Bush 'chain gang' attacked in Memphis; Protesters claim police ignored street scuffle
Miriam Raftery
Published:
Wednesday January 17, 2007
 MEMPHIS – Memphis police officers observed an attack on anti-Bush protesters but drove away and failed to intervene, two activists who were on the scene told RAW STORY.
"We were down on Beale Street late on Friday night [January 12]," said Barbara Cummings, a peace activist with the Backbone Campaign, self-described as "a grassroots effort to embolden citizens and elected officials to stand up for progressive values." Cummings, a grandmother from Spring Valley, California, had come to Memphis to attend the Free Press National Media Reform Conference, but believes her own free speech was curtailed while in attendance.
As of yet, no report has been filed; a police department spokesman said they cannot investigate the charge without a report.
The Backbone Campaign had staged a march down Beale Street, the musical heart of Memphis, which included individuals representing President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, but clad in prisoners’ garb. Another member accompanied the marchers, while reading aloud a list of war crimes allegedly committed by the Bush Administration.
At first, Cummings recalled, "we were very well received. People were smiling, taking pictures, and saying 'Thank you.' In the second block, we had a veteran in a wheelchair guiding us. I sensed rather than heard something going on. I couldn’t get the mask off at first."
Cummings continued, "I saw arms and legs everywhere. Some guy came out of a bar and had blindsided us. He hit two members in the back of the head." One of the protesters took off his mask and struck back at his assailant, she noted.
"Then some bouncers came out of a bar and there was a melee." Finally pulling off her mask, she said she saw "legs and arms flying everywhere."
According to Cummings and another demonstrator interviewed by RAW STORY, a Memphis Police car was parked at the end of the street, from which officers should have been able to observe the frantic scene. But, Cummings claimed, "the Memphis Police officers took one look and drove away."
Lori Perdue of Mooresville, Illinois, confirmed Cummings’ account. "What happened to 'protect and serve?' These officers did not protect or serve.'"
Perdue, a former US military information officer and current member of Veterans for Peace, acted as a guide during the march, since the large masks can restrict the vision of the marchers. While serving in Diyabakir, Turkey as a 19-year-old military public affairs officer, Perdue told RAW STORY that she had witnessed Kurdish people fleeing from Iraq when Saddam Hussein gassed the Kurds.
"I’ve carried the memory all of my life of women running up to us, pleading 'Please, please help me,'" she said. "They made us turn our cameras off and our military did nothing." Perdue faults the US government for failing to tell the public the truth about events in Iraq, both then and now.
According to both activists, after the Memphis police officers left, the scuffle concluded and the protesters walked away. However, a young Iraq war veteran, who "had obviously been drinking and was very emotional," then confronted the group.
"Why are you doing this to our President?" the veteran asked. "You don’t understand what we’ve been through and what we’ve done."
He then reportedly told the protesters that he harbored doubts about the President’s role in the 9-11 terror attacks.
"What if he did it?" the vet asked rhetorically, according to Cummings, a long-time peace activist who volunteers at military hospitals to assist wounded soldiers. "But he’s still the Commander in Chief. We thought we were killing Iraqis to protect you.’"
Cummings added, "He was crying and incoherent. We said 'We love you and support the troops. We’ve had many young Iraq veterans who are our friends.'"
"I’m still active duty and I don’t know what to do," the young men reportedly told the activists.
Cummings added, "We tried to hug him, but he pushed us away.'"
The protesters put their masks back on to resume their march. But, then, Cummings recalled, "another guy hit me in the back of the head. I pulled off my mask and he said 'I didn’t know you were a lady.'"
The protesters donned masks a final time to accommodate bystanders with cameras who wanted to photograph the costumed foursome, according to Purdue. She faulted the Memphis Police for leaving the scene without investigating the first attack and for failing to enforce the peace during the remainder of the protest.
"To abandon us on Beale Street at midnight was wrong," said Purdue, who found it ironic that her reason for being in Memphis was to attend a conference devoted to protecting free speech in the media. "We have a right to free speech," Purdue continued, "and that’s what the police should protect."
Over the past three years, the group has held demonstrations around the country using four sets of Bush "chain gang" puppets. According to Cummings, this was the first time the group had ever been violently attacked.
Sergeant Vince Higgins, public information officer with the Memphis Police Department, told RAW STORY that the victims should report the alleged attack. "My first priority is to make sure that the public is protected,” said Higgins, who pledged to document and investigate the complaints if a police report is filed.
"If there is a current complaint against a Memphis Police Department officer, that, too, must be investigated," Higgins pledged. "It would be dereliction of duty, at the very least, if they witnessed a crime and did not investigate it."
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