The Washington Peace Letter is published monthly for the social justice community of the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. It's purpose is to support local, national and international struggles against oppression. It seeks to present a radical analysis of current events, covering information not readily available in the corporate media.

The Peace Letter welcomes submissions of calendar announcements, articles, letters to the Editor , and artwork from the progressive community. Articles may be from 300-1200 words, but may be edited for space considerations. Preference is given to materials that cover actions or organizing campaigns in the D.C, metropolitan area.

We reserve the right to select or reject any submission.

Except as noted, Peace Letter items are copyright free and may be reproduced. Please give credit and send us a copy if you do use something.

The irony of the moment was ugly yet telling.

Inside Club Soda, on upper Connecticut Avenue NW, a benefit to protest police brutality was running smoothly. Organized by Positive Force DC, a group well known for its anti-drug/anti-violence stance, the concert was part of a nationwide protest of police brutality planned for October 22. Around 200 people—mostly spiky-haired teenagers adorned in black clothes and other typical punk garb—were present.

Suddenly, police began to fill the already congested club. Within minutes approximately 30 police officers were in the club, many in full riot gear. They claimed to be investigating a liquor license violation. However, as organizer Ryan Fletcher has pointed out, numerous eye witnesses have confirmed that, in accordance with normal Positive Force show policy, no alcohol was being served.

After inspecting the club, the police, together with the club owner, began speaking from the stage. They told the audience to exit the club immediately, without explaining why they were being made to leave or what was going to happen. When some in the crowd—understandably angered by this gratuitous intrusion—demanded answers, the police responded with violence.

As the police moved to forcibly clear the club, chaos erupted. According to a statement from another of the event organizers, Isabel Esterman, “people who exited the club were met with a large police force outside, some of whom used billy clubs to attack the crowd, seeming to target women and smaller, younger concert-goers. In the club, police were swinging batons with so little control that they were actually witnessed hitting each other. People not moving quickly enough towards the exit were pushed, thrown, beaten, and dragged on the stairs. The force used by police was so excessive that one teenage girl was actually knocked unconscious.”

One bystander, Breeze Leutke-Stahlman, tried to intervene on behalf of a young woman, only to become herself a victim of police violence. According to Leutke-Stahlman, “After one particularly aggressive policeman violently shoved a 15 year-old female, I pointed out to other officers to get him out of there, or they were going to regret his actions. He immediately turned toward me and behaved in the exact same manner—violently shoving me to the ground with his nightstick.”

If the police’s intent was to calm the situation, the effect was just the opposite. Perhaps unwittingly, the police had provided an object lesson about the very evil the concert was meant to protest.

As the bruised and shaken crowd collected outside the club, anger began to build toward a dangerous breaking point. Some in the crowd began to throw trash at the police and threatened to break windows in nearby stores. Thanks to the thoughtless and brutal actions of the police, a peaceful concert was on the verge of becoming a riot on Connecticut Avenue.

Fortunately, event organizers were able to channel the rage into a militant but nonviolent protest. According to a statement from one, Positive Force member Wade Fletcher, “Roughly 100 of the concert-goers sat down on the service road in front of the Connecticut Avenue entrance of the club and took part in a sit-in protest for the next 90 minutes. Members of the crowd chanted and made signs protesting police brutality, while informing passersby of the situation and reading names and stories of victims of police violence.”

The police initially summoned a fire engine from a nearby station, apparently to intimidate the protesters with their high-pressure hoses. However, when news media began to appear, the police dismissed the fire engine and drew back, clearly nonplussed by the resistance they were facing. Ultimately, the situation was only defused when two of the PF organizers climbed on a nearby Jeep and exhorted the crowd to disperse for now but to come to a follow-up meeting at the Positive Force communal house several days later.

Close to 50 persons attended the follow-up meeting, and plans were laid for a press conference and demonstration. On the day before Halloween—nine days after the original face-off, a spirited and nonviolent protest was held at police headquarters, once again drawing significant press attention to the issue of police brutality—all thanks to the ill-considered actions of the Metropolitan police.

In retrospect, it is unclear why the D.C. police—usually known for their political savvy, if not their gentleness—reacted in a such an embarrassingly counterproductive manner. Perhaps already existent tensions with Club Soda contributed, and/or the open disdain of the police for the young, unusually-dressed crowd led them to act in such a ugly way.

Whatever the reasons, thanks largely to the quick action and cool heads of the mostly teenage organizers, no-one was seriously hurt. Moreover, the police only succeeded in placing the spotlight squarely on their abuse of power, abuses that are particularly visited upon marginalized, non-white, non-affluent members of our increasingly unequal society.
And that’s what I, for one, would call a “happy ending” to this ironic little fable about police brutality on Connecticut Avenue NW.

Mark Andersen is co-founder and long-time member of Positive Force DC, also past co-coordinator of the Peace Center, 1988-89.

Back to Top