Jaywalkers smarting after rude encounter with cops

ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
October 9, 2007

As infractions go, jaywalking is minor. It’s not the sort of thing anyone expects will lead to scrapes, bruises and a night in jail. But what happened to Benjamin De Jong and his girlfriend after a Mariners game Sept. 15 is more than a simple case of jaywalking.

“Police brutality is more like it,” contends the 22-year-old, who was visiting from British Columbia when he got a lasting memory of Seattle, courtesy of police.

De Jong admits he and his girlfriend jaywalked across First Avenue in Pioneer Square — just like a throng always does after a sporting event. They were on the heels of friends who forged into traffic just ahead of them that evening, heading to the J&M Cafe.

“As we were 5 to 10 feet from the curb, an unmarked vehicle sped toward us,” De Jong said. “He hammered on his brakes. Two guys jumped out wearing dark clothing.”

Put yourself in De Jong’s shoes. One second you are about to join friends at a pub after going to see a Mariners game. The next, you’re terrified about who might be storming out of a strange van just feet away. Thugs? Thieves? A driver with road rage?

Nope. Try cops — though De Jong insists he and his girlfriend couldn’t tell the men were officers. “They never said to us, ‘Stop, this is Seattle police,’ or that they wanted to talk to us,” De Jong said. “You know how cops in movies show badges? Nothing like that happened. I thought they wanted to fight.”

The Seattle Police Department’s internal affairs unit is now looking at the case.

De Jong — 5 feet 7 inches tall and 150 pounds — said one of the men from the van grabbed him from behind and brusquely turned him around. He said he saw the second man from the van jerk his 105-pound girlfriend by the arm like a rag doll.

“Yes, I used choice words that night,” De Jong said. “Any guy would if he saw what was happening to his woman and thought a couple of thugs were doing it.”

De Jong was tossed on the ground. His knees got bruised. Blood oozed from his elbows. He was handcuffed and taken to jail. He faces pedestrian interference and obstructing charges. His girlfriend, Kristen Heidt, also 22 and from Canada, was roughed up; bruises were left on her body — and she has photos. She was not taken to jail or charged, even though a police report says she grabbed an officer during the confrontation. Heidt remains shaken up.

The incident is the latest to raise questions about Seattle police conduct — in which civilians accuse cops of failing to identify themselves and being unprofessional and in which officers’ police reports don’t square with victims’ accounts.

This summer, undercover Seattle police in an unmarked car shot at Jesse Toro II, who thought the police were gang-bangers trying to hurt him after a traffic dispute. Toro says at no point did the vice-unit officers show badges or flash police lights.

Last month, 21-year-old Andrew Rutherford ended up bloodied and in the hospital after an off-duty Seattle officer in a civilian car pulled over the Jeep carrying Rutherford and his friends in West Seattle. Rutherford says the officer pulled out a gun, never showed his badge and didn’t immediately identify himself. He and his friends thought they were being carjacked — until uniformed cops stampeded in.

Now comes the case of De Jong and his girlfriend, who came to town just to cheer on De Jong’s kin — Mariners pitcher Chris Reitsma.

Seattle police Capt. Steve Brown confirmed last week that the two officers were riding in an unmarked van and wearing standard uniforms, though he called back later to clarify a point: One of the officers wore a police jacket over his shirt.

Brown conceded De Jong and his girlfriend “may not have immediately recognized (the officers) because they were in a plain car.” He added De Jong was “intoxicated and belligerent.”

De Jong, however, said he had a few beers over the course of the evening — but wasn’t drunk. Either way, the police report makes no mention of drunkenness. “If I was drunk,” De Jong said, “put it in the report.” The report also claims the officers didn’t rush the couple but “walked over.”

The Police Department encourages officers to contact jaywalkers, but not necessarily issue citations.

“It doesn’t mean that a ticket has to be written, and it certainly doesn’t mean that a pedestrian is going to be put on the ground,” Brown said. “I think the pedestrian determines what the outcome will be.”

Yes, but cops determine outcomes, too. Officers are trained to identify themselves and de-escalate situations so jaywalking doesn’t end with someone getting jacked up.

De Jong is considering a lawsuit — as a matter of principle. His aim: better policing. He wonders how many others have been roughed up by overzealous officers.

His family says the City Attorney’s Office floated a deal: De Jong can agree to community service and alcohol counseling and the whole thing can go away. But they believe this is nothing more than a shameless attempt to cover up police misconduct, “a big joke,” they say.

They’re so right, it isn’t even funny.