Complaint Review: Guilbert Arizona Police

Saturday May 31st, 2003. There was a large party at a house in Gilbert, Az last night which was broken up by police at roughly 12:30 am. The area in which the party was located was remote and the house was located on a ranch style property that had roughly 7 acres of space. Police first arrived at the scene around 11pm and began telling people outside the party to leave. Then a small fight probably involving about 10 or so 20-something year olds broke out in the back yard. Seeing an opportunity to go in full-force to break up the fight, the police donned riot gear and began spraying the party-goers with pepper spray. Several kids were beaten with shotgun buts and night sticks, other kids reported being shot with tazers.

After the scene the police blocked off the house and forced the partygoers to walk to the major intersection over a mile away. Many of these kids had been hit with pepper spray and had to walk a mile, with no water in the desert of Arizona to avoid being persued by police. One attendee was sprayed with pepper spray as he attempted to contact the police to help them break up the party. The issue is not whether the police should have came.

Breaking up the party probably should have happened and it was the right thing to do. The owners of the house, however, have been told they are going to be held on counts of assaulting a police officer as beer bottles were thrown at police after they began spraying the crowds. While this is not an acceptible action, it is equally unacceptable to hold the party hosts accountable for reactions to a near-riot that was caused by the police.

As a person who was at the party, I can assure everyone that while the fight may have broken out, the crowd was far from out of hand at the party. Infact, a very talented local jazz band was playing at the time and the overall mood of the party was very light. This is a gross abuse of police power and they are making an attempt to show that those who threw the party were actually concocting a riot. It is outragous and those of us with burning eyes want to know what about being there made us worthy of pepper spray.

Michael
Tempe, Arizona
U.S.A.