Police Brutality Protesters March Through Eureka

Residents also mourn anniversary of controversial slaying of Chris Burgess

Humboldt Sentinel
News 10/23/08
By Charles Douglas

EUREKA -- A small group of local residents took to the streets today to mark the National Day of Action Against Police Brutality, as well as commemorate the two-year anniversary of the death of Chris Burgess at the hands of Eureka Police Department officer Terry Liles.

"Shame on you," Margorie Burgess, Chris' mother, repeatedly shouted at plain clothes EPD officers standing just outside their headquarters as protesters carried banners, chanted slogans and banged on various instruments. One man, none other than Arcata Council candidate Geronimo Garcia, took to banging on the door of EPD headquarters, to which there was no response from officers on scene.

The protest march of about 30 people continued northbound on Seventh Street before arriving at the county courthouse for a final rally. No arrests were reported, although the march, which took over both lanes of several downtown streets during lunchtime today, was not permitted, with vehicular traffic only diverted at the last moment.

The protest was organized by Redwood Curtain Copwatch, one of many groups associated with Kim "Verbena" Starr and the People's Action Resource Center located on Second Street in Old Town Eureka. Organizers claimed people attending would be given an opportunity to voice their concerns about law enforcement, although one Arcata man told the Sentinel that was not allowed to speak when he approached the communal bullhorn, in rotation at the time on the steps of the courthouse.

Chris Burgess was fatally shot on October 23, 2006 after allegedly brandishing a weapon against probation officers attempting to apprehend him on a probation violation. The shooting occurred when Burgess, then evading law enforcement on foot, ran to the bottom of a ravine near Lincoln Elementary and allegedly threatened EPD officer Terry Liles, who had been chasing him, with a knife. Post-mortem blood tests later showed a measurable amount of methamphetamine in Burgess' system.

The demands for police accountability vocalized by Copwatch protesters were not the only outcome of the string of officer-related deaths which plagued EPD between 2005 and 2007. While Copwatch and the alphabet soup of other Verbena-related organizations have all dropped out of the Coalition for Police Review, an alliance of local civil rights organizations supporting independent review of law enforcement policies, practices and procedures, the CPR agenda of installing civilian police review systems for EPD and the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office has made substantial progress in recent months.

The Humboldt County Human Rights Commission, a CPR-affiliated group appointed by the Board of Supervisors, has formed a task force with representatives from local government and local law enforcement to develop a system incorporating advisory review committees with an independent police auditor who would have the authority to review police records and internal affairs investigations. Last month, the Eureka City Council approved an application seeking grant funding to cover the staffing costs involved in hiring a full-time independent police auditor, although the position would be shared between the city and the county, according to Councilmember Larry Glass.

In addition to the HRC, other member organizations of CPR include the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project and the Redwood Chapter, ACLU. No members of CPR were present at the protest, and the divergence of strategies undertaken to respond to police brutality are evidently breaking between confrontational protest and institutional reform.