PLAN FOR YOUR CHILDRENS' SAFETY!! ================================
>From Philly Daily News
Saturday, July 22, 2000
City is planning mass arrests, activists say by Dana DiFilippo Daily News Staff Writer
City officials have opened the old Holmesburg Prison. They've vowed not to tolerate small infractions, because they often lead to larger ones.
Now, activists preparing to protest during the Republican National Convention say they have further proof that the city's main weapon against convention chaos is mass arrest. Their proof: A memo from the Pennsylvania Council of Children, Youth and Family Services, seeking vacant beds for about 1,000 children of protesters expected to be arrested during convention demonstrations.
In the July 18 memo, Council Director Letty D. Thall asks child advocacy workers to estimate how many beds they'll have available July 28 through Aug. 5.
"The city is concerned that the arrests of protesters. . .will necessitate the need to place the protesters' children in temporary care until their parents are released," she wrote.
The Daily News was unable to reach mayoral spokeswoman Barbara Grant for comment.
But Thall and Alba Martinez, commissioner of the city's Department of Human Services, stressed that the inquiry strictly was a matter of emergency preparedness.
"We're certainly not planning or anticipating major arrests or major placement," said Martinez, who estimated that about 8,000 children are in citywide placements. "We certainly hope that there are no placements. This is just a matter of being prepared."
Children would be returned to parents immediately upon their release from jail, she emphasized.
"We have no interest in taking custody of any child for a minute more than necessary," she added.
Such assurances didn't convince some protesters.
Cheri Honkala heads the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, which plans to march July 31 even though the city denied their request for a permit.
She expects many arrests, as supporters parade on Broad Street from City Hall to the convention at the First Union Center.
Many marchers likely will be children, so KWRU has earmarked "nonarrestable" adults to whisk children away to safe places should their parents be arrested.
"They can't take our children away from us," Honkala said.
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