World War-II veteran Elden “Bud” Booth has been protesting missile testing at Vandenberg Air Force Base since 1983.
Over that period, the 84-year-old has been detained several times by base personnel, as have several members of a small group of activists who hold signs at their regular monthly protests.
For the most part, the gatherings outside the base’s main gate have been peaceful affairs.
But the group’s Nov. 4 protest was different, Booth said. When military police began asking for identification from each member of the group, some acquiesced. He refused.
“I said, ‘I’m not going to give you identification until you tell me what I’m charged with,’” Booth said. “I knew what it was about. They wanted to check our names to find out if anyone was on ‘ban-and-bar.’”
“Ban and bar” refers to letters from base officials to protesters who have crossed the green line of demarcation—the base’s visible boundary line. The letter warns recipients that they’re not allowed on base property and will be subject to detainment if they join a protest.
According to witnesses, Booth—who has a “ban and bar”—was handcuffed with his hands in front of his body and led past the line of demarcation to stand against the rock wall at Vandenberg’s main gate. He was again asked to present his I.D. and again refused.
Then, Booth says, the M.P. grabbed him by the shoulders, ripping his shirt, then spun Booth around by the handcuffs, taking his wallet from his back pocket.
Fellow protester Dennis Apel saw the incident firsthand and told the same story“The handcuffs on his right arm tore his skin in three places near the wrist,” Apel said. “There were skin flaps hanging.”
Paramedics were summoned to perform first aid at the scene, according to base officials.
“I looked down and saw the blood coming out of my wrists,” Booth said. “There were two cuts on one and bruises on the other wrist. Then he handed me the citation. All it said was that I had broken defense rules.”
Vandenberg’s chief of public affairs, Stefan Bocchino, told a different story of the encounter: “The individual refused to provide identification at the time, and that’s one of the stipulations for protesting there.
“The information that we have is Mr. Booth received a small cut on his wrist,” Bocchino said. “His injury occurred when he began to swing his arms in an attempt to prevent his detention while being handcuffed by a security forces personnel. So he kind of hurt himself.”
Booth claimed he didn’t and couldn’t resist. While he called the detaining M.P. “just a young kid feeling his oats,” he and others say the incident is part of a larger effort to harass protesters along Highway 1.
“I think it’s the base commander who has made the determination that they have a right to ask for identification to check their lists to see if we are under ‘ban and bar,’” he said. “Any of us out there on that road right-of-way protesting, which we have First Amendment rights to do, they have to charge us with something before they ask for identification.
“These last two times now, they’ve been very adamant about the fact that we should not be even on the road right of way, which we contest,” he added. “It’s just a case of harassment. They know from past experience who I am, and they didn’t need to do that.”
Booth said he and other protesters had been asked to show their I.D.s in the past and refused, but were allowed to continue by providing a name.
Apel, who has been detained four times for having a “ban and bar,” called the I.D. requests “a disturbing change.”
“Over the years, we’ve had a whole slew of reactions from people on the base, everything from nobody even acknowledging us to people coming out and saying we can’t be there—which we can,” he said.
“It’s an irritation, it’s harassment, but I’m willing to do it to express my view that I don’t agree with Vandenberg being associated with weapons of mass destruction,” he said.
Base spokesman Bocchino said the stipulation requiring I.D.s from protesters is nothing new.
“Possibly it’s happened that they’ve gone protesting there and nobody’s asked them for an I.D.,” Bocchino said. “But it is a policy—and it has been for a long while.”
On the base’s website, rules for attending a protest are listed under “Protest Advisory,” which states specifically: “Everyone must possess valid government-issued identification (ID) and present it upon request.”
The extent of the base’s authority to enforce its protest rules on a public highway has been the subject of intense legal debate.
According to Bocchino, the highway is considered part of the base, and protesters with a ban can be detained and charged with trespassing. However, according to the protesters, such incidents they’ve been involved in have never been prosecuted in court.
Area activist MacGregor Eddy, of the Women’s International League of Peace and Freedom, said the reason is because the base doesn’t have the legal authority to detain or charge protesters with trespassing when they’re on the public highway.
She and Booth have written to Southern California American Civil Liberties Union lawyers, asking them to take up the case.
“We’d like a civilian judge to rule on whether or not they have the power to do this outside of the base,” Eddy said.
Richard Solomon, board member of the Santa Barbara chapter of the ACLU, said his organization believes Vandenberg is in violation of the protesters’ civil rights.
“They say they have a right to ask anyone who shows up and stands in that county right of way for their identification to see if there’s a bar order against them,” Solomon said. “Even if they have a bar letter, they have a right to be in that county right of way, because that has been set aside and designated for First Amendment activity.”
Solomon called the Booth incident “outrageous,” but said the organization has no plans to pursue a civil suit regarding the matter.
Contact Staff Writer Jeremy Thomas at jthomas@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Nov 26 – Dec 3, 2009.
