[discuss-dan] [i-news] Philly Inquirer: "Never mind" doesn't cut it

[Chuck0 <buildingbridges@mindspring.com> (by way of Mark Cohen <buildingbridges@mindspring.com>)]

----Original Message-----
From: David Levy [mailto:dglevy@cepr.net]
Sent: Wednesday, November 22, 2000 6:21 PM
To: +a16-mediagroup
Subject: [a16-mediagroup] Philly Inquirer: "Never mind" doesn't cut it,
re. Sellers arrest


Thursday, November 16, 2000

Editorial

Costly preemptive strike

The goal: Peaceful streets during convention.
The price: A tarnished justice system.

Once they had protest leader John Sellers in cuffs, Philadelphia
authorities slapped him with a ludicrous $1 million bail for minor
offenses - a bond that kept him off the streets while the Republican
National Convention concluded.

At an Aug. 3 bail hearing, a prosecutor described Mr. Sellers as a
troublemaker - someone who "facilitates the more radical elements to
accomplish . . . violence and mayhem."

Fast-forward to this week and a surreal courtroom scene: The District
Attorney's Office drops all charges against Mr. Sellers, 34, a
California-based civil-disobedience activist.

The reason: no evidence he committed a crime. Said a spokeswoman for
District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham, "The evidence just wasn't there."

Oh, really? It's a rare feat to go from the status of Public Enemy No.
1 - mug shot posted on the Police Department Web site - to someone who
doesn't even face jaywalking charges.

Mr. Sellers and other protest leaders have a good theory as to how
such things happen. It's no credit to a city where democracy's values
were enshrined, but it's looking more and more plausible. In short,
they say Mr. Sellers was nabbed on a pretext in order to cripple
further protests.

Philadelphia police denied it then, and now. As he basked in acclaim
during the convention, Commissioner John F. Timoney said, "We think we
can prove they've engaged in criminal activity."

This was the week to do so. In one case, demonstration leader Terrence
McGuckin, 19, of West Philadelphia, was convicted of disorderly
conduct and on a related charge.

But where Mr. Sellers was concerned, prosecutors didn't even try.
Given no evidence, that's to their credit. But the collapse of the
case indicates what a stretch it was to arrest Mr. Sellers, let alone
seek bail of $1 million.

The paper trail shows police groping to make a case. First, Mr.
Sellers is taken in for questioning, then held for assault - a charge
never levied - and then on suspicion of blocking an intersection the
first day of protests. Yet a cop who tracked Mr. Sellers on the street
said he "never was actually blocking traffic, but he was an observer."

Mr. Sellers' arrest takes on all the hallmarks of preventive
detention, and that shouldn't sit well with the public, police,
prosecutors or the courts.

What's needed is a thorough post-mortem. Plenty of fodder here for the
American Civil Liberties Union's inquiry into the handling of
protesters. Ditto the city's Police Advisory Commission.

Just as internal police documents are being sought to explain the
warehouse raid in which police grabbed 75 protesters on questionable
grounds, the arrests of high-profile figures like Mr. Sellers should
be held up to a bright light.

"Nevermind" just doesn't cut it.




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