Environmental Activists March against Pepper Spray Use
11/14/97
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Headline: Environmental Activists March against Pepper Spray Use
Source: The San Francisco Chronicle
Date: 11/14/97
Author: Jim Doyle, Chronicle Staff Writer
Copyright 1997 San Francisco Chronicle
Copyright: The Chronicle Publishing Company
Eureka
Sign-waving environmental activists marched to the
Humboldt County Courthouse yesterday and demanded the
resignations of the sheriff and local congressman over
the controversial swabbing of pepper spray into the
eyes of Earth First demonstrators.
The march started at the district office of
Representative Frank Riggs, R-Windsor, and proceeded
six blocks to the courthouse, where about 120 people
held a vigil outside the office of Sheriff Dennis
Lewis.
Some of them held signs saying ``Pepper spray is
torture'' and ``Save old-growth forests,'' while others
chanted ``Arrest Sheriff Lewis'' and ``Apologize Now.''
They were watched by two dozen Eureka police officers
and deputy sheriffs in riot gear. A few officers were
mounted on horses.
But the march was peaceful and no arrests were made.
``I'm here to support the people here and the trees,''
said Wendy Carter of Eureka, who brought her two young
children to the rally. ``I think the pepper-spraying is
wrong,'' she said. ``It should not be used on peaceful
demonstrators.''
Although the protest was peaceful, it reflected the
divisive issue of logging along the North Coast.
At one point, a passing motorist shouted,
``Pepper-spray them all.''
And a group of student Republicans from nearby Humboldt
State University held a counter- demonstration in
support of Riggs and the sheriff. ``The police felt
they needed to use force'' said Matt Calloway, who held
a sign saying ``Hippies Go Home.''
The march was the latest protest over the novel use of
pepper spray by Mendocino deputy sheriffs, who on at
least two occasions used Q-Tips to swap a concentrated
form of liquid pepper spray on the eyelids of sit-in
protesters.
One of those sit-ins occurred on October 16 in Riggs'
district office. Three women and a 16-year-old girl
padlocked themselves to a redwood stump that had been
rolled into the office by Earth First to protest Riggs'
support of a proposal to buy only 7,500 acres of the
60,000-acre Headwater Forest owned by Pacific Lumber.
During that incident, as well as one a month earlier at
the headquarters of Pacific Lumber Co. in Scotia,
deputy sheriffs swabbed protesters with pepper spray,
producing cries of pain.
The scenes were videotaped by the sheriff's department,
apparently to protect themselves against allegations of
brutality. It didn't work out that way.
The tapes were made public late last month by the
protesters who filed a federal lawsuit claiming that
their civil rights were violated by the Humboldt County
Sheriff's Office and the Eureka Police Department.
The tapes, which later ran on network and local
television news, generated criticism from across the
nation, including harshly worded editorials from
national newspapers.
Lewis responded that his deputies acted properly.
Riggs, who represents California's North Coast region,
also rushed to the defense of the Q-Tip wielding deputy
sheriffs.
Riggs, a former Sonoma County sheriff's deputy himself,
took the floor of the House and in a speech, which was
videotaped, condemned the protesters as ``reckless,
wanton lawbreakers.'' He praised the deputy sheriffs'
handling of the protests.
The FBI subsequently announced that it would conduct a
probe to determine if the deputy sheriff had committed
a criminal act with their novel use of the spray.
Meanwhile, Attorney General Dan Lungren, a GOP
candidate for governor, reversed himself yesterday and
said he would probe whether Humboldt County sheriff
deputies used pepper spray properly when they swabbed
it into the eyes of Earth First protesters.
Previously, Lungren had said he would launch no
investigation of any kind. But in a November 10 letter
to Senator Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, Lungren said he
would not conduct a criminal investigation.
Lungren said the Humboldt County incident would be
reviewed along with other cases in which law
enforcement officers used pepper spray to see if state
guidelines were followed and whether those guidelines
need to be changed.