Pacifica turns over 2000 letters and e-mails from listeners protesting Pacifica management actions to the Berkeley police

Transcript from Democracy Now - 6/24/99

Amy Goodman: And in Pacifica news, fourteen people have been arrested so far this week in protests outside of Pacifica station KPFA in Berkeley. Listeners and staff continue to demand the reinstatement of their general manager, fired several months ago. What's unusual about the arrests isthat the Berkeley Police were reluctant to make them, saying the protesters were on private property. This led Pacifica Executive Director Lynn Chadwick to make citizen's arrests.

This week a second KPFA programmer was kicked off the air for bringing up station business on the air. Pacifica has a long-standing gag rule that prohibits the airing of "dirty laundry".

The night that general manager Nicole Sawaya was fired from KPFA, shots were fired into the Pacifica Foundation's national offices in Berkeley, next door to KPFA. Berkeley Police are investigating the shooting as an attempted homicide, and according to Elan Fabri, Pacifica communications director, whose computer was destroyed by the gunfire -- although no one was in the building at the time, an employee arrived twenty minutes later. Fabri also said a homicide detective asked for copies of close to 2000 letters and emails of protests from listeners so a police psychologist could analyze them for signs of violent tendencies. Fabri said the letters are being photocopied and will be delivered to the police.

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