errorthis is the type of coverage possible when you work with independent minority journalists - shelaugh : )
As LA Prepares for the DNC, Jailed R2K Protesters
Go on Hunger Strike Over Abuse and High Bail
by Karen Ocamb
The Democrats might be excited about the political ruckus presidential
contender Al Gore and running mate Joe Lieberman will make during the
Democratic National Convention in Los Angeles next week, but protesters,
city officials and civil libertarians are extremely concerned about police
reaction to the ruckus on the streets.
"Everybody is hunkering down," says openly gay Los Angeles City
Councilmember Jackie Goldberg who tried to help protesters get a permit to
demonstrate at famed Pershing Square. "It appears the police are preparing
the public for what I believe will be a very harsh and punitive response to any
demonstration. It's very frightening. In all of my 40 years of activism {Goldberg
was a leader in the Berkley Free Speech Movement}, this one is more
frightening than most. I've watched what they're doing. During a peaceful
demonstration of hotel workers the other day, the police were armed to the
teeth. They had gases and other chemical warfare, long clubs, rifles and
automatic weapons. I was terrified. And even if the demonstrations went off as
everybody planned, my fear - is what will be the level of response to something
that's unplanned? Things can escalate very easily. This is very scary stuff. The
police are geared to over respond. I hope I'm just being an alarmist. But it
looks pretty creepy."
Meanwhile the ACLU of Southern California, joined by several legal and protest
groups, has demanded that the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) stop
harassing protesters at the Convergence Center, their organizing headquarters
downtown. According to the ACLU, the LAPD has the Center under
surveillance, and has visited several times without warrants. "They've crossed
the line separating legitimate security preparations from unlawful harassment
that violates protesters' First and Fourth Amendment rights," says ACLU
attorney Dan Tokaji. "The mere potential for a disturbance does not justify the
suspension of our Constitutional rights."
"Throughout the process of planning for this convention, the LAPD has
pursued an unswerving course of alarmism, division, and fear-mongering," said
Ramona Ripston, Executive Director of the ACLU of Southern California. "The
tactics of intimidation and harassment targeting protesters at their organizing
center are part of that approach. At each fork in the road during this process,
the LAPD has had choices. Unfortunately, the department has too often
chosen to lay the groundwork for a confrontation rather than build the
framework for a peaceful convention. They envision another Seattle and their
every action unintentionally contributes to just such a scenario."
In Seattle, Washington an estimated 50,000 protesters shut down meetings of
the World Trade Organization in a major confrontation with police. Amid the
chaos, riot-clad police used rubber bullets and tear-gas while some protesters
targeted stores for vandalism.
In a recent conversation with reporters, LAPD Commander Dave Kalish, the
department's openly gay spokesperson, said the department would be
prepared for any contingency. He noted the protests in Seattle and a smaller
one in Washington D.C. and pointed to the spontaneous outbreak of violence
following the Lakers' NBA title win outside the Staples Center, the same venue
that will house the DNC. He said that while he expects most demonstrators to
peacefully exercise their First Amendment rights, "intelligence reports"
indicate that some anarchists and some "indigenous" gang members may
infiltrate the protesters in order to create havoc, do property damage and steal.
He also noted that some of the violence in the aftermath of the Lakers' game
specifically targeted journalists and he cautioned reporters to be on guard.
In an interview during the Republican Convention, L.A. Mayor Richard Riordan
said the city was "well prepared" for the DNC and the demonstrators but "we
aren't going to tolerate lawlessness" However, he said, "I expect the vast, vast
majority of demonstrators will get their message across peacefully."
But civil libertarians and protesters are also wondering if the LAPD will repeat
the actions of the Philadelphia police which used videotape surveillance and
other methods to identify in advance the protest leaders before the Republican
National Convention convened. It is believed that over 400 were arrested during
sometimes violent confrontations with police in the first two days of the GOP
convention. According to spokespeople for the R2K legal team, just over 170
have been released and 300 are still in jail. The amount of bail has been set as
high as $1 million in some cases. Meanwhile 150 men are on a hunger strike,
some since last Tuesday, to protest the high bail for mostly minor charges
and the abuse they say they've suffered at the hands of jailers and the criminal
justice system.
