FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Chris Ney August 9, 2000
212/228-0450
Pacifists Admit Conspiracy, Accuse Philadelphia Police of Same
The War Resisters League today released the following statement about the recent protests and arrests in Philadelphia:
In the wake of the protests at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia last week, that city's police chief,
John Timoney, has called for a federal investigation into what he has called a nationwide conspiracy. Since the great
bulk of the protests consisted of nonviolent civil disobedience, we can only assume he refers to a conspiracy to commit
such acts.
If there is such a conspiracy, the War Resisters League is part of it. We have been involved in such "conspiracies" for
more than 75 years, organizing for—and training people for—nonviolent civil disobedience campaigns against, in the words
of our pledge, "war and the causes of war." We are part of the long and honorable tradition of Gandhian nonviolence
that, as adopted in the U.S. South by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others, helped end the shame of legal
apartheid in this country. And we organized for, and trained people to participate in, the newest wave of such protests,
the ones that happened in Seattle late last fall, in Washington this past spring—and in Philadelphia the week before
last. In the last year, we have also offered nonviolence training for protesters opposed to the bombing of Vieques and
those opposed to the sanctions and military actions against Iraq.
There need be no investigation. We admit it: We conspired to bring nonviolent civil disobedience to Philadelphia.
Prosecute us, Chief Timoney.
In fact, the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is prosecuting some of us. War Resisters League members are among the more 300
demonstrators who at this writing still sit in Philadelphia's jails, held there by unprecedentedly high bail: $15,000
for those charged with misdemeanors (or even conspiracy to commit misdemeanors), up to $1,000,000 for those charged as
top organizers of the protests. Excessive bail is a violation of the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, but it
is not the only civil liberties violations going on in Philadelphia. We are also particularly concerned about the
reports of brutal police tactics, reports of abuse ranging from sleep deprivation to denial of food and water and
bathroom access to denial of medication to beatings. Finally, the City of Brotherly Love used police powers to stop
protests before they happened—besieging and then raiding a puppet-making space and arresting 75 people on charges of
obstructing traffic while they were still indoors.
Indeed, the constitutional violations were so widespread and egregious as to raise the question: Did the Philadelphia
police actually conspire to suppress the protests altogether, depriving thousands of protesters—and tens of thousands of
their people across the nation for whom the protesters were speaking—of their most basic right to dissent?
How about it, Chief Timoney? We've confessed; will you? Or must we—as some human rights groups have urged—call for an
independent investigation into Philadelphia's police practices?
**********
War Resisters League
339 Lafayette St.
New York, NY 10012
212-228-0450
212-228-6193 (fax)
1-800-975-9688 (YouthPeace and A Day Without the Pentagon)
wrl@igc.org
web address: http://www.nonviolence.org/wrl