Torrey and June 1st Pepper Spraying of Treesitters
With Jim Torrey running for mayor again, local videographer Tim Lewis has posted a reminder on YouTube of what it was like under Torrey. The video features dramatic footage of the June 1st incident in 1997 in which Eugene police emptied every can of pepper spray they had on non-violent tree sitters standing in the way of the Broadway Place project downtown.
For more information on the event, here's a link to EW's coverage of its 5th-year anniversary:
The city settled a lawsuit by some of the protesters for $30,000 and reduced somewhat the use of pepper spray on non-violent demonstrators. But the city and EPD never apologized or admitted that they did anything wrong. Now EPD is armed with tasers with no ban on using them against demonstrators.
Lewis has also published other videos on YouTube and plans to do more. Search the site for "picture Eugene."

Thank you for posting this -- it was a year before I moved back to Eugene and I always wondered what happened. Torrey's support of this intentional torture is appalling. I hope this motivates people to get out on the streets to canvass for Kitty Piercy for Mayor in the next two weeks, and make sure we never give this inhumane man an opportunity to abuse his power again.
FYI, Jim Torrey is currently on the Eugene School District 4J school board. Shocking.
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Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 05/09/2008 - 22:12.And all for that porky underutilized yuppy parking garage with fresno styling. Why,the empty retail here is so much nicer than the empty retail a block down....Enjoy the "Rennaisance" of stupidity. Mixed- use empty and vandalized. THIS IS TRULY THE WORDS GREATEST PLACE FOR THE ARTS AND THE OUTDOORS......now lets go back to planet reality. the weekly the area has been ruined and re-ruined. Could you end the EW sponsorship of your"PUBLIC INVOLVEMENT" like charades around downtown .The usual suspects are playing foosie with your process.Stick to "reporting"the news and leave "FACILITATING"excersizes to your sharkitect friends and their associated foundations. While on subject the UO arena is now and the president has resigned and the case is in court(biggest project ever proposed in our area).Has someone sent the entire EW staff on vacation. Remember your in depth articles on the Broadway 40 mill meltdown(it was appreciated).How is it that this quack-attack project(with eminent domain stuffing) approximately 10 times larger(actually more considering the gimmick walnut node nike entertainment district"masterplanning" that will follow)gets far less scrutiny. Your inactivity here(someones dropping or hiding the ball at E.W.)is unacceptable.Look at today's Cashregister gaurd-why do you feel you can sit back and let all the others do the work? From what I've heard on the street this(todays article)is what pushed Frohnmayer into retirement. Is this blog moderated by a robot ?If not please indicate where these questions might be addressed. If the YOU OWE arena story is beyond the EW reach to cover say so. Applauding the oregonian once in a while and otherwise ignoring a historic political collapse is real weird.
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Submitted by wonk (not verified) on Sun, 05/11/2008 - 14:48.Post new comment