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dence" in Kruger.
"He does have a genuine interest in history and in World War II, and I don't see anything sinister in that," Foxworth said.
Mistakes acknowledged
According to court records, the city argued that the Bush protesters in 2002 were sprayed when they "ignored lawful orders to disperse." Yet police commanders and supervisors have acknowledged that they made mistakes and changed tactics when Bush returned for a fund-raiser at the University of Portland the following summer.
"Over the years, we've learned from each and every incident, dating back to the infamous May Day incident" in 2000, when police clashed violently with protesters, Foxworth said. "We continue to look at what worked well and identify areas for improvement."
Police said no safe corridor was set up to give donors attending the fund-raiser access to the Hilton and that the police perimeter around the hotel was too crowded.
Police said they ordered the crowd to move back and that they tried to push demonstrators with their batons. When the protesters did not move, police used pepper spray. At another point, three Portland police cars drove through the crowd, trying to move behind the barricades. When some demonstrators leaped onto one car, two officers fired rubber stingballs at them from 37 mm single-shot guns.
The next summer, police bused the donors into a fund-raising luncheon at the University of Portland, and set up a large fenced perimeter around the event. They also strengthened command communications, the chief said.
Anti-war actions
A second suit was brought by William S. Ellis, Randall C. Lyon and Miranda May stemming from anti-war protests on March 20 and March 25, 2003.
According to the complaint, Lyon, an engineer for KATU television news, was struck in the right temple and shoved into his news van by two officers at the demonstration on March 20. It said May, a peaceful protester, was pepper-sprayed at close range and hit in the head on March 25. Ellis, the suit said, was slammed to the ground, assaulted and pepper-sprayed when he refused to identify himself on March 25.
The lawyers who filed the lawsuits are members of the National Lawyers Guild. While they were pleased with the settlement amount, they said their efforts to persuade police to ban the use of pepper spray and rubber munitions against peaceful protesters was not successful.
Some of the plaintiffs pledged to donate a portion of their settlements to the Northwest Constitutional Rights Center.
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