From frbspd@crl.com Fri Nov 21 09:01:14 1997 Date: Thu, 20 Nov 1997 21:20:33 -0800 (PST) From: Stephen Dunifer To: peyote@netcom.com Subject: Micropower Demo Bay Area micropower broadcasters are calling a press conference and Free Speech support demonstration to protest the FCC raids in Tampa, Florida and earlier actions against other micropower broadcasters across the country. It will take place on Tuesday, November 25 at 5 PM in front of the Oakland Federal Building - see press release. Other micropower broadcasters and their supporters are urged to do the same at their nearest Federal Building or close fascimile there of on the same day. Stephen Dunifer \\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\ FREE RADIO BERKELEY 1442A Walnut St., #406 Berkeley, CA 94709 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 20 FCC RESPONDS TO MICROPOWER BROADCASTING COURT VICTORY WITH A SWAT TEAM One week after Federal Judge Claudia Wilken refused to grant the FCC a permanent injunction to shut down Free Radio Berkeley and ordered the FCC to respond to specific Constitutional questions, the response came not in the form of legal brief as requested but in the form of a SWAT team busting down the door of Tampa, Florida micropower broadcaster Doug Brewer. At 6 a.m. Wednesday, November 19 Doug Brewer and his wife were visited in their home by a 20 person Multi-Jurisdictional Task Force (comprised of Federal Marshals, a SWAT team, local police, Customs, and a self-identified CIA agent) led by the FCC. With automatic weapons trained on them they were ordered to the floor where they were handcuffed face down with gun muzzles at their head. For the next 12 hours they were detained in their own home, not even allowed to go to the bathroom alone, while agents stripped their home of anything remotely related to radio transmission equipment. Police cordoned off the block around their home, the site of the micropower broadcasting station, and brought in a crane to dismantle his broadcasting tower. At the same time other members of the same task force were busy shutting down two more micropower broadcasting stations in the Tampa area. One man, Loni Kobres, was taken to jail and not released until he signed papers agreeing not to take any action to recover equipment which had been seized. Radio X had its equipment seized as well with one of its members spending a brief time in jail. Commenting on this latest development, Stephen Dunifer of Free Radio Berkeley, said: "This certainly shows that the FCC has nothing but contempt for due process and the Bill of Rights. It is clear that the FCC is carrying out its marching orders given to it earlier this year by the National Association of Broadcasters who have begun a search and destroy campaign against micropower broadcasting. " Speaking for SF Liberation Radio, Richard Edmondson stated: " The raid against Doug Brewer and other microbroadcasters in Florida, coming as it has just a week after the Federal Court ruling in California, is a display of lawless thuggery which demonstrates to me more clearly than ever that the US Government does not care about its own courts, its own laws, or its own Constitution." In response to this latest attack on micropower broadcasting Bay Area micropower broadcasters will be holding a press conference and Free Speech support demonstration at the Oakland Federal Building on Tuesday, November 25 at 5 PM. Background material on the legal case and micropower broadcasting is available on the following WEB sites: www.368hayes.com, www.freeradio.org, www.radio4all.org.