3 Rights Leaders Ousted From City Hall in Alabama

Three civil rights leaders were thrown out of City Hall on Tuesday after protesting the alleged violent arrest of a black man by two white police officers.

Nine uniformed Montgomery police officers entered Mayor Bobby Bright’s office at the close of city business and carried away state Sen. Charles Steele and two other civil rights activists.

The three did not resist as the officers carried them down a flight of stairs and placed them on the street. They were not arrested but promised to return today even after the mayor issued an executive order banning demonstrations in his office.

“This is just the beginning,” Steele said after the incident. “The world should know that Alabama is a police state.”

Bright, who was elected last year with strong black support, must decide whether a police officer should be fired on grounds he used excessive force in the July 11 arrest of Samuel Day at a convenience store.

The arrest prompted Steele to call for the resignation of Police Chief John Wilson. Steele claims Wilson, the police chief for 15 years, has overseen a pattern of police brutality.

Jesse Dodd is accused of beating Day with a nightstick while he was handcuffed outside a convenience store and then lying about it during an internal investigation.

Day, 54, who has been described by family members as schizophrenic, suffered a fractured skull, broken arm and broken wrist. Day was being taken into custody on charges of disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

Wilson last week recommended to Bright that Dodd be fired but said the second arresting officer did nothing to warrant disciplinary action.

Bright was unavailable for comment Tuesday and didn’t return a phone message. He has said he supports the police chief and will not be intimidated by the group’s demands. Wilson has said he won’t resign.

Bright is expected to make a decision in the case this week. If terminated, Dodd can appeal to a city-county personnel board.

The brutality case has struck a racially sensitive political note in a city with a slight white majority.

Bright, who is white and a Democrat, won the mayor’s office last year with strong black support. He ousted a longtime incumbent Republican who boasted of law-and-order policing but drew angry protests and claims of condoning police brutality in the 1980s.

Dodd, 29, who has been on the force two years, has denied using excessive force or lying about it.