Despite adamant opposition from the mayor, community activists and protesters, San Jose police officers will be allowed to continue using rubber bullets in certain crowded situations and potentially during future demonstrations in the city.
The 10-1 decision by the San Jose City Council this week came amid a heated debate about the merits of using the projectiles and in the wake of newly released body camera footage as well as a report from the San Jose Police Department about the handling of the George Floyd protests earlier this summer.
“As we remove some of the tools — especially those less-than-lethal tools — then we limit officers on the options that they have, and then you do put officers in situations where you’re asking them to simply strike someone with a baton or ultimately, in certain circumstances, use their firearm,” Councilmember Raul Peralez said. “I don’t think that’s the type of limit we should put on our officers.”
During the demonstrations that broke out in late May and early June after Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer, San Jose police officers shot hundreds of rounds of rubber bullets into groups of protesters and at the ground to disperse crowds — a practice then endorsed in the department’s duty manual.
But after more than a week of the protests, the department proactively decided to update the manual to clarify that, from now on, the projectiles would “only be used in situations where a person is actively attacking an officer or another person or when an armed agitator poses a threat to officers or other peaceful protesters.” The newly-amended manual also states that officers who use the weapons inappropriately will face an internal investigation and potential discipline.
The city’s new policy aligns with that of many other major cities across the county — such as Seattle, Detroit and Washington, D.C. — that have made similar moves since early June to ban police use of projectiles as a “crowd control” tool, while still permitting officers to deploy them against violent individuals.
Peralez, a former San Jose police officer, said he felt the policy changes would address the issues of peaceful protesters getting hit with the rubber bullets and would “make projectile weapons better tools, allow our officers to use them better and protect our citizenry as we utilize them.”
But that hasn’t quelled the concerns for many community members and Mayor Sam Liccardo, who advocated that they should be completely banned in any crowds.
During an hourslong discussion on the topic at Tuesday night’s meeting, Liccardo grilled members of the police department over their stance on the use of rubber bullets, saying that firing them into crowds under any circumstances puts residents at “too great a risk.”
“I am not comfortable, knowing what we know from international experience and national experience, that this is something that we’re going to authorize to use in crowded situations,” Liccardo said.
The lengthy conversation at times became heated as both Liccardo and Assistant Chief of Police Dave Knopf raised their voices and attempted to speak over one another. Knopf took issue with the “unfair picture” Liccardo painted of officers indiscriminately firing into the crowd at peaceful protesters and Liccardo called out Knopf for “blowing an assertion out of proportion.”
From Knopf’s point of view, the police department had addressed the concerns of residents and city officials by banning officers from aiming rubber bullets at crowds of protesters or at the ground to force them to disperse.
“I’m not exactly sure what else you want us to do,” the assistant chief said at one point during the meeting. “… I’m not going to commit the office in this department to stand on a line and not defend themselves in a riotous situation.”
But Liccardo cast doubt on what he felt was an unclear policy and its ability to change the habits and behaviors of officers under chaotic circumstances like the recent summer demonstrations.
“I appreciate your confidence in someone having the discernment in the heat of a moment in a very chaotic situation to know when to fire into a crowd and when not to, but I just don’t think as human beings we’re gifted with such extraordinary judgment,” Liccardo said.
The debate came just days after the police department released officer-recorded footage of three high-profile police encounters stemming from the demonstrations and a post-action report in which the department admitted officers’ inexperience with large protest crowds led to problems with the department’s chaotic response to demonstrators.
The city’s police department has drawn widespread criticism for its use of rubber bullets, tear gas and other munitions to disperse unarmed and nonviolent civilians protesting the disproportionate use of force by police against Black and Brown Americans.
All the while, the department has largely reiterated the same rationale for using force — that police were responding to “continuous violent confrontations with officers, rampant destruction of property, arson, and looting.” The department rebuts the notion that it was firing rounds of rubber bullets “indiscriminately into crowds” and defends the use of force against some peaceful protesters because, as Knopf stated Tuesday, “numeral dispersal orders were given beforehand.”
“Those who remained were unlawfully present during a riotous situation where the men and women in this department and other agencies were standing the line taking rocks and bottles,” he said.
Many have pointed out that there is a difference between peaceful protesters who refuse to disperse and individuals inciting violence. And in the eyes of protesters and activists, police officers escalated encounters against demonstrators when they decided to use force against them.
JT Stukes, a 37-year-old San Jose resident, was subjected to the department’s use of force, despite merely chanting and speaking to officers in front of City Hall on May 31, according to his account and a lawsuit filed on his behalf.
Still, Stukes said he was hit in the back, hip, leg and helmet when trying to get out of harm’s way as officers began firing rounds of rubber bullets at protesters who had decided to stay out past the city’s curfew order. One bullet even ripped through his backpack slung over his shoulders.
“It’s absolutely ridiculous,” Stukes said about the department’s response to the protesters. “I wasn’t swearing or telling them they were abusive.
“They were basically just beating people from a distance and that’s just going to create panic and chaos and incite a reaction.”
