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Peace at any cost is a prelude to war!
Denver police squelch protest over fatal raid
By Peter G. Chronis
Denver Post Staff Writer
Feb. 22 - Denver police on Monday shut down a protest on the 16th Street Mall
by a committee demanding justice for a man slain in a botched no-knock police
raid.
The Justice for Mena Committee, which had gathered to pass out leaflets to
the noon-hour crowd on the mall in front of the World Trade Center, was told
to leave immediately or face arrest for disturbing the peace, said LeRoy
Lemos, a spokesman for the group. Part of the demonstration included a huge
puppet armed with a foam-rubber baton that lampooned the police department.
"If there's a complaint," said Denver police spokeswoman Detective Mary
Thomas, "the First Amendment doesn't apply." She said officers had received a
verbal complaint from a security guard at the World Trade Center that the
protesters were using a bullhorn that disturbed the building's inhabitants.
The police action raised concerns with First Amendment lawyers, including
Mark Silverstein of the American Civil Liberties Union.
"I hadn't been aware that the First Amendment had been suspended in Denver,"
said Silverstein, ACLU legal director.
Justice for Mena, which has about 100 members, was formed to champion the
cause of Ismael Mena, a Mexican national and father of nine who was shot to
death Sept. 29 in a no-knock raid when Denver SWAT officers targeted the
wrong house.
"A uniformed officer told us if we did not disperse, he would ticket us for
disturbing the peace," said Lemos, whose group had already spent an hour and
a half on the mall and had distributed most of its leaflets. "We did not have
legal representation with us, so not wanting to put any of our members in
jeopardy of going to jail, we decided the best thing to do was disperse."
The committee had planned about a dozen similar events on the mall and other
locations over the next several weeks to keep public attention focused on the
Mena case, Lemos said.
Steve Nash, Jim Schwartzkopff and other members of a group called End the
Politics of Cruelty participated in the protest and carried placards reading
"Stop Police Brutality." Police spokeswoman Mary Thomas' reading on the
Constitution was news to Tom Kelley, a First Amendment attorney in Denver.
"That is new," Kelley said. "It's a sophomoric position for the police to be
making. They have the right to intervene if there's an imminent threat of
violence. ... I can't understand that anybody would be so upset by this other
than the police that there would be an imminent threat of violence."
"The 16th Street Mall is a public forum for public expression," said the
ACLU's Silverstein. "It's possible that one could disturb the peace with an
excessive volume of noise and amplified sound. I don't know that's the case
here. An appropriate warning would be to lower the amplification or reduce
the use of amplified sound. To tell people they have to leave is an
overreaction."
Thomas said officers received a radio call to the World Trade Center about
1:05 p.m. from a security guard "complaining they had a bullhorn" and asking
that the protesters "be removed from in front of the premises ... because it
was disturbing the work environment there."
The security guard could not be found for comment. Brookfield Management,
which manages the building, had no information on the incident late Monday.
Lemos said security guards made it clear to members of the group that they
had to stay on one side of a crack in the sidewalk that delineated the
center's property line but said nothing about the bullhorn, which was used
sparingly.
Lemos said that Justice for Mena wants homicide charges filed against the
police officers involved in the raid. But Jefferson County District Attorney
Dave Thomas, who investigated the shooting, ruled that SWAT officers acted
properly after Mena pulled a gun and fired at them. The only charges filed in
the case so far involved allegedly false statements made by officer Joseph
Bini in obtaining the no-knock warrant.
Copyright 2000 The Denver Post. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
**COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. Section 107,
any copyrighted work in this message is distributed under fair use
without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest
in receiving the included information for nonprofit research and educational
purposes only.[Ref. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ]
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