alberti acknowledges that violence was
<br /> I fired off the pepper spray quite so quickly. going to lead to violence."
<br /> already there, in the crowd's demeanor. And, he
<br /> But (a) I'm not a cop, and (b) I wasn't said: "The police did a lot of things right. There
<br /> surrounded by a howling mob Sunday in Maurie were a few things I felt could have been done
<br /> Jacobs Park better."
<br /> The term is not an exaggeration. Having seen, 1 wasn't able to talk directly to the cops who
<br /> and heard the soundtrack of, videos of the were there, but Capt. Dick Loveall justifies using
<br /> confrontation, I can tell you that it was a mob pepper spray to clear a path through the crowd:
<br /> and howling. Also chanting and shouting "Common sense tells you I'm going to get hurt if
<br /> obscenities — and closing m. I move toward them, go into their zone — I'm
<br /> This was not passive resistance. opening myself up to any kind of attack."
<br /> All of the debate over police tactics and Loveall said the cops probably should have
<br /> whether pepper spray should have been donned riot gear before going in. "But if we did
<br /> unleashed with children in the crowd, or used so that, you'd be here today saying, 'Because your
<br /> indiscriminately, has to be looked at in that folks went in with shields and helmets, didn't you
<br /> context: The cops were surrounded, really aggravate the crowd ?' "
<br /> outnumbered and threatened. How about not going in, even to write a
<br /> "I can acknowledge this fear 1 was seeing in
<br /> the face of the cops," said ashaggy- haired man citation, until later — or not trying to make an
<br /> arrest in a crowd? Maybe. But the cops had tried
<br /> who was there and who to avoid even citations, giving warnings first,
<br /> r
<br /> -., �' j oined a Monday night which most of the illegal vendors heeded.
<br /> post -mortem of the , They thought they would just issue a citation
<br /> , , videos at Icky's.
<br /> _ (Icky's, an organic (to Dalotto) and go on their way,' Loveall said
<br /> fh fl„ a; P ' teahouse at Third and They didn't expect somebody to say, 'I'm not
<br /> telling you my name: They have no recourse
<br /> ' "° ..00„ i Blair, is the '90s
<br /> r t c counterpart of a '70s but to arrest then. Do they say, 'Fm only going to
<br /> f =
<br /> ., � . coffeehouse. You'd enforce on those who cooperate ?' "
<br /> a ' swear you'd arrived
<br /> Ramzi Masharweh was working with
<br /> ' , s through a time cameraman Tim Lewis in videotaping the
<br /> ,
<br /> �, , permit -less 'Vortex' festival — at which this all
<br /> "' machine — save for occurred — for public access TV. Masharweh
<br /> '
<br /> `- said Dalotto had told him that he planned to not
<br /> K`?�_ z� th video recorder up front.)
<br /> t ' cooperate with police.
<br /> "They were "Had we taken the trouble to work the crowd
<br /> backing and retreating to the trees," said the
<br /> guy, who said he got sprayed. "The reality was and told them police are going to come in and
<br /> this is what they are going to do, and this is what
<br /> that they were afraid. Just the shouting and Todd is going to do — if there was a clarity about
<br /> moving forward (of the crowd), it wasn't just that — I'm sure the crowd would have behaved
<br /> words, it wasn't just energy." entirely differently," he said.
<br /> No, it was violence of its own kind, palpable That's something else we'll never know.
<br /> and real, and it showed signs of becoming What we do know is that a supposedly
<br /> something much worse. Which, of course, it did peaceful gathering turned ugly in a heartbeat.
<br /> — a bdrra of hurled objects that injured six Police tactics may have made it worse, but the
<br /> Eugene police officers. bottom line remains:
<br /> Wdl f 'tbe barrage ever have begun if the The real blame for what happened lies on
<br /> cops hadn't fired off their pepper spray first? one guy who repeatedly refused to obey the law
<br /> We'll never know. — and on those who became accomplices, by
<br /> Police had just arrested Todd Dalotto for becoming a mob.
<br /> operating a booth in the park without a permit
<br /> — and for refusing to give them his name for a
<br /> citation in lieu of arrest. Dalotto went limp.
<br /> Police cuffed him and dragged him over the
<br /> side of his booth.
<br /> Thom Alberti, project coordinator for Eugene
<br /> Peaceworks, was standing behind them.
<br />
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