City Attorney And Local Clinics example essay topic

There's no visible clue that the woman walking down Jackson St. is pregnant, but that doesn't matter to the sign-bearing, camera-carrying demonstrators about to surround her and block her path to the building. They don't really care who she is, just that she's walking toward the building that houses the Planned Parenthood offices. Continuing down the sidewalk, the woman is surrounded by another group of people wearing green vests or pink T-shirts. They escort her into the building over shouts and harassment from the others, who are forced back. It's a daily fight over who captures the front-lines outside Milwaukee abortion clinics. But it's not 1992, when thousands of anti-abortion protesters blocked clinic doors and filled the jails.

It's September 2000, and they " re still trying to block access to the buildings. Their numbers may be fewer, but the volume hasn't gone down. And the people who work at Planned Parenthood say it's the same ones doing the shouting-people who are breaking the law. A court says it's illegal for certain regular clinic disrupter's to hang out in front of the offices and accost women. But people at Planned Parenthood say the injunction-which says protesters must stay at least 25 feet away from clinics' front doors and 10 feet away from people walking to clinics-isn't being enforced and everyone knows it. "It's bizarre.

It's inexplicable", says Joan Clark, a volunteer escort with Planned Parenthood who has helped to keep the clinics open for the past decade. "For the first year and a half it worked", she says of the injunction. And that was reinforced in a suit the organization brought against a protest group, when circuit court Judge Charles Kahn told Planned Parenthood lawyers that they should be using the ruling as the legal tool to rid their doormat of the protesters. "But now we have a lot of low-level violence from people who are named in the injunction", Clark says.

The process of getting answers about what happened is a little bizarre itself, with a lot of finger-pointing and little strong-arming from the law. In fact, Milwaukee aldermen are ready to weigh in on the issue next week in an attempt to make sure the law is enforced. he injunction was ordered in 1992 to keep area clinic patients from the constant belligerence of protesters who would get too close and sometimes physical. Initially, 38 people were prevented from violating the space limits in front of the patients and clinics. Names were added later. Besides the distance restrictions, the named protesters were also prevented from photographing anybody entering or leaving Milwaukee's three clinics. Breaches are billed at $500 a day for the first violation, $1,000 for the second, $2,000 for the third, plus possible jail time.

Continued breaking of the rules would raise the charge to criminal contempt, with sentences starting at one year. But none of that has kept a few members of the regular cadre from camping out in front of local clinics. "These people would never be allowed to do this anywhere else", Clark says. "Imagine if this were Bank One or Mt. Sinai, and there'd be these people out there. It wouldn't be tolerated".

Indeed, just last month, police ordered a group of leaflet ers with the group Justice for Janitors leave the area in front of the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts. And that was a public building. The main culprits, according to Planned Parenthood coordinator Turns to the East, who continue to violate the order include Robert Braun, who has been cited 34 times for various activities concerning clinic blocking, but not since last year; Drew Heiss, who was cited 72 times, but not since June 1999; Daniel Holman, cited 51 times; and George Wilson, cited 64 times. All but Wilson were named in the original injunction. Matt Trew hella, who led the Missionaries to the P reborn during the infamous summer of '92, was cited 23 times, but not since 1993. James Chinavare was sentenced to one year in the House of Correction in March 1999 after a jury trial.

He was charged with eight counts of violating the injunction in 1997 after 46 previous citations. "He is still outside our building", notes East. "And so are the others". Except for Braun, none of the men have listed phone numbers or addresses.

Clark notes that none of them are from Milwaukee, either. East says that Heiss, Holman, Wilson and Chinavare have assaulted him at three different times. The charges against the three were dropped in frustration or watered down in Municipal Court and dropped there. Even if there are fines, they go unpaid. The citations, mainly municipal disorderly conduct tickets, don't seem to faze them.

And they know that the injunction won't be enforced, East says. Affirmation is provided by protester Robert Braun. "They haven't enforced that in years. The injunction isn't being enforced because it's unenforceable", asserts Braun, who cites continuing legal battles with the city and district attorney's office as the reason. Braun sued the city over the injunction, but the suit was promptly thrown out. "I wish they would try to enforce it, because I'll get that whole injunction thrown out".

