Welfare activist brutalized by Capitol Police

By Polly Mann

I was present at a demonstration and rally held at the State Capitol on Friday, May 3. It was called by the Welfare Rights organization, protesting the 5-year limitation on welfare grants, the imposition of sanctions and the elimination of $100 from the grant provided to people who live in subsidized housing. The demonstration, begun at about 1:30 p.m. on the steps facing Constitution Avenue, moved into the Capitol Rotunda about 2:30 p.m.
It was a rowdy group of about 100 people. These were not human services administrators or social workers or even community activists, rather these were welfare recipients affected by sanctions too often unfairly and capriciously applied. Among them were women protesting the state’s unwillingness to provide educational grants allowed under the welfare laws, mothers with handicapped children, and Hmong parents having difficulty with the English language. (In case we've forgotten, the Hmong fought in the Vietnam War on the side of the United States and were promised security and a safe haven in this country at the end of the war.)
In the Capitol Rotunda there was a speaker system and the chants of an estimated 150 people could be heard throughout the first floor. One of the chants had to do with “robbing the poor,” referring to $46 million which it was reported the Republican-controlled House is diverting from Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). In other words, welfare funds are being moved to the general budget to be used for tax rebates. There were numerous short speeches, primarily from welfare recipients from the Twin Cities and Duluth, including African Americans, Hmong, and Latinos. The Capitol Security Police, with pistols in holsters, stood about in small groups, laughing and talking to each other.
At 3:30 p.m. the demonstration was concluded. But not quite. Some of the Welfare Rights group had decided to do civil disobedience and about fifty people walked up to the second floor to watch the plan unfold. There, several people sat on a short flight of three steps leading to one of the Capitol chambers, with three or four security guards standing beside them. One of the guards spoke to the seated group, warning them that if they didn't move they would be arrested. The group nodded and then the action began. A shaven-headed state trooper, standing close to where Debby Pflepsen was seated on the steps, picked up her arm, twisted her wrist forward until it appeared he would break it, put his arm around her neck and squeezed it. At one point he grabbed her chin and held it tight. The other guards watched.
I walked several paces up to the stairs, and though quite frightened, said, “You've got to stop this,” and I appealed to the other guards to stop the state trooper from abusing Debby. At about the same time Jane McDonald of the Sisters of St. Joseph, almost as red-faced as Debby, said, “This can't continue.” I looked around to see another McDonald Sister demanding that the brutal treatment stop. Shortly, the perpetrator released his choke hold on Debby and placed handcuffs on her, then she and two other people sitting on the stairs were led away. Their places were then filled with other protestors who were likewise handcuffed and taken away.
A total of eight were taken to jail where they were charged with having committed gross misdemeanors and bail was set at $12,000. I then approached Debby's perpetrator, trying to read the name on his badge. “You want my name?” he asked. I nodded. “Here, let me give you my card,” he said, obviously unconcerned about any repercussions brought about by his previous action. He is James Englin, #37, State Trooper District 2400, of Minnesota State Patrol East Metropolitan Headquarters in Oakdale. The Minneapolis Star Tribune reported the arrests without any mention of the reason for the action. So much for 5-year time limit restrictions for welfare recipients, unreasonable sanctions and cuts in housing grants to people living in subsidized housing, and the people of Welfare Rights who tried in every way to bring home to state legislators the disastrous effects of welfare cuts.
Civil disobedience in adherence to one's conscience doesn't seem to impress people as much today as it once did. Consider how effective civil disobedience was when used by the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. and his followers in demanding equal rights for African Americans as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, and contrast that with the lack of attention paid to the Welfare Rights activists following in their footseps.
So it is today in Minnesota with State Trooper James Englin brutalizing an unarmed woman, secure in the reality of his impunity.