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Taking note . . .

Observations about public affairs in the nation’s capital
by the editor of The Common Denominator

SIGN OF THE TIMES? The nation’s capital is fast becoming known as a place where law enforcement officers make up the rules as they go along, for the sake of expediency, without regard for the supreme law of the land. Four years ago, it was the Metropolitan Police Department corralling and arresting peaceful protesters in downtown Washington. Earlier this year, the U.S. Capitol Police got into the act by harassing tourists and journalists for taking photographs on public streets. Last week, Amtrak Police joined the ranks of local storm troopers by arresting civic activist Debby Hanrahan for having the audacity to hold up a sign at a public rally in the main hall of Union Station.

Hanrahan displayed the sign, opposing public financing for a new baseball stadium, during a Nov. 22 rally to which the public was invited to help celebrate the renaming of the Montreal Expos as the "Washington Nationals." Hanrahan says she enthusiastically supports the return of a professional baseball team to the nation’s capital, after a 33-year absence, but simply wants the team’s owners to pay their fair share of business expenses.

Hanrahan, like the other citizens who have been needlessly hassled in recent years for exercising their First Amendment rights in a city that is supposed to be front-and-center in the worldwide fight to defend freedom, was told by Amtrak Police that she had broken the rules.

But what are the rules that are being broken? Who is making these new rules for public behavior in public places and then forgetting to inform the public that they are expected to abide by them? And what is the feared consequence if the public is permitted to freely exercise rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights?

One clear consequence of what happened to Hanrahan in the past week is that the longtime Dupont Circle resident won’t be helping to make those cash registers ring at Union Station shops during this holiday season. Hanrahan is under court order to stay away from Union Station while awaiting her Dec. 17 trial in D.C. Superior Court on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful entry (a charge, by the way, that seems not to fit her "crime").

Another anti-stadium activist, who loudly disrupted the start of the same Major League Baseball rally from which Hanrahan was removed, was temporarily detained but not arrested. The scene of about half a dozen men (including D.C. City Councilman Harold Brazil) pouncing on and hustling away a shouting Adam Eidinger from the podium has been replayed countless times on television newscasts. Eidinger also was holding a sign.

By arresting Hanrahan, were the Amtrak Police overcompensating for their failure to prevent the earlier disruption? Or were they just making up the rules as they went along?

Copyright 2004, The Common Denominator