State high court curbs protester arrests
Last week, Oregon’s Supreme Court struck down a section of the state’s disorderly conduct law that allowed police to arrest protesters for failing to obey an order to disperse, saying it violated constitutional rights to free speech and assembly. The law had empowered police to disperse demonstrators if officers thought the gathering posed an inconvenience or annoyance to the public, leaving those who didn’t immediately comply subject to arrest.

The ruling came in response to a 1998 case in which 11 people were arrested in Portland, Oregon for May Day demonstrations and protests against bombing Iraq. Critics say police have frequently ordered protesters to disperse even though no crimes were taking place, and those accused are often arrested on the spot if they question police. (The Oregonian)

Army admits spying on Islam conference attendants
Army Intelligence and Security Command agents overstepped their authority when they sought information on civilian participants at a University of Texas conference on Islam, Army officials report.

Two government agents went to the university on Feb. 9, seeking information on people who had attended the conference the previous week. The Army is prohibited from investigating civilians unless the FBI waives its jurisdiction or requests assistance, said Deborah Parker, a government spokeswoman. The conference, “Islam and the Law: The Question of Sexism,” was open to the public.

“It is inappropriate for us to invite the public and the student body to come and freely exchange ideas and then to turn around and relay their personal information to the intelligence community,” Sahar Aziz, a UT law student, said last month. A statement from the Army issued Mar. 12 said the agents were acting on a report by two Army lawyers who attended the conference. The lawyers reported suspicious behavior by a conference participant who questioned their identity and occupation, the statement said. (AP)

Tennessee county reverses recent ban on gay residents
On Thursday, Mar. 19, county commissioners in Rhea County, Tennessee rescinded an anti-gay motion that drew national attention. Earlier that week, the commission passed the measure unanimously, which would have banned gays and lesbians from living in Rhea County and allowed their prosecution for “crimes against nature.” The motion was sent to the county attorney, who was directed to write a resolution that could eventually become Tennessee state law.

Commissioner J.C. Fugate told fellow commissioners that he wanted to discuss the subject of gay marriage, and dictated a motion that read, “those kind of people cannot live in Rhea County, or abide in Rhea County; if caught, they should be tried for crimes against nature.”

The same courtroom hosted a historic battle in 1925 over the teaching of evolution, in which science teacher John Scopes was prosecuted for teaching evolution in the classroom. Two years ago, a federal judge ordered the southeast Tennessee county’s teachers to stop teaching Bible classes in the public schools. (Los Angeles Times)

Portland, Maine rejects Patriot Act
Maine’s largest city joined three US states last week, when Portland’s city council passed a resolution denouncing provisions of the Patriot Act, the controversial federal law put into effect in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. The resolution criticizes the Act for infringing on civil liberties and calls on Congress to amend the law. Portland joins Alaska, Hawaii, Vermont, and more than 260 other communities across the nation that have passed similar resolutions.

“It’s a statement of principle, of where we stand on civil rights,” said Mayor Nathan Smith, who supported the resolution. “The PATRIOT Act was born out of a mindset of fear, anger and panic,” Winston McGill, president of the Portland Chapter of the NAACP, said at the news conference. Meanwhile, US officials worried that the council decision might interfere with federal grand jury proceedings. (Portland Press Herald)

Penobscots of Maine take resource battle to US Court
Lawyers for the Penobscot Indian Nation have filed a suit in the US Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) decision turning over clean water enforcement. Tribal leaders say the decision, which reverses an earlier EPA rule that exempted the Penobscot tribe’s water treatment plant from new statewide control, sacrifices tribal sovereignty to the interests of large-scale water polluters.

The suit in the First Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston, Massachusetts is a new phase in a five-year battle involving not only waste discharges in the waterways of the state’s two large riverine tribes, the Penobscot and the Passamaquoddy, but the basic legal status of the tribal governments themselves.

“As a sovereign people, we have no choice but to fight this ruling to protect our resources and our way of life,” Penabscot Nation Chief Barry Dana said.

