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A National Lawyers Guild Report on Government Violations of First Amendment Rights in the United States
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The National Lawyers Guild has issued a new report about the violations of first amendment rights in the US. It's also much about CD (Civil Disobedience).
Foreword by Lewis Lapham Acknowledgements: Bruce Bentley, Andrea Costello, Ray Dowd, Layout by Ian Head. © 2004 National Lawyers Guild. Non-profit educational media are hereby granted permission to reproduce or redistribute any part hereof, provided attribution to the National Lawyers Guild is included and a copy is furnished to the National Lawyers Guild free of charge within thirty days of publication. Advance permission is required for commercial use, including use as handouts or other materials at conferences or trainings for which a fee is charged. All other rights reserved. A copy of this report is available for download at www.nlg.org. Additional copies can be obtained from your local bookstore or from the publisher: The North River Press Publishing Corporation The Imperiled First Amendment How the Police, with Justice Department Approval, Chilling Political Expression Before Demonstrations Criminalizing Political Expression at Demonstrations Punishing Political Expression After Demonstrations Survey of Demonstrations and Guild Litigation Against Conclusion and Recommendations About the National Lawyers Guild Endnotes The spirit of liberty is the spirit that is not too sure that it is right. The facts assembled in the following pages attest to the pathology of a government so frightened of its own citizens that it classifies them as probable enemies. Mustering evidence from witnesses everywhere in the country (from trial judges in Oakland and Philadelphia as well as from First Amendment lawyers in New York, Portland, Boston, Washington and Miami) the report cites a long list of recent incidents in which various law enforcement agencies (federal, state, municipal) have deployed one or another of the increasingly sophisticated methods of intimidation (checkpoints, rush tactics, pop-up lines, containment pens, mass and false arrests, etc.) meant to negate the freedoms of speech and silence the voices of dissent. To read the testimony is to know that the American democracy is in serious trouble. Not because the country lacks for a successful economy or a splendid military equipage, but because the wisdoms in office find the practice of democratic self-government vulgar and unsafe. Too loud, too uncivil and disrespectful, too many people in the room who don´t belong to a health club or the Council on Foreign Relations, not enough marble in the ceilings and the walls. The corporate and political gentry disapprove of the company and deplore the noise; whether seated in the Senate, installed in a television studio, charged with the management of an insurance company or a police precinct, they don´t like to be reminded that democracy is by definition a work in progress, a never-ending argument between the inertia of things-as-they-are and the energy inherent in the hope of things-as-they-might-become. The country was founded by people unafraid to engage the argument, which, if it was to mean anything, required honest and sharply pointed speech, often dangerous, nearly always fierce. Protestant dissenters who arrived on the shores of Massachusetts Bay with little else except a cargo of contraband words, they possessed what they believed to be truthful refutations of the lies told by the lords temporal and spiritual in Europe, and they settled the New England wilderness as an act of intellectual opposition framed on the premise of what they called, “the quarrel with Providence.’ Transferred in the 18th century from the choir lofts of religious feeling to the hustings of secular politics, the quarrel resulted in the Declaration of Independence and a Constitution predicated on James Madison´s notion that whereas “in Europe charters of liberty have been granted by power,’ America has set the example of “charters of power granted by liberty.’ The government established in Philadelphia in 1787 sought to ally itself with the shifts of changing circumstance, with the continuing discovery of new or better evidence, with the ceaseless making and remaking not only of fortunes and matinee idols but also of the laws. Because the dissenting spirit stands with the party of things-as-they might-become, in time of war it attracts the attention of the police. The parade marshals regard any breaking through the rope-lines of consensus as unpatriotic and disloyal; the unlicensed forms of speech come to be confused with treason and registered as crimes. Seeking to calm their own nerves by instilling the habits of obedience, the authorities do the country the disservice that Teddy Roosevelt had in mind in 1918 when he disagreed with President Wilson´s theory of World War One: “To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but it is morally treasonable to the American public.’ So it was, and so it is. The American democracy depends less on the size of its armies than on the capacity of its individual citizens to rely on the strength of their own thought. We can´t know what we´re about, or whether we´re telling ourselves too many lies, unless we can see and hear one another think out loud. To the extent that a democratic society gives it citizens the chance to speak in their own voices and listens to what they have to say, it gives itself the chance not only of discovering its multiple glories and triumphs but also of surviving its multiple follies and crimes. Dissent is what rescues democracy from a quiet death behind closed doors. President Bush on campaign for reelection likes to tell his audiences that, as Americans, “we refuse to live in fear,’ and of all the tales told by the government´s faith healers and gun salesmen, I know of none so cowardly. Where else does the Bush administration ask the people to live except in fear? On what other grounds does it justify its destruction of the nation´s civil liberties? Why else does the FBI search large scale street demonstrations for “anarchists’ and “extremist elements,’ place under surveillance