Updated below: Chief Schirling retracts statement, apologizes for mistake.
Does this photograph show a protester from Sunday’s clash with Burlington police grabbing a cop’s baton?
Burlington Police Chief Michael Schirling said on Vermont Public Radio’s “Vermont Edition” today that the photo — snapped by Dylan Kelley and posted online at Seven Days — “clearly” shows the demonstrator in the black bandana grabbing the baton of police Lt. Art Cyr.
“What I see in the photograph, they have a hold of it,” Schirling told VPR host Steve Zind. “They are clearly resisting and you can clearly see in the left of the photo, a man in a black bandana grabbed hold of Lt. Cyr’s baton, and that is what precipated the first event.”
Activists and cops have traded accusations about who’s to blame for the incident in which police fired “stingball pellets” into a crowd of demonstrators blocking a bus of dignitaries from leaving a conference of New England governors and eastern Canadian premiers. The tension gave way to a moment of cooperation yesterday when demonstrators and their lawyer called for a dialogue with police about the events that led to the clash.
After hearing Schirling’s remarks on VPR, the photographer who took the picture said he was “livid,” calling Schirling’s claim “an absolute lie.”
“If you look at the picture, it clearly illustrates that that person’s hand is not wrapped around the baton,” said Dylan Kelley, who has photographed occupy protests around the country. “It is wrapped around a flag or banner or something else. If you zoom in on that lower left hand corner of the frame, and you look at that person’s hand, it is not wrapped around the baton.”
Kelley, who said he was at most four feet away from Cyr, sent Seven Days higher-resolution version of the photograph, which we zoomed in on and cropped to publish here. From the photograph, it’s difficult to say what the bandana-clad protester is clutching, and Schirling was not immediately available Thursday afternoon to respond to Kelley’s comments.
Update – 4 p.m.
Upon viewing the close-up of the photograph, Chief Schirling has retracted his earlier statement made on Vermont Public Radio. In a statement emailed to Seven Days and VPR Thursday afternoon, Schirling said:
“On the show earlier today I described a photograph from the 7 Days website that was given to us this morning as showing a man grabbing an officer’s baton. A few moments ago 7 Days emailed us a much higher resolution enhanced version of the photograph. Upon examination of this new photograph we realize it is not the baton. We will work during our investigation and ‘after action’ review to try to determine what it is. Our assessment of this portion of the event was based solely on the photograph available earlier in the day. I want to be sure we set the record straight as quickly as possible as new information comes to light. I apologize for the error. We continue to ask that anyone with information about this incident, video, photographic, or otherwise, contact us so we may be as thorough as possible.”
This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2012.
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No, the protester had a black flag (traditional anarchist symbol) in his hand, and was not reaching for the baton at all. Proof that the media will spin anything.
They did get less than they deserved, less justice, less democracy, less integrity from the police. You think wearing a mask deserves rubber bullets? Do you believe in democracy? Apparently not.
You’re confusing a constitutional right to speech with no constitutional right to block traffic and refuse a policeman’s order to move. What is it about illegal conduct that you just don’t get?
Who showed up wearing masks to conceal their identities? Who illegally blocked traffic? Who refused a police request to move?
Professional protesters, that’s who. People who absolutely wanted a confrontation with the police, that’s who.
They got less than they deserved.
VPR (Vermont Paramilitary Reporters), and NPR (National Pentagon Radio) lost my support over a decade ago.
The bottom line is: you don’t initiate violence against people who are standing, unarmed, unthreateningly, in the street. Not in my town. Not in my state.
Absent a functioning democracy, we are obligated to seek non-violent means of effectively expressing dissent. These actions may sometimes be messy, inconvenient, and disruptive. With the popular media (including “public radio,” etc.) under total corporate control, we are left with the streets. Everyone in the 99% owes their diminishing freedoms to those who risk personal injury and detention to protect and preserve democracy. We deserve respect, not scorn or derision. This is a call to rise.
pepper spray bottle?
” with no clear evidence of those individuals resisting or interfering with the armed individual’s performing of a job function.” You don’t call creating a blockade at the exit route and not moving when asked continually to do so, not resisting and not interfering!
VPR, like NPR, is gov’t propaganda radio. It has been for decades. To expect anything else is a mistake.
Who showed up with weapons? Who used weapons on unarmed people? There is one answer to both questions, and that says it all.
Oh for Pete’s sale. Schirlings number 1 mistake was explaining himself to the protestors. Two was the baton deal, which from the first photo you can see how he might have made a mistake.
Thirdly, the photographer is wrong, he is grabbing the cops radio.
IV.) its all a moot point, the guy reached for something on the officers person and the officer responded, in an appropriate manner I might add.
E.) It appears the protestors are pushing and the cop is pushing back. Why? Why would protestors engage in a physical confrontation with a police officer. That’s just plain stupid and hopefully a few rubber bullets to the head knocked some sense into them.
6.) Why is everyone so surprised? It was only a matter of time, every time a protest occurs the boundaries are pushed a little further. Eventually you find the limits. Now you know. Take heed and be aware next time or expect the same.