[Dryerase] AGR Asheville Police Dept

[AGR]

Asheville Global Report
www.AGRNews.org

Reprinting permitted for non-profit use, and by the members of the DryErase 
news wire.
Photo Available at http://www.agrnews.org/issues/199/index.html
AGR editor injured by Asheville Police

By Nicholas Holt

Asheville, North Carolina, Nov. 6 (AGR)—  Early on the morning of  Nov. 1, 
following police disruption of a Halloween-inspired midnight marching band 
parade in downtown Asheville, city resident and Asheville Global Report 
editor Eamon Martin was arrested by one or more members of the Asheville 
Police Department (APD).
Martin, who was injured during the arrest, feels both the arrest and the 
degree of force employed by the police were unjustified.
Martin recalls immediately before his arrest that he stood with his hands 
in the air and verbally expressed his compliance with the officers.
During his arrest, Martin’s face was thrown against a street curb. As a 
result, his right eye was so badly swollen that he was unable to open it 
for three days and was forced to miss a day of work.
Martin recalls the arrival of police as the only down-side to what had been 
an enjoyable Halloween celebration.
“[The parade] was really large and festive and was making its way through 
downtown and looked like a lot of fun – and it was. We had a great time. 
People were just dancing and singing and carrying on to a marching band,” 
says Martin, who estimates the crowd size at 150 - 200.
“The next thing I know, we were penned in by cops. A cop car was coming up 
through the parade slowly and telling people to disperse. So, I walked away 
from the cop car. I was pretty annoyed at this, so I barked out ‘Fuck 
this,’ and immediately noticed that a cop, who I found out later was 
Officer D. Loveland, got out of her car.”
Martin then ran from the police. He did this because of “a previous 
altercation in which I was arrested for watching someone get ticketed and 
was found guilty. I didn’t want to have that happen again.”
That previous arrest and subsequent conviction left Martin with a cynical 
view of justice in the city of Asheville. During his trial, he says he 
observed a disturbing level of apparent camaraderie between his public 
defender and the officer.
“I got the overall sense, especially from the judge
that city workers are 
looking out for each other and aren’t going to embarrass each other, or 
give each other any trouble, to keep the status quo relations of power the 
way they are,” says Martin, explaining his desire to avoid conflict with 
the police that early morning last week. “So I tried to avoid arrest. I 
ran, and thought I was doing what they wanted – I was dispersing.”
Seeing that he was being chased,  Martin says he stopped running after 
about half a block.
“I put both arms in the air, and I said ‘I give up, I’m compliant, I’m 
compliant,’ and then, about two seconds later, the next thing I know, I’m 
on the pavement and my head was whacked into the curb.
“My face hit the curb. I’m lucky it wasn’t my teeth or my nose.”
Martin said that when he asked Loveland, “Did you just smack me down on the 
pavement because I said the word ‘fuck’?” the police officer replied that 
that was indeed the case.
Martin notes that, although the police “couldn’t hear me say [he was 
compliant], they could hear me mutter an obscenity from inside a squad car.”
City of Asheville ordinance code Article 1, Sec. 11-9 does forbid “loud or 
boisterous swearing in any public place in the city,” but Martin was not 
charged with this offence.
Martin is charged with resist, delay and abstruct. His  citation form, as 
filled out by Officer Loveland, reads that he “Did appear intox [sic] and 
disruptive in a public place to wit: cursing by saying fuck this when told 
to dispurse [sic].”
“I had been drinking,” says Martin. “but I don’t know that I would have 
called myself intoxicated.”
The police report gives  no record of Martin being administered a 
breathalizer or otherwise tested for blood alcohol content.
Also arrested was AGR volunteer Shane Perlowin.
“I was walking down the street and saw Eamon being chased down by some cops 
and so, like I do for anybody, I walked over [because] I was concerned 
there wouldn’t be anybody to view what was going on,” Perlowin says.
Perlowin says a police officer threatened him with a tazer gun and 
announced “I’ll fucking zap your ass,”  and ordered Perlowin  to back up, 
which Perlowin says he did.
Perlowin says he was then handcuffed tightly enough to leave bruises and 
taken to the jail where he says he  was groped and sexually harassed by the 
officer who frisked him.
North Carolina state law allows for the use of force during arrests (NCGS 
15a-401(d)) but the  document is clear in its prohibition of abuse of such 
police power: “Nothing in this subdivision [of the general statute] 
constitutes justification for willful, malicious, or criminally negligent 
conduct by any person which injures or endangers any person or property, 
nor shall it be construed to excuse or justify the use of unreasonable or 
excessive force.”
Asheville’s citywide regulations are even more explicit: “Officers will use 
only the minimum amount of force necessary to achieve lawful objectives. 
Any use of excessive force may subject the officer to disciplinary action, 
civil damages, and criminal prosecution.” (Policy Number: 1030)
The same document states that “Whenever any officer uses any force that 
results in
serious physical injury to another person, the Chief or his 
designee will place the officer on administrative leave or assign him to 
duties that do not require carrying a firearm, until completion of the 
investigation. [And] relieve the officer of his weapon after the 
incident
Any officer involved..[shall] attend a preliminary counseling 
session with the Employee Assistance Program.”
As of press time, the APD did not provide the AGR with requested 
information regarding Officer Loveland or other officers present at 
Martin’s arrest in relation to these regulations.
The APD’s “Mission,” “Values,” and “Guiding Principals” include the following:
u “We subscribe to the principle that services will be delivered in a 
manner which preserves and upholds democratic values within our neighborhoods.”
u “The mission of the Asheville Police Department is to provide community 
leadership, to promote individual responsibility, and a commitment to 
improving the City’s quality of life through crime control and public 
safety while serving all people with fairness and respect.”
u “We believe that quality service is achieved by
 maintaining the highest 
standards of honesty, trustworthiness, and mutual respect.”
u “The Asheville Police Department [work is] consistent with the following 
principles: Respect for human rights
” [Italics added].
Martin says he encountered little respect, fairness, or regard for his 
human rights during his experience and notes that he feels the behavior of 
the APD resembled that of “bullies who could exercise brutality with 
impunity
I found my rights to be very flexible and highly negotiable as far 
as they were concerned.”
After being held for three or four hours, Martin was released.
“Right before they let me go, one of the corrections officers said 
something to the effect of ‘Are you gonna sue us? Don’t sue us. I mean, you 
can go ahead and sue us, but you’re not gonna win, because we’re well 
protected and backed by the state,’” he says,  noting  “I was slightly 
amused by this remarkable honesty.”