citizens known to have read the works of Leon Trotsky or the Rubbiyat of Omar Khayyam? Ever since the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington, no week has passed in which the government has failed to issue warnings of a sequel. Sometimes it´s the director of the FBI, sometimes the attorney general or an unnamed source in the CIA or the Department of Homeland Security, but always it´s the same message—suspect your neighbor and watch the sky, buy duct tape, avoid the Washington Monument, hide the children. Let too many freedoms wander around loose in the streets, and who knows when somebody will turn up with a bread knife or a bomb? Let too many citizens begin to ask impertinent questions about the shambles of the federal budget or the ill-conceived occupation of Iraq, and the government sends another law-enforcement officer to a microphone with another story about a missing nuclear bomb or a newly discovered nerve gas, another Arab seen driving a suspicious truck north to New Jersey or west to Oklahoma. Notwithstanding its habitual incompetence, the government doesn´t lightly relinquish the spoils of power seized under the pretexts of apocalypse. What the government grasps, the government seeks to keep and hold, and the National Lawyers Guild performs a necessary service by publishing its report on the American government´s attempt to preserve the American democracy by destroying it. The deal is as shabby as the one offered to the luckless villagers of Vietnam. For the sake of a vindictive policeman´s dream of a tranquil suburb, the country stands to lose the constitutional right to its own name. Lewis Lapham This report documents the ongoing reaction of law enforcement to the legal exercise of free speech in the United States. It finds that legitimate concerns regarding public safety have been abused by the United States Department of Justice. The abuses have been so aggressive that rights of free assembly and free speech guaranteed by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution are simply no longer available to the citizens of this country. This report surveys federal and local police actions in the United States during the period 1999-2004 involving lawful public expressions of dissent and free speech. All of the police activities cited are from firsthand experience of the National Lawyers Guild, the oldest human rights organization in the country. Hundreds of Guild attorneys, legal workers, and law students around the country have served both as legal observers at First Amendment protected public assemblies and as counsel to individuals who sought to air their views at such public assemblies. The conclusion of this survey is that rather than protecting First Amendment rights of United States citizens and prosecuting police abuses as it ought to do, the Justice Department under Attorney General John Ashcroft has systematially encouraged these abuses and acted as a cheerleader for government officials using excessive force and abusing their authority against citizens engaged in free speech. By making enemies of those who speak out, law-enforcement agencies engage in unneccessary, costly, and dangerous practices against law-abiding individuals, wasting limited resources and frightening many from voicing their opinions. And by turning a blind eye to rampant and systemic police unlawfulness, the Attorney General is abrogating his duty to uphold the laws of the United States.
on this page:
Quotes on Purposeful Expression and Conscious Action (Just Below)
The Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent (Intro)
Contents (Vital Considerations?)
Forward ("The facts assembled ...")
Preface ("This report documents the ongoing...")
Resource Links & Site Search Engine
vUSPA Staff
Below is a copy of the Contents, Forward, & Preface.
The full Adobe pdf file (116 pages, 546KB) is available via http://www.nlg.org/resources/DissentBookWeb.pdf
This document might be intimidating were we not, as students and practitioners of peace-making, capable of recognizing a challenge and meeting it head on with good conscience. This approach only makes practical sense however so long as we are fore-warned and fore-armed with the sword of truth - and a cadre of CD-experienced lawyers certainly helps put the handle on the sword in this case. -cp
Quotes on Purposeful Expression and Conscious Action
“Conscience is the root of all true courage; if a man would be brave let him obey his conscience.”
- James Freeman Clarke
“Whatever you do will be insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."
- Gandhiji
“If you want a symbolic gesture, don't burn the flag; wash it.”
-Norman Thomas, Presidential candidate in 1932
“A true patriot would keep the attention of his fellow citizens awake to their grievances, and not allow them to rest 'til the causes of their just complaints are removed.”
- Samuel Adams, 1771
“The last 3 years have shown, you can ignore politics, but politics won't ignore you.”
- Jay O'Connell, MikeHersh.com, 10/2/03
“You do not become a "dissident" just because you decide one day to take up this most unusual career. You are thrown into it by your personal sense of responsibility, combined with a complex set of external circumstances. You are cast out of the existing structures and placed in a position of conflict with them. It begins as an attempt to do your work well, and ends with being branded an enemy of society.”
- Vaclav Havel, first President of the Czech Republic
THE FIVE FREEDOMS BY VIRGINIA SATIR
To See and Hear what is here, instead of what should be, was, or will be
To Say what one feels, instead of what one should
To Feel what one feels, instead of what one ought
To Ask for what one wants, instead of always waiting for permission
To Take Risks in one’s own behalf, instead of choosing to be only “secure” and not rocking the boat
The Assault on Free Speech,
Public Assembly, and Dissent
A National Lawyers Guild Report on Government Violations of
by Heidi Boghosian 2004
First Amendment Rights in the United States
The North River Press
Ian Head, Gregory Horvath, Jim Lafferty, Steckley Lee, Taylor
Pendergrass, Laura Raymond, Franklin Siegel, Dan Spalding, Andrew
Stevenson, Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, and Dan Wilson.
