Protesters Beaten as Nader Tries to Enter Debate

By Jennifer Bleyer, WorkingForChange.com. Posted October 4, 2000.

BOSTON -- There was little warning on Tuesday afternoon that Ralph Nader would be doing anything that evening besides watching the presidential debate on television, making himself available for media interviews and denouncing his exclusion from the event. But displaying his trademark chutzpah, Nader tried to get into the debate as a regular ticketholder, only to be muscled away at the door.

Some 5,000 protesters, meanwhile, rallied at the University of Massachusetts throughout the evening, demanding Nader be admitted to the debate, which was held on campus. An attempt at peaceful civil disobedience as the debate ended was broken up by a police horse charge, and police used chemical spray and truncheons to subdue the crowd.

Two people were taken to the hospital with injuries and 16 were arrested, according to police.

Earlier in the evening, the Green Party candidate's adventurous foray began at Harvard Law School. Northeastern University freshman Todd Tavares presented Nader with a valid ticket to the debates, shook his hand, and explained that giving up his ticket was "a small sacrifice to make for the good of the nation." Tavares, 21, reached Nader's campaign on Monday to offer him the ticket.

Accepting the ticket with a handshake, Nader said he intended to sit in the audience as a watchdog presence, and hoped for the opportunity to ask a question. "I'm going to be an observer in this audience, surrounded by corporate executives and their families," said Nader.

"We're dealing here with the ultimate kamikaze dive into a corrupt two-party system," he said. "Our country is more important than their sleazy fundraisers and their sleazy debate commission, which is funded by Anheuser-Busch, tobacco companies, auto companies and all the others that have corporatized our entire society."

Nader has vehemently criticized the Commission on Presidential Debates, a private entity which is controlled jointly by the Republican and Democratic parties, funded by major corporations, and which has set a 15 percent national poll requirement for candidates to enter the debates, numbers none of the Third Party candidates have attained this year.

After delivering a speech to a packed auditorium at the law school, Nader walked in the balmy evening with several aides, supporters and members of the press across Harvard's campus to a subway station on Boston's mass transit system. He appeared calm on the subway and a little more quiet than usual, as he attracted the attention of his fellow riders.

One man shouted, "Mr. Nader, you have my vote, these other guys shut down all the roads and I had to walk a mile just to get on the train." A mother accompanying her teenage son to take pictures at the debates for his high school photography class was delighted to run into Nader on the subway, and nervously asked his permission for a photograph.

At the University of Massachusetts station, Nader boarded a shuttle bus for ticketholders to be taken to the debate entrance. According to his campaign, the debate commission had been forewarned he was coming. When he got off the bus to proceed to the auditorium, Nader was immediately met by a representative from the debate commission and three uniformed police who said he was not invited onto the premises even with a ticket.

Nader complied and left, but tried to enter shortly thereafter with a team of journalists from FoxNews who had given him a pass to enter. He was turned away again.

In a press release issued by his campaign, Nader said that "on top of many other serious blunders, mistakes and demonstrations of arrogance generated by this corrupt debate commission, this unlawful exclusion will be the beginning of the end of the debate commission monopoly. I was excluded on political grounds and no other considerations were communicated." Later, in an interview on FoxNews, Nader said he would pursue legal measures against the CPD for barring him entry to the event with a valid ticket.

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