Braun contends that the court order wasn't legal in the first place because of some clerical errors that normally wouldn't be tolerated. "I dare them to charge me", he says. A more sobering charge that Braun has been convicted of is violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) law passed by Congress in 1994. That carries with it a two- to three-year prison sentence if Braun is convicted again. "That's why I don't go in front of the door anymore".

Clark says that while she likes the FACE law, protesters violate it continuously-especially at the Affiliated Clinic on Farwell Ave., where it's a regular event to see the door blocked by people carrying gory signs. As for protesters pointing their cameras at people entering the building, Braun says they need the cameras "to defend ourselves". The reason for the video ban, however, is that the tapes were being aired on Ralph Ovadahl's TV show and Channel 30, the right-wing religious station. And they continue to be shown. o who is supposed to be enforcing this law?

Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann quickly points out that the court order is not his office's responsibility: "It's not a state statute. It was an injunction secured by the attorney general's office". Deputy City Attorney Charles Theis says they " re relying on the attorney general for enforcement. "Our prosecution section can't enforce the injunction", Theis says. Braun says he's happy to see fewer police cars parked in front of the clinics. But Ald.

Paul Henningsen, who has two clinics in his district (including the Planned Parenthood headquarters), says police still must regularly dispatch squads to the clinic on Water Street. One sat there Tuesday morning while three demonstrators walked around the sidewalk. Theis says they process about three or four disorderly conduct offenses from the clinics each month. "What he's saying is that their priorities don't include protecting women from going to abortion clinics", Clark responds. That seems to leave law enforcement on the steps of the attorney general's office. Not so fast, says Deputy Attorney General Burne atta Bridge-the city attorney's office has the same legal authority in this as the attorney general does.

"We have taken the work on this very seriously", Bridge says. "I'm disappointed to hear that [some people at Planned Parenthood] feel there's not enough going on. The attorney general's office has prosecuted 24 cases resulting in 10 convictions during the life of the injunction. The last conviction occurred in April on a charge from April 1999. Several investigations are going on now. "Compared with the state of affairs when we started, it's a much improved climate", Bridge says.

"It's not where we'd like it to be". Clark and East say the attorney general's office has given repeated assurances that more manpower would be put into the effort, but it hasn't happened. The AG's office has assigned an assistant attorney general and an investigator to the task. "I sense that there's been a brief lapse, and hope it's that", Bridge assures. ome Milwaukee aldermen aren't buying the city attorney office's assertion that it can't enforce the law.

One solution could be to pass a "bubble zone" ordinance around the clinics and patients. A Colorado zone of eight feet around patients and 100 feet from clinic doors was upheld this year by the U.S. Supreme Court. Another is what will be coming in front of the council on Sept. 22. Henningsen and Ald. Mike D'Amato put out a resolution that in essence tells the city attorney to enforce the law.

"With the type of activity going on in front of the clinics, we want to say we deplore it", Henningsen comments. The measure was approved in July by the Judiciary & Legislation Committee, but the council sent it back for another hearing. The resolution states that city public safety workers are to "act in a manner that affords zero tolerance for clinic violence and harassment"; and people who harass patients and employees or damage buildings "are advised that they will be punished to the full extent of the law". The paper would be sent to the offices of the district attorney, city attorney and local clinics.

D'Amato, who is also chairman of the Judiciary Committee, thinks that the council's message to the city attorney's office will be clear: "This is the council saying that we want these laws enforced. Hopefully they " ll get the message". Both sides are thinking Monday's meeting will turn into a full-scale abortion debate. Braun says he " ll be there ready to testify, as will a host of others.

The first meeting in July had five speakers, all in favor of the resolution. D'Amato says he won't let the hearing turn into a pro-life / pro -choice deliberation, but one that focuses strictly on the resolution. "I have no intention of letting this meeting become a circus", he warns. "I find it pretty hard to believe that people would not be against violence in front of health-care facilities". Clark says that if the law is enforced again, it will do wonders toward getting some peace and quiet in front of the clinics. And, she adds, the preference would be having the city attorney's office doing more of the enforcing.