P.O. Box 567
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(800) 486-2665 or (413) 528-0034
www.northriverpress.com
ISBN # 0-88427-179-X
A National Lawyers Guild Report Contents
Preface
Introduction
Activities Protected by the First Amendment
Attorney General Ashcroft´s Unlawful Failure to
Prosecute Police Abuse
The National Lawyers Guild´s Role in Defending
Mass Movements
Violate the First Amendment
Intimidation by the Media
Pretextual Searches and Raids of Organizing Spaces
Police Infiltration and Surveillance Absent Allegations of
Criminal Conduct
Content-Based Exercise of Discretion in Denying Permits
and in Paying for Permits and Liability Insurance
Mass False Arrests and Detention
Intimidation by FBI Questioning
Checkpoints
Free-Speech Zones and the Secret Service
Mass False Arrests and Detentions
Snatch Squads
Pop-Up Lines
Containment Pens and Trap and Detain/Trap and Arrest
Rush Tactic, Flanking, Using Vehicles as Weapons
Crowd Control Using “Less Lethal’ Weapons
The Assault on Free Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent
Unprecedented and Unconstitutional Bails
Trumped-Up Charges and Penalty Enhancements
Intimidation by FBI Questioning and Grand Jury Subpoena
Police Departments 77 Foreword
Judge Learned Hand Preface
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Resources at this site The Great Hall of the Peacemakers
James George Peterson Library at vUSPA - Suggested Courses and Books, etc
The Economics of War & Peace - the Iraqi War Example
The Economics of War & Peace Part II The 'Neo-conomy' in War, deep effects and future implications The Economics of War & Peace Part III Considerations, Innovations, Accountability, Solutions, Resources Health Care Related (Petro-Pharmaceutical) Economics Considerations in the cause of Seeking Accountability and Solutions - both nationally and internationally Resources for Sustainable Peace (Selected Links)
Resources for Sustainable Peace (Selected Links) Page 2
Some Highly Suggested Studies & Activities for vUSPA enrollees- that will also serve well for Documentation of Intentions in Conscientious Objection. "Summary of 'Lawyers Guild Report on Free Speech, Public Assembly, and Dissent'" - Legal Resource on Civil Rights and Civil Disobedience Poly-Psy & Citizen Health - Problems & Solutions for Discussion:
Introducing a Chart-illustrated Study in "Poly-Psy" - including re: what brought us to this critical crossroads, socially and psychologically, and a look at current citizen roles, beliefs, coping styles, and choices - for society’s waking up, healing itself, and recovering Democracy. Mental & emotional re-education for long-term solutions to national & international troubles, as well as implications for short-term problem-solving applications. Assisting in the Healing of Veterans For now, at the JPG Library page is a listing, PTSD: Integrating Approaches & Paradigms, Mediating Politics -- Suggested Class and/or Topic for Discussion. If any of the above links do not work, Please email request for information to Chris Pringer via vUSPA@iinet.com  of PAGE
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If any of the above links do not work, Please email request for information to Chris Pringer via vUSPA@iinet.com
Please email request for information to Chris Pringer via vUSPA@iinet.com
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Artistic rendering of concepts & ideals as related to Purpose and eventual goals of vUSPA, including:
* Eagle: integrative overview and foresight, as well as clothed by the more peaceful of the traditional symbols in the original seal of the United States (olive branch, banner "E Pluribus Unum" - meaning "Of Many, One"). * Dove: peace, non-violence, gentleness. * Olive Branch: ages old symbol for Peace. In "the Great Seal," where the eagle is also holding arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other, the eagle has its head turned towards the olive branch, said to symbolize a preference for peace. * Globe: global citizen oriented. * Open Book: Right Use of Knowledge, Right Parenting, Right Use of Science * Circle of Symbols of World Religions: Ecuminicism of Beliefs. * 4 Directions Hoop: a symbol common to almost all Indigenous people of the Americas, but of other world cultures as well, The four cardinal points of the medicine wheel can be used to explain the complex reality of personal and community development. |
vUSPA Administrative Staff
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Chris Pringer
vuspa@iinet.com Administrator & WebSiteMgr of vUSPA Veterans for Peace Ch.92; "Seattle 12" Instructor in "PolyPsyArts" Advisors to vUSPA Students are listed Here (Those whom O'Kelly called "Rachel Corrie's Students") |
Pastor Rich Lang
Chaplain, vUSPA, Seattle, WA Pastor, Trinity United Methodist Church James Peterson McCluskey, M.L.S. Library Consultant |
Tristan McCluskey
Librarian, vUSPA, Seattle, WA Cameron McCluskey Librarian, vUSPA, Seattle, WA |
Special Page In Memory of O'Kelly McCluskey Captain, Ret. WWII DAV 12/23/26 --- 2/11/10 |
In Memory of
O'Kelly McCluskey, 12/23/26 - 2/11/10
Founder of vUSPA and Mentor to many
Founder of GLOBAL PEACE TRUTH FORCE (1986)
Spiritual Warrior
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