From: Rachel Maddow <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2000 12:11 PM
The telephone number for the DA's office is 215-686-5777
Phila. Protest Bail Is $1 Million
August 4, 2000
Filed at 11:31 a.m. EDT
By The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA (AP) -- A judge has set a $1 million bail
for a protest leader
who police said instigated property damage during sometimes-violent
demonstrations surrounding the Republican National Convention this
week.
Bail was set at $500,000 for another activist leader.
Police have arrested
and singled out as many as six leaders of activist
groups, many of them
instrumental in disruptions at last fall's World Trade Organization
meetings in Seattle.
John Sellers, 33, a leader of the Berkley, Calif.-based
Ruckus Society, has
been charged with numerous misdemeanors, including conspiracy,
obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct, attorney
Larry Krasner
said. Sellers was arrested Wednesday after police
identified him for what
they said were actions Tuesday evening.
``He sets the groundwork. He sets the stage,'' Assistant District
Attorney Cindy Martelli said during his bail hearing Thursday. ``He
facilitates the more radical elements to accomplish their
objective of violence and mayhem.''
Also arrested on misdemeanor charges was Terrence McGuckin, who was
being held on $500,000 bail, the district attorney's office said.
Krasner said Kate Sorensen, 34, a leader of the
Philadelphia Direct Action
Group and Philadelphia ACT UP, and Paul Davis, also a
leader of ACT UP,
were arrested and were expected to face charges similar
to Sellers'.
The attorney said he is representing about 10 protesters
arrested this week.
While Tuesday was a wild day for street demonstrations in
Philadelphia,
with some 300 protesters arrested in sometimes violent brawls with
police, the intensity of the protests diminished significantly the
remainder of the week.
Sellers, Sorensen and Davis remained in jail but dozens of other
protesters charged with misdemeanors were released Friday. It was
unclear whether the 19 activists charged with felony
assaults on officers
remained in jail. Police said 371 people have been arrested since
Saturday; more than 200 people had been arraigned by
Friday morning.
Protesters arrested during civil disobedience often are released on
summary charges or have bail set at less than $20,000,
Krasner said.
``It's an unconscionable, ridiculous bail and completely
off the map
from the norm,'' Krasner said. ``This is a desperate effort to
systematically punish these people without a trial, to
lock them up, keep them off the streets.''
In a news briefing Thursday, police Commissioner John F.
Timoney spoke
of ``some arrests effected in the Center City area that
included some
of the so-called leaders.'' He declined to provide
details but insisted that
no pre-emptive arrests had been made ``just to take the
leaders out.''
Despite the arrests, critics of the Philadelphia police
force conceded
they did a good job handling protests surrounding the Republican
convention.
``We didn't have the worst of what happened in Seattle,''
said Stefan Presser, legal director of the local American Civil
Liberties Union. ``We
didn't have mace. We didn't have tear gas. We didn't have
people swept
up who had nothing to do with the demonstrators.''
It's quite a change for the often criticized force, which
was embarrassed
just last month when several officers were caught on
videotape kicking
and beating suspect Thomas Jones.
``I'm certainly not proud of them, but they were more
subdued than I
expected compared to the reputation of Philadelphia,'' protester
Bernadette Moreno, 18, of Pittsburgh, said Thursday.
That's high praise from a protester for a force with a
history of brutality,
corruption and racism dating back to the mid-1970s.
``It was obvious they knew what they were doing. That's a
big change for
Philadelphia,'' said Temple University professor James
Fyfe, a former New
York City police officer. ``In a way the Jones situation
had a good effect
because the cops were very concerned of the criticism.''
Philadelphia NAACP President J. Whyatt Mondesire agreed that police
officers seem to have taken a lesson from the videotaped beating.
``As incredible as it sounds, the beating of Thomas Jones probably
saved these kids a couple of beatings, a couple of lumps,'' said
Mondesire, one of the most vocal critics of police for
the Jones' beating.
Presser accused police of partially inciting Tuesday
night's violence by
raiding a warehouse that protesters had used as a staging
area. About
70 people were arrested at the site, which organizers
said was used for making signs and puppets.
Timoney dismissed Presser's accusation and defended the warehouse
arrests.
``I've been assured we have probable cause to make those
arrests,'' he said.
Also Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton led a march of about
50 protesters
in front of the Philadelphia district attorney's Office,
criticizing the Jones
beating. Sharpton, a civil rights activist, said the
officers who hit and
kicked Jones should be arrested.
On The Net: Protesters -- http://www.r2kphilly.org or
http://www.d2kla.org
|
