Grand Rapids Court Interpreter Targeted....(for anti-war involvement )

[G_j]

http://usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/6142/

Grand Rapids Court Interpreter Targeted and Threatened By Police For Involvement In Anti-war Demonstrations

by Brian McAfee
(Friday 09 April 2004)

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"Bush's Iraq war is clearly evolving into his Vietnam as we continue to send more troops and the body bags continue to return to the U.S. in what has become the incorrect motivation of a "profits before people" foreign policy."


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In the months preceding and during Bush's war in Iraq last year the global and national protests included generally conservative and birthplace of Amway West Michigan. The cities of Grand Rapids, Muskegon, and Holland, Michigan had regular weakly protests typically ranging in size from 30 to two-hundred. Grand Rapids, the largest of the three with about 200,000 in population were spotlighted in the Muskegon Chronicle last week in an article titled "Police Infiltrate Peace Rallies". The article written by Ted Roelofs exposes how the Grand Rapids police department "sent undercover police officers to anti-war meetings and rallies. Collecting intelligence about the aims of activists."

Throughout the protests demonstrators have cited the lack of an evident link between 9/11 and Iraq, the silence and tacit approval of the U.S. when Saddam Hussein used poison gas in the Iran /Iraq war and against the Kurds in 1988. Many demonstrators believing Bush's primary motives to be a move toward Mid East hegemony and control of the oil fields.

Demonstrator Abby Puls, 24, a Spanish interpreter at the Kent County Courthouse was singled out by undercover police officers and told she could be fired for "choosing sides", she was also threatened with arrest for "hindering and opposing" police if she identified any of them. Grand Rapids police chief Harry Dolan confirmed puls's statement saying he feared for his officers' safety at peace demonstrations. Grand Rapids police conduct at anti-war rallies first surfaced in February in Salon, an online magazine according to Roelof's article.

Grand Rapids City Commissioner Rick Tormala said of police conduct "To monitor citizens and their activities when they are dissenting against the government is wrong. People have a right to assemble and say what they want."
..more..

[bleedingheart]

1. Grand Rapids has a lot of repubs...

but as of late they have seen a record number of layoffs etc...

I will have to send this to my father in law in GR... he is a liberal leaning lawyer who might be able to help her...

[amandabeech]

3. Hi Bleedingheart!

I grew up north of Muskegon, and have several relatives, including my Mom in the area, but I hadn't heard about this. Did you grow up there, too? I didn't realize that there were any liberal lawyers in Grand Rapids. I'd like to hear more about him.

Here's a link to the Muskegon Chronicle story:

http://www.mlive.com/news/muchronicle/index.ssf?/base/news-2/1080575175181550.xml

The Grand Rapids Police Chief Dolan sounds like a hard-core Freeper, but the head of the Public Safety Commission, Councilman Rick Tormala, and GR Mayor George Heartwell come off a little better. Mind you, this is the same city that produced a near-riot when Michael Moore spoke at the really known liberal church in the place a few months ago.

The Grand Rapids-Muskegon-Grand Haven-Holland area is more populous than the article indicates. It is approximately 1,000,000,000 in a four-county metro area. However, there is a lot of farming/rural land among the four towns, of which Grand Rapids is by far the largest.

Muskegon is an old lumbering-industrial town on Lake Michigan that starting falling apart in the '70s after the Vietnam war ended. Many, many tank engines were produced there. It is less smugly conservative than Grand Rapids.

The Muskegon Chronicle, which I have read for years off and on, has been known to rake muck from time to time, and is not dominated by stories about families, schools and churches. Notice that the Grand Rapids Press did not break this story. Also, the Chronicle story quotes the Muskegon County Sheriff George Jurkas that " . . . there's no way we would do that . . . I can't see any point in it."

Despite the problems, I love this part of the world. Maybe I should move back.

Amanda

[buycitgo]

5. a BILLION people?

traffic must really suck!

[amandabeech]

10. GACK!!!!!

Major typo. 1,000,000!!!! I should never type and drink wine at the same time. You know, those of us from W. Michigan can't do two physical things at once. Jerry Ford couldn't walk and chew gum at the same time. Maybe its something in that Lake Michigan water.


Amanda


On Edit: Traffic only sucks in the summertime when you have to slalom among Winnebagos pulling RV's and large boats on their way north on U.S. 31 and M-37, especially when those two routes go two-lane.

Amanda

[Occulus]

16. And aren't those big S curves fun?

:) I like how that one comes within like two feet of a building. I think I read somewhere that that spot is closer to the preconstructed building it almost touches than any other US highway in the country.

