|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
|
||||
|
|
|||
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|
|
Also this issue: Lethal Logic The Big Stink Paper Rail The Bell Curve Who's on Second? |
|
|
|
|
 |
|||||||||
July 18-24, 2002
guvwatch
It’s tough enough working for the Green Party. There are only a few coins rattling around in the campaign coffers, there’s no huge staff or army of volunteers, and not much in the way of job security. The Greens have to scrape and scuffle for every vote, every contribution and every word of press coverage, just to work themselves into the position of being called a long shot. So when Green Party gubernatorial candidate Mike Morrill’s right-hand man Eric Prindle was hauled away by police in Harrisburg two Saturdays ago while gathering petitions at a public park, Prindle and Morrill not only took offense, they made as much political hay out of the incident as they could.
Prindle and a few other volunteers were gathering signatures for Morrill's nominating petitions on July 6 at Harrisburg's Riverfront Park. During the American Music Fest, a public event in the park, Prindle was making the Green pitch to passersby when a Harrisburg police officer approached him and told him that he couldn't gather signatures during the event. Prindle says he explained to the officer that he had a constitutional right to gather the signatures on a public sidewalk and continued his mission. The next thing he knew, Prindle says, he was in handcuffs and on his way to the police station.
Prindle says proof that the police knew they were wrong is evident in the fact that he was never charged with a crime and was released after just 30 minutes.
"I was gathering petitions lawfully, and was nowhere near the event, just asking people to sign as they passed by on the sidewalk. When the police took me to the station, they asked me questions, checked my ID and, after about a half-hour, someone just walked in and said I could go. To this day I've never been charged with anything."
Calls to Harrisburg police and city officials for comment hadn't been returned by press time.
Prindle says that after he was released, he sat down at a nearby outdoor cafe and began making calls to the press. The Morrill camp immediately issued a press release denouncing Prindle's brief detainment.
"I am outraged," Morrill declares in the press statement. "We should be celebrating our democracy, not inhibiting it. They can throw us in jail but we will not be intimidated."
The missive goes on to demand that Morrill's challengers for the governor's mansion, Democrat Ed Rendell and Republican Mike Fisher, denounce Prindle's arrest.
Dan Fee, Rendell's spokesperson, lacks Morrill's sense of righteous indignation.
"If he [Prindle] didn't do anything wrong, he shouldn't have been arrested," says Fee, "but that's something Morrill's people should take up with the authorities. We have no comment on it."
Kevin Harley, Fee's opposite number in the Fisher camp, says he'll reserve comment until he's had a chance to research the story.
In other Green Party news, in case you hadn't heard, the Green Party's national convention will be held in Philadelphia this weekend at various venues around town. Speakers will include Morrill and Green Party poster boy Ralph Nader. For more information, call the Green Party at 866-41-GREEN or visit its website, www.greenpartyus.org.
