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D.C. Socialist Workers 1998 Campaign Committee

1930 18th St., NW, #3, Washington, D.C. 20009
Phone: (202) 387-2185 • Fax: (202) 387-2178 • Email: 75407.3345@compuserve.com

Sam Manuel for Mayor Mary Martin for Delegate to the House
Olympia Newton for Council at-large Brian Williams for Council chairman

April 17, 1998

Socialist Workers mayoral candidate Sam Manuel condemns infringement on right of his supporters to distribute campaign material on public streets in Washington, D.C.

Requests meeting with Mayor Marion Barry to discuss ending cop harassment of Socialist Workers Party campaigners.

The following letter was sent April 16 to Mayor Marion Barry by Sam Manuel, Socialist Workers candidate for mayor of Washington, D.C.

Dear Mayor Barry,

I am the Socialist Workers candidate for Mayor in the upcoming municipal election. The Socialist Workers Party has fielded candidates and been on the ballot in every major election in this city over the past 30 years.

I am writing this letter to bring to your attention a serious violation of constitutional rights and interference with the election process, which occurred Wednesday, April 15. Two of my campaign supporters attempted to set up a campaign literature table with information from the campaign on a public sidewalk outside the Howard University dorms. Soon after they began distributing literature, a Wells Fargo Special Police Security Guard told them they could not do so and demanded they leave. Our campaign supporters showed the guard a letter from our 1997 campaign stating the opinion of the American Civil Liberties Union that we were within our right to campaign and distribute literature at this very location. The letter was based on consultation between the ACLU and Mr. Rico McGowan, an attorney for Howard University.

The security guard took the letter to show his superiors. A few minutes later, a Special Howard University Policewoman, C. L. Price, badge #198, came out and asserted that since the letter was from last year it was invalid. My campaigners explained that to our knowledge this location had not become a private street in 1998. Stepping beyond any acceptable bounds, officer Price then demanded that the campaigners not even distribute campaign literature or attempt to speak to students about our campaign. Price was soon joined by a third university security officer Capt. T. Parker. The presence and interference by three uniformed guards could only have a chilling effect upon this legal activity and free exchange of political views.

Two members of the DC Metropolitan Police, R. Foye, badge #447, and J. C. Reid, badge #2012, further aggravated this situation. Foye stated that he was in charge and ordered the campaigners to take down the literature table. He charged that they were soliciting without a vendors license. Among the materials distributed by our campaign are books and pamphlets explaining our political views including the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, Socialism and Man by Ernesto Che Guevara, and other speeches and writing by Fidel Castro, Maurice Bishop, V.I. Lenin, Thomas Sankara and other revolutionary leaders. Rights to free expression protect the distribution of these materials. Threatened with arrest by Foye, our campaigners complied with this infringement upon our constitutional rights.

This latest incident comes almost one year to the day of a similar infringement upon the rights of our campaign by police at this exact location. It also fits into a pattern of harassment by DC police officers. On May 10, 1997, officer F. Buentello, badge #578, forced campaigners to remove a table with political literature from the public sidewalk outside the Safeway supermarket in Adams Morgan. On June 8, 1997, officer L. Rosenberg, badge #3355, forced campaigners to remove a literature table from a public street at a Gay Pride event. And on March 1, 1998, officer F. M. Brooks, badge #279, forced campaigners to remove a literature table from the public sidewalk outside Giant supermarket at 9th and O streets.

We would like a meeting with you at the earliest possible date to resolve this matter.

Signed,
Sam Manuel
Socialist Workers candidate for Mayor of D.C.

Paid for by DC Socialist Workers 1998 Campaign Committee


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