Working Paper 93-34, July 20, 1993(1)
By David Michaud
Chief of Police
Denver, Colorado
(1) This paper is an edited transcript of a talk given by David Michaud for the Intractable Conflict/Constructive Confrontation Project on March 2, 1993. Funding for this Project was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation and the University of Colorado. All ideas presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the Consortium, the University, or Hewlett Foundation. For more information, contact the Conflict Resolution Consortium, Campus Box 327, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0327. Phone: (303) 492-1635, e-mail: crc@cubldr.colorado.edu.
© Conflict Resolution Consortium. Do not reprint without permission.
There isn't any mystery to the police's role in conflict resolution. I think it is just basic, good, solid communication skills, and training in communication. It really comes down to the thing that we have been taught over and over again--respect the people that you are dealing with, be open to them, listen to what they have to say, afford them the opportunity to express their point of view. One of the most important things, too, is to build trust with the people you are dealing with. It's difficult sometimes to get people to trust the police, but I think that you have to develop some strategies and tactics to do that. You can't ever get caught in a lie or being deceitful, because you will destroy that trust which will greatly reduce your effectiveness.
During the events preceding Columbus Day last year, for example, I tried to establish a great deal of communication with both sides.2 I made it clear from the beginning that I would meet with representatives of either group anywhere, anytime, right up to the very last minute if they needed to.
One of the meetings was with the American Indian Movement (AIM) leadership and they suggested that they come to our headquarters. I knew that they were going to be there at 4 o'clock, so I made a point to be in the lobby to greet them so they didn't have to go through any security issues. They were brought in, I brought them right into my office, offered them a soft drink, offered them coffee, and we began to do the things that we're talking about here--establishing trust. One thing that really seemed to go a long way for me was toward the end of that very first meeting I offered everyone my business card and on the back of the card I wrote my home phone number. I think when they saw that, they thought "this is different, cops don't generally give us their home phone numbers." So, I think that went a long way, for me, to establish trust, and I think it served us well.
You also have to be a compromiser. For example, on many occasions you have to set down groundrules--rules of engagement, if you will. You say to people, "If you do this, count on us doing this; if you do that, then we're going to do that." I might say, "If you go sit in the middle of the street, I'm going to arrest you." Then if they do, we negotiate how we will arrest them. "Do I have to physically pick you up and carry you away or will you be willing to stand up and walk? And, if you're not going to walk away, then I have to negotiate with you about how I'm going to pick you up and carry you away. Am I going to have to put you on a stretcher to do that? Or will you be willing to sit in a wheelchair and let us wheel you away?" There should be no surprises to either side. You just work out compromises from beginning to end, that, hopefully, address all the details so that nobody involved has any surprises. We did all this before Columbus Day and it worked well. We got out of that situation with very little problem, as one of the sides [the parade organizers] finally agreed to not go forward. But if they had gone forward, I think we had the rules set down on how that was all going to play out. The Ku Klux Klan is a little bit different. I'm not quite so amenable in my dealings with them. It's hard when you deal with that group to control your emotions, but you have to really work on it. We have to be fair, even if we don't agree with their perspective. There are such things as First Amendment rights and the case law is clear. They have a right to express their point of view and we, as police, have to afford them protection.
But they make that job difficult for us. We know from experience that they will try to incite the crowd. They want the crowd to start throwing things at them. And they usually get the response that they want. We don't negotiate as much with the Klan. We set the groundrules and say, "this is how it's going to be and either you do it our way or you're going to jail."
This year we had fewer problems with the Klan rally than we had last year, because we learned from the mistakes we made last year. Last year we let the counterprotestors get too close.They got within rock-throwing distance and that was too close. So this year we put up a barricade that was further out, and it was a good one. It was like a high snow fence. We put it back a great deal of distance from where this group would be on the steps of the Capitol so that it was far out of throwing range. Also the groundrules were very strict. The group's permit allowed the rally to take place between 10:00 a.m. and 2:00 p.m., so we told Sean Slater [the Klan leader in Denver] that he had to have his people in through a check point on the south side of the capital by 10:15. After that we were going to close the gate and refuse to let others in. He knew that, but about 11:30, he was speaking and was urging people in the crowd that supported them to come inside and join them. There was a small group there that were, I guess, Neo-Nazis, and they walked around the south side to the check point, wanting to get in. We said, sorry, this is closed, we closed it at 10:15. That made Slater mad.
Then, later on, he wanted to leave his site on the Capitol steps, and we said, if you leave, you can't come back and that made him further mad. So, he came back later requesting permits for February 20 and February 22. But he canceled those two meetings.
I guess what I'm saying here is that I find it hard to work with the KKK, more so, probably, than with any other group. In any of the other of settings that the police are involved in, if it be an Operation Rescue demonstration, or another demonstration...no matter what it is, it is just basic communication skills that help us moderate conflict and do our job effectively.
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2 In past years, Italian-Americans in Denver have held a large Columbus Day parade and they planned one again in 1992, the 500th anniversary of Columbus's voyage. Opposing the celebration of Columbus, however, the American Indian Movement (AIM) vowed to block the parade and to use whatever tactics were necessary to prevent it from being held.