Tony Alacantara adds his first-hand account of being arrested.
Tony Alacantara's letter Sun, 16 Feb 2003
alcantaratony@yahoo.com

Hello friends,
Diana and I were both arrested in Colorado Springs. We watched riot police tear gas and pepper spray nonviolent citizens exercising their alleged first amendment right topeacefully assemble. We traveled to the Springs, the belly of the far right beast, the land of Cheyenne Mountain, Peterson Air Force Base, Lockheed Martin, Focus on theFamily, and the Air
Force Academy, to express our discontent with our country�s path to war. About 3 thousand people waving anti-war signs spread out along both sides of a � mile stretch of Academy Boulevard. Many of the passing motorists ignored us, many honked and supported us with thumbs up and cheering, and a few, a very few, flipped us the finger andshouted things like, We should drop a big one on the them all. The police themselves eventually closed off both ends of the road so that traffic could not pass through. At first I thought this was to prevent our passing fellow citizens from hearing our message. In retrospect, I think the closing of the street had a very different purpose. Once the traffic stopped, in swept twenty or thirty fully clad riot police: shields, batons, strings of handcuffs, tear gas, rubber bullets, attack dogs, pepper spray. The whole arsenal of democracy.

Once they closed the street, the protesters left the sidewalk and entered the street. The riot police deployed at the head of the crowd and started sweeping forward. IF YOU DONOT LEAVE THE STREET, YOU WILL BE ARRESTED. We left the street. We all left the street and once again lined up along the sidewalk. The police arrayed themselves in battle formation, shields held high, straddle-legged, fists coming together in rhythmic bravado. After a few minutes, the word came and the gas masks left their plastic bags. The next 10 minutes were calm, demonstrators on the sidewalk, the brave blue firmly holding the street. The peace marshals came alongside the demonstrators
and suggested we leave the scene and move to the Air Force Base where a civil disobedience action was planned. It seemed like a good idea to me, so I, and most everybody else, started walking. As the crowd dispersed, the police followed along. After I walked about 400 yards I turned to see clouds of tear gas.

As I walked back to the mess, I came upon the mother of one of my algebra students. I gave her water to flush the gas from her red and burning eyes. She told me that the people were leaving the scene when the police just started rolling tear gas canisters down the street. A large man, coming from the chemical fog, walked past me carrying his 4-month old baby. I
left my friend and walked closer to the scene. I stood at the edge of Palmer Park, the starting point for the whole rally. I stood there and watched the police driving people across a field and onto a sidewalk in front of some small houses. As the people proceeded in my direction along the sidewalk, police walking along in the street repeatedly stepped up onto
the sidewalk spraying pepper spray in people's faces. When the police arrived at the street, 15 feet in front of me, they stopped. The people they were following turned the corner and walked away up the hill.

For the next 5 minutes, I just stood there surrounded by 20 riot police all wearing gas masks. Then the
word came to sweep the park and remove all persons. All, meant the twenty or so people spread out across 4 or 5 acres. Most of the police swept right past me but one came over. He told me that I needed to leave the park or I would be arrested.I asked him to tell me which law that I was breaking. He said the assembly was declared
unlawful and therefore I must disperse. I told him that I would leave but I wanted to ask whether he
truly believed that what he was doing was correct. He hesitated, stumbled a bit, and said yes. I was not
convinced. He told me that he was following orders. I responded that orders have been followed many times in the past, and they have not always been right. As I left, I asked him to be kind to people. He said he would. I believed him.

I found Diana and my friend Walt and we left. We drove over to Peterson Air Force Base where a civil disobedience action had been planned. The 10 participants were planning to stand in front of the entrance and block the gates knowing that they would be arrested. By the time we arrived at the base, the action was over and the ten arrested. We were hungry so we went into a sandwich shop located in a strip mall just outside the base. I ordered a sandwich and
sat down and took a bite. The owner of the place, an old Chinese woman, started calling from the front door to her husband. She was yelling in Chinese but from the tone I realized something important was happening outside. I went out the front door and immediately a group of ten police officers charged up. �YOU WERE GIVEN AN ORDER TO DISPERSE AND YOU MUST LEAVE NOW OR YOU WILL BE ARRESTED! I said that I had not been given an order to disperse as I was just inside eating
a sandwich and I had just come out to see what was happening. ARREST HER; ARREST HIM. That was it. Within 10 seconds of leaving the restaurant I was in police custody. 30 seconds later I was in handcuffs and in the back of police car. Diana was put into another car and we were taken to separate locations. Over the next few hours I heard the stories of the other 21 people who were arrested. (I am # 22 as it says quite clearly in bold blue ink on my right hand) Diana watched an officer pepper spray a man in the face as he was trying to enter his car to comply with the dispersal order. Two officers grabbed another man as he was about to enter the Dairy Queen. Another woman was pulled from the front seat of her van. A mutual friend, a retired 68-year old man, was arrested because he was told to walk away and not look back. He looked back.

After a couple of hours the whole thing came to a close. They took our pictures but not our prints. I never heard anything about my rights. Does Miranda still exist?