Message to cops: Citizens have a right to film you on the job.
In fact, downtown cops may soon start carrying cameras, too. On their heads.
The mayor and the police chief sent that message Monday in the wake of new charges the police mishandled arrests and violated people’s rights amid a crackdown in the entertainment district.
Mayor John DeStefano and Chief Frank Limon also cautioned the public not to jump to conclusions about what happened in two controversial incidents over the past week based on video snippets that made the press.
They made the comments as criticism mounted over a raid of a private party early Saturday morning at the the Elevate Lounge at club Alchemy as part of “Operation Nightlife,” the new beefed-up patrols of sometimes-violent Crown Street night spots and their environs formed in response to a recent shootout between fighting clubgoers and the police.
Chief Limon offered new details Monday about the incident. He also said that he plans to remind his officers that citizens have a right to take videos of them — and that he’s considering equipping his entertainment district cops with “head” cameras of their own.
Police arrested five Yale students, including one who ended up in the hospital after officers Tased and subdued him. Police said the student was kicking and punching three officers. Eyewitnesses said a cop punched and kicked and Tased the student with no provocation beyond a request to make a phone call, while other students were threatened with arrest if they used cell phone cameras or sent text messages, according to this story and this story in the Yale Daily News.
“It was beyond overreaction. They were like storm troopers,” claimed John Carta, attorney for the club’s owner, Rommerro Farrah. Click here to read a letter he sent Monday to the police chief.
The incident occurred a week after similar complaints followed the arrest of a Quinnipiac University student who was video-recording an arrest outside Toad’s Place. The video captured both a bouncer and a cop ordering him to put away his cell phone camera. Chief Limon said the student was arrested not for taking the video, but for disobeying police commands and interfering with an investigation and with his friend’s arrest.
“The video evidence certainly suggests that people are being harassed for trying to record the police,” Alderman Michael Jones, whose ward covers the heart of the Yale campus and other portions of downtown, said in an email Monday. “I understand that officers don’t want to be crowded on narrow sidewalks with observers, particularly those who are friends of their suspects, but many of the comments recorded were specifically directed towards the presence of the cameras and not the fact that people were in close proximity to the officers.
“If this is in fact the case, then we have a major problem on our hands. Not only are we talking about a potential violation of civil liberties, but capturing police misconduct on film has awakened our communities in several instances and has repeatedly been a catalyst for much needed change — or at least social action… The best police officers should want their work to be filmed. Not only do witnesses and others have a right to film these events, but film provides a transparent way to escape both unreliable witnesses and irresponsible police officers. And when one or two police officers conduct themselves inappropriately, it makes the job much more difficult for every other officer because one officer’s actions can undermine the public trust between an entire community and its police force.”
The mayor and police chief said they agree that citizens have the right to record events in public.
“This is America. Anyone can film anytime they want, including you, me and the PD while on duty,” Mayor DeStefano stated. “It is not my understanding that this is why the QU student was arrested.
“That all said, these films must be viewed in context. It’s like walking into a movie theater after the film has begun. We don’t know what went on before, what’s happening behind, and it’s a two-dimensional portrait.”
Chief Limon said he has ordered internal investigations into both incidents. Yale officials, too, are investigating the Alchemy/Elevate incident.
“Assume you’re being videotaped all the time when you’re out there,” Limon said he has been telling his officers.
Limon said he has upcoming in-service training sessions for his rank and file will include an “update about legal procedures on interfering and videotaping issues.” He’s also looking into putting together a “policy to let officers know what are the exceptions” to when citizens can take video.
Meanwhile, the chief said, he’s exploring the use of “head cams” similar to those worn by cops in London. He’s considering using them in the entertainment district to film arrests, so that the public won’t be left having to weigh an officer’s written account versus the charges of an onlooker or arrestee. Some other U.S. cities, such as Cincinnati, San Diego, and San Jose, have also begun experimenting with head cams.
“Anybody Else? Anybody Else?”
Top Yale administrators held meetings throughout the weekend about the early Saturday raid throughout the weekend and communicated with students. The administrators vowed to investigate the incident and offered suggestions on filing complaints with the city police department. They, as well as some students, started collecting eyewitness reports.
