Voice of Freedom - Bush Goons around the Country!

Portland, Or. - According to Portland news writer Robin Franzen's report on Oct. 26, 2002, protesters filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Portland asking for financial damages after many people, including women and children were seriously injured by the aggressive Portland Police. They also demanded a court-ordered civilian police review board and a ban on using pepper spray and rubber bullets against peaceful protesters.

The U.S. District Court complaint, according to the reporter alledged "dousing peaceful demonstrators with chemical agents at close range and firing rubber bullets into the crowd as part of a pattern and practice of flagrantly violating peaceful demonstrators' First Amendment rights."

Mayor Katz, Police Chief Mark Kroeker, along with the city and others, were accused of violating the protesters rights to free speech and free assembly through excessive police force during President Bush's visit on Aug. 22.

President Bush was appearing at a political fund-raiser for Republican Sen. Gordon Smith at the Hilton Portland and citizens were trying to get thier messages accross to the President by protesting.

This type of harrassment of law abiding United States citizens is becoming all to common with little national coverage. Most if not all of the citizens involved in protesting are breaking no laws but are being aggresively attacked by police with directives to do so, or are being forced into a "protest zone" far away from the view of the very people the protest is directed toward. What is our President afraid of? Why are police directed to keep citizens who are lawfully excercising thier right to protest away from the President? These and more are questions that beg to be answered.

The U.S. Supreme Court said, "Freedom of expression would not truly exist if the right could only be exercised in an area that a benevolent government has provided as a safe haven for crackpots." Are protesters considered "crackpots" by our current administration?

Tampa, Florida
The Tampa Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida today filed a federal lawsuit against the City of Tampa for civil rights violations stemming from the wrongful arrest of two grandmothers and another man during a demonstration organized last year for President George W. Bush and Florida Governor Jeb Bush.

Phoenix, Arizona
A lawsuit filed yesterday against the administration of Gov. George W. Bush - the third major case against his office - may provide a window on the presidential front-runner's views on free-speech rights and his tolerance of civil protest.

The suit, brought by the American Civil Liberties Union and a group of environmentalists, argues that Governor Bush and state police violated free-speech guarantees under the state constitution by arresting protesters outside the Governor's Mansion in April.

Baltimore, MD
OCTOBER 3, 2002 --This afternoon, President Bush was whisked into the Baltimore Hyatt for a fundraiser to support Maryland Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich. A block away, police kept anti-war protesters locked down.

President George Bush was greeted by a crowd of sixty cheering supporters this afternoon as he arrived at the downtown Hyatt for a fundraiser to support Republican gubernatorial candidate Robert Ehrlich. A block away, well out of sight of the presidential motorcade, Baltimore police threatened 150 anti-war protesters with arrest if they attempted to cross a police line on the southeast corner of Pratt and Light Streets.

Cleveland, Ohio
The protesters, mostly union members, stood across the street chanting, "Jobs, not charity" and "Come into our union town, you must be a clown."

But police and the Secret Service felt that the protesters were a little too close.

"Beyond the yellow tape. That's where you've got to go, beyond the yellow tape," one police officer said.

Washington, D.C.
The protests were largely peaceful, and resulted in only a handful of arrests. But the tension was often heavy between those there to protest the inauguration and those who came to celebrate it.

Crawford, Texas
Roughly 300 people converged in Crawford, Texas Saturday for an anti-war rally and a procession to the Bush Ranch, where organizers had hoped to deliver a petition to white-house officials.

The rally-goers were greeted and welcomed by police early on. One organizer for the events said that the Crawford chief-of-police, no Bush fan, likes to “roll out the red carpet” for Protesters and often waits until only days before the pResident’s arrival before breaking the news to the people of Crawford. He apparently gets a kick out of watching town-folk scurry in a mad rush to ‘Bush-ize’ the town.

Originally slated to meet Bush at the Ranch was Vicente Fox along with a cadre of international press. This was to be an opportunity for the world to see Texans opposed to Bush’s slated war against Iraq. Suprisingly, Fox decided only a week before his visit to back out of his planned trip to Texas, due to the execution of a Mexican national who had been convicted of murder. However, organizers decided to move forth with the events, international press present or not.

Bush averted this protest by taking a last minute trip to the west coast and rubbing elbows with republican party members in Oregon and California. Ironically, he was met with protests far more effective than this one while visiting Portland and Los Angeles.

Houston, Texas
About 200 demonstrators protesting the possibility of war with Iraq chanted outside a downtown hotel where President Bush appeared Thursday to raise money for Republican Senate candidate John Cornyn and the Texas GOP.
The protesters, many of them with signs, were kept about a block away from the Hyatt Regency Hotel, where the fund-raiser was expected to raise $500,000 for Cornyn's Senate bid and $600,000 for the state Republicans.

