ALMS Conference 2011, "Hidden Heroes: Arrested Activists", Jeri Deitrick, 2011/05/14
Deitrick: One thing I wanted to tell you about was: my favorite arrest was in Chicago [laughs]. And that was–there were, you know, a lot of good things about it, a lot of bad things, but anyhow, one of the things was we were all guilty and we all had–what are they called, warrants?–for seven years, and then it was okay. And people who were in ACT UP who had family members in Illinois had to go back and get that cleared up. But we didn’t all–we couldn’t all keep going back and forth, but you had to go to court, you have to go back and forth. And that’s part of being arrested is like, going through all this bullshit that you have to go through after the arrest. The horrible arrest is not the whole thing.
You have to keep going and every time you go to court you keep on explaining why you’re doing what you're doing and you keep going to the extent that my final–my last arrest–I shouldn’t say my final–my last arrest–I was arrested because we were at the Ronald Reagan state-building and Jan, a really good friend of ours, put ashes [laughter] in the fountain and she was symbolizing the ashes of people who had died of AIDS, but honestly it was the ashes from the riots. But, you know, who knows where ashes come from.
But anyhow, she put the ashes in the fountain and she ran out and someone ran after her. And I didn’t like the way he ran after her and he grabbed her and he was not dressed in a cop uniform or anything. I did not know who he was–well I really knew who he was but you know it didn't look like I would know who he was. And he grabbed her and he was taking her to arrest her and no one was there yet. And so I went to get her out of being arrested and–I can’t believe I did this, but–I was like going to attack him, you know, and I just went like this [mimes punching] and then I realized what I was doing and I sort of moved my arm back. And all I hit was his sunglasses and so his sunglasses fell on the floor and broke. So then, of course, he started going at me and hitting me and stuff and then other cops came and got Jan and, you know, it was really terrible.
But the thing was, I kept going to court, kept going to court, kept going to court, and the final court said, the judge said, that the fine, ”You have ruined this man’s sunglasses and they cost $125 to be replaced. And I’m sure they’ve been replaced by now so you have your choice of giving him $125 or giving $125 to the AIDS service organization of your choice.”
[laughter]
And that’s what you just got to do. You just got to keep on going and keep on–every time you go you educate everybody and that to me, that’s what it’s all about.
[END OF VIDEO]
ALMS Conference 2011 Arrested Activist Jeri
Interviewee: Jeri Deitrick
Interviewer: None
Transcriber: Adrianna T.
Formatter: Serena R.
Recording Date: May 14, 2011
Release Date: December 30, 2016
Location: ALMS Conference in West Hollywood, California
Interview Length: 00:02:41