and the traumatizers are all wrong. The protesters are claiming their first
amendment rights are being denied with the armed camp that's being set up in
downtown. The City's fortifiers suggest that safety and protection of property
should be the primary focus. And the traumatizers -- those City Council members
who can't stop talking about how traumatized we all are -- say "The
Enterprise's" concern should be on healing. No, no, and no. They're all wrong.
When the state puts someone on trial, threatening to take away that person's
liberty, the prime directive should be a fair trial. If your free speech
rights, if your fears of social unrest, if your distress about traumatization
and re-traumatization creates an environment not conducive to a free trial,
those rights, those fears, and that distress should be put aside.
That's why the barriers, the fences, and the concertina wire downtown are
troubling. Not because protesting sites might be curtailed, not because some
elected officials think it's going to traumatize us, but because it could have
an effect on judicial fairness, in particular on the jurors. What are they to
think of the defendant when they see how dangerous this trial is? What are they
to think of their verdict when they are so visibly told the effect it might
have?
The protesters, fortifiers, and traumatizers have all missed the boat. Trials
are about fairness, and fairness is almost impossible in the security
atmosphere that has been constructed in downtown Minneapolis.
Chuck Turchick
Phillips