Appeal Court Orders New Trial for Bush Protesters -Austin

[sonias]

We won! Well sort of. We got what we needed, which was the right to have the case get tried again, but on a very narrow ruling. Still we live to fight another day. Yeah for TCRP and the Demo Coalition 11!

Mods please note this again, is a press release and we can use all of it.

Sonia
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Press Release - TCRP
July 21, 2004

APPEALS COURT ORDERS NEW TRIAL FOR BUSH PROTESTERS’
FREE SPEECH SUIT AGAINST CITY OF AUSTIN POLICE DEPARTMENT

Democracy Coalition and its members won their appeal against the City of Austin and its Police Department. The Texas Court of Appeals in Austin ruled that District Judge Margaret Cooper was wrong when she refused to allow a jury to decide whether APD violated the citizens’ state constitutional free speech rights. The Democracy Coalition will now ask a jury to determine that their rights were violated when the police blockaded Bush protesters and used APD officers mounted on horses to charge and disperse the Democracy Coalition so that President Bush would not see them when he was visiting the Governor’s mansion.

"It is only right that the People should decide whether the People’s rights were violated by the police," said Wayne Krause, the Texas Civil Rights Project attorney who argued the appeal for the Democracy Coalition. The Court wrote, "he question of whether the City violated rights under the state constitution cannot be decided as a matter of law." "The most important part about this ruling is that Democracy Coalition has showed the President, the police, and now the courts that the citizens’ free speech rights cannot be trampled," said Krause.

Democracy Coalition member and Plaintiff Sonia Santana said, "This is a great victory for the most important right we have. All we’re really asking APD to do is to change its policies and do more training so the police don’t run roughshod over peaceful protesters again. I don’t know why APD is wasting thousands of dollars of my tax money to wage a war on the streets and in the courts against citizens, when it could just make a change for the better. To this day, they still haven’t accepted responsibility."

TCRP Director Jim Harrington says the new trial will reveal more about the developing nationwide problem of using excessive police power to break up and suppress demonstrations that are unfavorable to the President. "We just won five cases in Crawford in which the Secret Service clandestinely worked with the local police to suppress free speech. We’ll win this case, too. And we’ll see if we can’t get to the bottom of how and why the Administration is attacking those who disagree with it."

For further information, please call Wayne Krause at 512-474-5073.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Way to go!!!!!

If we don't stand up for our rights, they will be taken away. Wish I could be on that jury!

[silverlib]

2. Congrats!

This is a wonderful step in the "correct" direction!

[Jim Sagle]

3. Can private groups bring a RICO suit? Because it looks like an

open-and-shut conspiracy case against w's regime.

[sonias]

4. Jim TCRP is building a strong case against W's oppression

We have have to take it one step at a time. This case however is really directed at the City of Austin and the Austin Police Department. APD however is so pro-Bush that during the anti-war protests there were cops on the force, doing crowd control that were wearing "Bush Supporter" arm bands. Not all of them are bad though. We had several of them who were sympathetic to our case who, really were I think, embarrassed by what had happened.

Here is a portion of the opinion of one of the appeal judges.
"Furthermore, even content-based restrictions on expression may be justified when shown to have been precisely drawn to serve a compelling state interest. See R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 382 (1992); Consol. Edison Co. of N.Y., Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n, 447 U.S. 530, 540 (1980). But that is not the record before us. The City vaguely referenced a professed interest in protecting the security of President Bush, but did not fully develop that theory. (3) It likewise did little to develop other potential justifications, such as those related to public safety and order. Accordingly, I agree with Justice Smith that we should reverse the directed verdict on appellants' suit for declaratory relief on their state constitutional claim."

Sonia

[Jim Sagle]

6. Thank you, Sonia.

[GOPisEvil]

5. You GO Sonia!!!!

Keep up the good fight!!!

Further proof that the money I send to TCRP is well-spent! :thumbsup:

[sonias]

7. Yep GopisEvil - TCRP is a good cause

Your donations do a world of good. That TCRP crew is up to their eyeballs in cases. They had a press conference for another one today that was on the news. This may be the excessive use of force case on their site but I missed most of the story. It had to do with APD again. Imagine that? All the occupants of a home were handcuffed and thrown to the ground for no apparent reason. They were not charged with anything.

1-2-3, everybody say it with me - Fire Stan Knee!

Sonia