Scenes outside the presidential debate

Chris Kromm ckromm at mindspring.com
Thu Oct 5 06:46:16 PDT 2000


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.



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