By
Cyndy Cole
Arizona Summer Wildcat
Riot panel continues to evaluate TPD actions
A Tucson police officer that allegedly pepper-sprayed a man during the April 2 riots without warning is under investigation, said Tucson Police Department assistant chief Robert Lehner.
The man was standing on a street corner, talking on a cell phone, when a TPD officer with a dog allegedly approached the man and pepper sprayed him, said Elizabeth Bottka-Smith, a panelist representing a watchdog group that reviews police activity in Tucson. Bottka-Smith was one of the panelists who reviewed videotapes of police and crowd activity during the riot and wanted to know why the man was pepper-sprayed after seeing the incident on the tapes.
"I'm seeing some things in this tape that do not appear to be consistent with our use of force policies," Lehner said. "I'm not shy about saying that I checked to see if we had individual investigations going, and we do," he added.
Lehner could not comment on motives for such individual police actions.
Bottka-Smith and other panelists recently finished reviewing videotapes of police and crowd activity during the night of the riot. Bottka-Smith and other panelists questioned some of the tactics TPD used to disperse the crowd.
"I didn't see any point where officers were going into the crowd saying 'would you disperse?'" said Daniel Matlick, a panelist who represents merchants on Fourth Avenue. Matlick added that TPD policy states the use of force needs to be in accordance with resistance.
"I didn't see any (resistance)" Matlick said.
Two panelists said they wanted to send the message that the Fourth Avenue community will not tolerate the behavior of those who broke windows, turned over cars and destroyed other property following UA's loss to Duke in the NCAA National Championship game.
"There needs to be an intolerance for criminal activity," said Tucson Fire Department assistant chief Dan Larkin, one of the panelists. "There was a lot of moshing going on and women flashing the crowd and the crowd jumping up and down yelling 'U of A, U of A'. Men were pushing their way in and getting worked up to see naked women,"
Bottka-Smith agreed.
"There should be aggressive arrests and prosecution for perpetrators to send the message that this is not ok," she said. "The community needs to make an effort to prosecute," she added.
Three people have been charged with felonies, said Dan Benavidez, the communications director for the Pima County Attorney's office. The three charged are not UA students.
There have also been five individuals convicted of misdemeanor crimes, Lehner said. Four of those convicted were sentenced to six months of unsupervised probation, while one person was sentenced to twelve months of unsupervised probation, Lehner said.
Bottka-Smith looked at other crowd-control tactics Tucson Police could use, like water canons.
Water canons - a high water pressure weapon that Larkin likened to a fire hose - can be very expensive, stressing TPD's already-tight budgets, Lehner said.
"Everything is expensive," Bottka-Smith replied. "We can spend the money on prevention or lawsuits."
Police spent $139,000 on the cost of duty, munitions, and "accumulated compensatory time" that night, Lehner said.
"I think another method might be tear gas, because people might leave the scene," said undeclared junior Micah Kinsler. Kinsler said he left Fourth Avenue right before the riot.
"Water canons I don't think are that bad, but tear gas, that's changing it to a martial law kind of thing," accounting and finance senior Sean Bornheimer disagreed.
Panelists agreed that university officials, neighborhood associations, TPD and local business owners need to work together in planning for similar situations in the future.
"Either you can get all these agencies' input up front or you can get their complaints later," Bottka-Smith said to Lehner.
Matlick suggested TPD implement a "Mardi Gras" system where officers would be interspersed throughout the crowd to "take the instigators out and control the crowd."
"I don't think we should close (Fourth Avenue) businesses," Matlick said.
Panelists also discussed closing Fourth Avenue and making the next championship basketball game an invitation-only ticketed event. The legalities of closing the event have yet to be considered.
"As soon as we block off someone's legal public access, that's unconstitutional," Lehner said.
