A seemingly innocuous party on March 30 provoked a massive police response, left three men charged with Measure 11 crimes and increased tension between the city's counterculture and police.
Around 1 am, more than 50 people were dancing to Prince's Hits in a house at Northeast 12th Avenue and Alberta Street when three police officers responded to a noise complaint, says police spokesman Officer John Wrigley.
After that, stories diverge. Police say that Bjorn Einertsen, Chad Hapshe and Michael Ray dragged Sgt. Michael Fort into the house and beat him, injuring his shoulder. Fort radioed for cover; 49 officers responded.
Partygoers say things got crazy when a cop kicked Ray. As Ray's friends shouted at the officers, they say, backup officers unloaded on partygoers with batons and pepper spray. A K-9 unit appeared; officers broke out bean-bag shot guns and declared several blocks around the house an emergency zone.
Matt Kramer, one of several partygoers who was handcuffed in front of the house, says he was so upset he suggested that people take down names and badge numbers. "Immediately they dragged me away," he told WW, "and threw me on the ground with a knee in the back of the head." He was taken to Northeast Precinct along with three other men.
One of them, Einertsen, alleges that he was beaten in his holding cell after he urinated on the cell floor; he says officers had ignored repeated requests to let him use a bathroom. "I was not fighting back," he says. "I had handcuffs on."
Einertsen, Hapshe and Ray were each charged with rioting and assaulting a public safety officer. At their initial court appearance Monday, Deputy District Attorney Scott Kerin added kidnapping, a Measure 11 crime, to the charges, and the three were jailed. Bail for each could run $250,000.
--Philip Dawdy
Partygoers say things got crazy when a cop kicked Ray.
I would say they got pretty crazy when someone had to call the cops about the noise, and when the partiers dragged the cop inside in the first place. MAybe Ray shouldn't have dragged anyone inside if he didn't want to get kicked.