Boss Hogtie
Hundreds of people wandered into Pershing Park on the morning of Sept. 27--activists looking for a protest, nurses in town for a conference, lawyers headed to work, and a cyclist training for a race. And there was Chief Charles Ramsey with his troops, ready to arrest them all.
Cover Story
By 2:25 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 28, lawyer Julie Abbate had arrived at D.C. Superior Court under the close watch of U.S. marshals. Once in the building, Abbate says, she was put up against a wall and patted down. The officers then told her to pull down her green slacks and underwear, squat, and cough. "I thought they were kidding," Abbate says. "They weren't." She felt stupid. "Every order I obeyed--even 'Take off your fucking pants and cough.'"
Orders to take off your pants and cough are standard operating procedure for processing an arrestee in D.C.
But standard procedure took on a new meaning in the mass sweep that corralled Abbate and more than 400 other innocent people in Pershing Park on Friday, Sept. 27. It was the first day of a protest that was supposed to shut the city down, spread the gospel of anti-globalization, and plead for a U.S. foreign policy based on peace and love.
Many bystanders, such as Abbate, wandered into the fray, unaware of the police department's protocol for handling civil demonstrations. She ended up being arrested that morning in Pershing Park, at 15th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW. The charge was failure to obey a police order, the same rap applied to her fellow arrestees. She spent five hours handcuffed on a bus. Eventually, she was hogtied wrist-to-ankle on the floor of the police academy's gym. That lasted for another 12 hours.... Continued 
Issue of Jan. 17 - 23, 2003
News and Features
- Boss Hogtie
Cover Story - Tour de Force
The City - Dog Pounds
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Music Review - Cabled Linear Traction
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Music Review - Ten Horns--Ten Diadems
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City Lights - Chuck Barris
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City Lights - Vienna: Lusthaus (revisited)
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City Lights - The Hidden Half: Iranian Women Directors
City Lights - Winter Kills
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