Rally Report/Campaign Update
This is a report on our rally at the Game and Fish office in Tucson today. See below for more info; pictures to come.
There were about two dozen of us at the protest today, including three people animating our giant sandhill crane puppet from the All Souls Procession. The rest of us had banners, signs, crane decoys and crane masks. When we first arrived, we parked on the side of the road and started walking up the driveway to the Game and Fish office. Game and Fish officer John Romero (backed up by Tucson police) blocked our path and told us that the office was private property and that we were being denied entry.
An animated discussion ensued, in which various people declared their intentions to file complaints about the crane hunt, report hunting violations witnessed during the hunt, and to vote (it was a polling place today). Romero (illegally) demanded to see voter registration cards before allowing anyone to pass; multiple cars, however, passed by him unobstructed.
Eventually, Romero was forced to admit that the Game and Fish office, as a government building, is public property. However, he still insisted that we could not enter. We pointed out that we were merely trying to express our First Amendment-protected opinions, and had no intention of being disruptive. A police officer asked if we planned to commit civil disobedience and we said no. We offered to stay away from the polling area if they told us where it was, and reiterated that we wanted to speak to someone in the Game and Fish office to file our complaints and Game Thief reports.
Note that when we protested at the Game and Fish office in April 2004, Regional Supervisor Gerry Perry informed us that we were welcome to protest in front of the building, which we were today kept from even approaching. As public property, of course, even a loud protest should be allowed at the Game and Fish office, not to mention members of the public trying to file complaints and comments.
Nonetheless, when it became clear that Romero would not back down from his illegal stance, we handed over to him our Game Thief report and our demands about the hunt (both posted below). We then withdrew to the side of the road, where we chanted and held up signs for commuters to see, and we got a good amount of support in the forms of waves and honks. One woman even stopped and got out of her car to ask for more information.
As we informed Romero, we will be considering legal action in response to Game and Fish’s clear violation of the First Amendment today.
In our eyes, the rally was a success. We were seen by dozens of commuters, and Game and Fish was confronted with the righteous indignation of people who want the hunt stopped. The ball is now in their court to investigate the hunting violations we reported to them.
But sign holding and protest can only do so much, so it’s back to the field — where the cranes need us most.