Inside a crowd of 10,000 gathering to witness John Kerry come to Flagstaff a small group of people who were chanting "Hooray for the lesser of two evils" were heard only as much as 15 feet away. And even though they had tickets to the event, had gone through the screening by a Democrat volunteer at the gate who removed any and all messaging, and then were frisked and searched by secret service who led them through a metal detector into a sea of people almost a full city block from the stage where Kerry would be, they were deemed a risk-- A risk to Kerry's chances of election, a risk of not playing the role of "crowd" in Kerry's scripted made for TV rally, and must be removed from the rally before he arrived.
The police gather together 8 uniformed (acting officers) and at least 10 plainclothes officers (hidden officers who create a ring around the group of patriots). When the police see the "leader of the Anarchist group" (from police report) they sneak up behind him while he is holding his daughter and listening to Paul Babbitt dribble his way through a speech and grab his arm from behind. The officer puts pressure on the wrist and shoulder and creates pain. Mother grabs daughter.
The Police officer says "You are being asked to leave the event" while making it obvious to the "Leader" that he could break his arm with very little pressure.
"The leader of the Anarchists" says "I will leave with no trouble, but you are hurting me, you are hurting me" still feeling afraid from thinking the black leather goved hands were there to dissapear him, but looking behind him seeing a uniformed, pudgy, Officer Darr of the Flagstaff Police. "Am I under arrest?" he said upon visual recognition.
The Officer replies "no", while putting more pressure on the arm of his prize.
The "leader" cries "you are hurting me, you are hurting me" over and over.
All the people around this start chanting "Free speech, Free speech". Probably about forty people. The group with the "leader" numbered only seven.
One person, Brent Robinson, from the group takes a step towards Officer Darr and asks "why are you hurting my friend?.
He is punched in the side by another of the approaching uniformed police officer, making him fall sideways. While the plainclothes officers hold the crowd around the small group back. The officer then tackles Brent onto the legs of the "leader" Rudy Preston, who has fallen to the ground, limp, for fear of being badly injured by Officer Darr.
One lady who was part of the crowd pushes forward and starts yelling into Rudy's face "you are getting what you deserve you stupid punk", close enough to Rudy's face that her forhead keeps bumping his. The police do nothing to stop this. In fact they start cuffing the not under arrest "leader". The whole while the lady keeps yelling.
Officer Darr and another officer start to drag Rudy away from where they apprehend him. Officer Darr says "him too" and points at one other of the "anarchist group". And three more uniformed officers grab Josh Sweeney. Three officers also are pulling Brent, uncuffed, out of the crowd. Each person is dragged a different way. Elapsed time: one minute and thirty seconds.
Rudy is dragged along the ground through the crowd for about a block. Through the handicapped section and over strollers. The police forcefully pushed people out of the way to gain any space in the crowd of 10,000. The whole time Rudy is shouting "Police State" and "All I said was Kerry was the lesser of two evils, I am being arrested for my views" over and over as loud as he could. Unfortunately the press box was over 200 feet away and could not hear anything. When a reporter asked what all the buzz was on the police radio, an officer replied "nothing".
When the police reach the four foot fence surrounding the rally, they dragged Rudy into it, and then over it. Still running. Rudy sustained the first of his 15 bruises on that fence. They then drag him another block to an awaiting paddy wagon. Rudy's lady and baby are following behind watching everything. When they get to the Paddy Wagon fur Officers lift him to a standing position on the bumper of the vehicle without allowing him to bend forward to get in to the narrow, metal edged door that only was as high as his stomach.
Rudy now stops yelling "I'm being arrested for my views, police state" and starts yelling loudly "I can't get in this way, I will get in if you let me" and "you are hurting me" over and over. But the police just keep pushing gim harder against the door.
Finally, while three of the officers have him pinned against the door, the fourth steps back a few steps, moves forward quickly and slams Rudy squarely in the back forcing him to bend backwards farther than a body normally bends, while cuffed, onto the floor of the vehicle.
Josh was led behind Rudy through the crowd by two officers who have his arms behind his back, pushing them so far up his feet are off the ground. One of the officers was about six foot eight. That officer left a bruise on the back of Josh's arm that was 3" x 5" and deep purple and yellow for three weeks afterwards. The whole time Josh is yelling "I will leave the event" and "why are you being so violent, stop hurting me" and "I did not do anything".
When they reach the paddy wagon, they stop and violently cuff Josh. Then one officer says "are you ready", and three officers run Josh at the police van. The door is not open. Josh put his feet on the bumper in order to keep from crashing into the van. The whole time Josh is yelling "I will get in the van, I will get in the van."
