Two days after a historic election prompted spontaneous celebrations around the country and 15 arrests in Charles Village, local college students and professors remain outraged by what they claim was excessive force by the Baltimore Police Department. Among those arrested at the corner of 33rd and St. Paul streets at approximately 2 A.M. on Nov. 5, just hours after the nation's first black president was elected, were two Johns Hopkins University professors, a Baltimore City school teacher, a freelance journalist, and a number of Goucher College and Johns Hopkins students.
Police received 911 calls and noise complaints from nearby Union Memorial Hospital and made repeated attempts to quiet the crowd of more than 300 and instructed people to disperse, before moving in and making the arrests. All 15 of the arrestees were released without being charged, after being held for some seven hours.
Eyewitness Matthew Weinstein, Baltimore Region Director of the nonprofit group Progressive Maryland, filed a written complaint to the Northern District Commander, and claimed the police reaction was excessive. A member of Johns Hopkins University Class of 2001, who described the scene in an e-mail provided to City Paper, observed at least one patrolman honking his horn in support of the celebration after police barricaded St. Paul Street at 34th. "Some police were laughing and smiling as they motioned to move those present off the streets," writes the Hopkins student, who was not arrested.
Hopkins anthropology professor Aaron Goodfellow was arrested and has consulted the ACLU about possible legal action. According to Goodfellow, the ACLU advised him that it is already suing the state of Maryland and the Baltimore City Police Department for excessive force and civil rights violations similar to the ones alleged by the election night arrestees, one of whom was zapped with a stun device.
The day after his arrest, when Goodfellow contacted the Central District to file a formal complaint, he says Officer Lisa Cornish told him he had no right to do so. Police spokesman Sterling Clifford says the request should have been directed to the Internal Investigation Division. He did not respond to a request to confirm the officer's name.
Clifford also refused a City Paper request to review the police general orders regarding crowd dispersal and stated that crowd control is a training function and therefore not subject to public review. Clifford added that the photographs and fingerprints of the arrestees will be expunged after 60 days, provided none of them is arrested again.
Baltimore City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke says she is seeking answers from the police about what prompted such stringent action. "I regret that arrests were made and a taser was used," Clarke says. "I'm upset this happened in my district on a night of happiness and victory."
Clarke emphasizes that police response to 911 calls and noise complaints is an important function, but strongly questions the arrest of freelance journalist (and City Paper contributor) Michael Hughes, who was standing on the sidewalk taking pictures with his cell phone. "That's not illegal," Clarke says. "I wish more restraint could've been used."
Similar celebrations erupted all over the country. In Washington, D.C., and in Chicago, where President-elect Barack Obama addressed a massive crowd in Grant Park, the scene of the 1968 riots at the Democratic Convention, officials reported no major incidents or arrests. However, New York City Police arrested celebrants in Brooklyn.
And in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, police ticketed a man for honking his horn in support of the Obama victory.
City Paper is continuing to ask questions about what occurred in Charles Village on election night, and is asking witnesses to contact the paper with photographs, videos or eyewitness accounts.
To view a YouTube video first posted by City Paper on November 5, go here.
To view Matthew Weinstein's cell phone videos of the celebration, go to City Paper's YouTube page.
To read Weinstein's full written complaint to the police, click here
To read a copy of Michael Hughes' arrest report, click here.
To read an eyewitness account of the celebration and arrests by Johns Hopkins University student Michael Rogers,
click here.
To read further coverage of the incident, click here.
