‘Potential to attract conflict’: Why Boise had police on the roof during CDH protest
Boise police officers prepared for the worst possible outcomes, department officials said, while demonstrators gathered in large numbers in the parking lot of the Central District Health Department building on Tuesday to protest a board vote.
That included placing officers on the roof of the building, a move that led some people to criticize the department on social media for using “snipers.”
“Not a good look over a prayer protest with a bunch of children around,” Facebook commenter Alice Momager wrote on the department’s post about the meeting.
In a video posted to the department’s Facebook page on Wednesday, Deputy Chief Ron Winegar said that while there were officers on rooftops, “at no point did officers on rooftops or anywhere else point weapons at anyone or even have those tools visible to the crowd.”
Winegar said large events have the potential to turn violent. He cited a Saturday shooting at a pro-Trump demonstration in Olympia, Washington.
“In addition to potential threats, BPD was aware of actual threats of violence,” Winegar said in the video. “As many have pointed out, though some at the event may not have even seen it, there were citizens in the crowd who were heavily armed. While we can just hope they are just exercising their Second Amendment rights, we have to be prepared for any eventuality.”
It’s not unusual for officers to be on rooftops or other elevated spaces during large events.
“While we recognize that the vast majority of the crowd at CDH (on Tuesday) was peaceful, any large, emotionally charged event has the potential to attract conflict or lead to conflict,” Winegar said. “We have an obligation to keep people safe and to have the necessary resources on scene to respond to any situation.”
It is not clear what the officers were armed with. Haley Williams, spokesperson for the department, told the Statesman in an email that the department does “not get into the specific tactical information that police use at these events.”
“What I can say is that officers have an obligation to be able to respond to a variety of threats, and they were prepared to do so,” Williams wrote.
Tuesday’s Central District Health Board of Health meeting was one that was originally scheduled for a week before at the request of Boise Mayor Lauren McLean and Police Chief Ryan Lee, who said they were worried about safety.
Protesters were at the homes of at least two board members: Ada County Commissioner Diana Lachiondo, whose 12-year-old son was home alone; and Dr. Ted Epperly, who said people were outside his home “beating garbage cans and flashing strobe lights through my windows.”
The board was scheduled to vote on a public health order dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic that, among other things, would have mandated masks in places where social distancing is not an option in all four of the counties CDH serves. When the vote happened Tuesday, it failed as commissioners deadlocked 3-3.
That is not the first meeting to be interrupted. A Southwest District Health meeting, for the board the covers Canyon County, was canceled in July after protesters forced their way into the building, KTVB reported. In October, two people were charged with trespassing after trying to get into a Central District Health board meeting without a mask.
Williams said that officers used the same resources outside Tuesday’s health board meeting as they do at large summer events.
“In any situation, whether it’s a concert, football game, or protest, officers on the ground and in elevated positions are looking for flash points or small conflicts that should be addressed before they turn into larger problems,” she wrote. “Officers are in these positions to keep the crowd safe.”
This story was originally published December 17, 2020 at 2:42 PM.
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