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 _eval, 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.

As reported in the Arctic Beacon as well as being a guest on Greg Szymanski's radio show the Investigative Journal, Fisher said she was brutalized by Cleveland Heights police, charged with two counts of felony assault and held incommunicado under police custody in the hospital even after complying with orders not to post the anti- Bush signs.

"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."


May 13, 2006
By Greg Szymanski



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 and the arctic beacon are pretty sketchy when it comes to credibility. Tom Flocco deals with them and he's a fraud.

Just so ya know

She was put in a psyche unit, NOT a gulag.

To compare this to what happened in the gulag system is to degrade the pain caused to those who really lived though it.

See no. 4


gulag




gu·lag [ g lg ] (plural gu·lags)


noun

Definition:

1. political prison in former USSR: a prison or labor camp in the former Soviet Union, to which opponents of the government were sent


2. prison camp network in former USSR: the network of political prisons and labor camps in the former Soviet Union


3. former Soviet prisons department: the department of the former Soviet security service that was responsible for running the network of political prisons


4. prison for dissenters: any place that dissenters are sent to, or the isolating or imprisoning of dissenters

Thank You, rcorporon, for the clarification(s). You are correct.

We all have to take sensationalistic journalists from either side with a grain of salt, but I have read about this case several times. Its all becoming very Orwellian. I dont put it past the little neo-con jack booted Bush worshiping pigs out here to do that sort of thing. And nearly every judge in these counties are republicans. Yeah, if you dissent, they might put you up as psych. Unfortunately "evaluation ordering" from a judge is really un-contestable. Fucking scary!

Absolutely correct! For those of you who really believe that being in a psych ward is equivalent to being imprisoned in one of Stalin's infamous "labor" camps, I would suggest that you read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's "The Gulag Archipelago" trilogy. Other than being people being locked up, there is no comparison whatsoever between the horrors of the old Soviet Gulag system and a modern day psych ward.

It's pretty clear that the writer of this article wasn't after facts and sharing of information,
as much as they were after sensationalism and emotion.


This isn't a news story, it's a play!
It's a sensational Left wing version of Faux News!
This kind of thing can only serve to harm Progressive credibility.

Flocco is one of the biggest wackos out there in Wacko Land. The following link will give those who are unfamiliar with his ersatz journalism an inkling of just how loony this bozo really is.

Tom Flocco

I'm of the opinion that Flocco is really a right winger working to delegitimize independent media outlets. He used to contact me all time to get me to run his stories. When that didn't work, he had his buddy start hounding me. Eventually I had to block them both from my email. The last story he tried to get me on was that Cheney and Bush had both been indicted. I went ahaead and ran the story with this headline: "Have Bush and Cheney been indicted? Tom Flocco certainly thinks so!"

He's a pud of the lowest order.

I don't know if the stories true or not, but by definition if shes being held against her will for political dissent, whether in a Holiday Inn or at Abu Ghraib, it can correctly, even if over dramatically be called a gulag. BTW, would you be more sympathetic to her plight if you knew she works in a communist book store (hope not, shouldn't matter) ? To get bck to the quesionable credence of the story (yes, I know about Flocco and feel the same way) the following account comes from a Columbus OH weekly news, arts and entertainment paper:
Carol Fisher, a longtime peace activist and a volunteer at the local communist bookstore Revolution Books, has been found guilty. The 53-year-old, 5-foot-4, 130-pounder will be sentenced June 2 for the felonious assault of two Cleveland Heights police officers. But Fisher's attorney, Terry Gilbert, says a number of issues in the trial will come up when the decision is appealed.

Fisher was hanging "World Can't Wait, Bush Step Down" posters on Lee Road telephone poles January 28 when the officers pointed out to her that the city has a law against that. But when they asked for the ID she didn't have, then grabbed her by the sleeve when she turned to pull down the illegal posters, the situation deteriorated to the point that two peace officers were holding the frightened woman on the sidewalk.

