The former Lincoln woman injured and arrested Saturday in a scuffle between police and protesters in Rhode Island is alert but in pain, her father said Thursday.
ZACH PLUHACEK / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Thursday, August 16, 2007 7:00 pm
The former Lincoln woman injured and arrested Saturday in a scuffle between police and protesters in Rhode Island is alert but in pain, her father said Thursday.
Alex Svoboda’s condition was upgraded to good, and surgery to restore blood flow to her leg saved it from possible amputation, said Scott Svoboda of Lincoln.
“Emotionally, she’s still trying to figure how or why this happened.”
So are Rhode Island authorities.
The North Providence Police Department is investigating the incident, in which Svoboda is charged with three counts of simple assault on a police officer, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest, all misdemeanors.
The attorney general’s office and state police will review the investigation.
“The photographs I have seen depict a serious injury and are certainly very troubling,” Rhode Island Attorney General Patrick Lynch said in a statement.
“I can only hope Alexandra’s recovery is swift and complete. The photographs constitute only a snapshot, however, of the end result of a series of incidents whose chronological facts need to be fully explored and developed before any conclusions are reached.”
Now studying Spanish at the Community College of Rhode Island, Svoboda, 22, was part of a group marching down a main street in North Providence to protest labor practices of a New York food distributor used by a local restaurant.
Demonstrators, who did not have a permit, say they were following officers’ orders to move out of the street when three officers restrained Svoboda, tackling her and dislocating her left knee.
The Lincoln High School graduate and former University of Nebraska-Lincoln student was admitted to Rhode Island Hospital in serious condition, suffering from a detached fibula, soft tissue and ligament injuries and compartment syndrome, which restricted blood supply to her leg.
The officers remained on active duty Thursday, said North Providence Deputy Police Chief Paul Marino. Svoboda was scheduled for a court appearance Wednesday, but was unable to make it due to her injuries.
Police were scouring a nearly three-quarter-mile stretch of road, hoping security cameras at businesses along the way might have captured video of the incident, “just to get the sequence of events and the facts down as accurate as we could possibly get them,” Marino said. Thursday afternoon, they had not yet found a usable video.
They did manage to get what officers believe to be unbiased witness accounts from merchants, said Marino, who would not go into further detail.
“We are calling it an internal affairs investigation, and that’s basically what it is,” he said.
The Providence Journal reported that in narratives provided by police, the officers “suggest that they were not only surprised by the demonstration but they were uncertain what to do — since the demonstrators refused to heed their demand to get out of the way of traffic and to walk on the sidewalk.”
According to accounts from Officer Mark Mastin, quoted in the Providence Journal, Svoboda cursed and swung drum sticks at officers, forcing them to restrain her.
“The crowd of demonstrators began screaming and advancing toward us,” Mastin said. “They were attempting to pull the suspect away from our custody. When we broke the suspect free from their hold, she was taken down to the ground.”
Marino said the officers’ actions were neccessary. Police estimated the number of protesters at 75 to 100, a number they say thinned out when officers arrived.
Protesters, who say there were no more than 40 people at the demonstration, held a vigil outside Rhode Island Hospital Tuesday. They plan more events — including an Aug. 26 march to the police station — to show support for Svoboda, as well as denounce the actions of the officers.
Originally, they planned to hold the Aug. 26 protest without a permit, but decided to apply for one to avoid further injury or legal action, Scott Svoboda said.
Reach Zach Pluhacek at 473-7395 or zpluhacek@journalstar.com.