Three years later, effects of
Philadelphia RNC protests linger
Durham resident Darby Landy still
awaits trial
By Liz Seymour
Aug. 3— Three years after his arrest in Philadelphia
during the 2000 Republican National Convention, Triangle resident Darby
Landy, 23, is still awaiting trial on felony charges that could net
him up to seven years in prison. Landy is one of only three defendants,
known at the Timoney 3, still remaining from a massive police sweep
that resulted in 420 arrests. The arrests and the protesters’ subsequent
treatment in jail brought heavy criticism from the ACLU, Human Rights
Watch, the National Lawyers Guild, Amnesty International and other civil
rights organizations.
“It’s been a long three years,” said Landy, whose trial
was originally scheduled for late 2000. “But as bad as it’s
been I must also say that there were plenty of prisoners with me in
jail who had been there for over two years awaiting trial. Unfortunately
it is in no way unique to have things drag out like this.”
In October of 2000 a Philadelphia judge reduced the Timoney 3 felony
charges to misdemeanors, but the DA’s office appealed to Superior
Court and some felony charges were reinstated. Landy’s trial, now
set for Oct. 27, has been postponed three times in the last year. His
fellow defendants are Camilo Vivieros, a Massachusetts housing activist,
and Eric Steinberg, a former University of Pennsylvania student.
Ironically the Aug. 1, 2000 protest was dedicated to issues of police
brutality and inequities in the justice system. Landy was arrested after
officers on bikes, including then-Police Commissioner John Timoney,
rushed a group of marchers leaving a permitted rally against the death
penalty. On the advice of his lawyer, Landy has declined to discuss
specifics of the case while it is still in litigation.
Long before the Patriot Act put free speech issues on the national agenda,
the treatment of protesters at the Philadelphia convergence raised serious
issues about the way dissent is handled in the United States. Two days
after the arrests, Timoney, who called the protesters “crybabies
to the core,” was quoted in The Washington Post as saying “You
just have to make sure you keep one hand around one of their throats.”
Police tactics included surveillance and infiltration of activists’
groups prior to the convention; a preemptive strike and arrests at a
puppet-making event, including destruction of materials intended for
the day’s protest; and preemptive arrests of bystanders, legal
observers, and medics. Protesters, most of whom were charged with misdemeanors,
were given outstandingly high bails, ranging from $10,000 to $250,000,
with one protester assigned a precedent-setting $1 million bail. While
in jail protesters were denied food, water, and medical care and were
dragged, kicked, punched and handcuffed so tightly their hands lost
circulation. More than 95 percent of those arrested have subsequently
been acquitted or had their charges dismissed.
“They didn’t really think we were guilty of crimes, they just
wanted to get people off the streets during the convention,” said
Isabell Moore of Greensboro. “This was a clear preemptive move
on the part of the Philadelphia police.” Moore, who was arrested
on Aug. 1 and charged with several misdemeanors, was given a $10,000
bail and spent eleven days in jail. Her misdemeanor charges were dismissed
in trial.
In December of last year John Timoney was named Chief of Police in Miami.
In November 2003 Miami will host a meeting on the Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA), a proposed free-trade zone that would extend NAFTA-like
policies to most of the western hemisphere. The meeting is expected
to draw tens of thousands of protesters from around the world.
“Yeah,” Timoney told the Philadelphia Weekly in March, “my
old friends are going to be here.”
Source: North Carolina Independent
Media Center