The activist's supporters found the trial as outrageous as the arrest. "The judge [Timothy McGinty] would not allow any testimony except what the police were saying," says Lee Thompson, who watched the arguments.

Gilbert says that during the trial, McGinty refused to instruct the jury about protocols for arrest in minor misdemeanor cases, like illegally hanging posters. "We repeatedly asked the judge to explain to the jury under what circumstances people can be arrested for minor misdemeanor. He wouldn't instruct them. He kept saying it's irrelevant. The prosecutor kept saying he had the right to arrest, and we said he didn't, and the judge could have cleared that up by reading the statute — which says that police can't arrest on minor misdemeanor without giving a citation, unless the person doesn't provide ID. They didn't give her a chance to provide ID."

The defense argument included a 40-minute, video-taped deposition of a paramedic who responded to the scene, but Gilbert was not allowed to play the whole tape. "Ten minutes into the tape the paramedic was saying that [Fisher] needed help, but no one was taking care of her. Then he's explaining that one of the officers was pointing his finger at her face, saying, 'I don't care if you're injured, you're going to jail.' Right after the paramedic said that, the judge cut off the tape."

When the verdict was handed down last week, McGinty told Fisher he wanted her to see a psychiatrist.

Gilbert observes that the verdict was handed down the same day that Tower City management cut the sound for the Tri-C JazzFest performance of the band Mifune because they were wearing politically charged T-shirts.

"People in this country should be alarmed at what is going on," the attorney said. "It smacks of the kind of mentality we see in totalitarian regimes, when dissidents are sent to insane asylums."

Now, instead of a $100 fine, Fisher faces a total of 36 months in jail.

The Northeast Ohio chapter of World Can't Wait, which calls for the resignation of the president, meets at 7 p.m. today (Wednesday), May 3 at Mac's Backs Paperbacks (1820 Coventry Rd., Cleveland Heights.) For info, call 216.633.6200. — Michael Gill

chatter@freetimes.comhttp://www.freetimes.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=3370

Thanks, Soon. That fleshes out the story much better.

Thank YOU for the new avatar

It's funny, that anybody would say that incarceration in a mental hospital for political dissent is evil when the communists (or any other enemy du jour) does it, but OK and not the same thing and somehow offensive to other victims of such political persecution if george w. bush does it. Funny, but not really.

Wiseguy and I agree on something?

Hold on, I need to go change my underpants.

Ha! I would have considered changing my mind.

Obviously you hate your country. Don't you know we're spreading freedom and democracy around the world?

Au contraire, I consider mental hospitals, mental illness and political persecution to be the hallmarks of American democracy, and let no man say otherwise.

Why doesn't that surprise me, 'Zooks?

Ha ha! That wasn't the first time that I agreed with a viewpoint of yours and it probably won't be the last, rcorporon. You might be surprised about how many things we do agree on. The gamut of my viewpoints run from the far-left to the far-right and many in between. I'm definitely not an ideologue partisan who listens to and agrees with only one particular political ideology. I never arbitrarily dismiss a reasonable viewpoint strictly because of politics. In my opinion, anyone who refuses to even consider other viewpoints is being very narrow-minded.

Ok, you're all wrong, and Im right ! LOL Point isnt the semantics, the point is being held against your will under false charges, for dissent.

People who make their own decisions have that right. And wiretapthisDMW is correct. Trying to obscure and justify false imprisonment for political dissent with semantics is bullshit.

WTTDMW, maybe I'm missing something here. Could you point out in the charges against Fisher where it says that she was being legally charged with "political dissent"? Is there a statute against that in Cleveland? Just curious.

Isn't that exactly what Tapper said, in other words?

That fact that they don't actually have that law on the books to use against her,
didn't prevent the judge from saying exactly that!

This reading between the lines stuff isn't that difficult.
Not this time.