The reversal follows the resignation of former EPA head Christie Todd Whitman, who had spoken publicly in support of the “government-to-government” relation between the US and Indian tribes. Power struggles within the EPA in which industry lobbyists overturned environmental regulations on other issues have long have long been reported under the Bush administration, though Whitman has not given interviews about the cause of her departure. (Indian Country Today)

Statue of American labor hero upsets police union
The Chicago Federation of Police is trying to dissuade Chicago from naming a small park in honor of a Lucy Ella Gonzales Parsons, a woman considered one of 19th century’s most important labor and social activists.

A spokesman said Parsons’ name was suggested by local parks historian Julia Bachrach, in honor of Parsons’ long work as a labor organizer and champion of women and minority groups. Only 27 of 555 parks are named after women. But union president Mark Donohue expressed opposition to the proposed statue in a recent letter to park officials, namely because Parsons’ husband was blamed for a bombing that killed a policeman in 1886.

Lucy Ella Gonzales was born of mixed black, Mexican and American Indian ancestry in Texas, possibly as a slave. After the Civil War she married Confederate Army veteran Albert R. Parsons, who became deeply involved in the fight for civil rights and the eight-hour work day. To escape racial prejudice in Texas, the couple moved to Chicago, where they both took up the anarchist cause.

In 1886, they led the “Bread and Roses” parade, one of Chicago’s first mass demonstrations favoring the eight-hour workday. Some 80,000 people took part in the march. Three nights later, someone threw dynamite at a labor rally in Haymarket Square, killing several people including policeman Mathias Degnan.

Albert Parsons was one of eight anarchists arrested and tried for purported involvement in the bombing. Parsons and three others were hanged in 1887 after being found guilty of a purported role in the bombing. But seven years later the trial was declared a miscarriage of justice by the governor, who then pardoned the surviving defendants.

Athough often barred from public speaking by the police, Lucy Parsons continued her work. She died in 1942. (AP)

American Indian agent found dead; Homeland Security announces new border controls
The Department of Homeland Security announced new border controls last week, five days after abuse and neglect on the part of US Border Patrol agents working under the department was made public by the native Tohono O’odham. The same day, Homeland Security Special Agent Thomas DeRouchey, Cheyenne River Sioux, was found dead on his way to the press conference where the department’s decision was announced. DeRouchey was found in his car with a gunshot wound to the head.

Tohono O’odham tribal members in Arizona and Mexico said Homeland Security is seeking to control Tohono O’odham under the guise of the war on drugs, terrorism and illegal immigration. Department officials contend that the new “Border Control Initiative” is necessary for safety.

Prior to his death, DeRouchey was involved in dismantling criminal operations involving immigrant smuggling. But the Homeland Security press conference proceeded with no mention of his death, one ruled a “suicide” by local Police. Marana Police Sgt. Tim Bruenkant said witnesses reported DeRouchey’s government-issued Chrysler Concord swerve that morning into a median guardrail on the nterstate. A gun was found in the car. Oddly, DeRouchey was interviewed by CNN on March 4 concerning violent shootouts on Interstate 10, violence which resulted from illegal human trafficking.

Meanwhile, Homeland Security announced that unmanned aerial vehicles will be used to increase border surveillance of southern Arizona, including Tohono O’odham tribal land, adding that additional helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft would also be deployed in the area.

The Tohono O’odham have also said US Border Patrol agents working with Homeland Security occupied their sacred Baboquivari Mountain while they were at the United Nations in New York pressing for protection of the sacred site.

In the 1970s, former CIA agents exposed use of the region as a center for the CIA’s covert operations in foreign countries. American Indian activist Fred Walking Badger was murdered in 1994, after protesting aerial crop spraying over Gila River tribal land. He and his friend Aaron Rivers disappeared on Gila River tribal land after preparing for a traditional sweat May 21, 1994. Their car was found burned. (Indian Country Today)