FOUR DOWNTOWN PETITIONERS JOIN IN POLICE COMPLAINT

Four more people filed complaints with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police
Department's Internal Affairs Bureau after they and another person were
thrown off Fremont Street on Friday, detained and threatened with arrest if
they ever returned.

The four -- Tim Bear, Lawrence Thompson, Ben Pederman and Laura Shook --
joined Amy Donaldson, who filed a complaint Tuesday.

The "Fremont Five" contend that they were unlawfully detained for an hour by
police, that the officers behaved belligerently, that the officers refused
to give their badge numbers and names, and that the officers "trespassed"
them by telling them they could never return to Fremont Street under threat
of arrest.

The four were on Fremont Street on Friday afternoon trying to gather
signatures in support of legalizing the medicinal use of marijuana. A
similar measure passed recently in California. They had collected about a
dozen signatures, their spokeswoman said, and were leaving the street
because so few of the people they approached were Nevada residents. But
then, Fremont Street security guards confronted them and called the Police
Department, contending that the group was soliciting.

A Fremont Street spokesman said Tuesday he believed the petitioners were
violating an ordinance that bans interfering with pedestrians by accosting
or soliciting them.

Gary Peck, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of
Nevada, said Wednesday that instead of trying to find fault, police and
Fremont Street managers should be "praising this kind of responsible
citizenship." "And Metro police need to figure out that they do not work for
Fremont Street," Peck added. "They work for the public."

The officers justified their detaining of the petitioners by citing a U.S.
Supreme Court ruling that is known as the Terry Doctrine. That ruling allows
police to search for weapons if they suspect criminal activity. But Peck
said the police went beyond their bounds and were simply being "bullies."

Checked-by: Melodi Cornett