Doug Clark: Videos offer evidence that cops need oversight

Ever since last year’s Fourth of July ruckus between Spokane cops and so-called anarchists at Riverfront Park, I’ve been trying to figure out just what point these motley malcontents were trying to make.

The motley anarchists, that is.

Not our motley cops.

Anyway, I think I get it now.

My enlightenment came after viewing selections from three Independence Day police surveillance videos that miraculously surfaced this week just in time for a protester’s trial.

The watching wasn’t as easy as it sounds.

The camerawork of three Criminal Investigation Unit members is shaky as a detoxing wino.

Shots zoom in and out at random. The focus is sometimes softer than a Barbara Walters close-up.

You need a case of Dramamine to get through the work of these Alfred Hitchclods.

(Suggestion: Could someone please take up a collection and buy the CIU a tripod?)

At one point, however, a camera lingers on a placard held by an activist.

“Police the Police,” it reads.

Aha. Now it all makes sense.

In their own clumsy way these deodorant-eschewing renegades were simply echoing the city’s desperate need for a police ombudsman.

I can certainly go along with that.

Spokane needs strong independent police oversight, and we need it NOW!

Hey, I want to trust our local police. I really do. But they keep making it so damned difficult.

Take these magic videos, for example.

On Monday, a district judge delayed the trial of 20-year-old Michael C. Lyons, the only activist with the nerve to hold out for a day in court. (The other 16 either accepted deferred prosecutions or, in the case of Zach St. John, pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of riot.)

The delay came after prosecutors handed Lyons’ attorney the videos minutes before jury selection.

All that was missing from this surprise were descending balloons and confetti.

According to a news story, Assistant City Prosecutor Jim Bledsoe said he knew nothing about the evidence until it arrived Monday morning via the police. Oops.

Ronnie Rae, Lyons’ lawyer, had every right to cry foul and seek a dismissal.

On Tuesday, the soap opera continued as a police public relations propagandist attempted to mop up the mess. “It’s absolutely our mistake,” said Jennifer DeRuwe, according to a news story. “I don’t think there was any attempt to deceive anyone.”

Why, thank you, Jenny.

But sorry doesn’t cut it. This is a violation of a defendant’s constitutional rights. Evidence known only by the police must be disclosed to the defense.

And it gets worse. Now we find that there is a police report regarding the videos and neither Bledsoe nor Rae knew a thing about it.

Does that mean we get another mea culpa cop-out?

I’m just a suspicious man, I guess. I keep thinking that maybe this evidence was waylaid for a reason.

Maybe those 16 protesters wouldn’t have rolled over so easily had they had access to it.

Granted, the videos don’t seem to show much. But what they do show tends to support the argument that these faux anarchists weren’t really as rotten as police made them out to be.

Oh, there was some despicable behavior that day.

And by that I mean the following exchange between two cops that was caught on tape and published in the newspaper:

“I wish a couple of guys would come by and get into it,” says one.

“Want to hold my badge and (unintelligible) for a few minutes?” jokes the other.

“It’d be like old, big time – oh, we got the sound on that (camera). I’d better be quiet,” adds the first.

How nice. Just a couple-a Yankee Doodle boys in blue itchin’ for a fight on the Fourth.

Makes you proud to be an American, huh?