Philadelphia protesters still in jail

PHILADELPHIA -- At least 20 of the anti-corporate protesters arrested by Philadelphia police during the week of the Republican National Convention remain in jail as of August 15. Hundreds more face trials in mid-September, having been released on extremely high bails.

John Sellars, a leader of the non-violent Ruckus Society, left Philadelphia after his unprecedented US$1 million bail was reduced to $100,000. This was for a total of eight misdemeanours levelled by Philadelphia police after they seized him on Philadelphia's main thoroughfare, Broad Street, in the middle of the day, talking on a cell phone.

Sellars maintains he was in the city simply “to observe the protests”.

Other questionable actions of the city government and police included the harassment of the Kensington Welfare Rights Union's efforts to maintain a tent city for the homeless and for visiting protesters. KWRU was forced to move its encampment.

Also, the city refused to give KWRU a permit to march on Broad Street, though at the last minute the police let the march through.

While not as brutal as the Los Angeles police firing into a crowd of concert-goers on August 14, the Philadelphia authorities' actions were clearly intended to disrupt and discourage protesters from expressing their grievances against the disparity of wealth in the US and the world, and against the injustices of the US prison-judicial system.

Many demonstrators have testified that they were brutally treated by cops and jailers when the media were out of sight.

The National Lawyers Guild and allied organisations have strongly protested the chilling effect upon free speech of the city government reactions in Philadelphia and Los Angeles during the US political conventions. There will be trials and, very likely, lawsuits to follow.

BY BILL NEVINS

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