I can readily believe the below story. The Philadelphia police department was -- after the first day's civil disobedience -- rounding up everyone they thought was a ringleader or had a radio and looked suspicious. Also see a 2600 Magazine article about their staff member being arrested: http://www.2600.com/news/2000/0805.html And: http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/gop-convention-protests.html http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,38044,00.html -Declan ********* Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 12:14:40 -0700 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [snip] From: Brian Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: palm and cell as "instruments of crime" at Republican convention Hey Guys, Check out paragraph 3. Cell phone and palm pilot are now "instruments of crime" when used by activists. How about when used by CEOs of say, Shell Oil? _______________________________________ $1 Million Bail Ordered For Protesters Berkeley-based activist allegedly led `mayhem' Janet Wells, Chronicle Staff Writer Saturday, August 5, 2000 �2000 San Francisco Chronicle URL: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/05/MN57473.DTL A Bay Area activist is being held in a Philadelphia jail on $1 million bail after being accused of masterminding protests against the Republican National Convention. John Sellers was arrested Wednesday, after Philadelphia police identified him for what they said were actions Tuesday evening. Sellers was charged with numerous misdemeanors, including conspiracy, possession of an instrument of crime, reckless endangerment and obstruction of justice. He was armed only with a cell phone and a palm pilot when he was taken into custody. ``He facilitates the more radical elements to accomplish their objective of violence and mayhem,'' Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Cindy Martelli said Thursday during Sellers' bail hearing in criminal court. ``He sets the groundwork. He sets the stage.'' Sellers' attorney called the bail ``intergalactic'' and unprecedented for the misdemeanor charges against Sellers, director of the Berkeley-based Ruckus Society, a group that trains activists in non- violent civil disobedience. ``It's a ridiculous, punitive, unconscionable pre-emption of his going to the rest of the Republican Convention, and the upcoming Democratic Convention,'' said attorney Larry Krasner, who is representing 33-year-old Sellers, as well as several other high- profile protesters arrested during the convention. Sellers, a nationally known activist who was in Philadelphia three weeks before the convention to conduct one of the Ruckus Society's protest ``training camps,'' grew up in the nearby town of Phoenixville, where his parents still live. After the training camp, Sellers vacationed with his parents in North Carolina, and returned to Philadelphia with them last weekend, intending to participate in the convention protests only as an observer, Ruckus Society program director Han Shan said yesterday. Shan dismissed the characterization of Sellers as a ringleader behind the protests. ``He's being given a whole lot more credit than he deserves as an instigator,'' Shan said. ``They are making him out to be something he's not.'' [...]