We're not getting an unbiased neutral viewpoint about this case, are we? All we're getting is the defendant's side and that of her defenders. So paraphrasing my sig line a bit:

"There are three sides to this story:
Fisher's side, the State's side, and the truth"

OK, liesguy, YOU take the states side in this and tell us all what happened. It's almost dinner time, and I could stand a fine republican whine.

Badkooks, I don't know what happened in this case and you don't either. End of story.

yes we do!
we know what was reported!
Right or wrong, that's what we know!


However, given the current political climate in some regions of this great country,
I for one tend to believe the story!


Now, even if it's not true,
the fact that I (and others) believe it could be,
is significant!

OK, should we wait until Faux News covers it, and pretend nothing happened until then? Who left you in charge, anyway? Isn't this the place where O'Really? says, "shut up!"? "End of story" sounds so much...nicer.

UPDATE from Carol Fisher:
Dear friends,
My trial date has been postponed to April 24th--a good development!
Rally Monday April 3rd as planned, to spread the word and say:
No Apologies, Drop the Charges, Protesting Bush is Not a Crime!
What is happening so far is a clear example of the battle for the future! While we bring the truth to light and fight to end the crimes of the Bush regime and all they represent, the forces in court and government are trying to make me back down, to discourage and intimidate people from speaking out, while bolstering malicious, lying and repressive practices of the police.
As people know from the last message sent out, the case had been on a very fast track and we expected to go to trial April 3rd, which severely cut into our ability to prepare. Under this time pressure, the prosecution offered a "settlement" which would still place all blame on me and would portray my actions as a crime. But I said no deal and my supporters agree! Meanwhile, the City of Cleveland Heights has made it very clear that they want their police to emerge from this case untainted and victorious. The courts and the government all insist that this case is not about opposing Bush. They and the police are working to cover over and reinvent what actually happened to me that day, and to withhold evidence from the defense.
A number of important developments have arisen as a result of my arrest and trial.
1. Widespread, continued outrage over the arrest and support for my actions exists here and even across the globe.
2. Statements are coming in exposing other examples of police brutality, politically motivated and otherwise, from Cleveland Heights and elsewhere, that will be publicized in the course of the case.
3. Medical workers are drafting proposals for a manifesto of medical ethics that will uphold patient care over complicity with police in cases where people are held in police custody in hospitals.
4. Lawyers and law students are being approached to organize themselves to collectively fight police state measures.
These kinds of efforts will not only help win this case but in a larger sense, strengthen our ability to change the course of history.
When the Mayor and other Cleveland Heights spokespeople say the police acted appropriately, they are telling us that intimidating, aggressive and illegal behavior by the police is sanctioned, approved and beyond reproach, INCLUDING when felony assault charges result from putting up an anti-Bush poster! But they are not deaf or blind to the facts, and they are not stupid—if they won't acknowledge the truth, then they approve of all this!
This is an example complicity with the political climate that the Bush regime is working hard to enforce and escalate. Worst of all, they are attempting to force me, and the public in general to go along. Watching this in action, it is no wonder how a full blown police state COULD establish itself---IF WE LET IT HAPPEN.
BUT WE ARE SHOWING THAT SILENCE AND PARALYSIS ARE NOT ACCEPTIBLE. THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THE MOVEMENT “THE WORLD CANT WAIT – DRIVE OUT THE BUSH REGIME” EXISTS.

“This will not be easy. If we speak the truth they will try to silence us. If we act, they will try to stop us. But we speak for the majority, here and around the world, and as we get this going we are going to reach out to the people who have been so badly fooled by Bush and we are NOT going to stop.” -from the call of the World Can't Wait - Drive Out the Bush Regime

---For those who don’t know---the facts of my case are clear: I was wrongly arrested and assaulted for putting up anti-Bush posters. I was further punished for defying the police. I sustained injuries, trauma, intimidation, a threat on my life, being labeled a crazy wildcat, held incommunicado for six hours, forced to undress in front of 4 male policemen, and have lost of my job as a result of all this. All this happened because I put up a poster calling for active opposition to the Bush Regime! THIS IS NOT A CRIME! THIS IS AN URGENT NECESSITY!!! (for details on the case go to: worldcantwait.org, “news and events” toward the bottom of the home page)
To help prepare for my trial, or to donate money, or to join in any of the above efforts, reply to this email or contact World Cant Wait, Cleveland: 216-633-6200, Cleveland@worldcantwait.org.

