Scenes outside the presidential debate

[Chris Kromm]

BOSTON INDYMEDIA: The debate commission, along with three uniformed police,
refused to admit Nader to the presidential debate viewing auditorium Tuesday
night, even though Nader had a ticket to the event. Nader was given the
ticket to the Lipke Auditorium by a Northeastern student. As soon as Nader
got off the bus en route to the auditorium, he was met by a representative
of the debate commission and three police officers. The representative said
he had been instructed by the Commission on Presidential Debates to tell
Nader he was not invited onto the premises even with a ticket. Nader
received the ticket from Northeastern student Tod Tavares, 21, who got the
ticket from his roommate. Tavares told the Associated Press that giving the
ticket to Nader was "a small sacrifice for the good of the nation."

ASSOCIATED PRESS: "It's already been decided that whether or not you have a
ticket you are not welcome in the debate," John Bezeris, a representative of
the debate commission, told Nader. "I didn't expect they would be so crude
and so stupid," Nader said after being turned away. "This is the kind of
creeping tyranny that has turned away so many voters from the electoral
process."

JOHN GREBE, BOSTON INDYMEDIA: U-Mass Junior Chris Garner had worked hard on
the student newspaper to get his press pass for the Presidential debate on
his campus. When he photographed police confronting protesters outside, one
officer grabbed his neck and shoved him. Another pushed him against a metal
guardrail. A third told him, "so, is this your press credential? Well,
consider it revoked," and ripped the cord from his neck. Then police hit a
young woman with a club. "It all fell apart; any confidence I had in the
system, in justice, in the political scene. I played by the rules. I was
totally harmless. I'd shaken hands with a Clinton press secretary. I was
trying to document the debate," said Garner, a South Boston resident.