Probably many of you need to first figure out where Hancock County Maine shows up on a map of USA. It’s best known as the location of Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island in the scenic location known as “Down East.” The three main towns are Bar Harbor (the quintessential Maine coastal town, touristy); Blue Hill; and Ellsworth ( the market town. There are no fast food places on MDI, so Ellsworth has a zone where you can find every franchise imaginable along with the Walmart). Ellsworth has 8,000 souls but the region swells by 50,000 when the summer folks arrive. Lobstering is a main industry and everyone should spend time on an offshore island before they die. Bar Harbor is a major economic engine for the state. Hancock County is in the Second Congressional District, which is more conservative the the First where Portland is located. The coastal region is more liberal.
The Hancock County Sheriff’s Department is planning for riots.
June 15th update: The County Sheriff responded to my email; also I learned that they want to buy weapons too but they didn’t say exactly what; and I found a nifty video that they published April 20 and are using to recruit new Deputies. Paradoxically, the video highlights the kind of community policing we wish everybody could have. Rather than post a new DKOS diary, I posted these other updates to my own blog.
Here is the report of a protest Tuesday, from the Ellsworth American:
The crowd in Ellsworth, which Police Chief Glenn Moshier estimated at 350 people, held signs and chanted “Black Lives Matter” and “Say his name: George Floyd” in front of the Ellsworth Public Library before moving down to the Union River Bridge. Police blocked the bridge on both sides for roughly 10 minutes because of the crowd, which then moved up Main Street and gathered in the parking lot in front of City Hall.
Several who had gathered said they felt supported by their local police departments but that nationwide retraining of police in bias and use of force is necessary, as is prosecution of officers who commit crimes and the demilitarization of the police force. Lawmakers began a bipartisan push in Congress this week to do away with a Defense Department program that transfers military weaponry to local law enforcement departments, which had been curtailed under former President Barack Obama but revived by President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday afternoon, under sparkling sunshine, Ellsworth Police officers in regular uniforms directed traffic around the crowd but mostly stayed across the street and did not interact with protesters.
“The Ellsworth Police Department worked with the organizers of the event in order to ensure a safe and welcoming location was provided for the concerned citizens to have their collective voices heard,” said Chief Moshier in a press release. “The protest remained peaceful and after nearly four hours the group dispersed without incident from the City Hall parking lot.”
This was way bigger than the protests down by the Union River Bridge when the Iraq War started back in 2003. Or the ones in support of Standing Rock.
www.wabi.tv/…
Got Enough background?
So the summary is, protests also took place in Bar Harbor (in the park where the town bandstand is) and Ellsworth. This is (ahem) not the most diverse state in this grand nation of ours.
In Maine, the County Sheriff is an elected position. The Sheriff sent a letter to the County Commissioners.
This created a bit of a stir. The Sheriff wants to buy riot control shields and batons, plus gloves and helmets. I am not altogether sure of the total number of deputies in the Sheriff’s Department ( and yes, they run the Hancock County Jail in the town which does house inmates boarded from other jails and prisons). But I am pretty sure this is ridiculous overkill and an excellent example of limited vision.
It’s true that Portland Maine (three hours to the south) had protests. But it’s also true that Ellsworth has never had a riot. Hancock County is mostly rural once you get away from the coast.
I should add that Ellsworth and Bar Harbor each have their own Police Department and there is also a State Police Barracks not far away. Along with Fish & Game, National Park Police etc.
I am sharing this with DKOS because we have all heard over the past few weeks that if we are achieve police reform it will require work at the roughly 18,000 jurisdictions where funding decisions are to be made. We all need to be paying attention as to whether the local Boards or Commissions are addressing the overmilitarization of police by a) militarizing more or b) militarizing less.
I wrote a letter to the Hancock County Commission.
Dear County Commissioners:
I used to live in Ellsworth but the last few years I am only a summer resident of Hancock County.
I read in the news that the Sheriff's Office has requested the purchase of Riot Control gear for the county deputies. I was astounded to hear this, and I am writing in opposition. This is a waste of money and sends the wrong message.
First off, Hancock Country is now officially a laughingstock. According to WABI-TV the largest protest had "dozens" of people in attendance and stayed on the sidewalk before protesting in front of City Hall. May be two guys were needed there, making sure nobody got hit by a car.
There is not one locale in Ellsworth where this equipment would be needed tactically. I don't know how many deputies you employ, but if they lined up shoulder-to-shoulder with their new shields, the line would not be long enough to stretch all the way from one side of Maine Street to the other.
Has there been any vandalism? any arson? any assault? I saw on tee vee there was a black person - was she the only one or heaven forbid were there more!?!?!? ( and yes, I am being as sarcastic as I can in this letter).
There are questions you need to ask.
1) is there a threat assessment to analyze the likelihood of civil disturbance and to assign any relative priority to threats related to civil disturbance? If not, why not?
2) What weapons, lethal or non-lethal, now exist in the arsenal of the Sheriff's Department? Obviously we would expect them to have handguns, rifles, and tasers. Do they have the gun used for "non-lethal" rounds known as "baton rounds"? tear gas? "flashbangs?" pepper spray? "simunition?"
3) I presume they already take target practice but I would want to know if they have any actual training on the other "non-lethal" weapons. For example, flashbangs are federally-regulated as an explosive and any person who uses them needs to take a federally-sanctioned explosives course. You are exposing yourself to significant liability if an untrained officer or deputy uses one of these weapons without training and injures or kills a peaceful protester.
4) Have you consulted with the County's insurance carrier to determine to how manage the risk of improper use of these weapons against unarmed protesters?
5) Even if you do purchase the requested equipment, what provisions have you made for training in their use? The US Army has a training manual for riot control incidents which is considered the minimum acceptable training. Does the Sheriff now own a copy? Has he himself had this training?
6) does the Sheriff's department have a policy related to the use of "chokeholds" or "positional asphyxia" and what might that policy be?
The simple purchase of this equipment is not warranted due to the size of any protests to date. If you are not planning to conduct a threat assessment or to provide adequate training in use of riot control weapons you are exposing Hancock County to what I think is an unacceptable level of legal liability.
sincerely,
(Guava Boy)
Note: before you flame me about pointing out there was only one black person, be advised that Maine is the whitest state in the USA, and when they interviewed the spokesperson on Tee vee she said that was why they asked her to lead it. My comment was intended to be as snarky as I could possibly be. /s /s (I worked in Maine for decades and i was a “person from away” — When I first got there I met many nurses and hospital employees who had never once in their lives had a conversation with a black person. (!) When my kids were little we used to specifically engage in activities so they knew that Maine was not typical.)
The Takeaway
There is no once-size-fits-all in looking at militarization of the police. What they need to do is look at de-escalation, drug enforcement ( yes there is a problem with meth labs and heroin in rural Maine), and the like.
Every reader of this site needs to investigate how their local County Commission or other agency is addressing the future. Feel free to use my letter as a jumping off point for questions you can ask, and I invite you to add your own that others can also use when speaking at any public meeting.
FaceBook
You can find the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department on FaceBook. Plenty of lively comments from Fox News viewers. Better yet, go there and find the equivalent site for your own Law Enforcement Agency. Let us know how you make out!