Civil disobedience under attack

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As the tragic events of September 11 so vividly underscore, we have entered a period of very troubling times, when our places of business, our homes, our lives, our families, are threatened by unseen, unknown, unsuspected foreign terrorists in our midst. Just as troubling, our own fears may threaten the fabric of the very traditions, laws and legal protections that helped create this country -- and which ensure its health and vitality.

Peaceful protest and non-violent civil disobedience are critically important parts of our heritage. The cost of losing them would be incalculable. And the price of restoring them might well prove beyond our means.

Think of the long-standing tradition of peaceful protest in our democracy, and ask yourself how the following official actions by police, prosecutors and courts might stifle important and legitimate dissent -- and remember, all these have happened recently:

• Excessive fines levied on students and the poor who demonstrate peacefully.
• Exorbitant bails -- some as high as $1 million -- keeping peaceful protesters in prison.
• Felony charges used to threaten or punish protesters with loss of voting rights and jobs.
• Federal RICO and domestic terrorist legislation employed to stigmatize peaceful protesters.
• Permits to protest denied for legitimate protests by activist groups.
• Trespass and other false charges fabricated by police.
• Charges of "Interfering with a religion" used to prosecute protesters.
• Police granted immunity from lawsuits, leaving them free to abuse protesters' rights.
• Adults prosecuted for bringing minor children to protests.
• "Zero tolerance" rules which expel students who participate in nonviolent protests.
• Use of court orders to stifle future legitimate and non-violent protests.
• Long sentences in overcrowded and inhuman conditions meted out to protesters
• Seizure of organizations' bank accounts so that members who protest can be fined.
• Protesters arrested and held without charge, preventing them from further protest.
• Use of racial and other biases in the arrest and prosecution of protesters.
• Unjustified force (tear gas, pepper spray, bean bags) is used against peaceful protesters.
• Legal distinctions blurred between violent and nonviolent protest, so that all protesters are demonized as "anarchists," "hoodlums" and "domestic terrorists."
• Pre-protest surveillance, infiltration and investigations to identify, arrest and detain nonviolent protesters prior to protest.
• Police entrapment used to fabricate grounds for arrest and charges.
• 'Going limp' -- a traditional posture of nonviolent protesters -- interpreted as "resisting arrest," a more serious crime.
• "National security" invoked arbitrarily against peaceful protesters.
• Permits denied to activist groups to keep them from gathering on public lands.
• And nonviolent protesters barred from talking about their causes or motives during trial.

Here in California, there are specific causes for concern:

• Under California law, Keith Henson's picketing of a Scientology facility -- a misdemeanor offense -- was successfully prosecuted as "terrorism." His prosecution for "interfering with a religion" has harmful potential as case law.
• Military presence in California raises some issues (as in the case of the Greenpeace protesters at Vandenberg AFB) of how the military may deal with peaceful protesters -- especially with increasing military involvement in domestic peacekeeping and the war on terrorists.
• Growing numbers of protesters in California are 'doing serious time,' swelling the populations of our already crowded prisons.
• Growing use of electronic surveillance in California (street cameras, face scans, etc.), presenting police with tools for preemptive pre-protest strikes against peaceful organizations and individuals.
• Some California law enforcement agencies now classify pepperball and bean bag guns as "nonlethal," when anecdotal evidence shows that these weapons can injure and maim protesters.
• Growing numbers of California citizens' arrests are made by company security, who often "behave like" law enforcement (body searches, etc.), but do not have the actual legal powers of police.
• Excessive use of court orders gag legitimate protest
  
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