Aggressive policing escalates violence at protests, research shows. A former Madison police chief touts a better way. | Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service
Clara Neupert, Wisconsin Watch
December 12, 2020
Atleast 1,500 young people gathered on Madison, Wisconsin’s Mifflin Street inApril 1973 for a block party. People drank beer, smoked weed and tossedFrisbees in a neighborhood near the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus.
Policeofficers observed the party from a distance, greeting attendees and directingtraffic away from the event. They didn’t wear police caps, nor did they makearrests. The Saturday unfolded
peacefully,in stark contrast to Mifflin Street parties of the past.
Theannual event began in 1969 as a dance and protest of the Vietnam War, eruptingthat year into a weekend of unrest that injured dozens. Officers responded to anoise complaint and began arresting people for minor infractions.
Thepolice action spurred people in the crowd to toss rocks at the officers. Astension escalated, police raided homes, launched tear gas and
rammed barricades with squad cars. Madison officials would viewsubsequent Mifflin Street parties as nuisances in need of quashing, refusing toissue permits to close streets.
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In1970, Vietnam War protests escalated, culminating in the deadly bombing of
UW-Madison’s Sterling Hall. When the Mifflin Street block party rolled around in 1971,then-Mayor William Dyke dispatched a riot squad to control the crowd.
EnterDavid Couper. Appointed police chief in 1972 at age 35, he sought to change thenarrative surrounding the party — and his department. The city permitted the event,and it “went off without a hitch,” Couper recalled. It would continue to do sothroughout his 21-year tenure.
Thatwas due to a strategy that would forge the department’s reputation foroverseeing protests that stayed peaceful. Couper’s philosophy of respectingfree speech and assembly offered a blueprint for police to ditch militarizedcrowd control tactics that, decades of research shows, more often escalateviolence rather than prevent it.
“Whydoes it have to be the police versus people who want to protest? Why can’tpolice be there to facilitate protest?” Couper told Wisconsin Watch.
Summer of unrest and escalation
Thosequestions are resonating in a tumultuous 2020. Several Wisconsin cities —including Kenosha, Madison, Milwaukee and Wauwatosa — saw police don body armor andfire crowd control weapons during protests that, at times, turned destructive.The events unfolded during a summer of nationwide unrest following policekillings and shootings of Black people.
Thenational spotlight has shined most brightly on Kenosha, where a police officerduring an Aug. 23 domestic disturbance shot Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Blackman, in the back seven times, sparking consecutive nights of protests.
Violenceand property damage rapidly escalated in the hours following the shooting afterlaw enforcement began firing lung-damaging tear gas and rubber bullets intothe crowds. Officers continued such tactics during subsequent nights, includingon Aug. 25 — when 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse fatally shot two people andinjured another after responding to calls for vigilantes
to protect property in Kenosha.
TheMadison model of dialogue may not have prevented the mayhem in Kenosha, becausepolice lacked training and did not first do enough to gain Black residents’trust in the deeply segregated city, said Selika Ducksworth-Lawton, a historyprofessor at the UW-Eau Claire with expertise in civil rights and the military.
TheKenosha Police Department did not respond to repeated requests for commentabout tactics used with protesters. The Kenosha County Sheriff’s Officedeclined to respond to emailed questions.
Lawenforcement’s response in Kenosha — including the early use of armored vehiclesand the decision to arrest protesters en masse
for curfew violations — ran counter to established best practices.
“Historyhas taught us that the premature or ill-advised use of force againstprotesters, particularly the use of riot control techniques, often amplifiesconflict with protesters and can instigate violence,” Edward Maguire, aprofessor of criminal justice at Arizona State University, wrote in a 2015 study.
Thepillars of Couper’s philosophy remain embedded in the Madison PoliceDepartment’s standard operating
procedure. “We protect people first and property second,” the documentsays.
Butafter Madison this summer saw its own smashed storefronts and chemical cloudsduring confrontations between police and protesters — interspersed betweenweeks of peaceful demonstrations — Couper is among those questioning whether hisformer department retains public trust.
“Ifyou start using tear gas or pepper spray, you’ve pretty well lost things,” saidCouper, now an Episcopal
priest and peace activist. “People are going to remember that for years.”
Decades of scrutiny for aggressive
policing
Coupercame of age in policing during the turbulent 1960s, forging relationships withMinneapolis-area residents as he patrolled by foot. Racial unrest swept citiesnationwide during the summer of 1967, with Detroit and Newark, New Jerseyseeing the most violent clashes between police and Black residents. Milwaukee,where decades of racist housing policies and police brutality fueled outrage inBlack-majority neighborhoods, saw an uprising that resulted in four deaths and 100
people injured.
PresidentLyndon Johnson’s Kerner Commission would later conclude that policeaction sparked half of the 24 nationwide uprisings probed in detail. It calledfor police departments to “eliminate abrasive practices” and recommendedmassive investments in housing and economic programs to bolster quality of lifefor Black residents. A previous Johnson commission called on police to morecarefully plan their response to protests and engage with organizersbeforehand.
