Protest Organizer in tussle:As tempers boil, Hindi smashes windshield, is arrested

Tuesday, September 4, 1990

Pottsville (PA.) Republican

By Daryl Nerl

Hegins – The hot Monday morning sun baked more than 300 animal rights activists and a few hundred of their heckling opponents as tempers heated to a boil outside the front gates of Hegins Park.

Five hours into the 57th annual Fred Coleman Pigeon Shoot, those emotions exploded into a violent free-for-all between protestors, counter-protesters and police.

While the claps of shotgun fire could be heard through the Hegins Valley, 23 activists and four shoot supporters were arrested. Cuts and bruises were distributed among police and protestors.

Officially, three state troopers suffered minor injuries. At least five protesters also were hurt, including a Philadelphia man who said excessive police force led to his suffering a dislocated shoulder.

A car windshield was smashed.

The most serious violent incident began shortly after protesters decided to leave the park grounds.

As the activists backed away from the park entrance, the shoot supporters sang a singsong goodbye and followed them through the parking lot.

“The cops are saying to us that these people are too drunk to control and that there might be trouble if we don’t leave,” said Miki Macdonald, an animal rights activist from Pittsburgh.

“I didn’t hear that at all,” said state police press secretary Thomas C. Lyon. “I’m not saying that someone in law enforcement didn’t say that I just didn’t hear it.”

Protesters were not kept separate from the crowd and heated verbal exchanges became a regular occurrence as the morning progressed. The topics ranged from whether pigeons feel pain, to what other causes protesters could devote their time, to the patriotism of those arguing. Sometimes the argument sank to the level of racial epithets and obscene gestures.

Hegins Township Police Chief Melvin Stutzman blamed that situation on a lack of leadership on the part of protestors.

“There were 23 groups here,” Stutzman said. “They just had no leadership. You didn’t have key people to talk to. There was no organization. If they had one or two people running the whole thing it could have been a lot easier to control.”

Eventually, state police Capt. John S. Kroton shut the protest down. “The verbal confrontation was turning into a physical confrontation,” said Lyon, who added that police were not assigning blame to either side for that situation.

The protesters marched through the center of the parking lot back toward waiting buses and cars as local observers laughed and taunted them.

“Big guns, small minds,” retorted Steven Hindi, the Plano, Ill. resident around whom much of the pigeon protest has mobilized.

One burly man, dressed in jeans and a polo shirt decided he wanted to take Hindi on in his challenge to a physical confrontation with a shoot organizer and decided to take him on there. The two men went after each other, but could barely before the police intervened and other protesters pulled Hindi away.

“This event is out of control,” Hindi said. “The police are out of control. When the other guys pushed us, the cops did nothing.”

“The mistake we made is that we planned it a month ahead,” Hindi told reporters as he walked away. Next year, we’ll bring thousands.”

The protesters stalled near the parking lot exit as vehicles attempted to get through. A pickup truck nicked a couple of the protesters as it weaved through the crowd.

“He hit me,” shouted a placard-carrying man to a mounted state trooper.

A white Firebird was next in line and it, according to protesters, weaved toward some of them bumping a few more.

Hindi jumped in front of the car.

The Firebird sped up, Hindi jumped on the car as it took off west on Route 25. Hindi kicked the windshield in and the car stopped.

Protesters, counter-protesters, troopers and members of the media headed for the car.

Seconds later, Hindi and the driver of the car, Michael Stewart, 23, of Annville, were staring each other down. Stewart was reaching into his pants.

“What have you got there pal?” Hindi asked.

“He’s got a gun,” a few of the nearby protesters exclaimed.

The passenger then came after Hindi with bare fists and started swinging. He chased the Illinois man who dove between two parked cars.

What came next was a barrage of flailing arms and hooves. Bodies were flying. Someone hit Hindi’s brother, Gregory, of Wichita, Kansas, who promptly got off the ground with fists clenched screaming, “Who hit me?”

Seconds after that, a mounted trooper pointed Gregory Hindi out as a candidate for arrest. Two other troopers dragged him away.

Gregory Hindi ended up with a bloodied elbow and was charged with disorderly conduct. His brother suffered cuts to his forehead and was charged with disorderly conduct and criminal damage to property.

They both pleaded not guilty to the charges, were released on bail, and will face a hearing before District Justice Earl H. Matz Jr., Tremont.

Stewart was charged with disorderly conduct.

“I was trying to leave when a guy jumped on the hood,” said Stewart, nearly in tears. “He kicked a window in. I got out and he came at me. I didn’t say anything to him. Not a word. What am I supposed to do? Drive home in this?”

Hindi said he wasn’t sure that Stewart was toting a pistol. He only saw that he was reaching into his pants.

Arrested protesters were brought to the Hegins Township garage in Valley View and held in a fenced-off area until they could be preliminarily arraigned by Matz, the duty magistrate, and District Justice James R. Ferrier, Orwigsburg, who was called in as part of an emergency plan when things got hairy.

An emergency contingent of 30 state troopers was called in from Hazleton, Lykens and Harrisburg barracks as the day progressed as well. Forty state troopers, six members of the Schuylkill County Sheriff’s Department, two county detectives and two Hegins Township police officers were initially assigned to cover the event.

When the Hindi brothers were brought to the temporary lockup late in the afternoon, they were greeted with loud cheers by the other protesters who were arrested as well as a large continent of other protesters who stayed for moral support and to help their cohorts make bail.

“I haven’t done anything heroic today,” Hindi said. “All I did was kick in a windshield to get myself off of the car.”

“These people are really special,” he added, pointing to others around him in the lockup who protested by running onto the field where the caged birds were released as targets. “To do what they did took courage.”

“You can’t call it a success,” said Joseph Taksel, president of Mobilization for Animals a Pittsburgh-based animal rights group. “The birds died.”

Steven Hindi agreed with that assessment, but his brother, Gregory was more pleased with the results.

“I knew it was going to get heated,” he said. “We were trying to put a stop to it. I personally want to put a damper on their slaughter holiday. It makes me happy to do it.”

Other protesters still were arrested at the main picketing area near the front entrance of the shooting area.

One of those people was Bernard Unti, 29, of Philadelphia, who claimed that state police wrenched his shoulder, dislocating it. After waiting several hours to be released on bail, he said he would be seeking medical attention at the Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center.

“I came today because I was interested in certain freedom of speech issues,” Unti said. He said he had heard that police were confiscating bullhorns and he decided to test the issue by asking an officer if it was all right to carry one.

As soon as he showed the bullhorn to Stutzman, he grabbed the bullhorn away and four state troopers wrestled him to the ground, Unti said.

Stutzman said afterward that the bullhorn rule was agreed upon by protesters.

One of the troopers, Unti said, throttled him by the neck for one minute, while he was on the ground. “Finally I was able to get out the words, ‘I’m not resisting,’ and he released his grip a little.”

By then, however, Unti said, police had him in a position that made it difficult to move his arms. Troopers asked him to take an arm out from under him. He told them he couldn’t he said. One trooper pulled the arm out, injuring him, he said.

“Fortunately, no one was hurt seriously,” Stutzman said. “I’m not pleased with the way things went, but it could have been a lot worse.”