The Krayeske Incident

Gestapo tactics mar inaugural parade in Hartford

Anne Reardon

“Tin soldiers and Nixon’s coming,
We’re finally on our own.
This summer I hear the drumming,
Four dead in Ohio.” Every time I hear that Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song on the radio, it gives me the chills. Now, granted, I wasn’t aware in the slightest of that song or what it was about until well after it was written. But certainly, the message is timeless.

Now we are in another millennium, but we just can’t get away from these shadows of the past. What I am referring to here is ‘peace activism,’ known by many monikers, and, apparently, in many quarters, still thought of as synonymous with “anti-American sentiment,” “treason,” or “terrorism.”

Peace activism has been around for many centuries, if not longer, but if we just refer here to the twentieth century, it provides a broader perspective on how many, if not most, people view it. Now along with “peace activism,” there are other terms often equated with it, including ‘pacifism, anti-war activism, anti-nuclear activism, conscientious objector,’ and so on. These terms all have somewhat different meanings, but they are often used interchangeably.

Peace activists and pacifists were jailed during World Wars I & II in the USA. The 1950s launched many souls with the same inclinations in the Civil Rights era. In the 1960s and ’70s, the Vietnam War era, peace activists were spied on, brutalized by the police, arrested, and in some cases thrown in jail. In the 1980s, protesters who objected to the US’s nuclear policy, or to the wars and policies involved in El Salvador and Nicaragua garnered FBI files, lawsuits, and harassment from some major political groups.

Hope springs eternal. With every new generation, with every new war or crisis, the same issues arise over and over again.

On January 3, Kenneth Krayeske, a 35-year-old law school student, freelance journalist, and sometime blogger and keeper of a website www.the40year plan.com, was arrested in Hartford while trying to photograph Jodi Rell in her inaugural parade. He was thrown in jail, held for 13 hours and for a $75,000 bond, but later released on a written promise to appear in court.

The Hartford Courant has reported that Krayeske, apparently, was the topic of a two-page color document that was distributed by the state police describing Krayeske as an activist who had invited people to join him in a protest outside Rell’s inaugural ball that night. Although Krayeske has only engaged in non-violent protests, and has no record of any threatening or violent behavior, the document, if only by its very existence, implied that he was a ‘threat.’ The Republican American reported that apparently the police have a list of political activists who have criticized Rell.

Currently, Krayeske is facing misdemeanor charges of breach of peace and interfering with a police officer. Now, the question remains, if the police had him on a ‘watch list’ and were circulating his photo ahead of time, is it possible that Krayeske could have attended the parade on any terms and NOT have been arrested? Certainly, in the mind of the police who were given these instructions, the alert on Krayeske implied that he had ALREADY committed a crime, or, at least, that someone had some credible evidence that he was planning to do something criminal. Now, of course, Jodi Rell has denied any knowledge of the watch list or the circumstances leading to Krayeske’s arrest. But she is guilty, just the same, of denying this young man his First Amendment rights, and of persecuting someone who was exercising his right to express his own political opinions.

The charges against Krayeske still stand.

“Our job is to preserve the peace, and in the judgment of the officers on the scene with the information they had, and the history of the individual and the behavior they observed, we believe the appropriate action was taken,” said Hartford Police Sgt. Nancy Mulroy, the department’s spokeswoman, according to The Republican American.

The staff at The Scope can only assume the worst, as far as our own “watch list” status goes. However, we recognized that possibility going in. It is disappointing, however, that suspicions of a ’70s redux have been proven true.