Salon today publishes an account of how the police in Miami went nuts against protesters at the recent Free Trade of the Americas summit.
Salon today publishes an account of how the police in Miami went nuts against protesters at the recent Free Trade of the Americas summit.
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/12/16/miami_police/index.html
Trully amazing but really not a surpise. Sadly, police departments at all levels are now seeing that the Bush Goverment's implication of the Homeland Security Act as an approval to return to the actions that they used against anti-war protesters in the 1960's.
I saw first hand how the police have been taking more power against those who have the courage to fight the power.
I was one of the people who helped shut down Lake Shore Drive in Chicago on the first full night of Gulf War II. Literally thousands of people were marching in anger at Washington's decision to go to war. On top of it, the crowd was made up of a wide variety of people - activists, students, yuppies, senior citizens and lots of kids.
The march ended up moving toward North Michigan Avenue in order to march back to Federal Plaza, where the march began. When we all got there, we got a rude suprise. What looked like close to a 1,000 cops were blocking Michigan Ave. not only to stop the march, but to supress those who dared speak up against the government.
I was near the front and, I'll be honest, I almost soiled myself when I saw all the cops. What made it worse, many were wearing gas masks, apparently ready to shoot tear gas into the crowd.
Now, I work for a pretty conservative and repressive company where the management didn't appreciate my anti-war setiments. I knew that if I got arrested, I could kiss my job goodbye. So, just before the cops moved in to beat and round up all the peacefull protesters, I managed to talk my way out of the encirclement that captured literally thousands of people.
I felt a little ashamed I did it, but lets face it, it takes a special person to be able to stand up to that sort of force and take a beating. I guess I came up a bit short.
Anyway, hundreds of people ended up spending the night in jail, with most people released without any charges posted. The next night, there was a small army of police in the Loop to make sure that it would not happen again.
Every day we let Bush stay in power we get closer to a repressive regime. Next time, if I find myself in the same situation, I will take the beating if it means trying to protect freedom and democracy.