Protesters accuse Capitol police of 'pink profiling' Nick Juliano

Published: Tuesday December 4, 2007



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Print This Email This At pretty much any contentious Capitol Hill event nowadays, one can expect to see a gaggle of brightly garbed women filling seats along with the usual cadre of buttoned-down staffers, straight-laced lobbyists and disheveled journalists. The members of Code Pink -- mostly feisty middle-aged women -- have changed the dynamics on the Hill, and their stature has risen to the point where President Bush called out the group in a recent speech. The group has a habit of disrupting the proceedings when administration figures appear before Congress, although its members have recently set its sights on Democrats, who they say have been ineffectual in ending the war. "It isnt just for the hell of it we go to Congress and insert ourselves," Gael Murphy, a Washington, D.C., resident and CODEPINK co-founder told Roll Call for a Tuesday article. "Five years into the war we have extreme frustration because the Democrats are being so accommodating." All the shouting and sign waving has also drawn the attention of the Capitol Police, who Code Pink accuses of trying to silence its protests through "pink profiling," which includes asking members about court orders keeping them away from the Hill, kicking Code Pink members out of hearings without provocation and levying harsher charges against those protesters who come into contact with police. The Capitol Police deny charges that they treat Code Pink members differently than any other visitors to the Capitol. "We apply the applicable laws, and our officers act with discretion," Capitol Police Chief Phillip Morse told the newspaper. The Senate's Sergeant-At-Arms, Terrance Gainer, said he hadn't seen protesters mistreated as long as everyone understands "ground rules" governing "where signs and being vocal are permitted, and where they're not." The Code Pink protesters say those ground rules are difficult to decipher, and sometimes just wearing a pink shirt is enough to draw warnings from the Capitol Police. In more than 20 years of practice, I have never seen a long-term systematic campaign of this sort, Mark Goldstone, a lawyer who represents many CODEPINK members, told Roll Call. This is really new, and because of it the ground rules are shifting and enforceability is shifting. At a press conference last month, RAW STORY observed just how interested Capitol Hill police can become when Code Pink begins to gather. As 20 or so Code Pinkers gathered outside a Hill office where Rep. Dennis Kucincih (D-OH), a de-facto ally of the group, was to speak about his resolution aimed at impeaching Vice President Dick Cheney. The protesters were not disruptive -- indeed, they were there to praise Kucinich not criticize him -- and none apparently were arrested, but even Kucinich's aides could not explain the heavy police presence. As Roll Call notes, some lawmakers have intervened when they perceived police as going too far against the protesters. "In March, House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) went so far as to pay the $35 fine after Capitol Police arrested CODEPINK member and retired Army Col. Ann Wright after she left the hearing room," report Anna Palmer and Elizabeth Brotherton. "Conyers gaveled for Wright to be excused from the hearing, not arrested." The group also has subpoenaed Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Tom Lantos, after two Code Pink members were arrested at an appearance by Condoleeza Rice, who was accosted by another Code Pink protesters whose hands were covered in fake blood. Code Pink founder Medea Benjamin apparently was arrested for flashing a peace sign, so she subpoenaed Lantos to explain the committee's rules. Prosecutors then dropped the charges against her. The whole issue has been dropped, said Bob King, Lantos chief of staff.



