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Springs City Council Agrees to Dialog With Peace Activists
March 27, 2007 1:22 PM
Peace activists and members of Colorado Springs city
council today agreed to meet and talk. This in the wake of the citys
St. Patricks Day parade, in which seven activists were arrested.
The agreement to meet came during the regular public input portion of
todays city council meeting, in which six peace activists signed up
to talk about the parade, police behavior and rights of free expression.
The activists say they had a legal right and city permit to march in
the parade. Parade organizer John ODonnell, who is not a city
employee, contends that the activists violated the terms of their
permit, which did not allow for advocacy of social issues. ODonnell
says thats why parade organizers asked police to ask the activists
to leave the parade.
Tony Abdo, one of the activists arrested, today told city council he
doesnt buy that.
ABDO: I think the city and John ODonnel himself deliberately waited until we started off in order to deliberately
ambush us with the police force.
WHITNEY: Mark Lewis, who also marched with the activist group in the parade says they were not given adequate warning that their signs and
banners were violating the rule against social advocacy, nor adequate
warning that police were going to remove them from the parade. He
disputes assertions that their group blocked the progress of other
parade participants.
LEWIS: We were not given the option here, to put away offending
banners, or banners that might be in violation of this ambiguous
rule. Had we had that option we of course would have complied immediately because we had put most of our banners away and deemed them to be inappropriate already.
WHITNEY: The activists say the police brutalized and assaulted some
of their members, including senior citizens. Members of council have
largely deferred from comment about the parade pending the results of
an internal investigation by police.
Activists contend that the media and parade organizer ODonnell have
mischaracterized what happened. Eric Verlo, president of the Pikes
Peak Justice and Peace Commission made this request.
VERLO: That the council direct that our city's new police chief participate in a town hall meeting to
discuss the police's role in respecting diversity of opinion and a citizens right to protest.
RIVERA: I believe the police chief probably would like to get to know your organization better, and thats something that we should do.
WHITNEY: Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera.
RIVERA: And I'd be more than willing, happy to participate with the
police chief in some kind of a meeting now whether or not it's a town hall meeting or not that's yet to be determined, but I think that's a good suggestion and we should set that up.
WHITNEY: But Mayor Rivera did take issue with some of the activists
terminology.
RIVERA: I disagree with the terms excessive use of force, police
brutality, the citys hiding behind John ODonnell,we ambush you with police force,
we assaulted veterans, whether a taser was fired, trying to intimidate folks,
our officer's using a choke hold, treating
citizens with lack of respect and dignity, and abuse by our police
force. There certainly are a lot of photographs, and we are doing an internal investigation. And I think before people are throwing out
terms like you did I think it's fair to
allow that investigation to move forward.
WHITNEY: City Councilmember Jerry Heimlicher said he was concerned
that some of the activists were under the impression that the council
as a whole approves of what happened at the St. Patricks day parade. 09
HIEMLICHER: To be honest with you, I know not much more about what
happened at the parade that what Ive seen in the paper and watched on
TV, and I didn't like any of it. I didn't like the reflection on our community and I will join
the mayor and the city manager and anybody else to have meetings to see that this kind of event doesn't happen again
and be a negative impression of our community
because we all cherish the rights we have by living here as Americans. At the same time
I can't say anything about it right now because I dont
know enough about it.
WHITNEY: No date, time or format for the meeting between the council,
activists and police was set today. But after the meeting, several of
the activists who spoke said they think the willingness of some
council members to hold a meeting with them and the police sounded
like a step forward.
Activist Mark Lewis says those arrested are still considering filing
civil or criminal charges against the city based on what happened.
They have asked the American Civil Liberties Union for legal
representation and are waiting to hear back before taking any action.
To hear the entire exchange between the activists and the Colorado
Springs city council, got to KRCC.org, you can also review a
transcript of this story and much of our other news coverage at the
site.
With local news on KRCC, Im Eric Whitney.
Posted by Eric Whitney on March 27, 2007 1:22 PM | Permalink
