Anti-war protesters, ACLU meet over Bellagio incident

Stephen Curran

Thursday, March 24, 2005 | 8:57 a.m.

Members of an anti-war group who say they were harassed by Metro Police during a Saturday protest that ended outside the Bellagio met with an ACLU lawyer Wednesday.

Nine members of the loosely affiliated group were arrested for disturbing the peace and standing in a public roadway Saturday, Metro spokesman Jose Montoya said.

Montoya said officers tried to stop the protesters from running into the resort and into the street.

The number of those arrested was contradicted by protesters, who said officers arrested closer to 25 of the roughly 50 people who turned out against the war, Gary Peck, executive director of the Nevada ACLU, said Wednesday.

Exactly how many people were arrested or the circumstances surrounding their arrests could not be verified by this morning because Metro had not provided copies of the arrest reports requested Tuesday and Wednesday.

Protesters had contacted the ACLU on Monday. Nevada ACLU attorney Allen Lichtenstein met with about 20 protesters Wednesday evening, he told the Sun.

Group members showed Lichtenstein and Peck a video recording of the incident. The tapes were of "very mixed quality, but clearly show that the officer told them they needed a permit," Peck said.

The demonstrators told the ACLU that officers had abruptly stopped them from protesting on the sidewalk, saying they lacked the proper permits. The sidewalk is owned by Bellagio's parent corporation, MGM Mirage but functions as a public thoroughfare and thus the company cannot restrict peaceful protests there, a company spokeswoman said.

Montoya, when asked Monday, said he was unaware of any permits protesters would have needed to demonstrate on that sidewalk.

The images on the tapes had prompted Peck and ACLU to request copies of private security recordings from the Bellagio, which they say may provide additional clues as to what happened. The ACLU does not believe the Bellagio or MGM Mirage were involved in the incident, he said.

"It is pretty evident to me that the police overreacted," Peck said. "It was the police that precipitated any tensions or conflicts that may have ensued. That's disappointing."

The next step, Lichtenstein said, will likely be to request that the charges against the protesters are dropped and that police use the event as a training tool for officers. There are no immediate plans to file a lawsuit or other legal action, he said.

Patricia van Betten, a 68-year-old retired nurse and anti-war protester, said she was abruptly told by a female Metro officer to "roll them (protest signs) up and leave; it's over" as the group was preparing to walk from the Bellagio to the Fashion Show mall.

Van Betten was carrying one sign that said "Who Would Jesus Cluster Bomb?" and another that read "Protect Third World Countries -- Close the School of the Americas," a reference to a U.S.-sponsored school that trains Latin American security personnel in combat and counterterrorism but has been accused of serving as a support system for brutal dictatorships in the region. Both signs were made by friends who could not make it to the protest, she said.

The Blue Diamond resident was not arrested, but she said it was her first negative experience with the department, which she had previously supported.

"I personally have never been what you would call harassed by Metro," Van Betten said. "I'm sure other people have stories, but I had never had an unpleasant experience (until Saturday).

"Who am I going to harm? If this is how they treated me, do I have to be grateful I'm caucasian and elderly? How do they treat the blacks or the Hispanics? Or the poor in general?"

Others, including Las Vegas resident and protester Dorothy Turner, said "infiltrators" had approached the march and were yelling racial epithets before Metro arrived.

According to an e-mail sent to the Sun, Turner heard individuals who had approached the group yelling "Americans shouldn't be fighting a war for the damn Jews" before spitting in hers' and other protesters' faces. When Turner and others approached Metro officers with their complaints, they were told to shut up, she said.

"Not once did we feel that the proper protocol was followed for taking a citizen complaint," she wrote. "There were no note pads. Not once were we asked our name, address or telephone numbers, and then we were finally told to move on."

It's enough to make van Betten, who said she has marched in anti-war demonstrations since the Vietnam War, question her earlier support for the police department, but not enough to make her question her role in the anti-war movement.

"If we had the energy to have a peace rally every day we would," she said.