Target Buys SWAT Equipment for Eureka

Recently Target, Inc. donated $2000 to the Eureka Police Department Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team to use toward the purchase of automatic weapons accessories. In the letter notifying the City of Eureka and Eureka Police Department of the special donation our “Local Target Store” said:

We are pleased to inform City of Eureka – Eureka Police Department that a grant has been approved in the amount of $2,000 for support of the Eureka Police Swat Team...We focus our giving efforts in the arts, early childhood reading and family violence prevention...Target is constantly looking for innovative ways to support the community...Thank you for the work you do to make a difference everyday.

Target must be referring to the enforcement of public safety from the mentally ill as well as marginalized and neglected youth. The award for this $2000 grant for weapon accessories was made on August 8, 2006 shortly after the Eureka Police Department opened fire on and killed Cheri Lynn Moore as she waved a non-lethal flare gun, and shortly before EPD shot and killed Chris Burgess as he ran AWAY from Officer Lyles.

On March 20, 2007 the Eureka City Council is set to approve the purchase of four EOTech Holographic Sights and mounts for SWAT rifles. In the “Summary of the Issue” presented to the City Council by Chief of Police Murl Harpham he says:



TWO EYES OPEN SHOOTING IS REALIZED.

This maximum shooting effect will cost $1,676.07 courtesy of our Local Target Store. It is curious how weapons accessories benefit “arts, early childhood reading and family violence prevention” as Target seems to believe they will. But perhaps, these things have nothing to do with why Target has given money for the purchase of weapons and their accessories to the Eureka Police Department.

Perhaps a jog of local memory is needed to make the connection between Eureka SWAT and Target. In November of 2005 a Critical Mass Bike Ride protesting the War in Iraq and the fascist Bush regime proceeded from Arcata to Eureka and stopped in the Target parking lot where Eureka SWAT and EPD assaulted and arrested Elise Castle and Katherine Zimmerman (and also arrested Amanda Barker). In the criminal proceedings which followed Katherine Zimmerman and Elise Castle tried to obtain video footage from the Target security cameras in an effort to document the brutality that was inflicted upon them. Target was entirely UNHELPFUL and turned over zero video tape.

City Councilman Chris Kerrigan reports that the Eureka Police Department applied for the grant from Target, but I wonder how they would know to ask Target for funds for weapons when Target declares they support “arts, early childhood reading, and family violence prevention”?

The Eureka City Council will be meeting Tuesday, March 20, 2007 at 6:30 pm in the Eureka City Hall located at 5th and K Streets in Eureka. Concerned citizens who would prefer that monies for weapons be diverted to some other community “need” should appear and make a public statement.