FC: Philly cops dub Palm Pilot and cellphone "instruments of crime"

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

I can readily believe the below story. The Philadelphia police department 
was -- after the first day's civil disobedience -- rounding up everyone 
they thought was a ringleader or had a radio and looked suspicious.

Also see a 2600 Magazine article about their staff member being arrested:
http://www.2600.com/news/2000/0805.html
And:
http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/gop-convention-protests.html
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,38044,00.html

-Declan

*********

Date: Mon, 07 Aug 2000 12:14:40 -0700
To: declan@well.com, [snip]
From: Brian Smith <bsmith@earthjustice.org>
Subject: palm and cell as "instruments of crime" at Republican convention

Hey Guys,

Check out paragraph 3. Cell phone and palm pilot are now "instruments of 
crime"  when used by activists. How about when used by CEOs of say, Shell Oil?

_______________________________________

$1 Million Bail Ordered For Protesters
Berkeley-based activist allegedly led `mayhem'
Janet Wells, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, August 5, 2000
©2000 San Francisco Chronicle
URL: 
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2000/08/05/MN57473.DTL 


A Bay Area activist is being held in a Philadelphia jail on $1 million bail 
after being accused of masterminding protests against the Republican 
National Convention.

John Sellers was arrested Wednesday, after Philadelphia police identified 
him for what they said were actions Tuesday evening. Sellers was charged 
with numerous misdemeanors, including conspiracy, possession of an 
instrument of crime, reckless endangerment and obstruction of justice.

He was armed only with a cell phone and a palm pilot when he was taken into 
custody.

``He facilitates the more radical elements to accomplish their objective of 
violence and mayhem,'' Philadelphia Assistant District Attorney Cindy 
Martelli said Thursday during Sellers' bail hearing in criminal court. ``He 
sets the groundwork. He sets the stage.''

Sellers' attorney called the bail ``intergalactic'' and unprecedented for 
the misdemeanor charges against Sellers, director of the Berkeley-based 
Ruckus Society, a group that trains activists in non- violent civil 
disobedience.

``It's a ridiculous, punitive, unconscionable pre-emption of his going to 
the rest of the Republican Convention, and the upcoming Democratic 
Convention,'' said attorney Larry Krasner, who is representing 33-year-old 
Sellers, as well as several other high- profile protesters arrested during 
the convention.

Sellers, a nationally known activist who was in Philadelphia three weeks 
before the convention to conduct one of the Ruckus Society's protest 
``training camps,'' grew up in the nearby town of Phoenixville, where his 
parents still live.

After the training camp, Sellers vacationed with his parents in North 
Carolina, and returned to Philadelphia with them last weekend, intending to 
participate in the convention protests only as an observer, Ruckus Society 
program director Han Shan said yesterday.

Shan dismissed the characterization of Sellers as a ringleader behind the 
protests.

``He's being given a whole lot more credit than he deserves as an 
instigator,'' Shan said. ``They are making him out to be something he's not.''

[...]