This ran on Wednesday, August 13, 2003 in the East Valley Tribune:

For whom the police whistle blows

Civil authorities must take great care to avoid slippery slope of less and less tolerance
We are the five peace activists who were cited by the Mesa Police Department on August 5 for chalking body silhouettes on Mesa public sidewalks. The chalking was a part of the Shadow Project, an international effort to memorialize the victims of the first atomic bomb dropped in Hiroshima, Japan on August 6, 1945. Two hundred thousand people died as a result of that bomb – many were simply vaporized leaving only their shadow on sidewalks and walls.

Activists have carried out the Shadow Project across the Phoenix Valley since 1982. Never before has anyone been cited or arrested. Not until August 5, 2003.
On that night the City of Mesa wasted valuable tax dollars by sending in a swarm of police vehicles and uniformed officers to confront and cite us. They wasted even more by sending a city fire truck and crew to wash the chalk from the sidewalks – a job that could have easily been done with a garden hose or even a bucket of water.

We’re trained in nonviolence and conflict resolution and respectfully explained to police officers what our actions were and what they meant. But they weren’t open to listening.
Even so, it’s now official. The graffiti charges against the five of us have been dismissed. The Mesa Police Department has apologized and has admitted that they “over-reacted”. The Department has acknowledged that we have the right to protest…the right to be in the streets…and the right to dissent. And Mesa Police have pledged to be there in the future to protect our right to speak out.

We’re pleased with this small victory. But here’s the bigger picture.
What happened to us in Mesa on August 5 is a direct reflection of the diminishing civil rights of all Americans. Since 9-11, Americans have stood silently by and watched as our civil rights have been systematically taken away from us. We have collectively bought into the notion that we must relinquish these rights in the name of national security.
Those of us who were cited by the Mesa Police were willing to stand up, speak out, and demand recognition of our right to dissent. And thanks to the Arizona Civil Liberties Union and to courageous local attorneys such as Marty Lieberman, we would have been well represented in court.

The fact that the Mesa Police Department recognized its error and recommended that the charges be dismissed doesn’t take away the reality that the civil liberties of all Americans have been significantly compromised. It’s time that we remember the lesson of Lutheran Minister and Nazi concentration camp survivor Martin Niemoeller.
Following the atrocities of the holocaust, Pastor Niemoeller was asked, “How did the world let this happen?” He responded…First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up!

Niemoeller’s story has important implications for us today in the United States. This is the important lesson to take from the recent incident between peace activists and City of Mesa police officers. Not only do we as American citizens have the right to stand up and speak out – we have the responsibility to do so in defense of each other and of our constitutionally protected civil rights.

If we as a nation don’t do it soon, who will be left to speak up for you?

Special To The Tribune from "The Mesa Five":

Amy Shinabarger

Mitch Rubin

Danielle Hagerty

Pam Garrison

Sherry Bohlen