Who could have predicted? Police over reactions making a situation worse instead of better. Outright brutality on a whim. Still, it takes an especially brave cop to arrest an eleven-year old girl for felony assault, particularly when she was out protesting against war and violence.
Except that this "felony assault" took place ten years ago, proving that there is nothing new under the fog in the Bay Area when it comes to the police. Those following my diaries on local Occupy protests can compare "peace officers" contemporary disregard for the Bill or Rights with a decade ago:
May 26, 2002: An anti-war protest on the Golden Gate Bridge turned ugly Saturday when police stopped northbound traffic to arrest demonstrators, causing a backup several miles long...
and then
As marchers neared the north end of the bridge about 1:35 p.m., officers in riot gear blocked the footpath and ordered everyone to turn around and leave the bridge to the south. Many marchers balked, because the permit had not expired, and the north end of the bridge lay much closer than the south. CHP quickly shut down all northbound, and later even the southbound lanes, backing up traffic for miles.
That was brilliant. Cause a massive traffic jam arresting people who were actually on the walkway, not the traffic lanes, and who still had a non-expired permit to be protesting. Then it got even more insane.
Police pushed south into the marchers with pepper spray and batons, arresting more than two dozen people for blocking the walkway. The crowd was forced all the way off the south end of the bridge.
Among 34 people arrested that day was 11-year-old Sophia Ibrahim, a Palestinian girl who was booked on a felony charge of assaulting an officer. The marchers had already left the bridge yet were still being herded through a parking lot... Ibrahim, her younger sister and older brother were among several marchers nearest the corralling cops. She told police not to touch her as they physically pushed the group along... When she again told a sergeant not to push her, police claimed she also touched the officer's helmet. Three helmeted officers reacted, grabbing the tall youngster from the crowd, throwing her to the ground and leaving her face down in the grass, handcuffed behind her back. Her older brother Musa was later cited for felony child endangerment when he inquired about his sister in custody.
Google isn't enlightening me as to what ultimately happened to Sophia and the other protesters. (1) Too bad, I would be interested to know. But what, you are probably asking, does all this have to do with the here and now other than as a lesson that, sometimes, "things do NOT get better." ?
Fourteen labor unions associated with the Golden Gate Bridge Transporation District have been operating without a contract for almost a year now. A major sticking point, as with most labor disputes these days, is health care benefits. They have formed the Golden Gate Labor Coalition to talk with one voice to the District's management.
Cognizant of the Occupy movement's committment to labor solidarity; e.g., with the ILWU rank and file at Longview, Washington and the Castlewood Country Club workers -- who are still locked out after two years, this coalition has been working with Bay Area Occupiers on a potential strike beginning May 1st, International Worker's Day, along with an early morning protest action at the Golden Gate Bridge.
So I lied. Or at least the title is misleading. The Golden Gate Bridge is not being shut down in protest over once 11-year old Sophia Ibrahim's arrest nor the brutal and absurd police actions taken against her and other protesters that day (but wouldn't it be cool if it was to be dedicated in her honor?).
The action is in support of a labor dispute where workers are, as usual, being told to STFU and pay a larger and larger amount towards health insurance and their pensions. Occupy stands with all laborers and so, after a rally and march on Saturday in downtown San Francisco -- organized by Coalition members with guest appearances by Occupiers -- on Sunday Occupy Oakland's General Assembly passed the following resolution:
If any of the unions on the Golden Gate bridge declare a strike or shutdown on May Day, we will act in solidarity with these striking workers and the international call for a general strike on May Day, by blockading the flow of capital to the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District. This will be accomplished by a collaboration of pickets and direct action which will shut down all modes of transportation from Marin to San Francisco.
Then, of course, came the tweets...
Occupy the Bridge @OccupytheBridge
#OccupyOakland unanimously endorsed the shutdown! Hope the bosses at the bridge know what's in for them this Mayday #oo #m1gs#occupythebridge
Occupy the Bridge @OccupytheBridge
We're thinking you might want to give your workers a fair contract, @GGBridge. Occupy is standing with them now & we dont back down. #oo#osf
Nothing is definite yet, but if no contract is negotiated before May 1st another in a series of historic actions your children and grandchildren might read about -- or watch on whatever becomes of Youtube in twenty years -- could well take place.
Iconic as it is, the Bridge has not always been viewed as a stage for protest. The first Golden Gate Bridge shutdown action took place more than fifty years years after the bridge opened in 1937. It was not until the height of the AIDS crisis, in 1989, that it saw a shutdown protest take place.
The first time a protest shut down the Golden Gate Bridge was in 1989, when several dozen AIDS activists stepped into rush-hour traffic to protest the slow pace of AIDS research.
On January 31, 1989, activists from Stop AIDS Now or Else (SANOE) block the morning commute on the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. © Rick Gerharter
Here's an amazing video of the action and the theory behind the action (don't give up; the first few seconds are blank):
"48,000 dead from AIDS. Where was George?"
Since then the Golden Gate Bridge's status as one of the world's premier landmarks has made it a natural site for other kinds of protests (2).
Demonstrations against the U.S. role in the Persian Gulf War briefly shut down the bridge in 1991...
In 1996, actor Woody Harrelson and eight others tied up traffic for more than five hours when they scaled the bridge to make a point about redwood forests. Although the demonstrators did not block cars, authorities shut down lanes of the bridge to get Harrelson and the others down.
In 2007, a Code Pink protest was
pre-emptively shut down:
January 1, 2007: Around 2pm today San Francisco police officers and Highway patrol officrs closed down Golden Gate Bridge to all bicyclist and pedestrians.
CodePink, an women initiated peace and social justice movement had planned to march across the Golden Gate Bridge in protest to the war in Iraq.
Several CodePink members were arrested in the confrontation.
Code Pink members being arrested for daring to question a senseless war
No one knows what's going to happen if thousands of people converge at the bridge that screams 'San Francisco' to the world, on a day that means 'Workers' Rights' around the world. But if this very recent tweet is any indicator
Occupy the Bridge @OccupytheBridge
News from #GGBridge negotiations. Bridge bosses still refusing 2 budge on providing affordable health care 4 employees #occupythebridge #OO
it looks like we're going to find out.
(1) You can read through comments about the event and find the exact same disgust at police behavior, the exact same excuses for police behavior, the same criticisms of the protesters, and the exact same hatred towards them you will find anywhere Occupy protests are being debated. Here's a touch:
Im sorry but those police are sick! I was there and a huge police shouldn't arrest a 10 year-old girl and throw her on the ground! That little girl's best friend, brother, and sister were crying and screaming at the police to let her go and they just stood there like robots laughing! Yes, they were laughing and the little girl's best friend because she was crying!
... get a life people. Do something to add value to society. Don't just complain. What are you doing to increase your education?
...But these protests by these type of people don't do the cause any good. They detract from the cause.
You sound like a fucking Taliban. And you act like one too. Get the fuck out of my country, you boot-licking piece of shit.
(2) The Port of Oakland, some ten miles to the east, is not so well known worldwide (although it is said that its cranes inspired the Imperial Walkers from
The Empire Strikes Back).
Nevertheless, the Port has been the target or the site of far more protests than the Golden Gate Bridge, including shutdowns to protest Apartheid in South Africa by longshoremen in the 80's, anti-war protests in the previous decade, labor disputes by Oakland teachers, protests against Israeli policies, and of course the Occupy Oakland General Strike followed a month later by the West Coast Port Shutdown action (Cf. Scott Olsen Will Stand Tall in Support of the West Coast Port Shutdown., and THEY DID IT! Port is SHUT DOWN., and It Was Glorious).