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 Editorial: Civil rights There are still abuse allegations to check, but cooler heads are prevailing on protesters. 09/19/00 - Philadelphia Inquirer What happened to the communist plot? Over the weekend, Philadelphia authorities offered to let dozens of Republican National Convention protesters get off lightly. Just fines and a warning. These were among the folks caught up in the Aug. 1 police raid on a West Philadelphia warehouse - groups funded, in part, by what Pennsylvania State Police termed red-leaning interests. While protesters said they were just making puppets, police said they knew better: The warehouse operation was hell-bent on mayhem. For such would-be troublemakers, is it right to offer probation, a $300 fine, and their arrest records expunged after six months? You bet it's right. It signals that a welcome sense of perspective concerning the majority of protesters arrested has returned to the city's justice system. With the exception of people charged with violence or serious property damage - and there were some among the nearly 400 nabbed - most convention protesters have already received more than their due punishment for disturbing the peace. That included days spent in the city's spartan and crowded holding cells, with some people held on ludicrously high bail. By beginning to process the first 103 cases with an offer of accelerated rehabilitative disposition - a type of probation that leaves no criminal record - the city begins to strike a balance befitting the birthplace of the Constitution. It has to do more, though. That is to examine what possibly went wrong - amid so much that went right - with law enforcement's handling of the convention protests. The high marks for patience by Commissioner John F. Timoney's police still stand. The restraint was remarkable - hardly a baton swung in anger. But two big issues remain: Were all protesters treated properly and humanely in jail? And were First Amendment rights - particularly for the 75 protesters arrested at the warehouse - trampled in a ham-handed or even calculated effort to make the city look good? Look to the American Civil Liberties Union to lead the push on these questions, with one federal civil rights lawsuit already filed. The city's Police Advisory Commission (215-686-3991) also stands ready to investigate. Despite nearly 100 calls there about the handling of the protests, no formal complaint has been lodged. The warehouse arrests may prove the most troubling aspect, since the roundup seemed excessive and possibly unwarranted. Mr. Timoney's hair-splitting denial of police infiltration - it was state police, not his officers, doing the undercover work - was weak. And, based on documents released so far, it's not clear police had the evidence of violent criminal intent to justify the raid. (Be careful, though, about seeking a blanket ban on police infiltration; what if the group in question next time is an Aryan Nations cell planning violence?) What's needed is for courts to rule on whether individuals' rights were violated, and whether the city police breached a 1987 agreement not to spy on protest groups without approvals. Philadelphia is the last place where authorities should wink at violations of First Amendment freedoms. |
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