Can't Stop, Won't Stop

If you want to wear your “Dump Dubya” button in Crawford, Tex., a few miles from the president's ranch, make sure you get approval from the police chief. Wearing a political button could violate Crawford’s protest ordinance that requires a $25 permit and prior approval by police. A February 16 verdict by a six-person jury meeting in a rented recreation center room upheld the ordinance. Five peace activists stopped at a Crawford roadblock en route to protests near the president’s ranch last May were convicted of violating the city’s parade and procession law. They were fined $200 to $500 and plan to appeal.

Increasing limits on protest aren’t limited to one-horse Texas towns with Bush memorabilia shops. Government surveillance and the criminalization of dissent are growing and activists and civil liberties advocates say Americans need to be worried. Two significant recent episodes prove their point:

* In Des Moines, the U.S. Attorney Office issued and then, under pressure, dropped a gag order and subpoena that demanded information about who attended and what was discussed at a peace forum. The supoenas also required annual reports from the Drake University chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. The campus group sponsored a forum November 15, 2003, a day before a run-of-the-mill peace rally at a National Guard facility. Among those subpoenaed was the executive director of the Catholic Peace Ministry. Faced with mounting criticism, the government also withdrew subpoenas for four specific protestors.

* The Texas Civil Rights Project condemned U.S. Army intelligence agents who wanted a roster of those who attended a conference on women and Islamic law at the University of Texas law school in Austin. Intelligence agents are also accused of posing as lawyers during the February 4 event. The U.S. Army Intelligence Security Command has said it is looking into the incident. The law school’s president said it was the first time in 30 years he had heard of the government investigating a law school forum or seminar.

“When the government intimidates people expressing their opinions non-violently in Iowa, the civil rights of all Americans are questioned,” said Joseph Truong, of the National Youth and Student Peace Coalition. His group’s second annual national Books Not Bombs Day of Action is scheduled for March 4. Last year most demonstrations went well and some were supported by schools. But at least 300 students were suspended, 151 students arrested and two schools locked down, Truong said.

Still, Truong’s group is moving forward with its planned protest. “These are not terrorists, these are people who are dissenting. I don’t think people believe the Catholic Peace Ministry is a threat,” said Caroline Palmer, a member of the National Lawyers Guild. The guild has over 6,000 members and chapters at over 100 law schools and in nearly every state. It is dangerous to lump peace activists, or other dissenters, with legitimate targets for criminal investigations, she said.

“We have been urged by the Bush administration that we have to trade off liberty for security and that’s not true,” said Bill Dobbs of United or Peace and Justice, a national coalition of over 600 groups opposed to faulty U.S. foreign policy and devoted to social and racial justice. Dobbs noted local ordinances that limit protest are growing and have surfaced in small towns, like Crawford, Texas, and big cities like Miami.

During a major protest against the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting last year in Miami, demonstrators found local laws governed how big puppets could be, he said. In other instances, people were arrested for standing across the street from a protest site or for simply wearing black, which police assumed made them anarchists, Dobbs added. Protestors are hit with over charges, meaning what might have been a simple arrest for civil disobedience can now mean multiple criminal charges. “People and journalists need to be looking around the entire landscape and asking what is going on,” said Dobbs. With the new surveillance and police powers, it will likely to take years to know how far the authorities have gone, he added.