I've been listening in at the boardroom for the
Thom Hartmann Program since discovering them at the
YoungTurks recent 100 hour, 24/7 Filibuster the Filibuster marathon. We tune into fine talk audio streams from all over the globe and share the best streams we find. Today I was listening to
Head On with Bob Kincaid
Late Monday, we met online with caller Kenneth Harris from Greensboro and a member of the Greensboro Seven. The Greensboro Seven are friends; Six men and one woman from Greensboro, North Carolina. These brave young people joined the North Carolina Chapter of World Can't Wait's "March to Drown Out Bush Lies," through downtown Greensboro last Tuesday, January 31, 2006 during the President's State of the Union Address. The Chapter has an excellent write-up and background on the movement at North Carolina World Can't Wait
George Saba honored me with a long interview after the show and this is mostly his story, collected as he told it, below the fold.
Nationwide last Tuesday, starting at 9:00pm on the east coast, large groups of people marched on their public commons with pots banging, in a shout heard around the world of direct protest against the Bush Administration.
I chatted with George Saba, another of the Greenboro Seven, tonight after Kenneth Harris' call-in.
Here's what I learned from George. He's a Guilford College student from Miami, Florida who's lived four years in Greensboro and became an official city resident just a few weeks ago.
Our seven young community minded individuals, one other a student from University of North Carolina Greensboro, met up with between 150-200 other people in a peaceful march down Elm Street and all over downtown Greensboro; a big loop ending back on the far side of Elm Street. As the march ended, the crowd headed back to the starting place at Elm & Lewis. Lay of the Land Overview of Downtown Greensboro
George, Kenneth, and their friends spotted a man about 6'3" wearing plain urban clothes with a video camera, taping the backs of cars on Lewis Street, off the main demonstration route,. They approached him to investigate and asked multiple times what was he doing. Was he a police officer? If so, could they see a badge? He briefly filmed them, saying nothing, and returned to capturing the car license plates.
So these seven kids, started standing in front of those license plates, blocking the camera. They continued questioning the stranger. Who is he? Why is he videotaping? Before long the man shut off the camera, stashed it in his coat, and became much more visibly agitated. He then started making threats to them, saying, "You'd better get the f__k out of my way or I'm gonna knock you out." He pushes past people and bumping them with his shoulder, demanding, "Do you have a problem?," and "Don't touch me."
He's shoving his way through the group and our Guilford student, George, starts to feel that the situation is calming down and things are over. The man walks past Kenneth, but he bumps him and then takes a step, as if he is walking away.
Then he turns, grabs the back of Kenneth's black hoodie, and starts punching him in the side of the head! The man gets in three or four blows before Kenneth slips out of his grasp, just in time for the man to pull a gun, which some of the witnesses recognized as a glock. http://www.glock.com/.
The man turns out to be Earnest Cuthbertson,
apparently an affiliate or employee of
Mississippi Association of School Resource Officers.
But at this point he's still just a guy in the street with a camera and a gun, and he hasn't said anything about being a cop.
George started yelling immediately for help.
Suddenly cops rush in from all around them, about 15 with their guns drawn.
All hell breaks loose at this point, so to avoid getting shot, George starts running.
No shots were fired, but as George turned to look back, he saw his buddy Kyle getting pushed against a car, he believes with Cuthbertson's gun to his head.
George was tackled and handcuffed, and all seven were taken to jail. George was arrested for Public Disturbance GMC 14-288.2 and Assaulting a Law enforcement officer GMC 14-33(c)(4) and all were released about four hours later.
Earnest Cuthbertson was the arresting officer and he signed the ticket.
Their local paper, which is carried online ran their story on February 2nd, contrasting the police perspective with theirs, and inexplicably printing all of their names, ages and complete home addresses in the article! Which is why I won't bother including that link here, until all the involved police officers names and home addresses are also made public in that venue.
These kids are understandably shaken by the experience, particularly given Greensboro's historic record of political uprisings and the real state of the Union. They were starting to really like Greensboro, but it's looking like staying may not be best. They ask that anyone who can help the Grreensboro Seven mount a legal defense, with either financial or legal resources, please shoot them a note at greensboro7@gmail.com.
Thanks Bob and much love too for Ben Burch at www.whiterosesociety.org/ for hosting some VERY fine radio. Ben's also carried the Kenneth Harris interview over to Indymedia.
UPDATE: It's a backdate, where Dood Abides caught this bird first at here, noting Channel 2 CBS affilliate WFMI Greenboro's coverage that night, which indicated that pepperspray was used, sending at least one person to the hospital, though it isn't clear whether pepperspray was used on the Greensboro Seven. George did not mention it. Maybe they'll confirm or deny below. They'll be by here today to read responses.
It's worth noting that Greensboro has a
long and
bloody history of protest. Good Examples:
The Greensboro Four 1960
The Greensboro Five 1979