Post in Miami pays for FTAA protest police brutality

2007 Oct 16 23:48 UTC

The Twin Cities' police are already in the mode of intimidation. Minneapolis
police were in fine form for the critical mass ride which involved PReNC (A
pre-RNC strategy session held here over Labor Day weekend). The police attacked
peaceful bike riders and used some of the usual equipment, tazers (can cause
heart attaches and paralysis), pepper spray (burns any open skin it touches)
and excessive force. Read more about it here.

http://www.rncwelcomingcommittee.org/?page_id=120

Don't delude yourselves into thinking the St. Paul/Minneapolis police will be
docile and respectful with any of the protesters. The police that protect your
home and are respectful to you are not the same way when there is a mass
mobilization in town. The reason for this behavior, in my opinion, is that the
police are well indoctrinated against all kinds of protesters, but the focus
will be on the 'bad' protesters, the anarchists. The anarchists I’ve met are
not violent or scary. They are motivated for their causes and well versed in
all forms of civil disobedience (Gandhi and Martin Luther King used Civil
Disobedience, too). Anarchists are and will be vilified to justify the
excessive force that the police WILL use while the RNC is in town. Everyone who
thinks they understand the world of activism as they've read it in the paper or
seen it on the news needs to know these 5 very important points, things I
learned when I began to protest after waking up from my media induced slumber.

1. Anarchists are not the evil protestors you’ve been lead to believe. I have
organized and protested with some anarchists (FTAA - Miami 2003/Global Peace
and Justice Movement) and they do not deserve the negative media hype. All of
the anarchists I've met are non-violent and committed to changes that would
benefit almost everyone. (Read – not corporations or rich people). Although I'm
told there are violent anarchists out there, I have never met one.

2. Diversity of Tactics: What scares the cops and the corporate elite is that
the anarchists allow a 'diversity of tactics' (Read – anything goes and the
city can stuff their permits). This means that the police don’t know what’s
coming. This is scary when they are supposed to be keeping ‘order’ and the
nation is watching and they don’t want to be seen as allowing ‘out of control’
activities (anarchism). Additionally, property destruction is an allowed
tactic. Property destruction is a non-violent TACTIC (no people are hurt; read
- brick through a corporate business' window: Starbucks, Seattle). Other
tactics that have been deemed ‘more acceptable’ are sit-ins, die-ins, street
blockades, and mass 'permitted' marches (read the quotes, in order to have a
rally and express your free speech you/me/anyone needs a permit). Property
Destruction it is often mis-characterized in the media as violent, because
corporate owned media want to dramatize the events, justify the police
brutality and limit the use of the tactic in the future.

3. The City Council is criminalizing the protestors. Civil disobedience is many
things, but here marching without a permit falls into that category. The City
Council, by not talking to the folks who want to organize a 'permitted' march,
are isolating and criminalizing the protesters before they even get to the
street AND they are deferring to the corporate interests of the RNC! There will
be protesters from all over the country coming to the Twin Cities. I would love
it if we were ready with maps, housing, food, etc. The cities make money from
them too because they are part of the spectacle. If the City Council would get
their act together and meet with the organizers, instead of leaving all the
decisions up to the RNC – there wouldn’t be such an undercurrent of mistrust
and criminalization. The people who are planning to come here should have a
place to express their free speech; they will follow whatever parade route is
agreed upon. The local organizers are empowered to make these decisions.

4. Everyone’s and anarchist: After the indoctrination about how bad and vile
the anarchists are, the police lump all the protesters together when they’re on
the street together. So, when the city officials and police spokes people talk
to the media, they reference the 'bad' protesters, but on the street everyone
is guilty until proven innocent.

5. The primary goal is to clear the streets, shut down the public voice and
appease corporate and political interests. [Historical example: I was in the
‘permitted’ march in Miami, 2003 and was tear gassed (can’t breath), pepper
sprayed (burned face and neck), and shot at with rubber bullets (they are hard
and will draw blood). The police indiscriminately rounded people up. The
anarchists, with all their experience, saved me because they were prepared for
the chemicals and helped me navigate my way to safety. When I asked the police
to tell me which way I could go, I was ignored.] Once the police have the
protestors, they put them in holding places out of the way, out of the public
eye (in NYC it was a toxic pier), The media isn’t permitted to go there. This
successfully stifles the free expression of decent. The city just pays the
settlements years after all is said and done and the general public is none the
wiser because the settlements get page 32 coverage long after everything is
over.

Listen to the news the next time you hear about protests or anytime really.
Question the definitions they give you and the assumptions behind the story. My
eyes are opened and I'm still having trouble with all I see. Please, open a
critical ear to the media and the politicians as we move towards the RNC.
Nanette
St. Paul
Sorry this is so long, I've needed to say some of these things since I've been
back from FTAA in Miami, 2003. If you go back and review the press leading up
to the protests in Miami - you'll see the same things happening here.