[amandabeech]

20. There're straightening those things out now.

No more fun in the ice! Actually, I grew up northwest of there and didn't have to do the S every day.

Last summer U.S.-131 was under construction on both sides north from Byron Center. They were widening it to 3 lanes each way. It was utter hell.

[UrbScotty]

8. That pretty much sums up West Michigan.

Heartwell, I think, is actually a Democrat.

West Michigan is a big reason Granholm won big in the primary for Governor in 2002.

[amandabeech]

13. In my home county,

which is almost completely Republican, there was a huge turnout in the Democratic primary with almost all votes going to Granholm. There simply aren't that many Democrats in the county except the teachers, and I think that some of them produced the small vote for Blanchard. Granholm really appealed to a lot of voters, particularly more moderate Republican and independent women.

Amanda

[G_j]

19. I used to live in GR in the 70s

very conservative. There are some major fundie publishers there as I remember.

[amandabeech]

21. One of my cousins lives there now.

He says that it has improved, but there are still a lot of heavy-duty Christian bookstores, and lots and lots and lots of churches, many of them Reformed or Christian Reformed. No Unitarians, however. You have to go over to Muskegon for that.

The old Pantlind (sp)Hotel has been converted into the Amway Grand. The hookers no longer hang out there--they've moved a few streets over. The two founders of Amway seem to endow everything. There's DeVoss Hall and Van Andel Arena, where the local IHL hockey team plays. One or the other of them sometimes runs anti-abortion TV ads and puts up anti-abortion highway signs, some of which have been a little on the graphic side.

Wyoming is now heavily Mexican American and the Vietnamese who had settled in Holland run lots of Chinese restaurants around Grand Rapids.

Oh yes. It still snows at lot in the winter.

[bobthedrummer]

2. How can anyone be fearful about peace? I thought cops were peace

officers. Oh, I forget-day is night, up is down, black is white...

[amandabeech]

4. Very funny.

Frankly, this stuff is very reminiscent of the Vietnam war era. In fact, what's been going on this week in Iraq feels very "Vietnamy." Just wait until the police stop taking names and start bashing heads. Fortunately, the National Guard is in Iraq instead of at home, like they were during Vietnam.

Amanda

[bobthedrummer]

6. I think there were many lessons learned from Viet Nam, and no one

is going to provoke head-bashing, lots of people of all ages, races, many vets and military families, union members are united on this.
All power to the people, like it says in the Constitution!

[amandabeech]

11. I hope that you're right

Although many blue-collar types supported the Vietnam war, some pretty straight-looking folks ended up in some pretty bad situations. People running down the street in front of a moving police line look pretty much the same: it's the action of running not the sartorial cultural signals that matter. The blood gets boiling and it doesn't matter whether the recipient of the mayhem is wearing a suit or heels, he or she is the opponent.

Amanda the pessimist.

[G_j]

14. perhaps not as overt

but we've had numerous examples of police brutality against anti-war protesters in Asheville, NC.

[UrbScotty]

7. "War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength."

-George Orwell in 1984

[sam sarrha]

9. ..........Gestapo..............

[saigon68]

12. Worse The SS Einsatzgruppen

Don't think for one minute that some of those thugs wouldn't put a few of US up against the wall and mow us down, if they thought they could get away with it.

[BiggJawn]

15. "Feared for his officer's safety" what a load of crap.

Like they weren't armed? Like all they had to do was make a signal and half the cops in the state wouldn't come busting in, spraying pepper spray like skunks in a dog fight?

Harry, get honest. you were "afraid" that your Gestapo Goons would get "outed" and the the city attorney would have you on his shit-list for making him blow his budget on all the lawsuits....

Man, this sucks. I vacation in that area every summer....Didn't know I was supporting ReTHUG industry....

[mouse7]

17. Those deadly puppet shows!

Killer puppets! Look out Jack, Chucky's Back!

[amandabeech]

18. Spend your money in Muskegon.

Note that their county sheriff said that he wouldn't do what the wingnuts in Grand Rapids did. Muskegon is an old union town that actually went to Gore in 2000. Lots of African Americans and lots of union families, active, laid-off or retired. Muskegon also has the lake front, as I'm sure you know.

The towns north of Muskegon are okay as well. Check out Pentwater, Ludington and Manistee. Plenty of conservatives but they're not as likely to be of the neo-fascist variety, like Grand Rapids and Holland.