At that point, Biren-Wright, according to the complaint, "placed herself outside the immediate area . . . so as not to interfere with the police activity." She continued to photograph and report on the demonstration. The complaint charges that Lt. Konczyk, "without just cause or legal justification," directed several officers to arrest her, walking past several protestors and counter-demonstrators. She says she told the officers she was a member of the press. At no time, she says, did she participate as a demonstrator nor verbally or physically threaten anyone. The officers, says Biren-Wright, arrested her without any warning. The arresting officer's "degree of anger--he was clearly red-faced--was inappropriate," she recalls. The police, says Biren-Wright, "were clearly targeting me, trying to keep me from recording the demonstration and their reactions."
One officer, says Biren-Wright, "unnecessarily twisted my arm." Another officer seized her camera and personal items. One of the officers put plastic cuffs on her wrists "so tight that it caused significant pain, swelling and bruising, and an injury that lasted for several weeks," according to the complaint.
Biren-Wright's 15-year-old daughter was shopping in the mall during the protest, but had reunited with her mother shortly before the arrests. Her daughter, says Biren-Wright, "came closer upon the arrest and I told the officer she was my daughter and a minor and would be alone." The officer, says Biren-Wright, snapped, "You should have thought of that before." At the processing center that police had previously set up at the mall, Biren-Wright told several officers that he r daughter was alone in the mall and was from out of state. "None of them did anything to ensure her safety," she says. The daughter, unsupervised, eventually found Rob Kall, OpEdNews editor, who drove her to the jail to take her mother's keys and then drove her home, where she spent the night alone.
Outside the mall, counter-protestors shouted obscenities as those arrested boarded the police bus. "They were standing at the door to the bus," says Biren-Wright, "and posed a safety issue to us since we were in handcuffs."
The six who were arrested and Biren-Wright were initially taken to the 15th District jail. Richie Marini, the lone male arrested, was kept at the district jail. The six women were transferred to the jail at the jail of the Philadelphia Police headquarters, known by locals as the "Roundhouse," where a nurse took each woman's vital signs and asked if there were any injuries. "I showed him my wrist and thumb that were already red and swollen" from the restrictive handcuffs, says Biren-Wright. His response, she says, was "That doesn't count."
Biren-Wright, along with the other five women, was held for 14 hours. At 5 a.m., she says, they were released from the "Roundhouse" onto a dark and barren street--there were no taxis anywhere near--and locked out of the police station. Although the women had cell phones, they had not been allowed to call for rides while in the jail area. Outside, they called friends, but waited until help arrived. Marini was released from the district jail later that morning.
The only reason Biren-Wright's pictures of the demonstration survived is because she had secretly removed the memory chip during the arrest. When the camera was finally returned, "all of the settings were messed up and the lens was not replaced properly."
The Army closed the AEC at the end of the pilot program. It had claimed that because of increased enlistments nationwide, the Center was no longer needed. It never acknowledged that the protestors and the public reaction may have been a reason for the closing.
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