Democrats Say Rights Were Violated

A handful of Ventura County Democrats said their civil rights were violated this week when they were denied full access to an Oxnard rally held for Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush.

These supporters of Democratic nominee Al Gore said Oxnard police officers told them on Wednesday that they could not enter the main rally area--at the city’s public transportation center--because they did not have tickets to the free event.

But when Bush started speaking and the area was opened to the general public, officers still prevented them from getting close to the train depot, they said.

“It’s public property, it’s a free country and I don’t think they had the right to do that,” said Lauraine Effress, a Gore supporter who was barred from entering the rally.

Oxnard Police Chief Art Lopez said safety was his top concern that day. He said Friday that he recognized Gore supporters had a right to be there, but he didn’t want them too close to the Bush crowd.

“We didn’t want to see a violent confrontation that might take place as a result of Gore supporters coming into a Bush political rally,” Lopez said of the approximately 60 officers deployed at the event.

Gore advocates said they didn’t plan to create a scene at the event. Rather, they just wanted to make the point--peacefully--that not all Oxnard voters support the Texas governor. When police told the potential protesters they couldn’t cross into the rally, they obeyed.

There were no reports of fights or violent confrontations between protesters and the police, authorities said.

“I’m not a militant person,” said Effress, a 57-year-old Democrat who works as a mental health worker. “And I’m not a protester. I was just holding a Gore sign.”

Michael Small, the ACLU’s chief counsel in Southern California, said police officers cannot restrict participation in political rallies unless there is “overwhelming evidence that violence is about to break out.”

“The 1st Amendment prevents the government from censoring expression, and the police is an arm of the government,” Small said.

About 5,500 people turned out for the first stop in Bush’s whistle-stop tour through California, including as many as 75 Gore supporters. The tour ended Thursday in Lodi.

Republican Party officials, who received a temporary use permit to hold the campaign event at the Amtrak station, said they set up a separate area for protesters and anyone who identified themselves as Bush opponents. And they did not issue tickets to anyone wearing a Gore button or hat or carrying a Gore sign.

Terry Holt, communications director for Victory 2000, which helped organize the political rally, said the Oxnard event was a chance for Ventura County residents to hear Bush speak. Protesters or people carrying anti-Bush signs would have been a disruption, he said.

Bush had a right to have his words heard, Holt said, and “the public had a right to listen to him in an orderly and peaceful way.”

Mayor Manuel Lopez, who received several phone calls this week, said he does not agree with the way the event was handled. He said the Gore supporters he knew who showed up at the rally were definitely not troublemakers.

“They were just plain citizens who were trying to express themselves, and I don’t think they should have been precluded from having access to what really is a public place,” said Lopez, a Democrat.

Alex Magdaleno of Camarillo, a retired Ventura County firefighter, said he was prohibited from entering the rally with about two dozen colleagues from the Fire Department. He carried a sign that read, “Firefighters for Gore” on one side, and “Prop. 187-Never Forgive, Never Forget” on the other, referring to the 1994 initiative that sought to deny education and health care to illegal immigrants in California.

Magdaleno said the Bush campaign attempted to give a false impression about the Republican nominee’s level of support in Oxnard by keeping Gore supporters away from the cameras. And the Oxnard police, he said, shouldn’t have blocked Bush opponents from entering the rally and speaking their minds.

“Who pays their salary? Are they being paid by the Republicans?” he asked, referring to the Oxnard police.

Alison Mizraji, 38, a legal assistant from Ventura, said she was even more disturbed by what people were saying to her outside the rally. She held a sign that said “Bush Is Bad for Children,” wore a hat proclaiming “No to Bush” and carried fliers detailing Bush’s voting record in Texas.

When she tried to enter the rally, police told her that she couldn’t because it was a private event. So she stood far away from the train, where she couldn’t see Bush and could barely hear him.

During the event, Mizraji said several people approached her, called her names and told her she wasn’t welcome.

“I didn’t go there expecting that they would all love me,” she said. “But what I found was disturbing. If these people had rocks or tomatoes, I would have been in a lot of trouble.”