Judge Refuses to Block Use of Pepper-Spray at Sit-Ins

A federal court judge here refused Friday to prohibit law enforcement officers in Humboldt County from applying pepper spray directly to the faces of passive protesters.

Attorneys for nine North Coast demonstrators who were arrested while protesting the harvest of ancient redwoods in the Headwaters Forest had asked U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker to issue a preliminary injunction to ban the use of pepper spray around demonstrators’ eyes.

In three incidents this fall, Eureka police officers and Humboldt County sheriff’s deputies broke up sit-ins by swabbing liquid pepper spray around the eyes of the nine protesters, who linked arms through heavy metal sleeves so they could not be separated.

The systematic application was captured on law enforcement videotape and broadcast nationally and formed the basis of a lawsuit filed by the protesters this month, alleging that the North Coast officers had violated the constitutional rights of the environmental protesters.

The suit asked that the use of pepper spray against nonviolent protesters be halted until a jury can decide whether the law enforcement agents had acted with unreasonable force in trying to clear demonstrators from U.S. Rep. Frank Riggs’ Eureka office and the headquarters of Pacific Lumber, which owns the Headwaters Forest.

But Walker declined to grant the temporary ban and ordered that the lawsuit proceed rapidly to trial. Although “engaging in a protest to save forests bespeaks of lofty ideals and an honest concern,” Walker said, when protesters trespass they also commit a crime.

“Officers of the law are charged with arresting those who commit crimes, and they must do so efficiently and with risk reasonable to all,” Walker told a packed courtroom.

“To restrict the officers to negotiation in these circumstances would impair their ability to enforce the law and thus be a significant hardship.”

Nancy K. Delaney, attorney for Eureka, Humboldt County and their officers, said after the ruling that “we believe what we did posed the least chance of injury” to the protesters.

Macon Cowles, attorney for the protesters, argued that the swabbing of pepper spray in and around the eyes and the spraying of the burning liquid at close range was a misuse of force that amounted to “torture.”

The officers, Cowles said, had other means of stopping the protesters that would have caused far less harm.

Although disappointed with the decision, Cowles said he is glad that the trial will proceed rapidly.

He stressed that Walker “did not approve the use of pepper spray” against passive protesters.

“I would frankly be shocked if the law enforcement officials continue to use pepper spray on passive protesters,” Cowles said. “But there is a chilling effect. People are frightened of being tortured in these demonstrations, so some will not protest.”