Ellem Murphy submitted this news.  

Bruce Radtke, a retired Bellingham librarian, suffered injuries on Wednesday, August 12 during a violent takedown and arrest by an Olympic National Park ranger, who was assisted by two plainclothesmen, one of whom identified himself as a police officer.   

Radtke, along with three other volunteers loosely affiliated with STOP (savetheolympicpeninsula.org, an organization which had been given permission to leaflet in the park) had been passing out the leaflets to visitors near the Hurricane Ridge Visitors Center.  The leaflets contained information about the Navy's plans to conduct electromagnetic warfare training in the park.   

When Radtke took issue with the Park ranger's statement that he needed to have a permit and the ranger's demand that he show ID and surrender the leaflets, he was grabbed, thrown to the ground, and arrested.

Radtke spent the night at Clallum County Jail and was arraigned in Federal Court in Tacoma the following morning on the charge of assault.  A bench trial is scheduled for October 19th at the Tacoma Federal Court.

Publisher note:  Bruce, as all of us who know him can attest, is a gentle person and a law abiding citizen.  This story just so smacks of being only too true and of being another example of excessive police force used against those who anger the authorities. Bodily injury is a very serious result, especially for the elderly.  

Plain and simple, Bruce Radke would never assult a police officer.  This smells of false charges.