Bam Case Reopening 'politics,' Police Say

■'S ' l_s ■■-■-- J j f The president of the Ann Arbor Pólice I Officers Association today charged Maylor Roberj J. Harris is attempting to I "buy" support of "certain blacks and I students" through the reopening of an ■ incident which occurred during the I Black Aetion Movement disturbances I last March. Detective Jerry Wright, head of the I association which represents all patrolI men in tlie Ann Arbor Pólice DepartI ment, said the incident involving Officer I John Pear has been revi ved "for transI parent and obvious political reasons." 1 "Harris is trying to cover the failures I of his two years in office by means of a Idisgusting McCarthy - like maneuver," I Wright said in a prepared statement. Patrólman Pear is the officer shown lin televisión films swinging a night stick lat a pólice prisoner during a melee on I the University eampus a year ago. MayI or Harris after the initial investigation of I the incident demanded Pear's arrest if I there were no extenuating circumstances. I Pear was given a leter of reprimand by I Pólice Chief Walter E. Krasny, in MonI day night's City Council meeting an inI vestigation of the incident was reopened I on the basis of the televisión film. I "It is no coincidence that one month I before the mayoral election. Mayor HarI ris has resurrected an incident which I occurred almost a year ago," Detective I Wright said. "This is politics at its I worst. It is designed to open old wounds and to polarize the community for his (Harris') benefit. It is a sad day when Ann Arbor politics is conducted on such I a vicious plane." Wright's statement gives for the first I time since the incident Patrolman I Pear's explanation of the event. i ''The policeman who is now being viliI fied observed a fellow officer lose his I heimet as he tackled the convicted I demonstrator," Wright said. "He I thought that the prisoner was still strugI gling, saw members of the mob start to I converge on his vulnerable brother and I made a decisión. Speed was essential. I They (the pólice officers) were hopelessI ly oulnumbered. He decided that the I best thing to do was to subdue the I demonstrator quickly and get him out of I there before the crowd made this impossiblè." Detective Wright called it "a common thing today in incidents of this type to distort the real issue, to forget who was I at fault and to attempt to shift the blame lo pólice officers for failing to exercise perfect judgmeni . . ." "It is easy to second guess in the comfort of your living room, what should have been done in an emergency," Wright said. "At the time the Black Action Movement riot occurred, a scattering of 15 to 25 officers was faced with a mob of approximately 2,000 hostile demonstrators. They were barraged with stones, bottles and bricks. Many of the bricks weighed over five pounds and were capable of killing or maiming. Five officers were injured. The prisoner arrested in this incident (U-M Student Thaddeus Harrison) has been convicted of hitting an officer with a brick." (Harrison, 18, is awaiting Circuit Court sentencing on a conviction of felonious assault.) Detective Wright called the seven photographs (taken from televisión film of the incident) which appeared yesterday in The Ann Arbor News "misleading. "They were selected from dozens of others," Wright said. "Each picture covers only one twenty-fourth of a second and the film clip runs for five and one-half seconds. Thus, at least 125 photos were omitted, many of them showing events in between those shown in the paper." The detective said the answer is "No" to the questions: Did the officer know the prisoner was under control when he struck with his baton? and Did the officer use excessive forcé? He said this was conclusively established by the results of a lie detector test Pear took, supporting testimony of the arresting officer who was hit on the arm by Pear's stick and the fact that the prisoner was not hit. "The tragic fact about this incident is that a fine, courageous pólice officer has been smeared and portrayed as a kind of psychological misfit," Wright said. "He is being used as a scapegoat. It is easy to look back on blows which took less than two seconds and say that they should not have been struck. It was a bit more difficult under fire in the tensión I of a riot." Wright called Patrolman Pear's record as an officer "exemplary." "He has recently been given a commendation for being responsible for 621 felony and 21 misdemeanor arrests in a I three-month period with minimum citi-l zen complaints. He does not deserve thisl political crucifixion, nor does his fami-l ly," Wright said. M