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State News Release - October 21, 2002 |
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DC Statehood Green Party |
| Statehood Greens Support Lawsuit Filed by Students Arrested During IMF World Bank Demonstrations. |
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THE D.C. STATEHOOD GREEN PARTY STATEHOOD GREENS SUPPORT THE LAWSUIT FILED BY STUDENTS ARRESTED DURING THE IMF & WORLD BANK DEMONSTRATIONS Police brutality, numerous violations of constitutional rights alleged; Statehood Greens were among those arrested. WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The D.C. Statehood Green Party has called for public support for a lawsuit filed on Friday, October 18 by seven students from George Washington University against District police for violation of their rights when they were arrested on the first day of the protests against the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). Members of the Statehood Green Party were among the 649 protesters, journalists, passers-by, and legal observers caught up in the sweep at Freedom Plaza early Friday morning, September 27. The suit alleges that police violated the students' First, Fourth and Fifth amendment rights, subjecting them to "abusive confinement" for up to 29 hours, and denying them access to legal counsel. Arrestees and observers also note that the police never issued a warning to disperse. About 200 were held overnight, partially hogtied in a gym, until they were charged with a minor misdemeanor, charged $50, and released. According to Statehood Green Party member Shawna Bader, who showed up to observe and was among those arrested, "...The police refused to let me out. Some cops on one part of the park said, 'I don't care where you have to go, you made the choice to come down here and you are not getting out'.... Before I knew it, these huge officers from Chicago, Boston, D.C., and federal Park Police where pulling out their batons and whacking people.... Then it got really ugly and scary. The police yelled, 'There are only two ways you are going to get out of here -- by volunteering to be arrested, or by being arrested by force.' ...I saw a tiny woman who couldn't have been more than about 20 years old and 100 pounds shackled and punched in the back. Others were slammed to the ground and were bleeding.... We were not told the charges against us for hours after being detained. 'Failure to obey a police officer' ended up being the charge. Of course, we had never been given an order to obey in the first place." ("Disgrace at Freedom Plaza", AlterNet,October 4, 2002, <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=14229>) In a September 21 Washington Post article, Capitol Police Chief Terrance W. Gainer was quoted as saying, "I don't know why we have to wait until after they've inflicted damage." "Gainer and [D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Dept. Chief Charles H.] Ramsey discarded the constitutional guarantee of innocent until proven guilty," said Michele Tingling-Clemmons, Statehood Green candidate for At-Large member of D.C. Council. "Gainer and Ramsey claimed that if they didn't arrest the protesters in advance, they would have broken the law. But neither police chief specified what crimes would be committed or cited any evidence." "This seems dangerously consistent with our new national policy of preemptive attack, which is also unconstitutional, and with repressive measures like the USA PATRIOT Act," noted Adam Eidinger, Statehood Green candidate for U.S. 'Shadow' Representative for D.C. Eidinger, one of the organizers of the weekend's demonstrations, was himself arrested in Pershing Park. Jenefer Ellingston, the party's Ward 6 candidate, agreed. "If elected to City Council, my first initiative will be rescission of our local Anti-Terrorist (Patriot) Act." Cheryl Desmond, a member of the Lancaster (Pennsylvania) Greens who was arrested, said, "As I waited in the Courthouse to support my friends in jail, a U.S. Marshall told me, 'It's a new time.'" The arrests repeated a military-style tactic that D.C. police used during the April 16, 2000 demonstrations, when 600 protesters, journalists, and bystanders (including some tourists) were arrested after police trapped them on a downtown street and closed in without first warning them to disperse. The D.C. Statehood Green Party formally declared its support for the lawsuits filed by attorney Mark Goldstone and GWU law professor Jonathan Turley at its monthly general membership meeting on October 3. Some Statehood Greens have suggested that criminal rather than civil complaints be filed. During the demonstrations, which were organized by the Mobilization for Global Justice and the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, protesters condemned "capitalism and greed" and the equation of democracy and global corporate capitalism, and insisted on openness instead of the secretive, antidemocratic economic authority wielded by the World Bank and IMF. Protesters, including D.C. Statehood Greens and Green Party activists from across the U.S., cited reversal of labor and environmental protections, dependence on fossil fuels, privatization and deregulation, crushing debt imposed on poor nations by the IMF and World Bank, sweatshops, and destruction of local economies, including family farms and small businesses. Statehood Greens have compared these policies to the agenda of the Anthony Williams Administration, citing for example Mayor Williams' privatization and dismantling of D.C. General Hospital in 2000 for the benefit of Doctors Community Health Care, major developers and real estate firms, and other investment interests. MORE INFORMATION |
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State News Release - October 21, 2002 |
Home | Press | State Press |
