Bush was in Hartford on Friday, and, on very short notice, local antiwar groups organized a demonstration

RETURN DATE: SEPTEMBER 23, 2008

STEPHEN FOURNIER : SUPERIOR COURT

V : J. D. HARTFORD/NEW BRITAIN

DARYL ROBERTS et al. : SEPTEMBER 4, 2008

COMPLAINT

1. I am Stephen Fournier, Hartford resident, military veteran, grandfather, candidate for public office, citizen-journalist, and plaintiff in this lawsuit.

2. The defendant Daryl Roberts (the Chief) is the Chief of Police of the defendant City of Hartford (the City), a municipal corporation.

3. On April 25, 2008, the President of the United States (Bush) visited the City.

4. On very short notice, local antiwar groups organized a demonstration.

5. Bush was due at the Northwest Boys and Girls Club sometime after ten a.m. to talk about controlling malaria.

6. The club is on Granby Street, a few hundred feet north of Weaver High School and just down the hill from Mark Twain School.

7. Granby Street was blocked by and at the direction of the defendants at Manchester Street, about a quarter mile from the club, and I had to take Lyme Street to Durham Street.

8. All the adjacent streets were barricaded by the defendants, and I arrived at about 10:30 a.m. to find, about a half-block away from the closest unbarricaded street, a crowd of about 200 people loosely assembled on the school playing field.

9. Some of the demonstrators were pressed against a makeshift snow fence that had been erected by the defendants for the occasion.

10. The area where the crowd was assembled and the club where Bush was to be speaking is separated by a city-block-sized soccer field and Granby Street.

11. Armed men were posted on the roof of the club, and I had to pass a phalanx of plainclothes and uniformed officers to get to what appeared to be a designated free-speech area.

12. Hartford police officers dotted the field between us demonstrators and the club.

13. The crowd consisted of neighbors, Weaver High School students whose teachers had trooped them over for a live civics lesson, 50 or so war protesters (bearing a sheaf of a few hundred printed cardboard signs), and law enforcement officers in street attire.

14. There appeared to be TV crews on the far side of Granby Street in the vicinity of the club.

15. At about 10:45, a military helicopter appeared from the direction of Bradley Airport and disappeared below the horizon to the west.

16. At about 11:00, a formation of motorcyclists appeared on Granby Street, six Hartford officers in ranks of two, followed by three ranks of black-clad, black-helmeted Darth-Vader types on what looked like top-of-the-line black Harleys.

17. The cyclists performed a display of precision riding, even though their audience was so far away that they were barely visible. Somebody remarked that they looked like the Shriners that appear at parades.

18. This was not a parade.

19. At about 11:05, a convoy of white vans appeared from the north on Granby Street, all with tinted glass.

20. Six or seven of the vans passed the club and U-turned on Granby Street to park between us and the club, obstructing our view of the event and Bush’s view of us.

21. It was the defendants’ intent, in barricading public streets, in erecting a restraining fence across public property, in its display of armed force and in allowing the vans to park along Granby Street, to keep Bush hundreds of yards from the demonstrators and out of view.

22. From the standpoint of the Weaver students (several of whom picked up a sign to protest the war), what they saw was, on one side of the fence, a display befitting a third-world despot, a leader who can't show his face in public but must instead stage an intimidating display of armed might wherever he goes, and, on the other side of the fence, an exercise in futility.

23. The lesson of the event was that the USA is now a dictatorship and that no challenge, no dissent, no protest will ever be heard, much less heeded.

24. The Connecticut constitution (the Constitution) gives the people authority over the government, and not vice-versa.

25. According to Section 2 of Article One of the Constitution, “All political power is inherent in the people, and all free governments are founded on their authority, and instituted for their benefit; and they have at all times an undeniable and indefeasible right to alter their form of government in such manner as they may think expedient."

26. According to Section 14 of Article One of the Constitution, “The citizens have a right, in a peaceable manner, to assemble for their common good, and to apply to those invested with the powers of government, for redress of grievances, or other proper purposes, by petition, address or remonstrance."

27. According to Section 5 of Article One of the Constitution, “No law shall ever be passed to curtail or restrain the liberty of speech or of the press.”

28. Hartford law enforcement personnel, at the direction of the defendants and in violation of the Constitution, deprived me of these fundamental rights.

29. I was damaged as a resident of the City and a citizen of this state by the defendants’ unlawful barricading of the public streets of this state for the purpose of keeping me from remonstrating with the leaders of my government for the redress of grievances.

30. I was damaged as a resident of the City and a citizen of this state by the chilling effect of the defendants’ actions and the resulting demoralization, discouragement, and disenfranchisement of my fellow citizens and neighbors, curtailing the exercise of my civil rights and obligations.

31. I was damaged and disadvantaged as a candidate for public office by the chilling effect of the actions of the defendants, which were intended to interfere with participation in this event and which thereby deprived me of the society of my constituents and supporters.

32. I was damaged as a citizen-journalist, confined unlawfully to an area far distant from the event I was there to cover and report on.

I demand compensatory and punitive damages and an apology, along with my costs.

Dated at Hartford, Connecticut, this 4^th day of September 2008

The Plaintiff

Stephen Fournier

74 Tremont Street

Hartford, Connecticut 06105

Pro Se

Subscribed and sworn to before me at Hartford, Connecticut, this 4^th day of September, 2008.

Ruth Fournier

Notary Public

My commission expires 1/31/2010