Metro says questions on Bush protest not ‘sinister’

Jace Radke

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:12 a.m.

A coordinator of today's protest during President Bush's visit to Las Vegas said she felt intimidated by a call from Metro Police asking about the protest.

Peggy Maize Johnson, executive director of Citizen Alert, said she understands the need to cooperate with police, but that some of the questions she was asked during a phone conversation last week concerned her.

"I get that they need to know how many people we're going to have for crowd control, but then they started asking me the names of groups involved, and that kind of rocked me back because why do they need to know that?" Johnson said. "What I don't get is trying to intimidate and that's the feeling I had."

Metro Police Homeland Security Capt. Mike McLary said that the questions were routine.

"Whenever we have protests we want to know how many people are going to be out there, so we know how many officers we need," McLary said. "Our goal is to make sure that everyone can express their First Amendment rights in a safe environment.

"Sure, we want to have an idea of who's going to be out there, but I don't see anything sinister" in asking those questions.

About 100 demonstrators were expected at the rally scheduled to take place in front of The Venetian, where Bush was scheduled to attend a fund-raising luncheon.

Johnson, whose group is against the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository supported by Bush, said she had called Metro to let them know about the planned protest on the advice of Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada.

After making the call to Metro on Nov. 18, Johnson said she received a call the next day from Detective Christine Payson, who works in Metro's homeland security unit.

Johnson said she was told by Payson that federal authorities were concerned because "radical" demonstrators connected with the environmental movement sometimes engage in practices such as torching sport utility vehicles.

Peck said that the questions asked of Johnson seem to be consistent with the information found in a classified FBI intelligence memorandum first obtained by The New York Times that gives police detailed instructions on how to target and monitor lawful political demonstrations to fight terrorism.

FBI officials told The Times in an article published Sunday that the intelligence was aimed at identifying anarchists and those plotting violence, not monitoring political speeches of law-abiding protesters.

Peck called the memo another example of a "creeping Big Brother" that is gaining strength under the guise of fighting terrorism.

"There is a difference between benign questions asked out of the desire to see how many people will be at an event, so it can be properly policed, and inquiries designed to probe into who is out there protesting and what their politics are," Peck said.