"Milwaukee is the worst place in the country for this. That's why we ended up with all these guys in the first place. If you have a prosecutor who enforces the law, they will leave". Back to Top Welfare Day Makes Thompson Notorious BY Doug Hissom While Gov. Tommy Thompson is lauded with the Les A spin Distinguished Public Service Award at Marquette University on Thursday, others will be outside on the sidewalks questioning why the he should be getting that honor. The MU Business School is giving Thompson the award for his work on welfare and education reform, yet welfare advocates in Milwaukee want people to know that Thursday is also a national day of recognition called "Welfare Made a Difference Day". And they, too, will give Thompson some publicity as they point out the flaws in the governor's pet welfare reform project, W-2.

"For most people, welfare was a short-term means to support themselves between jobs, through domestic violence or other family crises", says Mary Thomas, of the Milwaukee Coalition to Save Our Children, a group that represents more than 20 local groups and was formed to monitor W-2. "If you look at other forms of government assistance like the GI Bill and home mortgage tax credits, they don't have the same negative stigma as welfare". The day is meant to remind people of women who were on welfare and became successful. Pam Fendt, a member of the Coalition to Save Our Children and known for her W-2 research with the UW-Milwaukee Center for Economic Development and as co-chair of the W-2 Monitoring Task Force of the Milwaukee County Board, uses her extensive examination of W-2 to highlight the fact that women are falling through the cracks of social services. She blames Milwaukee County's private, for-profit W-2 providers for that. "We have to be looking beyond caseload summaries", she says, referring to providers' main incentive: moving women through the W-2 program and into a workplace.

"AFDC stable, predictable poverty has been traded for unstable wages". While Fendt and Thomas say they realize that some work must be included in any welfare reform plan, that doesn't give W-2 operators carte blanche to run the system without any accountability. They point out that an audit of Milwaukee County W-2 operators was not scheduled until 28 months into the program, and even now is overdue. In the meantime, some 10,000 people have disappeared from welfare rolls and the job market; food stamp requests have gone up; homeless shelters are full.

Other parts of W-2, such as those that pay for child care or care of or disabled parents, are underfunded and thus can't be used. "What the governor calls 'implementation glitches' translates into a lack of income for people who have no income", Thomas says. "Performance standards are just starting-nearly three years into the program", adds Fendt, pointing to recent news reports about how audits discovered two county providers, Maximus and Employment Solutions, were billing the state for improper expenditures. "The agencies have a built-in excuse: that they " re new at this", Fendt says. "What about the women who aren't given any time to get a job in order to get off the program, and when they don't, then they don't have anything to fall back on?" Besides demanding more accountability from service providers, the coalition's other suggestions include: Allow women to appeal their W-2 status. Pay new participants in a more timely manner, rather than the usual six weeks before they get their first paychecks through the W-2 system.

Allow those unable to get a job within 30 days of being declared "job ready" to go back into the W-2 program, and make sure they are paid in a timely manner. Increase child-care eligibility. Use better assessments to determine if applicants are victims of domestic abuse or need mental health services or counseling for alcohol and drug abuse. Provide transportation assistance for participants until they reach 165% of the poverty level. The two say that there is some hope for change, as more women in the state Legislature on both sides of the aisle are seeing the program's problems. But any changes still rest with Thompson's office, which so far has been a brick wall.

"If you look at AFDC and welfare, it has always been a paternalistic approach. With this paternalistic approach there isn't any community input or client input, and without that, there is no accountability", Thomas says. Back to Top A Plan to Block Ameritech Address Plan BY Doug Hissom A state lawmaker wants to disconnect any efforts by Ameritech to release the names and addresses of phone customers through directory assistance. Ameritech's new feature has been criticized because it freely gives out previously private information. "Ameritech has, in one stroke, allowed domestic violence victims and stalking victims to be effortlessly tracked by their abusers. It is inexcusable", says state Rep. Christine Sinicki, a member of the Milwaukee Commission on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assaults.

