A Cautionary Tale: Protesters Rally for Human Rights in York, Pennsylvania


	Police in riot gear protect the Caterpillar plant in York, PA from some 50 demonstrators (photo credit Fred Zuercher).

By William Hughes

DESPITE THE FREEZING temperature and snowy and slushy conditions on the ground, about 50 stouthearted protesters rallied at the York County, PA prison and also at a nearby distribution plant owned by the Caterpillar Corporation. The Convergence for Human Rights sponsored the event, which was held Saturday, Dec. 6, 2003, and endorsed by over 66 groups (see <www.october18.org>).

“We are out here protesting the government’s treatment of immigrants, the USA PATRIOT Act and the erosion of our rights since 9/11,” said Keith Dobson of York. “We are also here to protest Caterpillar profiting from people’s misery by selling its bulldozers to Israel, which uses them to destroy Palestinians’ homes and for collective punishment, too. That is a violation of both the Geneva Convention and human rights.”

York College student Beth Zovko, who hails from Pittsburgh, was among those who marched in the cold from the county prison to the Caterpillar plant situated a few miles away. “I’m here today to spell out my sense of indignation at the injustice that is going on right now in my country,” she said. “I think that it is appalling that our civil rights are being thrown away.”

Both the prison, which holds hundreds of immigrant detainees—under suspect legal authority—for the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (BICE), and the Caterpillar plant are located on the outskirtsof York, a town of 41,000.


Unprotected by plastic visors, police dogs were vulnerable to attack by snowball (photo credit William Hughes).

York’s roots date to colonial days. In 1777-78, during the American Revolution, it even served as the capital city, after the British military forces had taken Philadelphia and the embattled Continental Congress was forced to flee that city. York is located 15 miles north of the Mason-Dixon Line, 30 miles east of Gettysburg, where one of the Civil War’s most historic and lethal battles was fought in the summer of 1863, and 50 miles directly north of Baltimore, Maryland. Many of the Dec. 6 protesters were from York County, which has a population of 381,000.

The Caterpillar plant’s reputation has been sullied by the fact that it distributes parts for armored bulldozers used by Israeli occupation forces to oppress the indigenous Palestinian people (For details, see Ronald L. Bleier’s “Israeli Terror” in the July 2003 issue of The Link, available at <ameu.org>.) A few weeks before the protest, the Caterpillar bulldozer which was proudly displayed on the front lawn of the plant was removed.

“I came up here to York just to let the world know how much I care about Rachel Corrie,” said a young protester who didn’t want his name used. “What the Israelis did to her was a terrible crime.”

Corrie was the 23-year-old peace and justice activist from Olympia, WA killed on March 16, 2003, at the Rafah refugee camp in occupied Gaza by an Israeli soldier operating a Caterpillar bulldozer. It is clear from the photos taken at the crime scene that the driver deliberately ran over Rachel—not once, but twice!

Asylum Seekers Warehoused

Since 9/11, BICE—which comes under the jurisdiction of U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft’s Justice Department—has been warehousing political asylum seekers in facilities like York County Prison (see box on facing page). In violation of international law, BICE has refused to release the names of all of its detainees, many of whom are of Arab descent.

One of BICE’s victims is Farouk Abdel-Muhti, age 55. He has not been charged with any criminal offense. A native of Ramallah, in occupied Palestine, he was arrested in April 2002 and held for deportation only after he became a producer on a popular radio show which championed the nationalist cause of the Palestinians on New York City’s Pacifica station, WBAI (<wbai.org>). Despite suffering from high blood pressure, Abdel-Muhti was held in solitary confinement at the York County facility until Oct. 30, 2003, when he was shifted to the Bergen County jail in Hackensack, NJ. A habeas corpus proceeding challenging the legality of Abdel-Muhti’s imprisonment is pending in federal court.

Explained Robert F. Merrill of York, one of Abdel-Muhti’s most vocal supporters, “I just don’t appreciate detention without fairness, justice and good solid evidence.” Merrill has written two songs advocating freedom for the wrongly jailed radio producer.

