It’s nice to be right, but there are downsides. A few weeks ago, I was worrying out loud about the police departments in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, about how they would respond to activists exercising their First Amendment rights outside the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
Although police in Philadelphia generally got high marks from the media, I think the media was looking at the wrong things. True, there were no cops dressed like storm troopers swinging clubs through clouds of tear gas, but there’s more than one way to abuse your authority.
Consider the case of John Sellers. John’s the director of the Ruckus Society, which trains activists in non-violent protest skills. Philadelphia police recognized John as he was walking down the street last week. He was arrested, charged with a variety of misdemeanors and his bail was set at one million dollars.
John Sellers is a friend of mine and I can tell you, nothing about him warrants a million-dollar price tag, except maybe his big, pumpkin-headed grin. A judge reduced John’s bail to a still-outrageous $100,000, but the Philadelphia judicial system is missing the point – John Sellers may be the best friend the police have. When John trains activists, he stresses non-violence, respect and compassion. Compassion, remember that word? Before politicians rob compassion of all its meaning, go to a Ruckus training camp and see political compassion in action.
In Los Angeles this week, four activists with SoldOutUSA hung a banner that called attention to the Democrats’ pimping for corporate America. The LAPD charged them with felonies and set bail at $20,000 a head. One usually has to be a leader of an organized crime family to get this kind of attention. Of course, the charges will be reduced before trial or dropped altogether, but the motive – stifle protest by using the system as a bludgeon, or in John Sellers’s case to enforce prior restraint on his First Amendment rights.
This is a trend I’ve seen develop since the mid-1990s. In 1995, I was arrested in Washington, DC for protesting French nuclear testing, outside the French ambassador’s residence. John Sellers was among my co-arrestees that day. Instead of being charged and released, as was often the case before, we were jailed. The police decided to visit upon us every indignity at their disposal. We were strip-searched, shackled and manacled, roused in the middle of the night, handcuffed to violent offenders, doused with water and thrown into a cold cell to shiver. A policeman told one of our people that they couldn’t rely on the courts to punish us, so the police decided to exact their own punishment as long as they could keep us in custody. The courts, in fact, did not punish us – the charges were thrown out due to police misconduct. Nor were we greatly intimidated. One of the violent offenders we were thrown in with was named Sellers and I remember him sitting with John, discussing the possibility of a common heritage. I was wishing they’d shut up – I was trying to get some sleep.
One principle the Ruckus Society stresses in its trainings is that the police are not our enemies and that if you’re protesting the World Bank, keep your focus on the World Bank; don’t get sidetracked into protesting police tactics.
Non-violent protesters strive to keep good relations with the police, who are, after all, just doing their job. Except I’m not sure the feeling’s mutual.
More Than One Way to Abuse Authority
It’s nice to be right, but there are downsides. A few weeks ago, I was worrying out loud about the police departments in Philadelphia and Los Angeles, about how they would respond to activists exercising their First Amendment rights outside the Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
Although police in Philadelphia generally got high marks from the media, I think the media was looking at the wrong things. True, there were no cops dressed like storm troopers swinging clubs through clouds of tear gas, but there’s more than one way to abuse your authority.
Consider the case of John Sellers. John’s the director of the Ruckus Society, which trains activists in non-violent protest skills. Philadelphia police recognized John as he was walking down the street last week. He was arrested, charged with a variety of misdemeanors and his bail was set at one million dollars.
John Sellers is a friend of mine and I can tell you, nothing about him warrants a million-dollar price tag, except maybe his big, pumpkin-headed grin. A judge reduced John’s bail to a still-outrageous $100,000, but the Philadelphia judicial system is missing the point – John Sellers may be the best friend the police have. When John trains activists, he stresses non-violence, respect and compassion. Compassion, remember that word? Before politicians rob compassion of all its meaning, go to a Ruckus training camp and see political compassion in action.
In Los Angeles this week, four activists with SoldOutUSA hung a banner that called attention to the Democrats’ pimping for corporate America. The LAPD charged them with felonies and set bail at $20,000 a head. One usually has to be a leader of an organized crime family to get this kind of attention. Of course, the charges will be reduced before trial or dropped altogether, but the motive – stifle protest by using the system as a bludgeon, or in John Sellers’s case to enforce prior restraint on his First Amendment rights.
This is a trend I’ve seen develop since the mid-1990s. In 1995, I was arrested in Washington, DC for protesting French nuclear testing, outside the French ambassador’s residence. John Sellers was among my co-arrestees that day. Instead of being charged and released, as was often the case before, we were jailed. The police decided to visit upon us every indignity at their disposal. We were strip-searched, shackled and manacled, roused in the middle of the night, handcuffed to violent offenders, doused with water and thrown into a cold cell to shiver. A policeman told one of our people that they couldn’t rely on the courts to punish us, so the police decided to exact their own punishment as long as they could keep us in custody. The courts, in fact, did not punish us – the charges were thrown out due to police misconduct. Nor were we greatly intimidated. One of the violent offenders we were thrown in with was named Sellers and I remember him sitting with John, discussing the possibility of a common heritage. I was wishing they’d shut up – I was trying to get some sleep.
One principle the Ruckus Society stresses in its trainings is that the police are not our enemies and that if you’re protesting the World Bank, keep your focus on the World Bank; don’t get sidetracked into protesting police tactics.
Non-violent protesters strive to keep good relations with the police, who are, after all, just doing their job. Except I’m not sure the feeling’s mutual.