Jailed for being on a list.

• Author: Rothschild, Matthew
• Position: McCarthyism Watch - Ken Krayeske

Ken Krayeske, a freelance journalist and political activist in Connecticut, went to Governor Jodi Rell's inaugural parade on January 3.

While taking photographs there, he was arrested for breaching the peace and interfering with an officer. He was jailed for thirteen hours and slapped with a $75,000 bond, which was later lifted.

"This really, really sucked," he wrote on January 5 on his website, www.the40yearplan.com.

"It's inexcusable," says Connecticut Representative Mike Lawlor, head of the state's House Judiciary Committee. "There was no probable cause."

Even more disturbing to civil libertarians in Connecticut, the state police and the Hartford police evidently had a list of people who might disrupt the inauguration, and Krayeske's name was on it. They even had photographs of him.

"I'm shocked by this," says his lawyer, Norman A. Pattis. "He's never articulated a threat to do bodily harm to anyone. He did openly discuss going to her inaugural ball to protest, but that is protected political speech. The fact that he was on some list and that he was arrested just for taking photographs is chilling in the extreme. It's a case of someone being singled out for political reasons."

Here is some background on Krayeske. He was the campaign manager for Green Party candidate Cliff Thornton, who ran against Rell. On the trail, Krayeske raised a stink with Rell about her decision not to debate Thornton. And back in 2003, Krayeske was arrested for criminal trespass at an anti-war rally at a U.S. Treasury building. (One last thing, in the interest of full disclosure: The Progressive magazine paid some of Krayeske's expenses for a reporting trip he took to Syria in 2005.)

"We're not in the business of arresting journalists. We're not in the business of arresting protesters," says Nancy Mulroy, spokeswoman for the Hartford police. "We're in the business of protecting and preserving the peace."

According to Mulroy, here is what happened.

"Officers observed him riding a mountain bike at a high rate of speed directly up to the parade route. He dumped the bicycle and ran up to the parade procession directly up to where the governor was passing," she says. "In the judgment of officers, based on the history of this individual, and after a briefing by state police earlier in the day, he was...