"Ax murderers don't get this," the Philadelphia Inquirer reported Carolyn
McGuckin-Robinson, 39, the mother of 19 year old Terrence McGuckin as
saying during a vigil across from Police Headquarters. Described by friends as
a gentle freshman graphic arts major at Temple University, McGuckin is being
held on $500,000 bail for misdemeanor charges that include possession of an
instrument of crime - a cell phone. He was inside a van, which had been
followed by police, when arrested. "He does practice nonviolent confrontation,"
McGuckin-Robinson said. "So did Martin Luther King. And so did Jesus."
According to news reports, police deny mistreating the protesters, saying
protesters have contributed to the delays in processing by refusing to identify
themselves and stripping to avoid comparison with videotape taken during the
demonstrations.
But while the explicitly non-violent R2K legal team is about to take a firm
stand distancing themselves from the violence and vandalism committed by
self-styled anarchists, they rebuked the police for treating all protesters the
same in order to keep them off the streets until after the convention.
Additionally, they say the stories of abuse consistently told by release
protesters warrant investigation.
Mail carrier Joe Piette, a 53 year old Vietnam veteran, for instance, told the
Philadelphia Inquirer that he was picked up with a group of marchers and held
three days, though he fully cooperated with the police. "One of the [jail] guards
told me the intent in meetings with city officials in planning on how to deal with
the protesters was that they wanted to keep us all in prison until the
convention was over," Piette told the Inquirer.
But other protesters have not faired as well. Kate Sorenson, a protester with
the Philadelphia Direct Action Group and ACT UP/Philly who was arrested as
an alleged "ringleader" during a police raid Tuesday of a puppet-making
warehouse, faces 7 felony charges and is still being held on $1 million bail.
The R2K legal team says police visited and videotaped the comings and
goings of people from the warehouse prior to the convention. R2K legal
spokespeople later said police arrest protesters inside the warehouse on
charges of "blocking a highway and reckless endangerment of a person."
Police later displayed puppet-making materials as "evidence" of the protesters'
intent to use the puppetry as weaponry.
Meanwhile on Monday a judge reduced the bail of another "ringleader," John
Sellers, from $1 million to $100,000 on all misdemeanor charges. Sellers,
director of the California-based, non-violent civil disobedience group called the
Ruckus Society, was described by a prosecutor as a protest leader who
"facilitates the more radical elements to accomplish their objective of violence
and mayhem," reports the Inquirer. He was on the sidewalk when arrested.
Darby Landy, a protester facing felony charges for assaulting police officers, is
facing a $450,000 bail. Critics believe the high bail is designed to keep
protesters in jail beyond the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles next
week.
Mayor Street and Police Commissioner John F. Timoney stand by their hard
line decision. "These people voluntarily joined in a what I regard as a very
ill-conceived conspiracy, and now they're in jail because they violated the law,"
Street told the Inquirer. But he refused to believe stories of abuse in jail and
the denial of medications by guards, even though one complaint came from
the Quaker executive director of the Mental Health Association of
Southeastern Pennsylvania. "I just don't believe it," the Inquirer reported Street
said Monday. "I believe they're being treated with the same dignity and respect
that should be accorded virtually any other person that's in custody."
But that's not what the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania thinks.
"Over the weekend, credible stories concerning serious injuries inflicted upon
those who were arrested last week have been reported to the ACLU. We
intend to review those incidents to determine whether, in fact, excessive force
was used in the streets or prisons. We will also advise people to file
complaints of police misconduct with the Police Advisory Commission," said
Larry Frankel, the group's executive director, in a statement released Monday.
"Finally, we continue to believe that the seizure of the warehouse in West
Philadelphia and the arrest of 70 individuals who were at that warehouse raise
many questions. Last Friday's orchestrated display of evidence did not resolve
our doubts as to the legality of police actions against that warehouse. We still
suspect that the seizure in West Philadelphia was an overbroad sweep of
many individuals who had no intention of engaging in violent protest."
