[thechat] protests? - wrongful arrests

[Erik Mattheis]

>> I can send you links if you wish.
>
> Please do. I legally assembled and asserted this week in protest to  
> this
> war, and nothing happened to me. I bet there's more to the story than
> that...


Excerpts From:
<http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/iraq/chi- 
030321protest,0,6934431.story>

As police today defended their actions arresting 543 anti-war  
protesters who shut down Lake Shore Drive in downtown Chicago on  
Thursday night, activist leaders decried the crackdown on what they  
described as "peaceful and nonviolent" demonstrators.

Event organizer Chris Geovanis, of the Chicago Coalition Against War  
and Racism, denied police assertions protesters were disruptive, and  
accused officers of themselves blocking streets and detaining people  
who wanted to "peacefully leave the scene."

  "We expect and we demand that our police department whose salaries we  
pay act in a responsible and a collaborative manner with demonstrators  
as we seek to express our opposition to this war in a peaceful and  
nonviolent fashion,"  Geovanis said.

Among those let go without being charged was Katrina Rawls, a  
23-year-old Columbia College student from Chicago who said police  
arrested her and her friends as they tried to leave Thursday night's  
demonstration for a CTA station.

  "We were trapped trying to get to the train. We kept asking how to  
leave, and they wouldn't let us go," said Rawls, who contended she and  
34 other women were crowded into a single jail cell, given no food and  
offered a dripping fountain as their only source of water.

  "You grow up thinking you have these rights," Rawls said. "I was never  
read my rights. I was herded with everybody else like cattle. I haven't  
slept or eaten for 24 hours."

  At a police news conference this morning, Chief of Patrol Jim Maurer  
defended his officers' actions. Reminding reporters that there were no  
serious injuries, nor any property damage Thursday night, he said the  
problems were caused by a few hundred instigators out to cause trouble,  
not the thousands of "legitimate" protesters.

From:
<http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2003/02/1570095_comment.php#1587250>

Wrongful Arrests at Mission & 7th
  by Marley Fowat  Friday March 21, 2003 at 04:34 PM

If you were wrongfully arrested in San Francisco on Thursday 20 March  
near Mission and 7th or know someone who was, here is information about  
a class action suit against the city and the police department for  
wrongful arrest.  This info applies also to people who were wrongfully  
arrested in other parts of the city.  Pit the parts of the system  
against each other and take advantage of their own competition for  
power.  Pass this on.

  Ishmael Tarikh, the director of Bay Area Police Watch says he wants to  
file a class action suit against the city within the next 10 days if he  
has 15 to 20 people come forward.  SF Lawyers Guild is also interested  
in representing suits against the city for police misconduct.

  Here's who you should call

  415.951.4844 x228        Bay Area Police Watch Director Ishmael Tarikh
  415.285.1011                  San Francisco Lawyers Guild Legal Aid
  415.553.9530                  San Francisco Attorney's General Office

  As for the citation you were issued for Failure to Disperse, the  
police are obligated to order the crowd to disperse as well as give  
them the opportunity.  Neither happened.  As for blocking traffic,  
unless the police have video of you in the street, they would be unable  
to prove that you were not on the sidewalk at the time the police  
arrested you.  At your arraignment hearing on the 19th, 20th, or 21st,  
plead Not Guilty to both charges, and make them take it to court.  At  
that point, the police dept will have to produce proof that you  
committed a crime or exonerate you.







--
vanity project in progress:
<http://goZz.com/presents/aristotle/>
The works of Aristotle in a Macromedia Flash "Rich Internet Application"
ActionScript and ColdFusion Development
Minneapolis, MN
--