Cleveland Women Held For Psych Evaluation For Trying To Put Up Anti-Bush Poster

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" Zepp " <zepp

Sun, 14 May 2006 06:50:48 -0700

[Zepps_News] #Cleveland Women Held For Psych Evaluation For

Trying To Put Up Anti-Bush Posters

 

 

 

 

Cleveland Women Held For Psych Evaluation For Trying To Put Up

Anti-Bush Posters

 

[Zeppnote: of course, ANYONE living in Cleveland should be evaluated!]

 

Greg Szymanski, The Arctic Beacon, May 13, 2006

 

http://www.arcticbeacon.com/13-May-2006.html

 

A Cleveland woman, manhandled by police and charged with two felonies

for trying to display anti-Bush posters, was jailed in a Cuyahoga County

psych unit last week in what her attorney called a " highly unusual and

outrageous " decision.

 

Carol Fisher, 53, was ordered by state court Judge Timothy McGinty to

undergo a psychological examination as a part of her pre-sentencing

investigation in the anti-Bush poster incident.

 

From the onset of the case, Judge McGinty openly claimed Fisher

suffered from " mental problems " for resisting a brutal encounter on Jan.

28 when Cleveland Heights police manhandled and arrested her even after

complying with orders to not display the anti-Bush posters on a downtown

Cleveland Heights street.

 

And during a last minute May 9 hearing, Judge McGinty said Fischer's

opposition to the Bush administration makes her " delusional. "

 

In response, Terry Gilbert, one of Fisher's attorney, said in more than

30 years of practicing law, he has never seen " anything remotely like

this, " adding legal challenges are ongoing, including a writ of habeas

corpus.

 

" This is gulag stuff, " said Gilbert. " Is this the kind of country you

want to live in when dissidents are determined to be crazy? "

 

In a phone call after being put in the psych ward, Fisher said her

eyeglasses were taken, she was put on suicide watch and if she doesn't

comply with the psych examination, she will be sent to the North Coast

Mental Institute for a 20 day evaluation.

 

During the hearing, Judge McGinty made other strange requests baffling

attorneys, asking defense counsel to openly read a lengthy message on

Fisher's t-shirt, saying:

 

" Wanted for Illegally Crossing Borders: The Bush Regime. If you are

going to insist that crossing borders illegally is a crime which cannot

be tolerated, how about George Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,

Condoleezza Rice (and yes, Colin Powell) and the rest of that gang, with

their highly illegal, and violent, 'crossing of the border'-into Iraq,

among other places?! "

 

Judge McGinty then said this was proof of her delusional state, adding

that " Carol wants to go to jail and that she has a martyr complex. "

Fisher had initially refused to taking a state ordered psych evaluation,

saying there was no reason for it due to the fact American citizens have

the right to express political opinions in an open and honest fashion.

 

However, Judge McGinty's response to Fisher's refusal and statements was

simply that " I don't negotiate with felons. "

 

" I'd be crazy to go along with the psych test, " said Fisher, adding she

feared being railroaded by crooked state psychiatrists based on her

opposition to the Bush administration. " That which you will resist and

mobilize to stop, you will learn or be forced to accept. "

 

And looking back on the entire Fisher story, starting with the Jan. 28

police brutality incident involving the anti-Bush posters, her case is a

stark example of the fascist climate existing in America, an unsettling

climate were dissidents are punished and authority figures are allowed

to trample on civil rights.

 

" The facts show that I was willing to take the posters down as the

officer requested. But I was arrested anyway. Yet the prosecution

intends to distort the facts and police still promote the lie that I was

arrested because I refused to comply, and attacked them, " said Fisher.

 

" The real point here is, there need to be more posters all over the

place demanding an end to the Bush Regime! The facts clear and simple: I

was wrongly arrested and assaulted for putting up anti-Bush posters. I

was further punished for defying them.

 

" What about my injuries, trauma, intimidation, a threat on my life,

being labeled a crazy wildcat, held incommunicado for six hours, forced

to undress in front of four male policemen, and now the loss of my job?

