Brent Adams took the video of the April 22 SCPD incident that went viral.
Several thousand people this past week have watched a homeless man’s face hit the sidewalk on Pacific Avenue. A Santa Cruz Police officer was arresting him for public intoxication early in the morning on Monday, April 22, as activist Brent Adams filmed the incident with a video camera.
After Adams posted his video the following day, a debate reignited over policing in Santa Cruz. Just two months after the outpouring of support for the SCPD began with the slaying of two officers, Adams’ video has locals split, with an outpouring of anger on both sides. That has Adams, a veteran activist and member of Occupy Santa Cruz, in the rather surprising role of referee.
“The question is: is it a conversation?” Adams asks. “It doesn’t feel like one right now. It’s two sides being really cruel to one another.”
In online forums, many commenters are unwavering in their support criticism of the police and perpetrator. “Maybe he shouldn’t be falling down drunk and resisting arrest,” one commenter wrote in YouTube.“That officer should lose his job,” wrote another. “That poor man didn't do anything to deserve that kind of injury.”
To Deputy Chief Rick Martinez, this kind of divide is nothing new.
“The community’s always been like that,” Martinez says. “It’s always been polarized. We certainly have our critics. We welcome our criticism, no matter how unconstructive it is. We tailor our response and our enforcement to the needs of our community, and we’ve done a pretty good job of that.”
This all started when SCPD Officer Nathan Vasquez pulled up to Richard Hardy and Allen Schlumbrecht at about 1am April 22, as they slouched on each other on a bench outside the Palomar Hotel on Pacific Avenue.
Vasquez asked which one was going to go the drunk tank, and which was going to the hospital. He then turned away officer backup. After brief field sobriety tests, Vasquez handcuffed Hardy, and opened his car door. With paramedics standing by, Vasquez tried to put Hardy in the backseat, but Hardy resisted, kicking the car door.
Vasquez turned Hardy around forcefully, sending him to the ground with a thud and knocking him out cold. On the video Vasquez is visibly distraught, and paramedics turn Hardy over to see his face covered in blood.
“I didn’t get the shot well. I fucked up. That was my first thought,” Adams says. “I was just with the officer. We both knew that something bad had occurred, and I couldn’t do anything.”
Deputy chief Martinez says a field supervisor is currently doing a preliminary review, which is standard for any incident when an officer encounters resistance and shows force as a result. The department will likely do a more in-depth, follow-up investigation once that’s complete.
The force of 94 officers currently has six officers out on work-related injuries. When suspects resist arrest, someone can get hurt, Martinez says. “It’s a difficult part of this job, but we sustain injuries. And unfortunately, people who resist or get involved in those conflicts with officers can be injured.”
Sitting on the patio of Café Pergolesi, Adams is wearing black “Stop Foreclosures” t-shirt from an Occupy march last year. He has Sharpie notes on his hand and a necklace of robot figure Maschinenmensch from Burning Man 2010. He says it’s in his nature to be “anti-authoritarian” because of the strict way his parents raised him. In general, he believes police can be “overly aggressive,” but he isn’t ready to burn any bridges with the department. He hopes to work with law enforcement for his next project.
Adams is currently editing a movie to promote his vision of a Santa Cruz Sanctuary Camp, a legal homeless camp, similar to ones in Portland and Seattle.
Activist Gail Williamson emailed Adams’ video to the local American Civil Liberties Union. The Santa Cruz ACLU, which does not exactly have a history of sticking its neck out in local politics, is currently looking into the incident.
In the past week, Hardy has been seen downtown with bandages on his face.
And with over 27,000 views on YouTube, time will tell if Adams’ video starts the kind of conversation Adams thinks the community longs for—or just leaves it badly bruised.
