BALTIMORE
Right to protest victory
By WW Baltimore bureau
On July 28 all charges were dropped against
eight community activists here who had been issued criminal
citations for the use of a bullhorn a month earlier at a
protest against a bus fare hike and cuts in service.
Twenty people, meanwhile, were on a picket line outside the
court--in a good mood already, as the defendants anticipated a
victory.
Sharon Ceci, an organizer for the All Peoples Congress and
one of the eight people cited, said, "This is a clear victory
in defense of the right to protest. It has come as a result of
increasing public pressure in the form of protests, flyer
distributions, emails and resolutions at City Council."
A big break in the case came when the defendants won the
support of a majority of the Baltimore City Council at a July
14 meeting. The council required hearings and an inquiry into
why the police arrested one activist and wrote citations
against eight others during the bus fare protest.
"We have asserted our innocence from the very beginning,"
Ceci continued. "These arrests and the overwhel mingly large
presence of police--including city, state and MTA along with
SWAT teams and a helicopter dispatched to a clearly legal and
peaceful protest--were clearly meant to in tim idate and
criminalize dissent.
"Police repression is also extremely costly. Our children in
Balti more need books and teachers. Workers and seniors need
decent affordable bus service. City workers need health
care.
"Defending our constitutional right to protest is even more
important at a time when President Bush and the Penta gon are
continuing their illegal and devastating occupation of Iraq and
attacking workers' rights at home," Ceci said.
The APC said it would continue its campaign to have the
charges dropped against Jeff Bigelow, a union organizer with
AFSCME Council 92, which represents approximately 30,000 state
and county workers. Bigelow and his supporters say he, too, is
innocent. He faces assault charges.
The APC activists say they notice an increase in police
repression in the city. Over the weekend, a candidate for mayor
in the upcoming November election, Andrey Bundley, was arrested
and cited for allegedly putting his campaign flyers on parked
cars. Police handcuffed the African American candidate.
"Being Black in America," Bundley's campaign strategist
Julius Henson said, "is the only thing Bundley did that was
wrong." (Baltimore Sun, July 29)
"As community and union activists," said Ceci, "we are
requesting a meeting with the mayor of Baltimore, Martin
O'Malley, to discuss defending the right to protest, and are
joining with the National Lawyers Guild, which will be training
legal observers for all protest activity in the Baltimore
area.
"We will also host a citywide meeting designed to teach the
public their rights both at demonstrations and in the community
at large. This includes filing complaints against police
abuses. We will contact Bundley's office to see what we can do
in support."
Reprinted from the Aug. 7, 2003, issue of
Workers World newspaper
This article is copyright under a Creative
Commons License.
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