And most of all, what about the fact that all this happened because I

put up a poster calling for active opposition to the Bush Regime! "

 

And Fisher's run-in with authorities and subsequent illegal

incarceration is just another example of the long line of cases piling

up across America showing the " real live day to day " lock down on

freedom of speech and the use of police as the Gestapo arm of the

fascist Bush administration.

 

" I had set out from my house with a full agenda, to contact lots of

people and get out materials about our upcoming Cleveland event to Drown

Out the State of the Union address, and the call to march around the

White House on Feb. 4th. My first stop was the an area known for its

community of artists and progressives, where I stapled up posters for

blocks and was greeted warmly by those who saw and appreciated what

World Cant Wait is doing. I talked to an artist, and a Palestinian store

owner who took fliers to distribute to customers.

 

" Next stop, to the east side. I drove down a street in Cleveland

Heights, another area known for its diversity and progressive history.

This street was badly in need of postering too and though i was in a big

hurry, I couldn't drive on without getting up a few signs. Before long a

cop called from across the street: " Ma'am! Hundred dollar fine for doing

that! " Oh really, since when? Another way of keeping us from getting the

word out, eh?

 

" But not wanting to get arrested, I said ok and put up my staple gun and

walked away. But that wasn't the end of it. " Ma'am! Hundred dollar fine

unless you take those posters down. " He is pursuing me across the

street. Damn! OK fine, I say, I will take them down (not wanting to get

into a confrontation, because I have lots to do today!) But this too is

not enough for the cop. He wants my ID. I say I don't have my ID. He

grabs my arm. I say let go of me, I am not doing anything wrong, I will

take the posters down. People are watching to see what happens, are

outraged but very afraid. The cop won't let go, he clearly wants more

grief from me, and he is in the spotlight. He wants people to be scared.

He pushes me against a store window and next thing I know I am face down

on the sidewalk with two cops on top of me, one with his knee in my

back. I am trying to call out to people, to tell them what the posters

are about.

 

" They keep pushing my face into the sidewalk. I can't breathe. I have

osteoradionecrosis in my jaw, resulting from radiation treatments for

cancer. My jawbone is slowly deteriorating, is very fragile, and doesn't

heal well. I am 53 years old, not exactly a spring chicken. A hand comes

down again to push my chin against the concrete.

 

" By this time there are four cops on the scene. My hands are tightly

cuffed behind my back. They lift me up and shove me onto a park bench

and shackle my legs. I am still calling out, telling people what this is

about. One of the cops says to me, " Shut up or I will kill you! " , " I am

sick of this anti-Bush shit! " " You are definitely going to the psyche

ward. " Then somebody calls the EMS, and a fire squad shows up.

 

" The cop supervisor appears and puts his finger in my face: " I don't

like it when people treat my men like this and if you don't obey the law

you will suffer the consequences. " I am lifted into the EMS truck, hands

still cuffed behind my back. I ask to make a call and this is refused,

but a fireman offers to make a quick call for me. If not for this, no

one would have known where I was or what was happening, a fate shared by

many immigrants in this country. At the hospital, I am treated as an

arch-criminal. Escorted by four policemen, I shuffle into the emergency

room, legs still shackled, covered with leaves and mud. I think to

myself, if I was Black, I would not have made it this far. I would

probably be dead by now. "

 

Editor's Note: To see Fisher's original story go to

http://www.arcticbeacon.com/1-Apr-2006.html. To hear her live radio

interview with Greg Szymanski go to http://mp3.rbnlive.com/Greg06.html.

 

--Greg Szymanski Greg also has his own daily show on the Republic

Broadcast Network. Go to www.rbnlive.com <http://www.rbnlive.com> Greg

Szymanski is an independent investigative journalist and his articles

can been seen at www.LewisNews.com <http://www.LewisNews.com>. He also

writes for American Free Press and has his own site www.arcticbeacon.com

<http://www.arcticbeacon.com>

 

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