“Policemust not react to disorder in the course of demonstrations too quickly or withtoo much force,” said that commission’s 1967 report.
Coupersaid he “figured (police) had to do something different” after Martin LutherKing Jr. was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968.
AsCouper policed in Minnesota, Madison saw protests against the Vietnam War andother targets, including police brutality and racism. Protesters held sit-ins, marched
and damaged property. Police often responded with billy clubs and tear gas.
Decadeslater, Ducksworth-Lawton said evidence is only growing that militarizedpolicing only escalates violence between crowds and police.
“Theproblem is that the ‘us versus them’ militarized occupation mentality createsanxiety and nervousness and (police) don’t know how to de-escalate,” she said.
Officersare more likely to keep crowds peaceful by targeting those whose actions areendangering the public, while continuing to protect the rights of peacefulprotesters, ASU’s Maguire wrote in 2015.
Maguirepointed to a “graded response” as a way for police to limit tension whilekeeping themselves safe. That involves staging tactical tools nearby but out ofsight for use if needed.
“Ifthey are visible to the crowd, instead of enhancing officer safety, they mayplace officers at greater risk by escalating matters,” he wrote.
‘Freaks vs. Fuzz’ and other
changes
Coupersaw a trust gap between Madison residents and police when he became one of theyoungest police chiefs in city history in 1972. He began meeting withorganizers ahead of protests and etching respect for the First Amendment indepartment policy. Couper sought to instill a “peace officer” mindset.
Hisideas initially elicited grumbles from some veteran officers, according to newsreports from time. But Couper generally received
high marks from city officials and younger officers.
WhenCouper retired in 1993, the U.S. Department of Justice studied his department’s work in creatingan experimental district in which officers made decisions in teams. Officersreported better attitudes and fewer residents perceived crime as a problem inthe community.
Butmany U.S. police departments beginning in the 1990s embraced more militarizedtactics.
Couperincludes Madison in that camp, pointing to its participation in the federal 1033 Program, allowing state and local departments to access
Department of Defense property. That mostly includes “general” items, such as furnitureand computers. But the program also loans out weapons and other itemsassociated with war, called “controlled property.”
Wisconsinpolice departments, sheriff offices and other agencies have accessed more than$42 million in controlled property since 1994, federal data show.
‘We have an obligation to intervene’
Unrestin Madison this spring reignited emotional conversations about how local policerespond to protests.
Onthree consecutive nights beginning May 30, Madison police clad in riot gearfired tear gas, pepper spray and sponge projectiles to disperse people who tookto the streets after Minneapolis police killed George Floyd.
Afterthousands of Madison protesters peacefully marched during daytime protests,smaller groups smashed vehicles and broke into stores. Madison police said officers fired crowd control weaponsonly after people began damaging property and throwing rocks. But the chemicalclouds also stung peaceful protesters and bystanders.
“Nothingturned violent until police instigated the violence,” Nick Harrison, a27-year-old Madison resident who protested one night, told Wisconsin Watch. “Isaw a strong sense of community until the police showed up, dressed for war.”
ActingMadison Police Chief Vic Wahl said officers deployed tear gas only because somepeople “were intent on creating and engaging violence.”
“Wehave an obligation to intervene,” Wahl said in July.
The Quattrone Center for
the Fair Administration of Justice is now examining the policeresponse at Wahl’s request.
Wahlsaid he continues to follow Couper’s model. His department communicated withprotesters ahead of many marches throughout the summer, he said. Madisonofficers shifted to a hands-off approach following the incidents of late Mayand early June, and downtown stayed peaceful for weeks.
Butvandalism and violence returned in late June when a group of protesters toredown two statues near the state Capitol andassaulted state Sen. Tim Carpenter, D-Milwaukee. Officers used pepper spray tothwart a break-in of the Capitol.
Republicanstate lawmakers scolded Madison’s leaders for failing to prevent the episode.
TheMadison Common Council in October approved a measure requiring MPD to study its use oftear gas. The council will review the findings before weighing whether to banits use.
“It’snot a healthy substance,” said Ald. Patrick Heck, one resolution sponsor. “Itwas quite problematic — not just for the people who were targeted by the teargas but people standing by.”
Anothernew ordinance limits the police department’s useof the 1033 Program.
Wahlsaid he wants to improve his department but opposes limiting its crowd controlarsenal and worries about a “frenzy right now about policing.”
Couperis sure of one thing as he examines policing from the outside: “Things have gotto change.”
Wisconsin
Watch intern Will Cioci contributed to this report. Clara Neupert is a
reporting fellow for Wisconsin Watch. Her fellowship is funded in part by the
Ann Devroy Fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Wisconsin
Watch (wisconsinwatch.org) collaborates with
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