People from surrounding businesses who had gathered to see the commotion tried to intervene asking the police to let Josh get in the van, and saying that they were obviously hurting him. The police pushed these people back onto the sidewalk, while threatening to arrest them. Josh did not know any of these people. The police then opened the back of the van and crumbled Josh inside. As the doors were closing he was heard to scream in agony "I think they broke my wrist".
Rudy start screaming from inside the soundproof vehicle that Josh needed medical attention.
Brent is dragged at a run through the crowd towards an alley just outside the barricades to the event. Police simply push people out of the way to get through. Once inside the alley, his mother and two others who followed behind the police witnessed the three officers punch Brent in the face twice and pull his shirt over his head. Brent stays limp for all of this, and verbally refuses to walk. The officers pick up the nonresisting activist (going limp is not resisting as long as that is all you do, never tense anything as they call that resisting arrest) and carry him two blocks to the paddy wagon where Josh and Rudy have already been beaten into. They remove his shirt from his head and open the door where they put Josh. Brent is walking on his own and gets inside the van while Rudy shouts to the crowd that Josh needs medical attention. The police have to push more people back on the sidewalk when they come forward to insist that medical help be given to the person they just beat.
Some people across the street start chanting "freedom of speech".
A police officer replies to them "your freedom of speech has gone too far" and forces them to move along or be arrested.
An officer gets behind the wheel of the paddy wagon to hear Rudy yelling that Josh needs medical attention, his wrist may be broken. The officer replies "If you weren't such a dumb piece of fucking shit then you wouldn't get hurt". He refuses to get medical attention and drives to the jail.
Once at the jail Rudy, Brent and Josh are put inside three seperate tiny, cold cells. Rudy is refused a blanket because he keeps yelling inside his cell "freedom of speech" and "police state". Hours go by with nothing but Rudy yelling. They would have to wait until morning for an arraignment.
After about three hours of Rudy yelling Detention Officer T. Leon comes into the cell with four other officers behind him and issues Rudy a bruising beating. The other four officers stand and block the cieling mounted camera trained on the cell. They were not succesful in blocking the camera as Rudy had a clear view of it the whole time. He also shouted out exactly what Officer Leon was doing to him.
When arraignment time came about in the morning, they put arm and leg shackles on Josh and led him 100 feet from his cell to a TV where the judge appeared over a live streaming camera and set bail at $45,000.00 and issued charges of resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, criminal trespass and three counts of aggravated assult on a police officer. Though the bail did not matter because he was already on probation. He was to be held without bond until his probation hearing.
They went into Brents cell next and severely beat him in plain view of everyone because he did not lift his foot into the shackle fast enough. They then shackled him and led him the 100 feet to the TV where he was issued the same charges as Josh, Less one aggravated assult charge. Bail: $25,000.00. His mom charged it. He was released the next day.
Rudy next went shackled before the Max Headroom-like TV judge to find out he was only being charged with resisting arrest, disorderly conduct, and criminal trespass. The judge released him into pre-trial services custody since he did not get charged with assulting anyone. Pre-trial services is like probation. You must report there once a week, you can't drink alcohol, etc.
One Hundred thirty days later, Josh is still in jail due to our courts being clogged with cases. No probation hearing. That charge was dropped today. All the other charges have been dropped twice only to be immediately refiled. Josh, Rudy and Brent have been to three arraignments for the same charges. The Lawyer bills are now well over $10,000.00, and due process has gone out the window. The activists have a right to a trial within 150 days of arraignment, but they keep dropping and refiling the charges. They should only have 20 days left, but they will take another 100 at least. Josh still needs a $45,000.00 cash bond to be released (no 10% in cash, it is a secured bond).
Since the incident witnesses have come out of the woodwork, including three very credible local lawyers. Not one of those witnesses tells a story that remotely resembles the police report. The words "police brutality" come up quite frequently. So do the words "freedom of Speech".
They can beat us with their fists, but they won't win.
I will write again and post the actual trial dates for those who would like to watch the trial. As soon as they set a trial date.
If you would like to read the Arizona Daily Sun's Headline Article for Dec.14, 2004 (their first coverage of the Aug. 8 arrests) go to
http://www.azdailysun.com/non_sec/nav_includes/story.cfm?storyID=100070 They just copied from the police report.
If you would like to help with donations for legal defense e-mail:
police_states_suck@yahoo.com