A severed ear, a broken jaw and a broken nose for the civilians, along with a cut lip for a cop, were among the injuries Arcata police counted up during this year’s Halloween … uh … can it be called a celebration?
The Plaza was packed, even with its core cordoned off and officers on hand from seven law enforcement agencies. Vandalism, police said, was reduced.
The press release is here:
The Arcata Police Department along with officers from the Eureka Police Department, Fortuna Police Department, Ferndale Police Department, Rio Dell Police Department, HSU Police Department, and California Highway Patrol patrolled the Arcata Plaza on Halloween due to past incidents of unruly behavior.
Halloween saw a couple thousand people in the downtown area once again.While officers were successful in keeping the Plaza from being vandilized, some people in the crowd turned violent.
While arresting a female subject who had been involved in a physical fight, officers became surrounded. Several objects were thrown at the officers from the crowd. An APD sergeant was struck in the face with a bottle. He sustained a large laceration to his upper lip and had to be transported to Mad River Hospital where he received several stitches. The crowd continued to be unruly and several more arrests were made throughout the night.
During the evening officers located a male subject with an AR-15 assault rifle slung around his neck. The firearm had an unusable unloaded magazine in the weapon. He also had a loaded operable 10 round magazine in his pocket. The weapon was taken for public safety reasons.
During the evening there were 9-Public intoxication arrests,and numerous medical aid calls which consisted of a broken nose, broken jaw, severed ear (which were sustianed during physical altercations in the downtown area) and other alcohol related issues. There were approximately 101 calls for service during the night.
This article appears in Banished.
I decided to visit the plaza just about the time the violence began. I was less than twenty feet from the officer who was hit in the face with flying debris. His face was gushing blood. I think that this injury alone wasn’t worth the protecting the grass. We depend on law enforcement “being cool” for our way of life here, and treating our peace officers like this is terrible. The officers did not deploy chemical riot control agents(i.e. pepper spray) but would have been justified in doing so.
Again, our peace officers turned the other cheek and did what Jesus would have done despite physical injury. They knew that retaliation would cause more injury and took the high road. The attackers deserved to be introduced to the nonviolent crowd control methods the police have available. Let’s stock our guys up with c.s. grenades and bean bag rounds next year!