FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 7, 2005

Contact: Andrea Costello, National Lawyers Guild Attorney
(352) 271-8890 (office)
(352) 246-5690 (cell)

NATIONAL LAWYERS GUILD CONDEMNS ACTIONS OF POLICE AT THE
PROTESTS AGAINST THE ORGANIZATION OF AMERICAN STATES (OAS)

The National Lawyers Guild (NLG) documented a number of types of police misconduct during the OAS protests on June 4 and 5, 2005, in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. The NLG trained and coordinated Legal Observers to monitor and document police conduct and also worked as part of a legal team, Mobilization for Activist Defense, to set up a legal hotline for activists to use to make reports from the street.

Police from several agencies acted contrary to agreements reached before the demonstration by protest organizers with the Alliance for Justice in the Americas (AJA), AJA=s attorneys and the Fort Lauderdale Police Department (FLPD). For example, FLPD (who was in operational command of all agencies) and the Broward Sheriff=s Office provided assurances that officers in riot gear would not be the first line of police to engage with demonstrators and would be held back, out of sight, and would only be deployed if needed in the police=s view. During the peaceful demonstrations, protesters were confined to what amounted to a small Aprotest pit@ with a eight-foot metal fence on three sides, with two sides of the protest area lined with dozens of officers in riot gear brandishing projectile and chemical weapons, large wooden batons and riot shields in a menacing manner with many more bicycle police standing by.

Prior to the demonstrations, FLPD assured organizers and their attorneys that they had requested that all law enforcement wear proper identification. Dozens of officers clad in riot gear, with no visible identification as to their agency, names or badge numbers, followed the peaceful parade for over a mile as they marched to the police designated rally site at NE 17th Street and Eisenhower Boulevard into the Aprotest pit.@ When asked which agency these officers were with and why they were being deployed in this way, commanding officers from FLPD either refused to provide any response or responded that they did not know which agency these officers were with or why they were following the parade.

Many other officers, including entire contingents of police, appearing from their gear to be from multiple agencies, lacked agency, name and badge number markings. When asked by NLG Legal Observers and attorneys for identification, officers either ignored or repeatedly ridiculed these requests, at times turning their backs to prevent any observation of any names or badge numbers that may have been visible. This failure of police accountability to the public could have been prevented and shows why the NLG encouraged the City of Ft. Lauderdale to pass a resolution prior to the demonstration to require such identification as a matter of public policy.


In addition, law enforcement acted contrary to protecting public safety. At one point, the Miami Police Department bicycle police enclosed the demonstrators into the small protest area by blocking off the only way in and out. While the demonstrations were taking place, officers also prevented protesters from accessing a nearby store in order to get water and other supplies that were urgently needed due to the intensity of the mid-day heat. Officers also prohibited protesters from using a sidewalk which provided partial shade, while permitting tourists, police officers and others to access the same sidewalk.

Over the past several years, similar, and other unlawful and violent types of police and government misconduct at mass demonstrations, have been documented by the NLG in Miami during the protests against the Free Trade Areas of the Americas meetings in November 2003, as well as demonstrations in cities including Oakland, Los Angeles, D.C., Portland and Seattle. The NLG has detailed these systematic government practices, related civil rights litigation and successful settlements in favor of demonstrators in the publication, AThe Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly and Dissent: A National Lawyers Guild Report on Government Violations of First Amendment Rights in the United States,@ available from our website at: www.nlg.org

As a result of a lawsuit filed by the National Lawyers Guild on May 20, 2005, in the Federal District Court in South Florida, an injunction was granted against the City of Fort Lauderdale to prohibit enforcement of an ordinance passed the month prior to the OAS meeting protests because it is an unconstitutional restriction based on the content of speech and views expressed. The City=s law regulated the items that demonstrators could use such as sticks and poles to support banners and signs except if the group is part of a Abona-fide religious sect or organization@ carrying out a Awell-established religious rite or practice.@ It also prohibited activists from gathering together for a Acommon purpose@ in public assemblies of eight or more people with such objects. (A similar law was enacted by the City of Miami prior to the November 2003 Free Trade Areas of the Americas ministers= meeting. Miami repealed the law in response to a lawsuit filed by NLG attorneys in early 2004.) The City also made an agreement, acknowledged by the court, not to enforce several unconstitutional local laws concerning the ability of people to assemble and protest on city sidewalks and agreed to grant permits on short notice for events requiring street closures.

Attorneys for the AJA and other social justice and human rights groups will continue to litigate the unconstitutional so-called Asecurity perimeter@ set up by Broward County around the Convention Center which kept protesters hundreds of yards away and prevented them from being within sight and sound of their intended audience B conference attendees. The groups also plan to continue to pursue a permanent court order to prevent Fort Lauderdale from using any of its unconstitutional laws concerning permits for political demonstrations which grant unfettered discretion to City officials to deny permits based on the content of speech and that stifle spontaneous political expression in violation of the First Amendment, as well as unconstitutional laws about assemblies on public sidewalks.

The National Lawyers Guild is a national association of lawyers, law students, legal workers and jail house lawyers committed to social justice since 1937.