Item 2A: Approval of City Council Minutes

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Mark Rabinowitz , P.O. Box 51222, opined that the City of Eugene had a long record for torturing non- violent dissidents though it claimed to be a human rights city. He averred that though the City said it was interested in sustainability, the Mayor had voted for a Regional Transportation Plan (RTP) that included $817 million for widening highways. He said the plans assumed increasing traffic usage but he believed that traffic usage would decrease; it was now at its peak. He asserted that though the City and County faced budget cuts, the two jurisdictions were still giving tax breaks to “big polluters.” He declared that the two were “subsidizing the Beijing Olympics.” He thought this was “kind of appropriate” as he alleged one could not openly oppose the Olympics without being arrested and sent to jail. He also alleged that a family of a man killed by a Taser had been awarded $5 million and suggested that the City be prepared to budget such costs in its long-term financial planning. He said the City needed “bold leadership.” Amy Pincus Merwin , 2220 Sandy Street, declared that she had witnessed torture in downtown Eugene on May 30. She outlined her allegations as to what had happened to the young man who had been tasered. She believed the young man had no chance to resist. She opined that he had done nothing wrong; he had been performing street theater that sought to make people aware of roadside pesticide use, “asking rhetorically do you want to get poisoned.” She disagreed with the press release the Eugene Police Department (EPD) had issued. She disagreed that traffic had been blocked, believing instead that the young man was motioned over to an unmarked police vehicle just prior to his arrest. She felt that agreeing to the EPD version of events made people complicit with torture. Rick Gorman , 2525 Portland Street, thought Tasers were supposed to be used in lieu of bullets. He said he was a local civil rights lawyer and had not attended the pesticide rally. He noted he had seen video footage of it. He related that he had represented one of the people who had been arrested until his arraignment on June 3. He alleged that this person had “merely asked the officers from a distance to stop torturing the young man being tasered.” He alleged that his client had been violently thrown to the pavement, had lost consciousness temporarily, and had vomited blood while in jail. He felt his client should have been taken to Sacred Heart Hospital. He said he had lived in Eugene since 1994 and had read of “numerous incidents of police brutality against peaceful activists.” He averred that according to Amnesty International, Tasers had been implicated in 290 deaths in the United States. He opined that the EPD was not “emotionally responsible enough” to deploy Tasers. He averred that in this case the subject was face down on the pavement and the police had chosen to inflict pain on him. He hoped the council would take a long look at Taser use and would conclude that Tasers should be banned completely or would come up with stringent rules as to when Tasers could be deployed. Pam Driscoll , 81394 Lost Creek Road, Dexter, thanked the concerned citizens for taking time to exercise their first amendment rights on May 30. She opined that the University students who were involved could have been getting drunk “and doing what a lot of kids their age do” but instead they were practicing democracy. She averred that this was what democracy looked like. She related that she had spoken with witnesses and she trusted those witnesses to tell the truth. She had been asked to support these people who she considered to be young, impressionable students in college who thought they could make a difference in the world. She asserted that the young people had come to the demonstration, had been tasered, thrown to the ground and their “heads smashed to the pavement.” She called Eugene “Taser Town USA.” She wanted there to be a full independent investigation of what she considered to be police brutality. She felt embar- rassed by the behavior. Ian Lamb , 1975 Lawrence Street, said he was a University of Oregon student who had witnessed the incident. He shared the view of a lot of community members that this was a case of police brutality. He asserted that the police acted in a savage manner. He felt he was in the process of recovering from a traumatic situation caused by the actions of EPD officers. MINUTES—Eugene City Council June 9, 2008 Page 3 Regular Meeting