Ian OrlandEven as the U.S.-led disarmament of Iraq begins, Washington University students are continuing to express their opposition to the current conflict. Though many students have only recently become involved with the protest movement, some members of the student body, along with members of WU’s faculty and staff, have been expressing their sentiments for some time. Anthropology Teaching Assistant Angela Gordon, who was arrested during a pro-peace demonstration on Nov. 4, 2002, is one such person.
Though she was arrested last year, Gordon’s case is only now coming before the courts. On March 3, while WU was on spring break, she attended the first hearing in connection with her case. She and a fellow protester, Bill Ramsey, face charges of obstruction in relation to a protest at a Jim Talent campaign event at which President Bush was due to appear.
“[My charge] was explained to me as being ‘not doing what the police officer tells you to do, when he tells you to do it,'” said Gordon.
Gordon does not contest that both she and Ramsey declined to follow the police officer’s instructions, namely that they needed to move to a specially designated protest area. However, she claims that the instruction violated her First Amendment right to freedom of assembly.
“We arrived at the event, and we were told by police officers that we needed to proceed to a specially designated protest area,” said Gordon. “We told them that we would go there, but that if we didn’t like it, we would come back. The protest area was not going to be in a location where people could [protest].”
Ramsey apparently informed the police that he was going to protest by the side of the road, rather than proceeding to the designated location. He was then arrested, handcuffed and led in the direction of a police wagon. Gordon first tried to pick up the banner that Ramsey had been carrying, but upon being informed that it was being taken as evidence, retrieved a sign from another member of her group and returned to the location that she had been told to leave.
“At that point, I was arrested and handcuffed, and both Bill and I were put into the police wagon,” said Gordon.
Sergeant Donovan Kenton of the St. Charles Police Department, though not present at Gordon’s arrest, reiterated that Gordon’s arrest was not due to her protesting.
“We do not arrest people for protesting, because that is a First Amendment right,” said Kenton. “We arrest them for trespassing and for breaking the law. If she thinks she is innocent, she can plead as such and fight the charges.”
Subsequent to Gordon’s detention, a busload of protestors from another organization arrived and congregated in the area in contention.
“I guess they decided that they didn’t want to keep arresting people, because they allowed the others to stay at that spot, and they didn’t arrest anybody else,” said Gordon.
Both protesters were eventually taken to the police station, where they were formally charged with obstruction and held for several hours until their bail was met.
That evening, Gordon contacted the American Civil Liberties Union, which expressed some interest in providing legal representation. The ACLU, however, made no formal decision until the morning of Gordon’s court date, so the only action taken by the lawyer was to ask for a continuance, which was granted.
“The ACLU has agreed to represent us both in this trial, and perhaps in pursuing a civil suit against either the City of St. Charles, or even the Secret Service,” said Gordon. “At a lot of events, a special protest area is created, often, at least if the President is appearing, at the direction of the Secret Service. If there’s a pattern, in which people are systematically being denied their First Amendment right to freedom of assembly, then there are grounds for further action.”
This legal action might take one of two forms. The ACLU could either bring a civil suit against the Secret Service, claiming Gordon and Ramsey were denied their civil liberties, or it could seek an injunction to prevent the Secret Service from continuing to create special protest areas.
For its part, the ACLU did not specify whom the legal action would be directed against or what course it would take, but said that for now it will be looking into cases of this nature.
“If this (specially designated protest areas) continues to be a trend, there will possibly be legal action,” the ACLU said through a spokesperson.
The question of how exactly this case involves First Amendment rights is what much of the trial may involve.
“The critical question is whether the restriction of the protest to a specific spot-‘the specially designated protest area’-squares with the First Amendment,” said D. Bruce La Pierre, a WU professor of law. “If the original limit on the location of the protest is valid, there would not seem to be any separate First Amendment defence to the charge that Gordon failed to comply with a police officer’s order to go to the designated protest area. Civil disobedience is effective precisely because individuals are willing to pay some price for violating the law.”
For now, Gordon is in limbo. Her next court date is not until April 14, and no formal action can be taken until then. She is, however, happy with how things are turning out.
“In the end, it was probably not a bad outcome,” said Gordon. “After we were arrested, they let the protests continue at that site, so I feel like we accomplished something.”