Deputy tackles, arrests journalist for photographing voters

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If you think we are not living on the verge of a police fascist state,

you better think again.

 

 

 

 

Deputy tackles, arrests journalist for photographing voters

By Jane Daugherty

 

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

 

Monday, November 01, 2004

 

A widely published investigative journalist was tackled, punched and

arrested Sunday afternoon by a Palm Beach County sheriff's deputy who

tried to confiscate his camera outside the elections supervisor's

headquarters.

 

About 600 people were standing in line waiting to vote early when

James S. Henry was charged with disorderly conduct for taking photos

of waiting voters about 3:30 p.m. outside the main elections office on

Military Trail near West Palm Beach.

 

 

A sheriff's spokesman and a county attorney later said the deputy was

enforcing a newly enacted rule from Elections Supervisor Theresa

LePore prohibiting reporters from interviewing or photographing voters

lined up outside the polls.

 

But the arrest drew expressions of outrage from a leading Florida

civil liberties expert — and even from one of LePore's fellow county

election supervisors.

 

When Deputy Al Cinque tried to grab Henry's camera, Henry ran about

100 feet across the pavement on the side of the elections office

before he was tackled by the deputy.

 

Cinque yelled at Henry, " Hold still, stop moving, " after he pinned

Henry on the pavement, punched him in the back and grabbed Henry's

left arm to put a handcuff on his wrist.

 

Cinque then jerked Henry, 54, to his feet by his left arm and slammed

his body against a parked car, where the deputy punched him again as

Henry tried to hand him identification cards that were later found on

the pavement.

 

A widely published free-lance journalist, as well as a

Harvard-educated lawyer and economist, Henry has written for The New

York Times, The Washington Post, U.S. News and World Report and The

New Republic.

 

According to his Web site, www.submergingmarkets.com, he is working on

" an election-year book, due out this fall, that explores how the U.S.

is falling behind the rest of the democratic world, including

countries like Brazil and South Africa, with respect to the practice

of electoral democracy. "

 

Asked why Henry was being arrested, Cinque said, " You're not allowed

to take pictures of voters. "

 

Henry repeatedly told the deputy: " I'm a journalist. I'm a journalist

doing my job. "

 

A Palm Beach Post reporter and British journalist Marcus Warren, of

the London Daily Telegraph, witnessed Henry's arrest. So did dozens of

waiting voters.

 

Sheriff's spokesman Paul Miller said that before being transported to

the Palm Beach County Jail, Henry was examined by paramedics when he

complained of shoulder pain. Henry has been charged with disorderly

conduct and resisting arrest without violence, Miller said.

 

" We're not going to let anyone interfere with the orderly conduct of

the elections process here, " Miller said.

 

LePore refused to come to the main desk of elections headquarters to

comment on the arrest. She did not return later calls for comment.

 

One of LePore's peers, Leon County Elections Supervisor Ion Sancho,

called restricting reporters and photographers on public sidewalks

outside polling places " an outrage. I'm shocked. The First Amendment

right to be there is absolute.

 

" Outside our early voting place we had Japanese journalists, the BBC,

all kinds of reporters and photographers, " added Sancho, who is based

in Tallahassee. " It's a public place, a public sidewalk. There is no

statute, no law that can take away your right to talk to someone who

is willing on a public sidewalk as long as no one is obstructing or

interfering. "

 

Howard Simon, executive director of the Florida chapter of the

American Civil Liberties Union, also called Henry's arrest an outrage.

" Where did Theresa LePore get the authority to criminalize activities

protected by the First Amendment? "

 

Henry was one of the original " Nader's raiders " who worked decades ago

with consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and was vice president for

strategy for IBM/Lotus before he founded the Long Island-based Sag

Harbor Group, a consulting firm that focuses on technology strategy.

He has continued his investigative reporting career at the same time,

in 2004 publishing The Blood Bankers, a book reporting on " dirty

banking " in developing countries. The book includes an introduction

from former U.S. Sen. Bill Bradley.

 

The Rev. George Wilson, a Presbyterian minister from Long Island,

N.Y., who accompanied Henry to West Palm Beach Sunday morning, said

Henry was interested in touch-screen voting in Palm Beach County and

had arrived to observe the process.

 

" We flew down this morning, " Wilson said. " I can't believe they're

treating him this way. He was just standing there taking pictures.

 

" When did taking photographs outside in a public place become a crime? "

 

Wilson retrieved Henry's Minolta camera with a large lens from the top

of the trunk of the parked car after Henry was put in a sheriff's car.

 

Assistant Palm Beach County Attorney Leon St. John, who represents the

elections supervisor, said Henry had been charged with disorderly

conduct, a misdemeanor, based on LePore's instructions to deputies.

 

He said the charge against Henry was based on new rules LePore

implemented Friday, prohibiting reporters from talking to or

photographing voters while they are in line outside the polls. He said

she made the rule as the result of " numerous complaints by voters

about being photographed and interviewed. "

 

However, The Post and other newspapers and television stations had

previously interviewed and photographed voters in line without

incident since early voting began Oct. 18. LePore did not mention any

new restrictions on interviews and photographs during a meeting with

news media representatives Friday.

 

As for Henry, St. John said: " From what I understand, this man (Henry)

was taking photos of people in line close up. He was ordered by the

deputy to stop and to move to the media tent...

 

" He said something inappropriate to the deputy, like 'screw you,' then

took a picture of the deputy. He then took off running and tripped and

fell in the parking lot. "

 

In fact, Cinque tackled Henry in the parking lot a few feet from a

Post reporter and Warren, the British journalist.

 

" That's not what the deputy told me, " St. John said.

 

LePore spokesman Marty Rogol described Henry as " a so-called

investigative reporter who gave people phony credentials. "

 

Told that Henry had been published in The New York Times, The

Washington Post and other publications, Rogol said Henry had presented

" Xeroxed credentials that looked phony and were not accepted " by the

deputy who arrested him.

 

Late Sunday, Miller said Henry " will probably spend the night in

jail. " He was still there late Sunday night on $500 bail.