Meanwhile, Yale College Dean Mary Miller sent two campus-wide emails detailing plans for the investigation. She said the university will “develop a memorandum” with information such as “whether students should have had the right to use their cell phones while a police action is being conducted.” (The full text of the emails appears at the bottom of this story.)
The raid took place around 1 a.m.
Chief Limon Monday called the raid a “compliance check.” He “absolutely” denied a report in the Yale paper that the raid took place because of a report hours earlier about underaged drinking. Also Saturday, a crew of city cops and state liquor control agents reported finding violations at Libras at 56 Main St., which they closed; and at Manhattans Bar at 489 Forbes Ave., which they cited.
“It was a random inspection [at Alchemy/ Elevate]. When we started this operation, we told people what we were going to do. Clubowners were aware of it. We were going to inspect bars. That is the strategy we had in the beginning. That’s how we selected places,” Limon said.
Once inside, police said, they saw 256 people crowding an area for which legal occupancy is only 150. (Those were updated numbers as of Monday.) They also found several fights taking place right outside the club. The SWAT team was called in.
The occasion was a private party (called “The Morse-Stiles Screw”) held by two of Yale’s residential colleges.
The cops arrested five Yale students in the raid on charges ranging from illegal possession of alcohol by a minor to interfering with police, disorderly conduct, and assault on police officers. One of the arrested students ended up at Yale-New Haven Hospital being treated for injuries.
Click on the play arrow to the video near the top of the story to watch a clip from the raid posted on the Yale Daily News website. Toward the end of the video an officer near a man on the ground is heard yelling, “Anybody else? Anybody else?”
“While I’m still learning more details about what happened this week, I’m deeply troubled by what I’ve learned so far,” Alderman Jones said Monday. “It seems like the way in which officers entered the club and communicated with the occupants inherently escalated tensions and created an atmosphere where the occupants felt unsafe and unable to ask officers simple questions. Given the fact that police officers entered the club with SWAT gear — and given the fact that many clubgoers would be shocked and probably drunk at 1 a.m. — the police should be trained to defuse these situations to efficiently do their work. There was little reason to intimidate the occupants just to check their IDs.”
Thomas MacMillan Photo
Chief Limon on the scene of “Operation Nightlife.”
Limon said the media and public should be focusing on the actions of the clubowner.
“It’s unfair to the community that we can’t hold these clubowners accountable,” he said. “I’ve seen what it can do. We need to hold these clubowners accountable. Our investigation was not targeting anybody but the operators of these clubs.” As a Chicago cop, Limon led the investigation in a tragedy in a similarly overcrowded nightclub where 21 people died in a panicked stampede.
Carta, the club owner’s attorney, claimed his client did nothing wrong. He said he was still “researching” the occupancy requirements, but said that the club had had “four, five, six hundred” people at past events with no problems. “Never a problem. The city never cared. I don’t know what the official capacity is,” Carta said.
City Chief Administrative Officer Rob Smuts discounted that version of events.
In 2006 the fire marshal’s office inspected the space and gave the club its legal occupancy: 350 for the first floor, 150 for the separate club (Elevate) on the second floor, where the party took place, according to Smuts.
“They have a legal obligation to know what their occupancy is; to post it, which it wasn’t; and to abide by it,” Smuts said. “This operator was really putting people’s lives at risk.”
Carta claimed the police overreacted and received no resistance during this weekend’s raid: “They raided the place dressed like SWAT team members brandishing weapons. It’s overcrowded? Get rid of the people who are overcrowding.”
At one point, the owner’s brother, who is in his 40s and “had a suit on,” was “forced to the ground to a gun. It was a nightmare,” Carta said. “It was beyond overreaction. They were like storm troopers. One of the descriptions I had: People were on the floor. These policemen with SWAT uniforms marching around, brandishing their weapons. They asked one person, I think he was a Yale student, for an ID. I think the kid was Hispanic or something. They said, ‘That’s not good enough for the United States.’ It just went way, way over the top. And this was for over capacity?”
Click here to read the police department’s full release on the incident.
QU Blues
The accusations about cell phone restrictions at Elevate echoed a charge from a separate incident: The weekend before last, the police detail also made arrests outside Toad’s Place.
