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Ben Fogelson is Calendar editor and staff writer at EW. A meeting with the Eugene Human Rights and Police
Commissions is at 7 pm April 24 in the EWEB Training Center. To contact the Police Commission, call 682-5852.
For more information on Cascadia Alive! and Copwatch, see www.cascadiamedia.org and
www.eugenecopwatch.org
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Eugene Police bite alternative media.
m I legally bound to answer these questions?” I asked EPD Officer Casey
B. Froehlich. I was a reporter for the Eugene Weekly, covering an April 10
anti-war protest march. I’d been observing, biking down the street when
Froehlich stopped me.
My 20-square-inch press pass — laminated with a white background and signed
as per the 2002 Eugene Police Commission specifications for media credentials
designed to give better access to large-scale gatherings such as protests — was in
my fingers and politely in the face of Officer Froehlich. He examined it. The protest —
33 (by my count) bullhorn-waving, fuck-war yelling, flag-burning, justice-then-peace-
loving anarchists — had moved a few blocks away.
“Yes,” Froehlich said, threatening a “failure to comply with an officer” charge.
“Name,” he said. “I just want to write these things down.” He smiled, as if my
name wasn’t on the press pass, and as if he hadn’t just affirmed that he was holding
me against my will.
“Address,” he said. “Phone.” And then his next command, even though I already
knew I was being harassed: “Social Security number.”
So I was forced to give Officer Froehlick, who never mentioned or intended to
charge or arrest me with anything, who already knew I was with EW, my Social
Security number.
And he’d given me a message: STAY AWAY.
For the past 20 minutes, near 11th and Van Buren, officers were giving the same
message to Charles Overbeck, a reporter for Cascadia Alive! and videographer for
Copwatch.
Overbeck had been videotaping officers citing a male protester for “diagonal
crossing.” Officer Derel Schulz arrived, and though Overbeck showed his press pass,
Schulz still temporarily confiscated Overbeck’s camera. Overbeck was told he was
involved in an unlawful march, and a semi-circle of officers surrounded him. They
intentionally interrupted while Overbeck tried to answer the officers’ questions, a
common and confusing intimidation technique. Then Overbeck was photographed.
“What file are you going to put that in?” Overbeck asked the EPD photographer.
“Oh, he’s just a real photo nut,” answered another officer, implying sarcastically
that the photo was for the officer’s private use.
What’s happening to the Eugene police force?
“What’s happened to the Eugene Weekly in this case,” said Tim Lewis, a reporter
for Cascadia Alive!, who has been cited over a dozen times for not crossing at a 90
degree angle, “is a continuation of what’s been going on in Eugene for the past
seven years. No mainstream media has ever been cited or arrested. Cascadia Alive!
and Copwatch reporters and videographers have been arrested, cited or had their
tapes taken over 30 times. When officers once confiscated a KEZI tape and found
out who they’d taken it from, they apologized and gave it back.”
As radical protest organizers continue to be unsatisfied with “passive” protests,
the alternative media will continue to be caught in the middle. New “rules of
engagement” need to be established and followed to reduce abuses of EPD power
and hold police accountable.
I spoke with EPD spokesperson Pam Olshanski. “Can you think of any instances
where I would be legally bound to give an officer my Social Security number?” I
asked.
“I can’t, off the top of my head,” she said.
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EPD officers hold Cascadia Alive! reporter
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EDITORIAL
Editor Ted Taylor, Executive/Arts Editor Lois Wadsworth,
Associate Editor Aria Seligmann, Contributing Editor Anita
Johnson, Staff Writers Alan Pittman, Bobbie Willis,
Calendar Editor Ben Fogelson, Editorial Assistant Marina
Taylor, Contributing Writers Brett Campbell, Rachel Foster,
Kate Rogers Gessert, Jerry Harris, James Johnston, Sharleen
Nelson, Mary O’Brien, Vanessa Salvia, Sally Sheklow, Lance
Sparks, Martha Ulman West, Interns Mariko Fukuyama, John
Husby Joohn Husby
ART DEPARTMENT
Art Director/Production Manager Kevin Dougherty,
Graphic Artist/Webmaster James Bateman,
Graphic Artists Katie Beckman, Todd Cooper Contributing
Photographers Kurt Jensen, Paul Neevel, Linda Smogor
BUSINESS
General Manager John Herron,
Circulation Manager Deena Miller, Bookkeeper Paula
Hoemann, Customer Care Specialist Erin Lusk, Distributors
Travis Dominguez, Jim Harris, Sue Hunnel, Terri Molitor, Will
Thornton, Pedalers Express, Printing Signature Graphics
HOW TO REACH US BY E-MAIL:
(letters): editor@eugeneweekly.com
(advertising): ads@eugeneweekly.com
(classifieds): classy@eugeneweekly.com
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(performance/theater): performance@eugeneweekly.com
(literary arts/readings): books@eugeneweekly.com
(movies/film screenings): movies@eugeneweekly.com
APRIL 17, 2003 7