Another criminal.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: Editor's Note - Editorial

Shortly after our last issue came out, I got an e-mail from Thomas C. Frazier, who works as an investigator for an anti-pollution agency in Orange County, California. He had read the cover story, "Protester = Criminal?"

"I just finished your article and thought that you might be interested in somewhat of a similar case I'm involved with," he wrote.

Here is what happened to Frazier.

On October 16, he decided to take the day off to go to San Bernardino from his home in Santa Ana. His purpose, he says, was "to engage in a legal and peaceful protest" against George W. Bush. The President was in town that day at the Radisson Hotel and Convention Center to support the candidacy of now-Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

Frazier had a sign that on one side said, "Shock & Awe" = "Maim & Murder" and on the other, "Indict Bush--Crimes Against Humanity."

But he didn't get far with it. "I was confronted by a charging police officer (later identified as Officer John Montecino)," Frazier wrote in a complaint he filed with the San Bernardino Police Department. "For no apparent reason, Officer Montecino raced towards me screaming, 'No, no, no, no.'"

Shortly thereafter, "without any provocation, Officer Montecino then grabbed my sign by enveloping my arms and sign together in one rapid swoop," Frazier wrote.

"Can't I just get across the street to show my protest?" Frazier asked, according to his complaint.

"Officer Montecino responded, 'Give me the sign,' and snatched the sign away from me while still encasing my arms," Frazier wrote.

"I then asked Officer Montecino, 'Can I have my sign back, and I'll just leave then?' Officer Montecino responded by stating, 'I don't have time for this,' while simultaneously striking my right forearm with a smashing blow with one side of a set of handcuffs."

Frazier was arrested for obstructing a police officer. I called Montecino to get his side of the story. "I can't...