Make checks payable to “Carol Fisher Defense Fund” and mail to “NION/WCW PO Box 609034 Cleveland oh 44109
People have asked where they can call to register their protest to the city and to say that the charges should be dropped. Public support on my behalf has already made a big difference in this case. Right now the particular decision makers are:

William B. Mason, County Prosecutor - he is the only prosecutor with authority to drop the charges. 216-443-7800.
Judge Timothy McGinty- 216-443-8758
Cleveland Hts Law Director John Gibbons-makes recommendations to the prosecutor. (Cleve Hts Law Department) is 216 291-5775.

All righty Wise!
Here's your chance to get the other side of the story!

Thanks for keeping us up to date on this, soon2be. When things like this happen, we cannot afford to pretend they don't. That is how the exception becomes the rule.

Sky, I'm sure that an intelligent thoughtful feller such as yourself must realize that there's a huge difference between actually knowing what had really happened at the time Fisher was arrested and what a particular biased source is reporting about it. You surely can't claim that the cited source in the thread starter is unbiased and neutral about all of this. The only thing significant about you and some others automatically buying into the source's story without getting any corroboration from a mainstream source is that it's not significant!

True, but then isn't this then true of virtually everything ever reported?
That there is no truth, except that which you personally witness?

That to me, doesn't seem reasonable.
What does seem reasonable is to realize the limitations, be educated and informed,
then make your best assessment based on the information at hand!

Or like most scientists, make an educated guess! The more you're educated, the better the guess!



So, do we believe this story strictly as bonified truth?
Just as much as we accept any story, when we're educated and informed.
In this case it rings true, based on our collective education and information.
You don't seem to believe this story, and that, for you, must be based on your education and information.
My education and informations says you are mistaken. Yours says the same of me.

Welcome to America!

Nobody said that nothing happened in Fisher's case. Obviously something did. What is in dispute is what actually happened. You asked me to tell you what did happen. I merely replied that I didn't know and neither did you cuz you and I weren't there. If you somehow took that to mean that I was telling you to "shut up", you must have a thinner skin than I gave you credit for.


That's cuz I'm such a sweetheart of a guy!

Sky, very well put. I can't argue much about what you said except for one thing. I say that it's our obligation, maybe even our duty, as informed Americans to gather all the info we can, from as many different sources as possible before we come to a 100% etched-in-stone conclusion about the stories and issues that we read about. I never rely on just one source to give me the facts on a particular story. There are so many damn resources available out there that it doesn't make any sense to ignore them and rely only on a single source to form an opinion. After all, isn't that why God invented Google in the first place?

Oh, like the bush administration did before invading Iraq...

Who would have believed Abu Ghraib without the photos? Bush's motivation to invade Iraq without substantive leaks and the Downing St memo? New Orleans without video? PNAC ? Reports of this incident might or might not turn out to be completely accurate sweetheart but it's pretty obvious there's a whole lotta unbelievable shit happening.

I would agree with you too, except I don't buy the 100 % etched in stone argument.
First, nothing is 100%, There's always more information!
and second, it sounds like a major cop out!


"can't talk about it right now, it's an investigation still underway."

Sky, I'm talking about narrow-minded people who read one story from one source and instantly have their minds made up about it. They don't bother to check it out any further cuz it's what they wanted to hear and it fits their biases and ideology. To people like that, it definitely is a 100% etched-in-stone thing.

Oh, like the bush administration did before invading Iraq. I get it now.