Ah...the PATRIOT ACT....
McCarthyism Watch
We will be regularly updating the site with examples of the New McCarthyism that is
sweeping the country.
January 29, 2004
Bush Protester Arrested for Carrying Sign
Thomas C. Frazier works as investigator in the prosecutor's office of the South Coast
Air Quality Management District, the anti-pollution agency in Orange County and the
surrounding area.
Last October 16, he decided to take the day off to go to San Bernardino from his
home in Santa Ana. His purpose, he says, was "to engage in a legal and peaceful
protest" against George W. Bush. The President was in town that day at the Radisson
Hotel and Convention Center to support the candidacy of now-Governor Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
Frazier called the Radisson to get directions, and he drove over and parked where
they told him to.
He then reached into the trunk of his 1987 Volkswagen Jetta and took out his
homemade sign. It had two cardboard posterboards attached to a wooden base. One
side said, "Shock & Awe" = "Maim & Murder" and the other said, "Indict
Bush-Crimes Against Humanity." He also took with him some bumperstickers that
said, "Stop the Madness."
Walking out of the parking lot, "I was confronted by a charging police officer (later
identified as Officer John Montecino)," Frazier wrote in a complaint he filed with the
San Bernardino Police Department. "For no apparent reason, Officer Montecino
raced towards me screaming, 'No, no, no, no. Get there, Get there!' "
Shortly thereafter, "without any provocation, Officer Montecino then grabbed my sign
by enveloping my arms and sign together in one rapid swoop," Frazier wrote.
"Can't I just get across the street to show my protest?" Frazier asked, according to his
complaint.
"Officer Montecino responded, 'Give me the sign,' and snatched the sign away from
me while still encasing my arms," Frazier wrote.
"I then asked Officer Montecino, 'Can I have my sign back, and I'll just leave then?'
Officer Montecino responded by stating, 'I don't have time for this,' while
simultaneously striking my right forearm with a smashing blow with one side of a set of
handcuffs. I asked Officer Montecino if I was free to go, and he stated, 'No, you're
being arrested.' As Officer Montecino put the other cuff on my left wrist that I
voluntarily put behind my back, I asked him, 'Sir, why am I being arrested?' and he
replied, 'For not doing what I told you to do.' "
Another officer took Frazier down to the police station, and Montecino arrived a little
later. "You're being arrested for obstructing a police officer. Your sign could have
been a weapon," Montecino said, according to Frazier's complaint.
The police report says, "During a Presidential visit, the listed defendant entered a
restricted area and did not comply with officer's request and demands. He was
arrested for obstructing and delaying an officer."
Frazier filed his formal complaint against Montecino for "erroneously and unlawfully
arresting me," for "physically and verbally abusing me," for "illegally confiscating my
personal property," and for "violating my civil rights of freedom to assemble and
freedom of speech."
I called Montecino to get his side of the story. "I can't discuss it," he told me. "I have
to refer you to internal affairs."
Sergeant Ernie Lemos of internal affairs says, "The investigation has been done by
internal affairs and is being reviewed by the staff."
Meanwhile, Frazier still faces the charge of obstructing an officer, which the district
attorney refuses to drop. "The DA said the officer felt potentially threatened by the
sign," Frazier says.
The DA's office would not comment on the case.
Frazier says he is not considering suing the department, but he is "upset about not
having my civil liberties protected, not being allowed to protest and peacefully
assemble."
Frazier has a pre-trial date set for March 4, he says.
If convicted of obstructing an officer, he faces a $1,000 fine and up to six months in
jail.
--Matthew Rothschild
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