Get Riot Cops Off Our City Buses by Adam Pagenkopf

Courtesy: Michael Doyle Olson

Get Riot Cops Off Our City Buses

Adam Pagenkopf

For three nights on May 30th, May 31st, and June 1st, overwhelming force was used by riot police against demonstrators, peaceful and looting alike, in downtown Madison. The protests against police brutality were sparked after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. Tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades, and foam-tipped projectiles were used as phalanxes of police and national guardsmen in full riot gear marched down Sta te Street. Dozens of people were arrested. Police and members of the National Guard came from across Dane County and as far away as Wausau. Many of those riot police arrived at the site of protests on Madison Metro buses.

Decades of research on violence at protests have shown that when police escalate force against crowds - clearing streets, imposing curfews, and deploying so-called "less-than-lethal" weapons - they amplify the very violence that the use of force was meant to prevent. Under Mayor Satya Rhode-Conway’s emergency order, the entire apparatus of the City government was asked to participate in this escalation.

This use of buses is inconsistent with the spirit and purpose of the emergency management ordinance under which they were used. Madison General Ordinance 3.20 states that the purpose of emergency management is “to minimize and repair injury and damage.” Instead, City resources were repurposed to transport heavily armored troops and police carrying tear gas, pepper spray, flash grenades, and foam-tipped projectiles.

Elsewhere around the country, victories have been won in limiting the use of city buses in police escalation tactics. Transportation agencies in San Francisco, Boston, and Seattle have committed to end the practice. Drivers and their unions in Minneapolis, New York, and Chicago have stood up in solidarity with protestors.

In Madison, policy makers, Metro Transit, and its supporters should take a stand against transporting police to demonstrations and facilitating mass arrests.

Madison Metro drivers and their union, Teamsters Local 695, should denounce the use of buses for suppression of protest. They should also commit to oppose Metro support of police action in the future, and, if necessary, refuse to drive these buses.

Madison Metro leadership, Metro Transit General Manager Justin Stuehrenberg, Director of Transportation Tom Lynch, and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway should commit to end the use of City buses to transport riot police and arrested protestors.

Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway has broad discretion over the use of City resources during an emergency of the kind that she declared from May 30th to June 2nd. She should apologize for the use of City buses against protestors on those nights and commit to not use them in the future.

The governing bodies of Metro Transit; the Transportation Commission, the Transportation Policy and Planning Board, and the Common Council should write legislation to end this practice by City ordinance.

Citizens and community supporters of Metro should push those in power to end the agency's involvement in the suppression of protests.

A way forward began at the June 15th Transportation Policy and Planning Board meeting. The body was unanimous in asking Transportation Department staff to work with the City Attorney’s office to draft changes to the City’s emergency management ordinance and to Metro policy to prevent the use of Metro buses in support of police activity in the future.

This issue came before the Transportation Commission on June 24th. Newly hired Metro General Manager Justin Stuehrenberg and Assistant City Attorney John Strange testified that Metro has no authority to refuse a request for the use of buses during a declared emergency under current ordinance. As a City department, Metro is directly controlled by the City whereas other transit agencies around the country may have the independence to refuse such a request from a municipality since they are under separate governance structures. Pre-empting the use of buses in similar circumstances in the future would require a change to City ordinance to prevent the request from occurring or to allow Metro to refuse such a request, according to Mr. Steuhrenberg. Mr. Strange pointed to a change to section 3.20 of the Madison General Ordinance, a change to the City Emergency Management Plan, and a non-binding resolution as options for policy makers.

Comprehensive language should be passed into ordinance by the City Council and written into the policy of emergency management and Metro Transit to restrict the use of Metro buses to peaceful activity.

Police spared no expense to protect glass and merchandise on State Street. Little effort seems to have been spent to protect protestors’ bodies from vehicles. Some streets were blocked off as a form of traffic control, but implementation of barricades was not consistent. A man and woman were run over by a woman driving a silver Cadillac SUV at Jenifer and Few St on the first day of major protests, as organizers gathered half a block away in front of the home where Tony Robinson was killed by Madison Police in 2015. On June 21st, the driver of a pickup truck sent a woman to the hospital after driving into a crowd of 150 people at the intersection of University and Frances St. On June 23rd, protestors were struck by motorists in at least four separate incidents during protests in response to the arrest of Yeshua Musa. Since the death of Heather Heyer in Charlottesville in 2017, vehicle ramming attacks have been used against protestors across the US, but police seem to have done little to prevent them. Dozens of incidents have occurred during this current wave of protests alone, after memes celebrating this form of domestic terrorism circulated online.

Transportation policy in this country and this City has long been used as an instrument of oppression against Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color. The widening of arterial streets was the pretext for razing the Greenbush Triangle neighborhood in the 1960s, displacing residents from one of Madisons’s only integrated neighborhoods at the time. Integrated and majority minority neighborhoods have long borne the negative externalities of transportation investment. The Air Force’s own Environmental Impact Statement pointed out that communities of color will bear a disproportionate burden from noise pollution when F-35s ‘bed-down’s at Truax Field.

Decentralization of services, jobs, and housing necessitates access to a car for many activities of daily life while households of color are less likely to own one. On Madison Metro buses, riders of color transfer almost 3 times as much as white riders, and are more likely to face commutes longer than 45 minutes. Modern policing emerged along with the rise of the automobile and the imperative for traffic enforcement. The over-policing of drivers of color resulted in the death of Philando Castille, Sandra Bland, Walter Scott, Samuel DuBose, and many other people of color.

The spectre of the National Guard being called up to quash protests has been raised after protest actions on the night June 23rd in response to the arrest of Yeshua Musa and 25 days of inaction by the city. The Mayor, under her emergency management powers, still has the power to call upon Metro again, or not. She should leave the buses in their garage and allow them to continue their regular scheduled service.

During these protests in Madison, pedestrians have been struck by motorists in at least 6 separate incidents. We need to do more to protect protestors from motorists and hold motorists responsible for their actions. Metro buses, a lifeline for many in communities of color, have been used in actions of state violence against them. The buses should drive for their riders and stay in their garages for riot police. Beyond the protests, transportation policy has resulted in massive negative impacts for people of color. The weight of our society’s asphalt, steel, rubber, and cement should raise up our communities of color where up to now they have held them down.