Eminent Domain Protester Canario Held In Gitmo Style

Lauren Canario, Free State Project member noted for protesting against REAL ID and most recently, the eminent domain taking of Mrs. Kelo's New London, CT home, is being treated inhumanely in Connecticut's high-security York Correctional Institution.

According to close friend Kat Kanning, Canario, arrested Sept 22, on a mere charge of trespassing (on property she had a valid lease agreement with the owner for), is being held in shackles under bright lights 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. While she can receive mail, she can neither make or receive phone calls, nor send out mail.

The shackling and lighting treatment is one that has historically been used by oppressive governments to break the will of political prisoners and spies, prior to mind control indoctriation or interrogation. That she is being held in solitary confinement in the prisons psych ward is indicative of Soviet era reports of political prisoners being institutionalized as psychiatric patients. Prison officials allege that they've put her in the psych ward because she refuses to talk.

Thus, she is being treated as a psych patient only because she is exercising her right to not cooperate with her oppressors and her right to not speak.

Nor, apparently, does she have a lawyer. Bill Von Winkle, a Fort Trumbull homeowner from whom Canario rented an apartment, helped her get a lawyer, but “when she saw that I wasn't walking, that I was dragged, she decided she didn't want to represent me,” Canario said.

The silence that has frustrated two judges was not planned, she said at one of her public appearances.

“When I get angry, I can't talk,” she said.

Neither have the courts appointed counsel for her, another violation of her rights. Thus, she remains in a condition much like that of the 'unlawful enemy combatants' that President Bush is holding in Guantanamo Bay.

While we in the US are now familiar with this 24-hour-a-day lighting treatment having been used improperly on Iraqi prisoners at Abu Ghraib prison by US forces, and in Guantanamo's notorious "Camp X-Ray", on some of the most heinous terrorist enemies of the United States, we are shocked to see this sort of treatment being perpetrated upon a middle aged woman arrested for the mere charge of trespassing (again, on property she had a valid lease to be on from the lawful owner).

A call made to York Correctional Institution resulted in a refusal by staff on duty to make any statement about Lauren's condition, deferring to Major Karen Oien, who will be available tomorrow for comment.

Inquiries to NH Governor John Lynch's office as to whether he will try to intercede with CT Gov. Jodi Rell to protect the rights of Canario, who is a New Hampshire resident, have been made, but not responded to.

What does the government have to fear from a middle aged woman who offered absolutely no resistance to her arrest, has no record of any violent crimes, who is being abused for her exercise of her right of silence and noncooperation?

Lauren can, apparently, receive letters, so those wishing to express support for her can mail them to:

Lauren Canario #334457
c/o York Correctional Institution
201 West Main Street
Niantic, CT 06357

If you wish to ask NH Governor Lynch to intercede on Lauren's behalf, you can call his office at 603 271-2121 and ask for Amy Harrington. Be polite.

Those wishing to get worked up can, of course, call CT Gov. Jodi Rell's office at (800) 406-1527. Be sure to note Lauren's prisoner number.

We'll be back tomorrow with updates on what the powers that be say about Lauren's treatment.