An officer was filmed threatening and swearing at a Quinnipiac University student for filming the incident with a cell phone, which he has a legal right to do. The officer is captured on video ordering the student to put away the phone/camera and to leave. The student was subsequently arrested; the police said he was “interfering.” Read about the incident here; watch the video at left.
Chief Limon Monday said the video leaves out some crucial facts: The student arrested had been inside the bar with a drunken friend who assaulted somebody. The police were trying to investigate. The student allegedly kept bothering the police and refusing orders to back away, to leave them alone to do their job.
“He was not arrested for electronically recording what was going on there. His actions and the words and the statements that he made interfered with the officer and created an officer safety issue,” Limon said.
Even though no one involved has filed a formal complaint, Limon said, he referred to matter to internal affairs because he wants to get to the bottom of it. He did the same with the Yale incident, he said.
This is the second weekend that the police have swarmed the Crown Street bar district to crack down on club violations and quality-of-life crimes as part of “Operation Nightlife.”
The previous weekend, police stopped 47-year-old Amtrak engineer Mark “Big Tone” Maloney on his motorcycle on Crown Street as part of the crackdown one evening. Maloney claimed one of the officers hit him, handcuffed him, illegally searched him, and threatened to “crack” his “fucking skull” — over what turned out to be a noise violation, for which he received a ticket. Maloney admitted his motorcycle is loud. Chief Limon, who happened to be in the district, promised to look into the matter. Read about that here.
What Yale’s Dean Wrote
Following is the text of two campus-wide emails Yale Dean Miller sent this weekend about the Alchemy/Elevate incident:
— — — — -
October 2, 2010
To Students in Yale College:
I write to you regarding the events of last night on Crown Street.
The masters, deans, and I know you have serious concerns about the reported behavior of the New Haven Police as the dance at Elevate was drawing to an end. We take these reports seriously. Let me assure you that all the students involved are safe.
Collecting the facts about last night and figuring out the best way to respond to the larger issues will necessarily take some time, and we ask your patience with that. But we cannot and will not wait to have discussions among ourselves, share experiences, and offer support to one another.
If you would like to share your observations with me and other administrative colleagues, please send them to Marichal Gentry, Dean of Student Affairs (marichal.gentry@yale.edu). We are collecting them in order to build a comprehensive picture of the events that unfolded. I have already been in touch with New Haven authorities, and I will be assembling a team of administrators to reach out to them.
For anyone who wishes to do so, there are formal channels for filing complaints about police behavior and actions. Our experience is that the leadership of the New Haven Police will take any complaints very seriously and will conduct, in response to them, an internal investigation. If you wish to pursue this avenue, information is available on the New Haven Police web site.
Your masters and deans are available to you, along with a wide array of other persons and resources, including Mental Health counselors at the new Yale Health Center, which is located at 55 Lock Street. You may reach a counselor at any time by calling 203 – 432-0123.
I rely on you to turn to other members of the Yale community. I want to let you know that we are supporting the students who were arrested in every way we can. I know that you will be supportive of them and of each other. As always, the safety and well-being of our students is our paramount concern.
Yours truly,
Mary Miller
— — — — — — — — —
October 3, 2010
To Students in Yale College:
President Levin and I met tonight with the Masters and Deans of the colleges whose students were most involved in Friday night’s incident on Crown Street. The Secretary, Associate General Counsel and other senior administrators joined us to review the situation and to decide on next steps. Marichal Gentry, Dean of Student Affairs, was assigned to be the lead liaison with Denise Blanchard, Captain of Internal Affairs of the New Haven Police Department, who will be overseeing the process which may lead to a formal investigation.
Dean Gentry will be reaching out to the Captain tomorrow to underscore that the University stands ready to assist in every way possible to advance an investigation. We will make space available on campus if that is desired and will facilitate the scheduling of any interviews needed by New Haven Police’s Internal Affairs unit.
The fact that criminal charges are pending against several Yale students needs to be factored into the timing of University processes since we would not want inadvertently to interfere with the legal defense of those students. We will be developing a memorandum to address some of the issues raised by students, such as whether students should have had the right to use their cell phones while a police action is being conducted.
We know that many students have experienced a very disturbing event. We have heard their voices, and we are committed to pursuing an appropriate resolution of the issues.
Yours truly,
Mary Miller
Dean of Yale College