Louisville, Ky
Police arrested six protesters just before 6 p.m. Mounted officers waded into the crowd attempting to push them back into the designated protest area, and some who were slow to respond were arrested.

The names of those arrested were not immediately released, but Louisville police Maj. Don Burbrink said the six likely would face charges of failure to disperse.

Philadelphia, Va
We weren't doing anything wrong," Graves said as he was being loaded into the back of a police van. When asked by a reporter what the police would find, Graves replied "Nothing."

Over 280 people were arrested Tuesday across Philadelphia, including Protesters who marched on City Hall protesting animal rights and the death penalty.

Walczak said this "manipulates the public perception to make it appear the president is more popular. What's clear after today's hearing is that this is being directed at a federal level."

The following is a letter that was delivered to Mayor Katz by "hippie" Attorney Alan Gra, Chair Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild

I write to you today as the Chair of the Portland Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild and as a citizen of this city.

Yesterday I witnessed actions by the Portland Police against the citizens of this city that rose to the level of what I would term "atrocities against humanity." Many people, including women, children and gentle folks were seriously injured by the aggressive and irresponsible actions of the Portland Police. I will explain further.

On August 22, 2002, around 5 P.M., near the intersection of SW Taylor and SW Fifth, the Portland Police set up a road block in the middle of the block for the purpose of preventing any pedestrian traffic other than invited guests from entering the area around the Portland Hilton. The crowd behind the barricades was loud and vocal, but at no time did I observe anyone in the crowd threaten the police or take any action against the police department that could be perceived as threatening, provocative or dangerous. I have videos to support this assertion, as do most of the regular media that were there. See, in particular, Channel 12's video of this incident.

The police at one point donned tear gas masks and then announced that they had declared a state of emergency and that everyone had to move. Their announcement was barely audible and was only heard by a few of us at the front of the barricades. About twenty seconds after their announcement the police proceeded to move around the barricades to the other side where the protestors were stationed and started to push and beat people with their night sticks while spraying pepper spray in the faces of the crowd. Although the police ordered the crowd to move back, the people at the front of the crowd could not move without knocking over people behind them and trampling them. The pepper spray was sprayed indiscriminately at all the people who were in the area.

It was clear to me that the police could see that there were young children in strollers within the crowd, yet the police ignored that fact and continued to spray pepper spray indiscriminately so that the spray hit the children and their mothers. Members of the press were also indiscriminately sprayed.

I personally was sprayed by the police and had a hard time breathing. I also watched as people were carried out of the area including Lloyd Marbet, a man of peace, who was unable to see and who was suffering noticeably.

Besides pepper spray, the police used tear gas and rubber bullets against the protestors reminiscent of the police department’s widely criticized actions around a previous May Day. Again, the crowd at this intersection was loud, noisy, exercising their First Amendment freedoms---but never threatening. This incident and action by the police was totally unprovoked and totally unnecessary. In fact, the cop actions only resulted in revving up the crowd and blocking the bus mall of SW 5th Avenue.

I have to tell you that this "gestapo like conduct" is not the kind of conduct we in Portland want to see from our police department. During this incident, the police were obviously acting on orders which I must assume were issued by Chief Kroeker.

Whoever issued the orders yesterday is clearly out of touch with Portland, the fundamental principles of democracy, and their own humanity.

I observed many officers act individually with impunity and complete disregard for the health and safety of the citizens of Portland. In fact, it appeared to me that many officers wanted to inflict harm on the protestors. I can only assume that this conduct is a direct result of a failed system for police accountability here in Portland. The police have learned that they will not be held accountable for aggressive and harmful actions against the citizens of Portland. It is also interesting that many of the officers involved in these actions did not wear name tags or I.D. numbers.

Mayor Katz. We assume and hope you are still in charge of the police department. We ask now that you make some tough decisions.

We demand that you fire Chief Mark Kroeker immediately as he did not show the type of responsibility and humanity that we Portlanders expect from our Police Chief. He doesn’t even want to be in this city. Let us grant him his wish and send him packing and hire someone who understands that the police are civil servants who work for the citizens of Portland, not against the populace.

We demand that you establish a real system of police accountability in place by utilizing the recommendations of your own Mayor’s Task Force and install a system that reflects the Majority Report and a real citizen based system of accountability instead of the failed system that is now in place.

Thank you for the opportunity to present this demand to your office. We sincerely hope you respond as soon as possible and take our demands seriously.