Jailed for Being on a List
Rothschild, Matthew
Ken Krayeske, a freelance journalist and political activist in Connecticut, went to Governor Jodi Rell’s inaugural parade on January 3. While taking photographs there, he was arrested for...
...We cannot permit the rights of individuals to be trampled...
...He had already taken a lot of photographs, and at no point did anybody show any alarm...
...He dumped the bicycle and ran up to the parade procession directly up to where the governor was passing,” she says...
...On the trail, Krayeske raised a stink with Rell about her decision not to debate Thornton...
...Representative Lawlor says he plans on holding hearings and possibly introducing legislation to exercise oversight on how the state police deals with threats of civil disobedience and how it compiles its lists...
...Ken Krayeske, a freelance journalist and political activist in Connecticut, went to Governor Jodi Rell’s inaugural parade on January 3. While taking photographs there, he was arrested for breaching the peace and interfering with an officer...
...Lawlor believes law enforcement “got a little carried away...
...We’re not in the business of arresting protesters,” says Nancy Mulroy, spokeswoman for the Hartford police...
...This really, really sucked,” he wrote on January 5 on his website, www.the40yearplan.com...
...In this environment of heightened security, the use of information must be balanced with the individual rights of our citizens,” Rell said...
...It’s a case of someone being singled out for political reasons...
...If you were a cop attending this briefing,” he says, “you would have thought, ‘Wow, this guy must be dangerous.’ You’d think this guy was an assassin, or something...
...We’re in the business of protecting and preserving the peace...
...He was jailed for thirteen hours and slapped with a $75,000 bond, which was later lifted...
...A pretrial conference has been set for March...
...The police are “making it up as they go along,” says Pattis...
...It’s inexcusable,” says Connecticut Representative Mike Lawlor, head of the state’s House Judiciary Committee...
...The mayor of Hartford, Eddie Perez, as well as Governor Rell herself, have asked for an inquiry into Krayeske’s arrest...
...That is really all that I can say at this point about the situation at the parade...
...I am a professional photographer...
...He’s never articulated a threat to do bodily harm to anyone...
...In the post 9/11 era, with all the anti-terror money, and with state police and local police working together, you can see the possibilities there to overreact,” he says...
...In the judgment of officers, based on the history of this individual, and after a briefing by state police earlier in the day, he was taken into custody and charged with breach of peace and interfering with police...
...He did openly discuss going to her inaugural ball to protest, but that is protected political speech...
...According to Mulroy, here is what happened...
...The fact that he was on some list and that he was arrested just for taking photographs is chilling in the extreme...
...We stand by that...
...He was the campaign manager for Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton, who ran against Rell...
...One last thing, in the interest of full disclosure: The Progressive magazine paid some of Krayeske’s expenses for a reporting trip he took to Syria in 2005...
...They even had photographs of him...
...Even more disturbing to civil libertarians in Connecticut, the state police and the Hartford police evidently had a list of people who might disrupt the inauguration, and Krayeske’s name was on it...
...And back in 2003, Krayeske was arrested for criminal trespass at an anti-war rally at a U.S...
...I am really not at liberty to discuss the particulars of the case,” Krayeske tells me...
...I’m shocked by this,” says his lawyer, Norman A. Pattis...
...Treasury building...
...Officers observed him riding a mountain bike at a high rate of speed directly up to the parade route...
...We’re not in the business of arresting journalists...
...On January 30, Krayeske appeared in court and entered a plea of not guilty...
...I shoot with $6,000 worth of digital equipment, and on the day of the inaugural parade, I was shooting with that camera outfit...
...There was no probable cause...
...Here is some background on Krayeske...
Vol. 71 • March 2007 • No. 3
