As Vancouver police prepared to arrest oil-train protesters nine days ago, their orders included a reminder to handle with care.
Be careful of knees, hips and shoulders: That’s what Sgt. Steve Dobbs stressed before his police team started handcuffing 21 activists who were trespassing on downtown railroad tracks.
There were a couple of factors in the police game plan. Almost half of those arrested were 60 or older. The oldest was 85, followed by 76, 74, 73, 73, 67, 66, 66, 65, 63, 59, 55, 54, 52, 51, 50, 38, 35, 34 and 22.
“We were cognizant of folks who won’t be able to move quickly — some elderly folks,” said Dobbs, who headed the arrest teams. “If we have to help people up, or if some are not ambulatory, we have to be very kid-glove.”
And, those who were arrested actually wanted to go to jail.
“I made it clear: This is a passive crowd. We don’t want to make this a bigger deal than it is,” Dobbs said.
These days, of course, all police officers should assume they’re on video.
“We were conscious of video and news cameras. We took our own video” for self-protection and liability issues, Dobbs said.
“Overall, things went very well,” Mia Reback, an organizer of the event said.
The 100 or so protesters who showed up on June 18 had a game plan of their own. They held a non-violence workshop at a Portland church two days before the protest.
They also had representative to consult with Sgt. Dobbs.
“He was the police liaison,” Dobbs said. “We talked four or five different times, how we were going to proceed.”
Dobbs also chatted with other protesters.
“I must have talked to 12 to 15 of them. We were talking about why they wanted to go all the way to being arrested, and they had their reasons. People brought up Martin Luther King, and looking back on history,” Dobbs said. “I’ve done this 27 for years. It was interesting to be in that setting.”
From Reback’s perspective, the success of their campaign can only help people such as Dobbs.
If an oil train turns into an inferno, Reback said, “first responders are among those impacted.”
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