This is our press release after we were physically assaulted by staff attorney Mathew Coles and other staff members of the Northern California Chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union on the 200th Anniversary of the Bill of Rights at their fundraiser.

Dissidents Assaulted by American Civil Liberties Union Staff at 200th Anniversary of Bill of Rights Celebration! For Immediate Release December, 1991

American Civil Liberties Union staff members in San Francisco physically accosted seven women who were peacefully distributing leaflets at an ACLU fundraising event. This fundraiser, planned at the Westin St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco, was held to celebrate Bill of Rights Day, the 200th anniversary of the Bill of Rights.
     The seven women were distributing leaflets protesting the Northern California ACLU's attempt to suppress the organization, Always Causing Legal Unrest. This organization parodies the American Civil Liberties Union, particularly targeting their support of violent pornography (including child pornography). The A.C.L.U. publishes controversial political buttons, through their group A.C.L.U./Pushing Buttons and operate A.C.L.U./Nemesis Publishing. The American Civil Liberties Union originally threatened legal action to force Always Causing Legal Unrest to change its name, claiming that it alone is entitled to use a name with the acronym "ACLU".
     ACLU staff grabbed several women in an attempt to prevent the distribution of their leaflets. In the scuffle a framed work of art protesting the ACLU's pro-pornography stance was broken by American Civil Liberties Union staff attorney Mathew Coles. After the attack, demonstrator Nikki Craft called the police and, when they arrived, filed battery and vandalism charges against the ACLU attorney.
     "The whole time I was in there I kept thinking, where's a civil rights attorney when you need one," Craft said. Penelope Seator, another protester who was accosted, said "They seemed to think that their fundraiser was more important than my right to free speech."
     In addition to manhandling the protesters, several members of the ACLU staff, including Executive Director Dorothy Ehrlich, tried to discourage the protest, saying that the actions were "not appropriate."
     "Their arrogance was shocking to behold. They repeatedly grabbed us by the arm, jerked us around to face them, and frantically said, 'You can not leaflet in here!'" Nikki Craft said, and added, "As First Amendment fundamentalists they should know better. The chillingly scary thing is that their suppression might have worked if we hadn't really held our ground in there that night. They just blundered on from one contradiction to another with no comprehension of what they were up against."
     When one form of intimidation didn't prevent the group from leafleting, the monitors then began selectively demanding that the protesters alone produce tickets in an area where tickets were not required. Then, when Craft produced her ticket to enter the auditorium she was physically assaulted from behind by two or three ACLU staff persons.
     Always Causing Legal Unrest members are bemused by the ACLU's attempts to stop them, since the ACLU has long advocated as constitutionally protected the freedom to parody, satirize and even defame symbols revered by many, such as the American flag and religious images. Why, then, this attempt to proscribe the similar treatment of a symbol of their own organization?
     In an ironic touch that exhibits a hearty sense of humor--perhaps, Dorothy M. Ehrlich, Executive Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, Inc., gave Bill of Rights Day (December 15th) as the deadline by which Always Causing Legal Unrest must respond to their proscription.
     Always Causing Legal Unrest advocates that women begin to more fully understand the role violence plays in their lives. Always Causing Legal Unrest uses creative parody and intentionally provocative violent language and images to explore various strategies for self-defense; as well as to confront men about the violence that they perpetrate against women as a class.