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Protesters Scuffle With Lobbyists
Albuquerque Journal
Fri, Jan 27, 2012
SANTA
FE – A fracas that started after protesters affiliated with the occupy
movement disrupted a legislative lobbying dinner at a downtown hotel
left two people injured, lawmakers steamed and police investigating.
The
incident marks the second time in two weeks protesters apparently
affiliated with anti-corporation occupy groups disrupted state
legislative functions. In the earlier incident, protesters were removed
from Gov. Susana Martinez’s State of the State address after screams
related to corporate taxes.
“We
all believe in free speech,” said Rep. Dennis Kintigh, R-Roswell, a
retired FBI agent who recently served as Roswell’s interim police chief.
“But there’s also freedom of assembly, and I believe that was infringed
upon,” he said Thursday, referring to the latest incident.
Santa
Fe police said the handful of unidentified protesters took their
demonstration into a banquet hall Wednesday at the Eldorado Hotel where
the pro-business American Legislative Exchange Council – or ALEC – was
hosting a dinner for New Mexico lawmakers. Protesters threw envelopes at
dinner guests and sparked a confrontation with lobbyists there before
leaving the hotel, said police Capt. Aric Wheeler. No arrests were made.
Lawmakers
said Thursday that a guest of Rep. William “Bill” Rehm, R-Albuquerque,
was struck in the eye by a protester’s leaflet and suffered minor
injuries. A second woman injured her hand as protesters and lobbyists
pushed and shoved over a camera, the Santa Fe police captain said.
Rehm
declined to comment on the situation Thursday, speaking through the
House Republican caucus. A party spokeswoman said the eye injury was
improving.
In
remarks made on the Senate floor Thursday, GOP Whip William Payne of
Albuquerque decried the incident as a “very ugly, ugly scene.”
“I think there needs to be arrests made, and there needs to be prosecutions of some of these people,” Payne said.
Police said they’re still trying to identify those involved. They arrived after the protesters had left.
Republican
House Whip Donald Bratton, of Hobbs, without naming names, warned
fellow lawmakers against stoking the fires of political protest amid a
tense political environment by encouraging the protesters.
“I
would caution all members of the House to be careful with regard to the
role they play (to) elevate debate and evoke emotion, because when
emotion comes into play … then reason tends to go out the window, and
anarchy comes into play. We have a responsibility to be civil,” Bratton
said on the House floor Thursday, responding to the protest.
Rep.
Brian Egolf, D-Santa Fe, who has met with Occupy Santa Fe activists and
been sympathetic to some of their views, called the actions of
protesters at the Eldorado on Wednesday night “terrible.”
Egolf
said his interactions with Occupy Santa Fe and his recent comments
criticizing ALEC’s corporate influence on politics had no influence on
the behavior of a grass-roots group with which he has no affiliation.
“They (Republicans) were trying to say I was involved in that, and that was just … not at all,” Egolf said.
Protesters
on “Occupy New Mexico” online blogs Thursday said they filed police
reports against some of the individuals who they say were pushing and
shoving protesters the group described as “peaceful.” An online video
they filmed doesn’t conclusively show who initiated the physical
contact.
In
the days leading up to Wednesday’s dinner, Occupy Santa Fe organized a
protest, describing ALEC in fliers as a powerful institution in which
“greedy corporations and corrupt legislators collude behind closed
doors.”
They also accused ALEC of promoting laws that are anti-environment, anti-immigrant and anti-union.
The
occupy movement mushroomed in 2011, as those affiliated with the
movement expressed a growing disillusionment with social and economic
conditions, particularly corporate influence.
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