The Milwaukee Democrat says Ameritech's move displays "arrogance and ignorance... They are willing to grant you your privacy, but you have to pay for it". An Ameritech spokesperson says if customers request that their addresses not be listed in the phone book, they will not appear in the new reverse directory service. But if a customer pays $1.50 per month to assure the name and number will not appear in the phone book, but allows the number to be listed in the 411 directory, the customer must request that the address not be listed. It will cost $4.95 per month for a completely unlisted number. "There is a large population that doesn't understand that.

There's not a clear message as to what services are protected and which are automatic", warns Andrea De Toro, coordinator for Milwaukee's Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Commission. "They " re creating a huge problem with this". The information could also threaten people who give out home phone numbers to strangers. The bill's premise hardens back to arguments when Ameritech introduced Caller ID. The debate then revolved around whether or not customers should have to take the initiative in having their phone numbers blocked, or if the phone company should offer Caller ID only by request. Ultimately, the phone company won that fight; now every phone customer must request that the number be blocked from being given out automatically or dial #67 before each call.

Sinicki says she " ll offer the bill in January. Back to Top No Ad Space for Priests and Nuns BY Bill Kurtz Fr. Michael Crosby of Milwaukee describes his long history of corporate shareholder activism as "buying a pulpit". But this month, Crosby learned that some pulpits can't be bought-especially when they come in the form of newspaper space. Crosby's unsuccessful effort to buy an advertisement in the Journal Sentinel as part of an anti-sweatshop campaign against Kohl's Department Stores brings to mind legendary press critic A.J. Liebling's observation that "freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one".

Crosby says his order of priests, the Capuchin Franciscans, and several Wisconsin-based orders of nuns, wanted to buy a quarter-page message challenging Kohl's to intervene in a labor dispute at a Nicaraguan factory that makes jeans for Kohl's and several other retailers. Workers there earn 20 cents per hour for jeans that retail for in the U.S. for $30. In a letter to the prospective signers, Crosby wrote that on Aug. 29, "the Journal Sentinel editorialized in a way that basically favors Kohl's position. We think the time is right for the religious community to respond immediately to the editorial". The advertisement, which would have cost $4,375.68, was rejected by the newspaper. When Crosby asked on what criteria the decision was made, the newspaper's representative first responded that "we have no criteria", Crosby says.

But he knew better. He's a director of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, a New York-based group that coordinates the efforts of 275 member groups to raise issues of corporate responsibility with companies whose stock they hold. "I think they know they are dealing with a formidable group", says Crosby, who has been involved in shareholder activism since 1973. Crosby has specialized in tobacco-related issues, and has prodded several publicly-held publishing firms regarding their policies on acceptance of cigarette advertising. When Crosby told the Journal Sentinel representative that he couldn't believe the newspaper has no criteria for accepting or rejecting advertisements, he says the reply was, "We don't need to tell you". In Crosby's view, the newspaper acted "subjectively and arbitrarily".

Journal Communications spokesman Bob Dye says the daily has a policy under which advertisers aren't allowed to criticize each other. "This was kind of stepping into that area", he says. Crosby was able to get a letter to the editor published in last Friday's newspaper, albeit in condensed form. In the letter, Crosby writes that the Aug. 29 editorial defending Kohl's "could have been written by the company's public relations department" and challenged the daily to send investigative reporters to Nicaragua to check conditions at the factory, where there have been firings, blacklisting of union leaders and the arrest of some leaders on false criminal charges for attempting to unionize in order for workers to make 28 cents an hour. Crosby was miffed by an implication in the editorial that anti-sweatshop efforts are ignoring larger retailers and licensees. "A June memo I sent to religious shareholders said concerns about vendor standards were being raised with Ames, Dayton Hudson (Target), Disney, the Gap, J.C. Penney, K-Mart, Land's End, Nike, Nordstrom, Saks, Sara Lee, Sears and Wal-Mart", he states.

He also notes that while Kohl's does not own the privately held Nicaraguan factory, it and other publicly held retailers contract for the factory's output. "A significant way to register concern with an unresponsive management is through shareholder and consumer action", Crosby writes. "This is exactly what we are doing". In an unpublished portion of the letter, Crosby urged the Journal Sentinel to "find out what's going on among people who work as hard as our workers, who have to pay as much for non-local foods as we do, but who make in one month what most of us make in one day.".