I was reading the Point Reyes Light on line and learned about a local black man who was held by police at gun point while grocery shopping at the Lakeville Lucky store in Petaluma.

On April 26, 1999 at around 8:00 p.m., Bruce Graham, a 49-year old father and Inverness inn manager, had dropped his daughter off for gymnastics practice in Petaluma. With some time to pass before heading back to the coast, he stopped by the Lucky store at Lakeville Road and Caulfield Lane to do some shopping. He quickly noticed police in the store looking at him in a peculiar way. He thought relatively little of it and continued on.

Then while perusing the juice display at the rear of the store, Graham suddenly was commanded to stop and not turn around. Immediately disobeying, he turned around and saw a police officer pointing a gun at his head. He was ordered to put his hands up and drop to his knees. When he did so, his leg cramped and his hand came off the top of his head. The officer threatened to shoot him if he did not immediately comply with the commands. Graham cooperated, was handcuffed and hustled out of the store.

In the course of all this, police told Graham they were looking for a robbery suspect described only as a "black male with curly hair." Their description had NO details on age, height, weight or attire. He was also told that this was the normal way in which police handle situations like this.

Outside the store, Graham saw many police cars gathered. He was taken to the driveway entrance on Payran at the north side of the store where a police cruiser drove by with very bright lights on. Graham assumed that a passenger inside was driven by to identify the suspect. Apparently, he was not identified as the suspect and after Mr. Graham successfully produced identification, he was released. As Graham was leaving, a police commander offered no apology for the incident yet informed him in a menacing way that he could file a complaint.

This situation could easily have turned into another case of police murder. Shocked and disbelieving, Graham did not immediately and completely comply with all the police demands. The nervous, high-strung cop who arrested him may not have needed much provocation to pull the trigger. And since 99.9% of all police shootings are ruled justifiable, he had little incentive to use restraint. I personally suspect that this is how many police killings happen although, of course, this is covered up in police and newspaper reports.

For police to issue a bulletin for a "black man with curly hair" is ludicrous and is tantamount to putting out a bulletin for a "freckled female with ears." Even in the predominantly white suburb of Petaluma, there is more than one black male.

And what were police doing making an arrest at gun point of a suspect I presume they considered potentially dangerous INSIDE a large, popular supermarket at the still busy hour of 8 p.m.????? What did the other shoppers do when they saw a man stopped by police at gun point? If I had been in there shopping with young children in tow, I would have been EXTREMELY upset with police for engaging in such a provocative act in a setting with so many innocent bystanders.

If this is "normal" police procedure - and I am sure that it is - then it is no small wonder that so many people are brutalized and killed by police. The police had no useful description of their suspect and that is "normal." When they found a black man, they circled in and arrested him in front of surely dozens of innocent shoppers. And that was "normal." When the "suspect" did not comply to the letter to their commands, they threatened to shoot him and that was "normal." A cop stood by with a gun aimed at the suspect's head - not his chest - throughout the arrest. And that was "normal." (My understanding is that police policy is to aim at the chest to stop and that ASSASSINS aim at the head to kill.) Police were heavy-handed, contemptuous and unapologetic and that was normal.

This incident is the just the kind of thing that results from the call for more cops on the street. And look to "liberals" like President Bill Clinton and Petaluma resident Congresswoman Lynn Woolsey as the culprits responsible for the increased police presence in Petaluma. The call for more and more police does not make anyone safer. In fact, it endangers lives by giving cops the green light to engage in all kinds public and private displays of excessive and reckless behavior. It makes for no less street crime and certainly no less corporate crime (the real crime in this country anyway) - just more repression and abuse of civilians.

You can read a complete first-person account of this case by Bruce Graham in the May 27, 1999 online edition of Point Reyes Light at ptreyeslight.com.

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