Show empathy for people who express their righteous anger against police violence.
(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) Police are working with protesters who respond to Salt Lake County’s District Attorney Sim Gill’s decision announced on Thursday, July 9, 2020 that 22-year-old Bernardo Palacios- Carbajal was shot dead by police officers in May was legally justified.
By Melanie Martin and Sandra Luo | Especially for The Tribune
On January 6, right-wing rioters stormed our nation’s Capitol and sent elected officials on the run. Meanwhile, cities across the country are dropping the vast majority of charges against Black Lives Matter protesters – whose alleged crimes were a much-needed wake-up call about the extent of police brutality against people of color.
But here in Utah we still talk about red color.
The charges against those arrested in connection with the Justice for Bernardo protest on July 9th are particularly egregious because of their absurdity. (Buying red paint is a crime ?!) However, this is just one of many outrageous acts of state repression. People arrested after May 30 and other protests last summer are being prosecuted for property destruction, which amounts to murder and rape.
Locking people up for years is not the answer. Instead, the government should show empathy for the righteous anger of the people by dropping charges against the July 9 group – whose preliminary hearing is fast approaching – and for anyone oppressed for their alleged actions. They have already experienced the trauma of Utah’s indefinite conviction (“five years before life”) on charges that, after adding “gang reform”, became first degree crimes. And they have suffered in countless other ways.
These are people who, despite this nightmarish ordeal, live out their commitment to social justice every day. They advocate for the unhoused community and provide essential supplies to those exposed to winter on the streets of Salt Lake City. They are irreplaceable members of our community, and it is time to follow the example of many other cities and drop their outrageous accusations.
In many cases, cities dropped these charges because they found that the demonstrators were only exercising their basic civil rights. The New York Times cites the scale of arrests and subsequent dismissals since the early 1960s as unrivaled. In Detroit, most charges were dismissed in January. Given the level of violence these protesters faced, this was the least the city could do.
The Salt Lake City protest on July 9th was another incident where police forcefully entered and turned a nonviolent protest into a horrific and chaotic scene. They rammed a vehicle in which people were sitting with their massive van and charged protesters in riot gear, behaving the same as they did during the 2019 Inland Port Protest. They ran in with their fists swinging and had begun to shove their necks in the chokeholds and grab without warning. This time they had batons and beanbag guns on fire.
This is part of a dire trend: Police agencies across the country are using militarized tactics when dealing with protests against their own violent behavior. Upon analyzing hundreds of social media posts, ProPublica found that police used force to initiate confrontations with noncombative protesters. Tactics such as chaining – officials surrounding demonstrators so they cannot escape – create an atmosphere of panic that sometimes forces demonstrators to defend themselves against heavily armed police officers. At a moment when our city should have listened to protesters’ complaints, tensions instead escalated.
Now is the moment to de-escalate. The July 9 demonstrators and all those who demand social justice are important members of our society. Even if you disapprove of their actions, consider the emotional tenor of last summer and the level of collective anger that has gripped the nation. It is time to allow them to heal from the trauma of the crime. A gesture of empathy would go a long way toward bringing about the healing our society so desperately needs.
Melanie Martin and Sandra Luo team up with Decarcerate Utah, a Salt Lake City-based group trying to get rid of the prison industrial complex.
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