Citizen Complaint ~ Harassment & False Arrest of Indymedia Photojournalist

The following incident occurred during the early morning of July 22nd, 2006 on Sycamore St. in Worcester. There is no doubt in my mind that police officers knew we were organizing against the FOX TV Show COPS filming in Worcester and targeted us because we were distributing fliers against the show's filming in our city. The statement below comes from the formal complaint I filed after Worcester's Internal Affairs Dept. failed to investigate the incident.

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COMPLAINTS
1/ Targeted for harassment by Officers Tarckini and Rojas
2/ Language inappropriate for the situation and for a Police Officer
3/ Destruction of Free Speech Materials
4/ Inhibiting Freedom of Speech
5/ Interference with Freedom of the Press
6/ Destruction of photograph
7/ False Arrest
8/ Filing a False Police Report

STATEMENT OF COMPLAINTS
Matt and I went to WPD Friday night, to distribute fliers to folks there at midnight to bail out friends family. After 45 mins there we decided to do some outreach in Main South.

We didn’t get far. As soon as we hit Santiago’s there were multiple cruisers and the wagon in the parking lot. We circled around, entered through Murray Ave and parked. The drama was all done and the police were just talking & joking. We saw 5 or so folks in a yard on Sycamore St. watching the drama and decided to go ask them what had happened.

We got out of Matt’s car with handfuls of fliers and my camerabag. We needed to walk between the police to exit as the driveway was the only exit which they filled. Officer Tarckini gave me a cold cold stare, which I returned. He knew what we were doing. As we walked past them I told Matt that I had filed a citizens complaint against Officer Tarckini one year ago and that he was the Police Officer that had the Internal Affaires officers sent to look for me at the Network Center and at Worcester Common Ground.

Matt and I walked up to Sycamore, in full view of the Officers. As we started up Sycamore I looked back and saw one of the Police Officers watching us.

We got to 5 Sycamore Street and started talking to folks that were all leaning up against the fence. Matt and I remained on the sidewalk. I talked to someone over the fence, while Matt started a conversation to my left with someone that was down on the sidewalk. We were there maybe 3 minutes tops when the police rolled-up from both sides of the street without sirens. I only first noticed them when Officer Rojas showed up in my face as I was standing on the sidewalk talking.

While I have a long history with Officer Tarckini, and know many Police Officers from my community work, I do not believe I have ever met Officer Rojas before.

“What the Fuck are you doing here?”, were his very first words to me which he barked.
“I’m passing out this flier”, which I held out for him which he stopped read.
“Get the Fucccckkkkk out of here now!”, he yelled.

I again responded that I was just passing out fliers as I stepped back from him, calmly saying, “Nice language Rojas”. I had glanced down at his name plate and I wanted him to know that I was paying attention to what was happening. He then reached over grabbed the fliers I was holding in front of me and threw them to the ground.

At that point he left me (literally got out of my face) and went up stairs to the front yard. It was only at this point that I saw the FOX TV camera was there. I quickly put down my camera bag on the sidewalk next to me and started fumbling to get my camera out, remove the lens cap, and power it on. I am a photo journalist as many people in Worcester and within the Worcester Police Department know and I had already published an article about the decision to bring the FOX TV program to Worcester.

After 20 seconds or so of prep, I turned, staying on the sidewalk, to take a photo of the camera crew with the police frisking, searching and talking to the residents. From what I briefly saw they had several residents against fence/railing.

As soon as my camera flash went off with my first picture, Officer Rojas turned and came back to me, quickly grabbed my arms which were in front of me w/ the camera, twisted them up behind my back and slapped cuffs on me in seconds. (I was pretty amazed how fast I was cuffed.) I always wrap the camera strap around my wrist so I don’t drop it, so I was actually cuffed holding the camera, and then he took the camera from me. At that point the officer told me to sit down on the retaining wall, and I promptly listened.

He then started fidgeting w/ my camera, to which I asked, “Do you want me to help you?” He responded, “Do you want me to smash your camera?” He gave up after a minute (This is while there’s action behind me with other officers and the TV camera.) and called over some guy who was further down the sidewalk by one of the cruisers. I assumed he was a FOX Producer because he wasn’t dressed as a Police Officer. Officer Rojas instructed him, “Delete the photos off of there.” Handing him my camera.

At this point Officer Tarckini came up to me to verbally harass me…. Saying things like, “Now you’re in trouble, we’ve got you. Now David Moore can take care of you.”

He then left me and went down the sidewalk to harass Matt who had been watching to make sure I was OK from fifteen feet away on the sidewalk where he had been told to stand.

I couldn’t see everything as I was obscured by other police officer crossing back and forth on the sidewalk. At one point just before the patrol wagon came I saw Officer Tarckini grab Matt by the neck and start pushing him down the street.

The wagon arrived and the officer driving helped me to get in. We left Sycamore to go down the block to Newbury Street and then the station.

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