THE BLACK RAG Silver Spring, Md. December 26, 1982 Number Nineteen

POLICE GUN DOWN ANTI-NUKE PROTESTER AT MONUMENT

On December 8 an anti-nuclear activist named Norman Mayer, 66, was shot to death by police sharpshooters after threatening to dynamite the Washington Monumeat during a l0-hour atandoff with the cops, Acquaintances described Mayer as a drifting loner who narr fanatically charged writh a solo crusade to stop this madness - the spread of nuclear arms.

The Black Rag had talked to this man last August in front of the White House. No peace group in Washington was considered even satisfactory to Mayer then and he urgently insisted that a complete nuclear arms ban be the Number One Priority for all people, as doomsday could occur at any moment. He made and printed up thousands of fliers that he gave to folks on the street and mailed.

Mayer drove his van to the base of the Washington Monument and announced that it was filled with 1,000 pounds of TNT. He said he had a remote control device to detonate the explosives if his demands for a ban and a national dialougue on nuclear weapons were not met. He told all advancing cops to "get the hell out of here!" but did talk to AP reporter Steve Komarow.

Around 7:30 PM he started to move his van from the monument and was immediately hit by gunfire from Park pig marksmen who, with infrared nightscopes, would not aim for the tires of the truck. It appears at least two of the 9-man sniper squad tried deliberately for a kill, as two bullets hit Mayer's head and two more struck his arm. This probability was denied by Chief pig Lynn Herring. The squad was stupid to shoot mayer because for all they knew, he still had his hand on the detonator, even if he was driving, and getting shot could easily have released the device. It was later discovered that no dynamite was in the van. But then Mayer's thinking was foggy to have tried to drive away. Fatal decision. Yet President Reagan said he was pleased with the way the police "handled the situation," i.e. killing Mayer. A vain hollow powerman like him would be.

The message is clear. The State will kill anyone who carries his anti-nuclear passion too far. Even though Norman Mayer was a looneybird he had more dedication (to the point of Nechaevism), raw naked truth,courage and perhaps love than any conservative or liberal Establishment figure could ever hope to have.

"I'm gonna fight me a one-man revolution someway,
Gonna start my rebellion today
But here come the people in gray
To take me away."

R.D. Davies 1971

In case you're looking for us (White House Peace Vigil - Peace Park anti-nuclear vigil - and friends) our signs have been moved across Lafayette Park to H Street, as has happened every four years since the vigil began in June, 1981.

Meanwhile a dozen large mobile homes rest on the grass of the southern half of Lafayette Park for the construction crews' comfort. Police patrol regularly, in part to make sure no homeless people crawl under the empty trailers in the icy dark of night. The bricks where office workers and tourists usually walk have been torn up, and huge - ugly - three-story bleachers rise in the space where our vigil normally stands, along the north side of Pennsylvania Avenue, so the press -- for one afternoon -- may stay warm and dry and near bathrooms while President Clinton has his second inaugural parade. The bathrooms on the north side of the park are locked, though construction workers again (as in past years) have for their use several porta-johns which are locked at night. Fences of every variety are intricately laid out to block demonstrators into the northeast corner of the park during the Big Event.

Ronald Reagan tried to have a second inaugural parade but it was so cold Inauguration Day 1985, the president had to call it off, and the quarter-million-dollar bleachers went unused. We were shivering and dancing in the northeast quadrant of the park, giving credit to God for a good sense of humor.

The vigil began five months after Reagan's first inauguration. At that time, people were allowed to demonstrate on the White House sidewalk. After a campaign by the Washington Times in 1983, new regulations were written banishing the vigil to Lafayette Park. During the wee hours of the morning, when tourists weren't about, police hovered and often arrested the vigilers. Department of Interior lawyers wrote a "camping" regulation which was used to criminalize (see CCNV case, U.S. Supreme Court, 1984) what was formerly protected behavior (see Abney case, U.S. Court of Appeals, 1976).

Since there are private citizens who insist on paying for this desecration of Lafayette Park every four years (via the Inaugural Committee), we're stuck with the bleachers again this year. So I'm writing President Clinton asking him, as I asked President Reagan in 1985, at least to leave the bleachers up for the rest of the winter, for homeless people to get out of the cold, wet, snowy, icy streets. I'm not asking for us -- we will remain at our signs with the minimal amount of protection necessary to survive. We are asking on behalf of the homeless sleeping on the DC streets (in spite of police harassment) ... still, after all these years.

Ellen Thomas
PEACE PARK ANTINUCLEAR VIGIL
PO Box 27217, Washington, DC 20038 USA
202-462-0757
prop1@prop1.org

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