In defending a new initiative to cordon off crime-ridden neighborhoods, D.C Police Chief Cathy Lanier asks residents to consider her own history of dealing with civil liberties. But critics find that argument hardly compelling, pointing to that exact history.

“I think I've got a pretty good record of not violating people's civil rights,” Lanier said last week during a radio interview on WTOP.

Yet others point to her role in the mass arrests and hogtying of hundreds of World Bank protestors in 2000 and 2002. Jonathan Turley, the leading constitutional scholar from George Washington University Law School who represented the protesters in a civil suit, found Lanier's recollection of her own record “curious.”

“I do not view her role in the protest case to be an endorsement to her sensitivity to civil liberties,” Turley told The Examiner.

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In 2002, D.C. police arrested hundreds of anti-globalization protesters in Pershing Park even though demonstrators and bystanders had not been given an order to disperse. Protesters and bystanders were hauled away in buses, their left wrists cuffed to their right ankles and detained for up to 36 hours in some cases.

The arrests became an embarrassment for the District and the Police Department, which up to that time had been well-regarded for its protection of civil liberties. The city was forced to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars and apologize for violating citizens’ rights and police standards. During depositions in the civil case, Lanier — who was in charge of prisoner control — defended the hog-tying method as a way to protect prisoners from each other. Lanier said she even tested the cuffs on herself for about 15 minutes.

“It was not uncomfortable,” Lanier testified. “In fact, I recall sitting on a couch in the commander’s office with my cuff to my ankle and to my wrist, and was able to not only sit and stand but could also lay down with relative ease.”

American Civil Liberties Union members said the District has had a recent “onslaught of anti-individual policies and pro-police state measures,” including an initiative by Lanier to go door to door to ask residents to let officers search for weapons, a plan to coordinate 5,000 security cameras for public surveillance, and the addition of high-powered rifles for patrol officers.

“We believe her heart is in the right place,” said Johnny Barnes, head of the D.C-area ACLU. “She wants to do the right thing. But this is a matter of the mind, maybe a mistake of the mind. Important constitutional rights are at stake.”

smccabe@dcexaminer.com

mneibauer@dcexaminer.com