Sparsely, Sage and Timely
The issue is torture, nothing else
The more time goes by, the more obvious it seems that the ranger-pepper-spray scandal won’t be resolved until there is a ruling in the civil lawsuit to be brought by the victims against the Park Service.
At present, no one is addressing the fundamental issue. An Inverness Park 18 year old and especially his 17-year-old sister were the victims of torture. I mean that in the literal sense of the word. The amount of pepper-spray used on them was not aimed at restraining them (had that even been necessary) but at inflicting maximum pain.
The National Seashore keeps insisting that law-enforcement rangers really are cops, but they are in name only, not in their adherence to normal police standards. For example, if rangers Roger Mayo and Angelina Gregorio had been working for the New York City Police Department, they would now be in serious trouble for violating standard police regulations.
The NYPD tells officers that pepper-spray is to be used when it is necessary to arrest a resisting suspect (the siblings could not have been resisting arrest since no attempt was being made to arrest them on any charge whatsoever); to protect the officer or someone else; or to take an emotionally disturbed person into custody.
And even this last use is iffy. The Report of the Pepper Spray Committee of the [New York City] Civilian Complaint Review Board (headed by three judges) notes, "Pepper spray might not work against [some] emotionally disturbed persons and might in some cases exacerbate the difficulties in controlling such persons."
In addition, "officers are warned during training that the spray might not work on .... people under the influence of drugs or alcohol ... They are cautioned that ineffectiveness is not a reason to escalate force used."
NYPD Procedure No. 212-95 mandates that officers "request [the] response of emergency medical service [for the targets] once the situation is under control." (Paramedics were not called out to flush the eyes and skin of Jessica and Chris Miller until well over half an hour had passed; nor was the call placed by rangers – but by sheriff’s deputies who later arrived on the scene.)
If possible, the officer "should flush the contaminated skin area of a subject with profuse amounts of water. Repeat flushing at short intervals, if necessary, until symptoms of distress subside." (The perfunctory flushing the rangers gave their victims’ eyes and skin was nowhere near "profuse.") Police procedures included in an appendix to the pepper-spray committee’s report note:
• Under NYPD training, "officers are told to use verbal techniques to de-escalate the confrontation, if possible, before resorting to pepper spray ... The Patrol Guide prohibits the use of pepper-spray against subjects who passively resist."
• "[Officers] are taught not to fire the spray from within three feet of subjects ... They are trained to fire a maximum of two one-second bursts." (The victims, a resident living across the street, and other witnesses say the rangers’ pepper-spraying continued off and on for several minutes, on occasion at point-blank range.)
• "Intended results of the use of pepper spray are inflammation and swelling of the mucous membranes of the eye, nose, and throat and involuntary closure of the eyes." (In short, pepper-spray is intended to cause enough pain to incapacitate someone.
Using more than the prescribed amount of pepper-spray serves no purpose but to increase the victims’ pain. That, by definition, is torture.
The Park Service’s attempts to find discrepancies between one witness’ account and another’s doesn’t mitigate that torture. Whether or not Jessica had been drinking doesn’t mitigate that torture. Whether or not some teenagers were "mouthy" (as the Park Service whines but witnesses deny) doesn’t mitigate that torture. The siblings’ starting to walk away when a ranger (already angry at other teenagers) demanded they sit down on the ground doesn’t mitigate that torture.
Moreover, that torture is not merely the fault of the two rangers. It is also the fault of Point Reyes National Seashore Supt. Neubacher, for he let it happen on his watch. Neubacher was aware that ranger Mayo had previously bullied members of the public. Gays had complained. Motorcyclists, whom Mayo hosed down on Highway 1, had complained. The park superintendent knew Mayo could be volatile but left him in a position to keep bullying – and to ultimately torture – members of the public.
Colin Smith, chief ranger for the Point Reyes National Seashore, told a community meeting in Point Reyes Station that if an internal Park Service investigation (now supposedly concluded) were to conclude that rangers Roger Mayo and Angelina Gregorio mistreated the teenagers by needlessly or excessively pepper-spraying them, one of three things could happen: a demerit could be recorded in a ranger’s file; a ranger could be required to undergo counseling; or – worst of all – a ranger could be fired. In contrast, if a civilian were found to have brutalized a ranger, he would almost certainly be sent to prison.
In short, the Park Service’s internal investigation is not intended to bring about justice but to merely deal with an awkward personnel problem. Indeed, two adult witnesses interviewed by the investigator publicly complained afterward that their responses were manipulated by him.
The District Attorney’s Office has said it will not investigate the rangers, regardless of what National Seashore Supt. Neubacher led the public to believe at the community meeting. As it turned out, park officials had actually asked the county to provide legal cover for the rangers’ misbehavior by requesting that the Juvenile Probation Department prosecute victim Jessica Miller and that the DA’s Office prosecute her brother Chris.
The DA’s Office previously told The Light that if anyone were to investigate the rangers for an alleged assault under the color of authority, it would be the FBI. Unfortunately, the Bush Administration this week began complaining that the FBI is understaffed because of the "war on terrorism."
So, as I said, we will probably have to wait until a lawsuit goes to court before justice is served.