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Loading ...Fundraiser hosted by lesbian couple disrupted by arrests
06.30.2009 6:00pm EDT
(California) A fundraiser for Congressional candidate Francine Busby in Encinitas, California, was disrupted after several guests were sprayed with pepper spray and the host was arrested.
The fundraiser was being held at the home of lesbian couple Shari Barman and Jane Stratton when deputies showed up in response to a noise complaint.Barman, 60, was arrested and jailed on suspicion of battery on a peace officer, and resisting, delaying and obstructing a peace officer. The host was arrested by Deputy Marshall Abbott after she refused to give him her birth date so he could file a noise complaint.
According to Sgt. Thomas Yancey of the Encinitas police station said that Barman tried to walk away from Abbott after he made the request, and he grabbed Abbott, then began using pepper spray on guests at the party after they pulled Barman away from him.
“He was pepper-spraying the faces of anyone who tried to talk to him,” Busby said. “People were stunned. It was something that none of us has experienced.”
Busby said she plans to meet with the Sheriff’s Department to find out why the event occurred and find out who made what she claims was a false noise complaint. Police received a call at 9:33 PM from a man saying that a loudspeaker from the party was keeping him awake.
Barman said that a man on the property behind her house had made “disparaging remarks” about Busby and gay people during the party, but Busby says the reception was not loud like the noise complaint claimed.
“It was a quiet home reception, disrupted by a vulgar person shouting obscenities from behind the bushes,” Busby said.
Read the full Sign on San Diego story here.
Deputy Marshall Abbott and another individual from the Sheriff’s Department arrived at the Encinitas address of 60-year-old Shari Barman and her female life partner as, witnesses said, the gathering was ending.
A guest departing at the time of Deputy Abbott’s arrival, Tom DiCioccio, estimated that the crowd had already dwindled to 15.
Responding to a call for backup from Abbott, six deputies arrived, along with a sergeant. A second arrest was made, with a 62-year-old woman being nabbed by another deputy.
When Barman attempted to walk away from Abbott, witnesses said, Abbott seized her by the arm and shoved her to the ground.
Witnesses said that Barman was clearly in pain at this point. When Barman’s partner, Jane Stratton, 55, stepped forward to ask Abbott to be careful because Barman had recently had shoulder surgery, Abbot knocked her down, according to a statement later released by Barman.
“Alarmed guests pleaded with the deputy to let the 60-year-old homeowner go and stop hurting her. She had recently had shoulder surgery and was clearly in pain.
“His response was to spray the women with pepper spray which caused confusion and outrage.”
Sgt. Thomas Yancey defended Abbott’s actions by saying that the crowd surrounded him.
“We don’t like people standing behind us–we have Tasers, guns, clubs,” the article quoted Yancey as saying.
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It makes me wanna throw up.
Or smash the cops face in.
I wonder if there will be a cover up by the Sheriff’s Department. You think??
Curiuous how this police actions, this one and the one in Ft. Worth, TX occurred at the 40th anniversary of Stonewall.
I wonder if the reaction would have been the same if a few good ol’ boys were sitting around watching football and there was a noise complaint by a GLBT neighbor. If this happened as described, it’s criminal.
This makes me so mad. I hope these f*cking pigs picked on the wrong queers this time. People who can afford to hold fundraisers, probably have the money and civil wherewithal to strike back at this kind of sickening abuse. They should seek to press both criminal charges and receive civic damages for this outrage.
Well, in San Diego, we also have a “gone straight” man who I think is on the same level as Rev. Phelps and his “God Hates Fags” Christian group. He digs so deep for information and goes to San Diego City Council meetings and uses graphic language that is offensive to those watching. Take a look at all the “info” he’s gathered about the Busby fundraiser. He’s unbelievable. Please let him know that he is wrong:
http://www.jameshartlinereport.blogspot.com/
Please contact the California Attorney Generals Office (916) 322-3360 and demand that he order an independent investigation of this abuse of power by the Sheriffs department. I believe there is more to this story. What does it say about a country when a citizen exercising her right to run for political office is subjected to this right wing intimidation tactics. The neighbor who complained need to be prosecuted as well as the deputy who carried out this miscarriage of justice.
I chose to honor Shari Barman, the homeowner who was pepper sprayed and arrested, by making a donation to the fundraiser she was hosting for Francine Busby and would encourage others to do the same:
https://www.completecampaigns.com/public.asp?name=Busby&page=28
To follow up on Chris’ comment: How much do you want to bet that it was James Hartline who called in the noise complaint, and was also the man behind the bushes (he’s no stranger to such surroundings, I’ll bet) on the property behind her house that made the “disparaging remarks” about Busby and gay people during the party.
What a piece of work.
I hear stories like this and I think it would be a good idea for every police officer to get tazed, beaten by billy club, shot at with a rubber bullet and pepper sprayed. Preferably with their hands tied behind their back while being thrown to the asphalt.
Perhaps after a few sessions like that they might learn to dish such behaviour out with the maximum of restraint.
Six deputies and a sergeant showed up as backup? For a noise complaint? In Cleveland, you wouldn’t get that turnout unless you had somebody wanted on multiple outstanding warrants, most likely first- or second-degree felonies. They have this much cash to burn in San Diego County? Just like the 12-year-old girl at the school in Ramona. How is it that California is broke, yet there seems to be no end to the resources used by government employees to get in digs at gays? No justification, just malice.
I hope every person who was attacked by the deputies files suit. Go for blood. Get them fired and hound them out of any other job they might find. Let them know what it feels like. It’s not like all these people–who sound pretty tame and middle-class–it’s not like they were all high on meth. The whole case stinks as much as the one in Fort Worth.
There is no doubt about it. These people should file complaints against these cops and the homophobic neighbor who filed the false complaints. I would be sueing them for millions, and settling for about $200,000. They should not take this lying down.
When your opponent thinks you might win they grow ugly. Our opponents sense change on the wind, this is their reaction. We must not bow or cringe. We must, as a community, go forward unafraid with our heads held high. Remember they used dogs and water cannons in the ’60’s against teh civil rights protesters of those days. Look where it got them, look who is president today. Lets all have courage.
How much you men must fear us to be so disgusting and vile on a daily basis.
Holy crap man! What a bunch of aholes. Hope that hate bill passes the senate.