------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the March 29, 2001 issue of Workers World newspaper ------------------------- IAC VS. UNITED STATES: "COPS & BUSH TEAM VIOLATED RIGHTS OF INAUGURAL PROTESTERS" By Brian Becker Attorneys representing the International Action Center and other organizations and individuals charged that the Washington police force and federal law enforcement agencies violated the free speech rights of protestors at the Jan. 20 counter-inaugural demonstration. The J20 lawsuit represents a groundbreaking legal and political effort to challenge the common use of unconstitutional police tactics against progressive political demonstrations throughout the United States. "It is obvious to all the activists in the anti- globalization and anti-racist movements that the police have opted for a new strategy since Seattle that is aimed at repressing this new movement before it blossoms into a massive struggle," said Larry Holmes, a co-director of the IAC. Tens of thousands of people protested on Jan. 20 in Washington against racist disenfranchisement and the death penalty, in support of Mumia Abu-Jamal, in defense of women's rights and in opposition to George W. Bush's right- wing program. IAC, ET AL V. UNITED STATES A long list of allegations of police misconduct was included in the March 15 amended complaint to a federal lawsuit, "International Action Center, et al v. The United States," which was originally filed in a U.S. District Court in the days before the massive J20 demonstrations. The suit charges that law enforcement agencies used unconstitutional tactics, including "agents provocateurs" who carried out unprovoked felonious assaults using pepper spray on peaceful demonstrators; detained hundreds of people before they reached the site of the demonstration at Freedom Plaza; and allowed the Presidential Inaugural Committee to take control of a security checkpoint to prevent or delay protesters from approaching Freedom Plaza. The suit charges that the police Civil Disturbance Units' tactics on Jan. 20 included the "routine use of paramilitary force and threat of force; mobile police and riot lines to splinter groups ... administrative detention, false imprisonment and false arrest in which the CDUs will, after splintering groups, trap them on all sides, seize, detain and arrest demonstrators in the absence of probable cause." Lawyers from the Partnership for Civil Justice and the National Lawyers Guild filed the amended lawsuit. The suit was originally argued in a Jan. 18 hearing before U.S. District Judge Gladys Kessler. The protest organizers had gone to court charging that the police security plans for the inaugural event were being used as a pretext to inhibit, obstruct or prevent anti-Bush demonstrators from exercising their right to free speech. The judge ruled on Jan. 19 that the police security plan was "constitutional" but insisted that the demonstrators be given equal treatment with Bush supporters. While the tens of thousands of anti-Bush demonstrators had an overwhelming presence along the inaugural parade route, they encountered a wide variety of police attacks on Jan. 20. One of the most dramatic allegations in the amended complaint charges that "agent provocateurs," presumably undercover cops, unleashed a fierce, unprovoked attack along the parade route at the Navy Memorial at 7th and D Street. They pepper sprayed protesters directly in the eyes and mouth. Many were injured in the attack that lasted several minutes. Other plainclothes agents carried out unprovoked beatings of demonstrators. The pepper-spraying attack and beatings by undercover police agents are graphically depicted in video footage taken by demonstrators. 'WE CAN WIN!' The lawyers and IAC representatives held a news conference on March 15 to explain why they are going forward with the free speech lawsuit. The Washington Post, Associated Press, ABC-TV, ABC Radio and other media attended the news conference. "We are challenging the tactics, deployment and use of Civil Disturbance Units by the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department, acting in conjunction with federal law enforcement authorities. People are being presumptively treated as criminals merely because they are exercising their constitutional right to demonstrate and express their political views," said Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, a lawyer with the Partnership for Civil Justice. Protest organizers contended in their original suit that the checkpoints were not really about "presidential security" but a pretext to prevent demonstrators from getting equal access to the parade route. In her Jan. 19 ruling, Judge Kessler allowed the government to proceed with the use of a security plan that included the unprecedented use of checkpoints designed to screen, frisk and search hundreds of thousands of people outside of the inaugural parade route. But her ruling was explicitly premised on the guarantees made by government attorneys that the rights of demonstrators would not be violated. Despite promises made by the government in the Jan. 18 federal court hearing, the amended suit charges that the checkpoints were used to prevent demonstrators from gaining access to Pennsylvania Ave. "They turned control of the Freedom Plaza checkpoint over to the Presidential Inaugural Committee. The PIC thereafter refused to allow the checkpoint to open, even though other checkpoints were open. This proves that the protesters' concerns from the start were justified--these checkpoints were solely to benefit the PIC, and the incoming president's political allies," stated Carl Messineo of the Partnership for Civil Justice. The suit also charges that the police used unconstitutional tactics that have been widely employed against other demonstrations since the November 1999 Seattle anti- globalization protests shook the political establishment. On Jan. 20, for example, hundreds of demonstrators were detained at 14th and K streets, NW, as they tried to march from Dupont Circle to Freedom Plaza. Police sealed both ends of the block and beat a number of people. The same tactic was used against a legal demonstration sponsored by the IAC last April 15. Nearly 700 people were arrested at that action, which was calling for the freedom of death-row prisoner Mumia Abu-Jamal. "The police used very similar tactics in Washington, D.C., last spring, and at the two political conventions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles last summer, and these tactics were repeated on Jan. 20," Holmes noted. "Every significant social movement can expect to meet such resistance and repression from the system that serves the interests of Wall Street corporations and the biggest banks. "Our lawsuit is part of a larger political struggle to overcome state-sponsored repression. We can win by combining mass organizing of the people around the issues that are vital to their lives while simultaneously mounting a vigorous defense of our rights through the legal process," Holmes explained. The outcome of the J20 lawsuit is seen in the progressive legal community as an important step in the struggle to combat the national assault on free speech rights. "The National Lawyers Guild urges the media and the general public, as well as our members, to monitor this case. We are aware of similar attacks on free speech in other jurisdictions, and fully support this lawsuit and other efforts to defend the precious constitutional right of free speech," concluded Zachary Wolf, national vice-president of the NLG. To obtain a copy of the amended lawsuit, visit the Web site www.justiceonline.org. Send financial contributions to the IAC Free Speech Fund, 39 West 14th St., Suite 206, New York, New York 10011. To make an online contribution, visit the Web site www.iacenter.org. - END - (Copyright Workers World Service: Everyone is permitted to copy and distribute verbatim copies of this document, but changing it is not allowed. For more information contact Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011; via e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For subscription info send message to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: http://www.workers.org) ------------------ This message is sent to you by Workers World News Service. 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