To Philly: Remember MLK

There are some instances when a law is just on its face and unjust in its application. For instance, I was arrested Friday on a charge of parading without a permit. Now there is nothing wrong with an ordinance which requires a permit for a parade, but when the ordinance is used ... to deny citizens the First Amendment privilege of peaceful assembly and peaceful protest, then it becomes unjust.

When I teach a philosophy course, I try my best to work in Letter from Birmingham City Jail by Martin Luther King, Jr. A classmate of mine who follows the same practice said, "It's really sad that so many of our students have made it to college without reading it!"

Letter is one of our basic civil documents, as much so as the Declaration of Independence or the Gettysburg Address. The ideas and phrases of Letter should be common currency in our political discourse.

Alas, the reactions of many folks---on the street, in the courthouse, and in the media---to the Philly RNC protests amply demonstrate how little some basic facts about democracy and dissent are understood. A cursory reading of Letter would go a long way toward rectifying that.

I had hoped that the white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice, and that when they fail to do this they become dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

I had hoped that Philadelphians---living in the "cradle of liberty"---would understand the purpose of law and order. But I fear not, or they wouldn't be so enthusiastic about the "success" of their police force, nor would they think that what the police did helped polish the city's image. Or if it did, that they would not think that the appearance of order was worth the reality of injustice.

I grieve for my hometown.

Wherever the early Christians entered a town the power structure got disturbed and immediately sought to convict them for being 'disturbers of the peace' and 'outside agitators.'

One cannot fairly at once strive to be the locus of national political action and a private town "belonging" to those who happen to be living there, and their solicited guests. Philadelphia invited the RNC in. By doing so, Philly acquired the duty to accept and facilitate the protests, and not to try and make itself into a gated community for the powerful. Those streets are not the cops' streets, and they are not the residents' (alone) streets. We are one nation by our own choice and our own laws. A street in Philly is as much the birthright of someone from Seattle as it is for the people living on it.

So I have tried to make it clear that is is wrong to use immoral means to attain moral ends. But now I must affirm that it is just as wrong, or even more so, to use moral means to preserve immoral ends. Maybe Mr. Conner and his policemen have been rather publicly nonviolent, as Chief Prichett was in Albany, Georgia, but they have used the moral means of nonviolence to maintain the immoral end of flagrant racial injustice.

It amazes me that so many would be sanguine about the denials coming from police and city officials. It has been a mere three or so weeks since an exercise of police force, captured on videotape, has the feds investigating charges of Philadelphia police brutality. Is it really plausible that these same people metamorphized in three weeks into calm and professional jailors? With a department under federal investigation, shouldn't we take the calls of Police Comissioner Timony with a grain of salt? If the police aren't mistreating prisoners, why not let the press, or the lawyers, or Amnesty International in to interview, observe, and investigate?

If they have nothing to hide, why are they hiding it?

Using public non-violence to shield hidden violence and violation of rights is surely a case of using moral means to an immoral end.

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.
--Amendment VII of the Constitution of the United States of America

Most of the people who now have been in jail over a week are there on misdemeanor charges. Misdemeanors. Minor crimes which are "punishable by fine or imprisonment in a city or county jail rather than in a penitentiary". Typical imprisonments are in the "one to thirty" day category.

The protesters have already been in jail a week or more.

Typical fines are in the $50US to $500US range.

Protester bail has been set from $10,00OUS to $1,000,000US. One. Million. US. Dollars. For misdemeanors. For people with a history of showing up for their protest-related court appointments.

If these are not excessive, what is?

How can we be assured this person will appear for trial? He's from another state.
--Philadelphia Senior Common Pleas Court Judge Lisa A. Richette

I wasn't aware that being from a state other than Pennsylvania made one inherently untrustworthy. Given that Pennsylvania and Philadelphia are rather notorious for corruption and scandal, one might suggest that people from the state were not so very trustworthy. Bail is set to ensure that the accused appears in court. Judge Richette claims that no bail that a suspect from another state could meet is sufficent, so, holding that person in jail is the only solution.

Is fascism too light a name for this?

The "speediest" that trials for most of the jailed protesters can occur is after the Democratic convention in Los Angeles. Mayor Street has publically declared his intention to court the Democrats to hold their next presidential convention in Philadelphia. That seems a clear motive to keep the protesters in jail, to drain their funds and energy, and break their spirit.

If a North Carolina citizen was accused of misdemeanors this week in Philadelphia (when there was no convention) should that North Carolina citizen expect to have set a $500,000US bail? A $1,000,000US bail?

If not, then some protesters have received special treatment for their politics. If so, then I recommend driving very carefully while in Philadelphia.

These people voluntarily joined in a what I regard as a very ill-conceived conspiracy, and now they're in jail because they violated the law.
--Philadelphia Mayor John Street

I blush for John Street.

The protesters have not been yet found guilty of any crime, and many may never be. They are not in jail because they violated the law. None of the time they have thus served will count against their sentences, if convicted. They are in jail because they have extraordinarily high bails and because they refuse to abandon those targeted by the police for harsher treatment. They are in jail because of their political beliefs and because their rights have been violated. Indeed, let us bring on the federal investigation.

You just have to make sure that you keep one hand around one of their throats.
--Philadelphia Police Commissioner John Timoney

I would never demand that anyone produce the quality of writing and speech given to us by MLK. But I would have hoped that his sentiments and understanding, his love of others and of justice, and his respect for freedom and those who use it would be more present in the words and actions of Philadelphia's finest.