[Philadelphia Inquirer - 8/5/00] The 390 protesters arrested during the four-day Republican National Convention will not get off easy, but will be fully prosecuted, Mayor Street said yesterday.
Joined by Police Commissioner John F. Timoney, Street portrayed the demonstrators as out-of-town troublemakers hell-bent on bringing Philadelphia to its knees. The two unveiled a cache of items - a giant slingshot, kerosene-soaked rags tied to chains, and devices designed to lock demonstrators together - that they said were designed to wreak havoc and disrupt the convention.
For that reason, Street said during a City Hall news conference, the demonstrators will not receive the break that those who protested in Washington in April received: having their charges knocked back to jaywalking and fined $5 each.
During the four days ending Thursday, police arrested 325 people on misdemeanor charges, 35 on felony charges, and 30 on summary violations - an infraction that usually draws a citation. As of yesterday afternoon, police had identified 130 individuals - all but 17 from outside Philadelphia, Street said.
There are three grades of misdemeanors in Pennsylvania. Those convicted of the lowest grade may receive up to a year in jail and up to a $2,500 fine. The most serious misdemeanors can be punished by up to five years behind bars and up to a $10,000 fine.
Timoney said that police helicopters hovering above Center City on Tuesday, the peak day of the confrontations, spotted protesters stringing piano wire across Market Street near City Hall.
"The wire was meant for one thing, and one thing only, and that's basically to knock down police officers on horses, on motorbikes, on bicycles," Timoney said. "This is not a game, folks."
Of the hard-core demonstrators, the commissioner said: "I call them conspirators and criminals and cowards."
A representative of the eclectic group of demonstrators immediately offered an angry response to Timoney's remarks.
Patrick Reinsborough, an activist from San Francisco, stood up in the back of the City Hall briefing room to denounce the commissioner's statements.
Reinsborough said later that the chains with kerosene-soaked rags at the end were actually a juggler's prop.
"Are you familiar with fire twirling?" he asked.
As for the slingshot - a device that police said would take three people to operate - Reinsborough said that the "sling" was used for carrying a massive puppet.
Police also seized bags of quick-drying cement that they said were intended to form instant street barricades and a number of walkie-talkies that were part of demonstrators' communication network.
"Sometimes, innocent-looking things can turn into things that can really hurt people," Police Capt. John McGinnis said.
The kerosene-soaked rags on chains, McGinnis said, could be whirled around and thrown into crowds.
Police said that neither a slingshot nor the chains with kerosene-soaked rags were used during the clashes. No guns were seized.
Although many of the demonstrators remained in city holding cells yesterday because, authorities said, they have refused to provide their names, a few were being steadily released. Public defenders said they were arraigning people in batches of 20, which took about four hours per group to process.
They said the number of people released would probably pick up for a couple of reasons: After being detained for more than two days, some protesters were wearing down and starting to cooperate more by giving their real names. Also, public defenders said, the police had gotten the kinks out of the makeshift arraignment court.
By last night, 90 protesters had been arraigned and returned to jail, 70 had been arraigned and released, and 230 were still awaiting arraignment.
Timoney said he believed federal investigators ought to "take a look" at the groups involved in planning disruption and violence.
"We are the third or fourth city to suffer," Timoney said, mentioning recent demonstrations in Seattle and Washington.
"I think that there is . . . a cadre, if you will, of criminal conspirators who are about the business of planning a conspiracy to really cause mayhem, to cause property damage, to cause violence," in cities hosting major events, Timoney said.
He described their organization and communication system as "sophisticated."
"The events of this week did not happen in a vacuum . . . they were planned for a long time," Timoney said. "We have received information early on, that prior to the convention, the city of Philadelphia, specifically the police department would be tested."
Timoney also detailed events leading up to Tuesday's raid on a West Philadelphia warehouse occupied by protesters - a move that has drawn sharp criticism from civil-liberties groups who questioned whether police had good cause to take the step.
Police were working to get a search warrant to enter the premises when they observed two trucks leaving, he said.
One truck held 19 people chained by devices called "sleeping dragons" - PVC pipe encased in chicken wire and duct tape that is difficult to remove.
"Their intention was just to lock down the entire city on that day," Deputy Commissioner Sylvester Johnson said.
The second truck contained additional materials intended to disrupt the city, Timoney said without specifying what the materials were.
Timoney refused to discuss what led police the site.
"Had those trucks not been stopped . . . it would've added more to the chaos, and my sense is the chaos would've lasted a few more days," Timoney said.
Lawrence Krasner, an attorney representing several people arrested in the warehouse, said it was unfair to link the two trucks to those arrested in the warehouse.
He noted that police had not said explicitly that they saw anyone from the warehouse loading equipment into the trucks.
In fact, he said, hard-core protesters were told that "they couldn't bring that stuff into the warehouse because it wasn't allowed."
He suggested that those in the vehicles were not affiliated with the people in the warehouse.
As for chicken wire and other materials found in the warehouse, Krasner said they were merely materials to built agitprop puppets and other objects used during the demonstrations.
Street said that the protesters appeared to have "a very well-thought-out, well-planned conspiracy to shut down the city of Philadelphia."
Street also said that protesters had been given the choice to walk away before they were arrested. Detained demonstrators were offered medical attention and allowed to make a phone call, he said.
"It is their lack of cooperation that is responsible for the delay," Street said. "They refused to give their identity, they failed to cooperate, they did virtually everything they could to stymie, to slow down, and to defeat the process.
"We do not take lightly the nature of the activity that took place in this city, particularly on Tuesday," Street said. "Each person that has been arrested and that is charged will be fully prosecuted.
"We will also fully and completely defend the city of Philadelphia, the Police Department and every single officer that was involved here," Street said.
"We believe that this department did an excellent job balancing the rights of the protesters versus the right and obligations of the city of Philadelphia to protect its citizenry and our guests."
Also yesterday, a small group of protesters hoped to protest to Street about their comrades' lack of medical treatment in jail.
But at 6 p.m., four protesters - two women, two men - were arrested outside the mayor's City Hall office. They were arrested because City Hall closes to the public at 6, and they refused to leave.
An activist identifying herself as "Bork" claimed that one jailed protester has AIDS and has been denied medicine. City officials have said that no one was denied medical attention.
One of those arrested yesterday in City Hall, a woman calling herself "Aurora Borealis," told reporters that she had an illness that required daily medication and that her arrest would force jail officials to provide her with her needed drug.
"If I don't take it," she said, "it's a life-or-death situation."
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[posted 8/6/00]
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