This is Not a Game

Anti-casino activists prepare to go nuclear. With beach toys.

by Andrew Thompson

Andrew Thompson TRAINING DAY: Anti-casino protesters, with beach balls, at the proposed Foxwoods site. (CLICK IMAGE FOR LARGER VERSION)

On Saturday, members of Casino-Free Philadelphia walked to the proposed site of Foxwoods Casino on Columbus Boulevard, carrying beach balls, umbrellas, liquid bubbles and floaties. They stopped on the sidewalk in front of the gate at the site, and they played.

As some of the members impersonated police, asking the gatherers what they were doing and demanding they leave, and others acted as irritated union workers, also instructing the activists to move, Casino-Free members playfully tossed beach balls, and invited them to join in the fun.

Call it the protester's filibuster: When all else fails, chain yourself to a fence until you're either bulldozed or hauled off in handcuffs.

Casino-Free plans to use a lighthearted version of this tactic in the event that the Foxwoods or SugarHouse Casinos start construction on sites in Port Richmond or South Philly. Last weekend, they practiced swooping into construction sites with their summertime playthings, a "site reclamation" that would prevent the casinos from being built.

"Our goal is to show what should be done on a waterfront, which is to play and have parks," says Daniel Hunter, an organizer and spokesman for Casino-Free. He says hundreds of members have gone through similar training sessions.

It may well be months, if not years, before casino opponents even need to consider such a contingency. Casino construction is stuck in the muck of city committees, courts and legislatures. SugarHouse is currently fighting its 12th case in the Pennsylvania Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, opponents are amassing more political leverage. A report released Friday by Penn Praxis, a design agency commissioned to plan the waterfront, stated that the designs for the casinos would yield unsightly boxes at odds with the city's waterfront goals. It advised that they be relocated — a position shared by Mayor Nutter. What's more, state Sen. Vince Fumo and state Rep. Dwight Evans in July threatened to introduce legislation that would strip the casinos of tax breaks if they don't find different spots.

But SugarHouse and Foxwoods have declared they won't budge, and so Casino-Free set out preparing its jocular last-ditch effort. Ultimately, it might prove more of a gesture than a tactical maneuver. Capt. William Fisher of the Philadelphia Police Department Civil Affairs Unit told Saturday's organizers that if they trespassed or blocked driveways, they would simply be removed after three warnings. After that, construction would resume.

"I don't think a lot of these people realize that they're going to be arrested," he said.

But the Casino-Free members did realize it. George Lakey, a consultant to activist groups, worked with Casino-Free on Saturday and delineated steps to follow when under arrest: Protesters could, he said, be held for up to 72 hours, prosecuted for trespassing and face fines.

Lakey says the merrymaking protest isn't that uncommon and tends to work better than lying on the ground in front of a Caterpillar.

The only insight to be gained, then, was from the role-playing. Before heading to the Foxwoods site, Casino-Free members gathered at the Old Swedes' Church on Christian Street and held a pre-rehearsal rehearsal, playing different factions as they would later on the street.

They then sat down in a large circle. Lakey asked the faux police how they had felt.

"Everyone was smiling and laughing and I didn't want to arrest them," said one woman who played a police officer.

"The offering of ice cream really ticked me off," said a man. "I don't know if that's a good thing."

"I felt there was nothing anyone could say to me," said another, "that I was interested in hearing."

(editorial@citypaper.net)