Ithaca, NY -- Mayor Alan Cohen had Fay Gougakis arrested during a city council meeting in front of a audience of dozens including a group of high school students attending the meeting for a class. About seven other people had discussed a proposed external property maintainance ordinance before the arrest, which ended the meeting. The mayor interrupted Fay repeatedly during her speech, long before Fay's time limit was up. After Fay exceeded her three minute limit by less than thirty seconds, the mayor ordered a police officer to "escort Ms. Gougakis out." As members of the audience screamed in horror, Fay was knocked to the floor and handcuffed. Cohen's inappropriate handling of the situation, which brought members of Common Council to tears, forced him to end the meeting early, so that none of the city's business was completed.
Witnesses to the arrest, including members of Common Council, expressed shock at the Mayor's abuse of power. A notable exception was Alderman Edward Hershey, Democrat of the fifth ward, who said "I think, under the circumstances, the mayor made the best of a bad situation." Others disagree, including business owner Joe Wetmore who said "This is one of many incidents where Alan has used the police to silence unwelcome voices. Fay's comments were substantiative, direct and relevant -- Alan was just as wrong to ask here to stop talking as he was to have her arrested."
Last night I was one of many witnesses to Fay Goukakis' arrest at city hall. Fay was speaking at the second of four public hearings scheduled for June 6, 2001. The hearing was about a proposed External Property Maintenance ordinance. After Fay was finished reading her prepared statement, she began to read off addresses of properties owned by Orsen Ledger (a previous speaker had complained about "deplorable conditions" at Ledger's properties -ed). Well before her 3 minutes were up, Alan interrupted her and told her that this wasn't relevant, but she continued. The mayor relented after some members of the audience said, "Let her speak".
I saw Alan keeping a sharp eye on the timer. When the timer beeped to indicate that Fay's time was up, Fay continued for about 20 seconds to finish her argument. Alan interrupted her several times, and then asked her to leave. At least 2 other people who spoke previous to Fay had gone over their three minutes as well and Alan was much more lenient with them.
I remember Alan telling her to leave just as she started walking back to her seat. Usually when I have witnessed Alan telling someone to leave a Common Council meeting, he says, "Leave or you will be arrested". Last night I am positive that he did NOT warn her that she would be arrested, he simply ordered an officer to arrest her. Since she knew she didn't do anything wrong, she said, "I'm not leaving", He told her to leave a few more times and she just kept saying, "I'm not leaving, I did nothing wrong". I didn't turn around right away so I only heard the first officer trying to peacefully escort Fay out of the room. She did start getting loud shouting "I'm not leaving". While I was not seeing this, I did hear her walking away from him. Alan got frustrated, slammed the gavel and said, "We're going into recess". Then he left the room and went into a back room.
I'm not sure where the second officer came from but when I turned around, there were 2 officers trying to get her to leave. People in the audience were confused, they kept saying let her stay she didn't do anything wrong. But while these officers were cornering her, Fay was getting more and more worked up. She was being antagonized by these two officers following her. It was a stressful situation. She was frustrated because she knew she didn't do anything wrong.
She then took a chair and raised it no more than one inch off the ground and slammed it down and said "I'm not leaving". At this point, the second officer tackled her down to the ground with excessive force, knocking many chairs over in the process, and tried to cuff her. He was clearly hurting her. The audience was circled around watching.
In my helplessness, I looked around the room while the officer was attempting to cuff Fay. I saw one member of the audience crying. There was another woman screaming at the top of her lungs to stop this. She was yelling at various members of the audience shouting. "How could you allow them to do this to her". I noticed Paulette Manos looking very upset. I saw someone pleading with Susan Blumanthal. I think Susan had tears in her eyes and she said helplessly, tell him (meaning Alan Cohen). We were all in shock , for we couldn't understand why this was happening. I said a few times, "Alan, stop this". He wasn't in the room with us, but he was in a back room where he could hear everything. Not once did he come out of the back room.
The officer finally cuffed Fay and as she lay face down on the ground, I could here her saying "you are hurting me, please take the cuffs off." She was kept down there for what seemed like forever. One older woman was telling Fay that they (the police officers) were going to help her. The woman who had been shouting started yelling at this woman about how they weren't helping Fay. Norma Schwab rudely told the woman who was yelling that she was escalating the situation and only making it worse. Then the second officer said "okay let's get her out of here." They picked her up and as she was escorted out in cuffs that were too tight, she said "can someone take my bag?" Norma picked it up and Fay said "No, I want one of my friends to take it." Someone took it but I'm not sure who.
Only after she was taken away did Alan return to the room. He made it like she was the one who was in the wrong, when it was clearly his fault. There was no reason for her arrest. I've seen Fay before at many of meetings and I have seen her and other people be far more disruptive than this instance. This incident was a power trip for the tyrant that we call our mayor. Please let as many people know about this because poor Fay is being made out to be in the wrong, which she does not deserve. If you were there last night, please make it known what you witnessed.
