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posted July 24, 2009
ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS FILE SUIT OVER 2007 ARRESTS AT PORT OF TACOMA
by Phan Nguyen
The author is a defendant in the lawsuit.
In March, three activists filed a lawsuit against the City of Tacoma for false arrest and other violations committed by Tacoma police during an anti-war demonstration. Elizabeth Rivera Goldstein, Thomas McCarthy, and Phan Nguyen were arrested under the pretext of wearing backpacks in a “no-backpack zone” at the Port of Tacoma in March 2007.
The activists had been demonstrating against the Iraq “troop surge” and the expedited deployment of the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division to Iraq from Ft. Lewis. For two weeks in March 2007, the Port of Tacoma was the focal point for demonstrations against the deployment, as Stryker vehicles were being shipped out through the Port of Tacoma in advance of the 4th Brigade’s actual deployment.
During this time, Tacoma police established a fenced-in “free speech zone” in the Port of Tacoma where demonstrators were compelled to congregate. Police set up random checkpoints to prevent the demonstrators from entering the “free speech zone” with backpacks and purses. The checkpoints appeared arbitrarily at varying locations and at various times throughout the protests. At times, the restrictions were arbitrarily applied to backpacks, purses, bags, buckets, boxes and even plastic water bottles. All restrictions were established without probable cause.
Thomas McCarthy was arrested on the night of March 9, 2007 while attempting to carry a backpack with food and medical supplies into the “free speech zone.” Elizabeth Rivera Goldstein and Phan Nguyen were arrested along with six other demonstrators on March 11, 2007 for wearing backpacks into the “free speech zone.” Goldstein’s backpack contained a teddy bear, while Nguyen’s “frontpack” contained a copy of the United States Constitution.
Because there is no law prohibiting bags at political assemblies, the city charged the activists with “Disobeying an Officer” under RCW 46.61.015—a traffic offense. However, the defendants were arrested on a public sidewalk by police who were not regulating traffic. “It’s a good thing I wasn’t walking down the sidewalk drunk,” says Nguyen, “or they probably would have arrested me for DUI.”
The cases were dismissed in Tacoma Municipal Court, and the dismissals were affirmed in Superior Court after the city appealed the decision. The criminal court process concluded in Sept. 2008. “We spent one-and-a-half years in court arguing for the most basic rights that every child learns about in grade school,” says Nguyen, who represented himself during the criminal court process, while Goldstein and McCarthy were represented by Attorney Larry Hildes. Hildes is representing all three in the lawsuit and has indicated that more plaintiffs may join in.
“These arrests were part of a systematic attempt by the Tacoma Police to prevent the demonstrations from occurring and to be so repressive and brutal that the plaintiffs and others would just give up and abandon their First Amendment rights,” Hildes said. “They treated peaceful demonstrators like terrorists very deliberately and systematically. That is unacceptable and illegal.”
Hildes had won a similar case concerning a backpack at a demonstration in Graves v. Coeur D’Alene (9th Circuit Court, 2001).
The present complaint asserts that the plaintiffs were subjected to several violations by the City of Tacoma, including violations of civil rights, false arrest, false imprisonment, and malicious prosecution. They were deprived of several rights under the US Constitution, including deprivation of their 1st, 4th, 5th, 8th, and 14th Amendment rights.
By filing the complaint, the activists hope to force the City of Tacoma to forgo illegal repression against constitutionally protected activity, including but not limited to the arbitrary repression of antiwar protests. “We can never allow our local governments to undermine the US Constitution and our First Amendment rights,” said McCarthy.
“The Tacoma police went beyond their mandate by issuing arbitrary and unlawful orders,” added Nguyen. “They sought to regulate free speech by deciding where we could exercise our rights and what we could and couldn’t wear while doing so. The Tacoma police are not the fashion police.”•