Fellow protester Steve Baker, also from York, underscored, “I don’t imagine that everyone would feel this is an important issue. I think it’s because they don’t happen to be sitting in jail, with no trial date, no bail and no attorney. If they could put themselves in ‘that’ position, then they could begin to understand the importance of our being here today.”

Interestingly, the federal government’s authority to deport an immigrant without a public trial and based on secret evidence predates the USA PATRIOT Act. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA) and then-Representative, now Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) pushed through that Star Chamber-like device back in the late 1990s. The “Homeland Security Law,” passed in 2002, greatly enhanced the Bush-Cheney-Ashcroft gang’s power to terrorize the immigrant community. Sadly, it was endorsed by pseudoliberals like Sen. Joseph Lieberman (D-CT), Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA), and Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD).

There was an extremely heavy police presence at both the prison and the Caterpillar plant sites, which seemed out of all proportion to the modest number of protesters. As Shawn Ledington reported in the Dec. 8 York Daily Record, “The law enforcement presence included officers in riot gear, undercover officers who were videotaping and photographing participants and media, explosive detection units, officers on rooftops, and Department of Homeland Security personnel.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge was governor of Pennsylvania before accepting President George W. Bush’s post-9/11 offer to join his cabinet.

Springettsbury Township has announced that it plans to bill the protesters an estimated $3,300 for the police presence. In a Dec. 4 article, Ledington quoted Paula Knudsen of the American Civil Liberties Union’s Central Pennsylvania chapter as noting that “it is unconstitutional to charge people for exercising their free speech rights.”

Stating that the ACLU may take legal action if the township does not reconsider its position, the staff attorney pointed out, “It’s not called free speech for nothing.”

William Hughes is the author of Saying “No” to the War Party (Iuniverse, Inc.), available through Amazon.com. He can be reached at: <liamhughes@mindspring.com>.

SIDEBAR

York County Prison to Resume Weekly Transfer Runs From Boston

By Caryl Clarke, York (PA) Daily Record

York County Prison guards will resume their weekly runs north to pick up people accused of illegally entering the United States from Canada, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials said Wednesday.

An immigration service bus in York County had made the trip for several years until reorganization by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security gave the responsibility to the Boston district of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in March, said Joe Mellia, assistant chief in Swanton, Vt.

Swanton lies at the Vermont border with Canada.

“Recently, we have had a lot of problems with overcrowding and jail space in New England,” Mellia said.

As they did before, officers traveling from York County will meet the border patrol agents in a New York area near Canada. They will transfer the people, their files and property to the York County bus. The transfer to the custody of immigration officials has always gone smoothly, Mellia said.

Mark Henry, deputy chief of the Swanton border patrol, said ICE agreed to the patrol’s request to return service to York County.

“It seemed more efficient for us to deal with York,” Henry said. “York has a good track record with us.”

The Boston district had run out of bed space, spokeswoman Paula Grenier said Wednesday. Beds were so scarce that transfers to other facilities often occurred. Some people were released, but only if deserved, she said.

“Some are released before their hearings for a variety of reasons,” Grenier said, but did not elaborate.

When asked why the transfers were given back to York County, Marc Raimondi, an ICE spokesman in Washington, DC, refused to respond to questions.

Joe Selemmi, the deportation officer at the York County prison, said the Thursday runs typically bring 15 to 30 immigrants to the prison.

Their numbers do not alter the typical daily immigrant population of 650 to 675, because there is a constant flow of immigrants being transferred in and out of the prison.

Few of those picked up are Canadian, Selemmi said.

Most come from other countries. The big border is easy to cross, he said.

The county doesn’t earn anything from the run, Warden Tom Hogan said.

He passes the costs to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The weekly runs will resume Dec. 18.

This article first appeared in the Dec. 11, 2003 York Daily Record. Reprinted with permission.