The group is also "greatly disturbed by {Police Commissioner John Timoney's}
call for a federal investigation. We are also troubled by the District Attorney
{Lynn Abraham's} seeking the court's permission to seal critical legal
documents while throwing the book at those who were arrested. These official
actions are particularly unsettling in light of the additional stories of abuse and
brutality that have been brought to our attention over the weekend. The ACLU
believes that vandalizing property, turning over trash cans, assaulting persons
and shutting down the city by blocking traffic are not activities protected by the
First Amendment. However, they are not the kind of crimes that justify treating
the defendants as if they were dangerous urban terrorists. The ACLU is very
worried that a federal investigation, as suggested by the Police Commissioner,
could discourage many Americans from exercising their First Amendment
rights. Calling for the federal government to prosecute those who engage in
nonviolent civil disobedience could intimidate many people from participating in
protests. Many Americans will be afraid that they will get caught up in a
federal investigation. The ACLU is also concerned that bail is being set at
artificially high levels to keep protest leaders in detention until their date of
trial, which will be after the Democratic Convention in Los Angeles. The
purpose of bail is to insure that a defendant will appear at trial. It is not
intended to prevent a person from expressing his or her dissenting views."
This statement comes after protesters criticized ACLU legal director Stefan
Presser who told the media during the demonstrations that the police "showed
enormous restraint" with violent protesters and the selective arrests were
"smart tactics." He also discounted the protesters' claims of abuse in jail as
"highly unlikely."
The claims of abuse include: denials of access to food, water and bathrooms,
as well as access to lawyers; sleep deprivation by overnight handcuffing in
awkward positions; the use of pepper spray to coerce arrestees into attending
arraignments; stripping of prisoners' clothing; beatings; denial of essential
medication, including for people with diabetes and asthma; denial of food,
water and access to the bathroom for extended periods.
The R2K legal team also says they have "numerous accounts of arrestees
who have been isolated, verbally abused, punched, kicked, thrown against
walls, bloodied, and dragged naked across floors, in one instance through a
"trash trough" containing refuse, spittle and urine. There has been a reported
sexual assault by a female officer who pulled and twisted a prisoner's penis,
as well as reports of people dragged by their genitals and nipples being
twisted by guards. Seven witnesses saw one woman dragged naked and
bleeding."
"These are reports we're getting from people who're just getting out of jail,"
says Sara Marcus, a 23 year old lesbian member of the R2K legal Collective
whose girlfriend is unreachable in jail. "We're giving them forms and telling
them, 'Don't exaggerate. Only tell us what you saw and experienced.' One
member of our legal collective, Jamie Graham, was working as a legal
observer on Wednesday when he saw an officer striking a woman. He went
over to take a picture and he was thrown to the pavement with an officer's foot
pressing his head to the pavement. His injuries were so severe, he had to be
taken to the hospital. He was released with instructions to keep his wound
clean. But he was denied Ibuprophen and water. Fellow prisoners tried to
collect bits of water and pass it to him but the guards took the container away.
He showed up at our press conference Friday with a visible red footprint on the
side of his head. And even though he kept trying to cooperate - he didn't intend
to get arrested - they deliberately kept him in jail until after the convention."
Marcus also noted that prior to the protests, demonstrators had pledged to
follow the Philadelphia Direct Action groups' "action guidelines" that promised
to "do no violence against any living thing," including throwing projectiles. The
guidelines also discouraged property damage but "a group serving as the
space for a bunch of different smaller groups cannot in any way have control
over other what other groups do….To discredit the actions of thousands of
peaceful protesters because of the questionable actions of a few is really
unfair."
About 70 civil liberties lawyers from around the country have said they intend
to litigate every single case to the fullest if the D.A. doesn't remedy the
situation fast, says R2K legal collective member Kris Hermes, who also
complains of a news blackout. However, he says, the City Council is
becoming alarmed at all the documented testimony of abuses and is
concerned about possible legal cases against the city. "This could end up
costing the city a lot of money," says Hermes. "The Philadelphia Police
department is seriously shooting itself in the foot."
In a possible sign that Los Angeles law enforcement might react differently,
three protesters who were arrested Monday for unfurling a banner outside the
Staples Center were released yesterday on $20,000 bail and will face
misdemeanor charges. # # # For more information on the R2K situation, call
the Legal Support Team in Philadelphia at 215-925-6791.
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Are there LA officials who are being targeted to contact to demand restraint by the LAPD during the DNC protests? (I'm sorry, that sounds so naive.)
Any other suggestions (for someone out of state) on efforts to raise public awareness & call for the safety of the protesters?
Evan Fuller