It comes down to this?
The American neo-fascist police state in full bloom..........
Probe urged of stormtroopers' actions during FTAA protests The United
Steelworkers of America on Monday called for a congressional investigation into
the conduct of Miami police and for the firing of Chief John Timoney after last
week's demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas. The letter,
signed by the union's international president, Leo Gerard, criticized the use
of ''massive force, riot gear and armaments, including combat vehicles'' to
quell the crowds of demonstrators. The situation was a ''massive police
state,'' the letter said. The letter also condemned the use of federal money
for Miami's 'security' costs, calling it money for ''homeland repression.'' The
money -- $8.5 million -- was tacked onto an $87 billion spending bill for Iraq.
Miami reporter unclear why she was arrested at FTAA protest A reporter for an
alternative weekly newspaper said Monday that she doesn't understand why she
was arrested during last week's protests outside the Free Trade Area of the
Americas meeting.
The Rise of the American Police State, by Sunni Maravillosa
Is America a Police State?
Citizens for Legitimate Government
Published on Thursday, November 27, 2003 by CommonDreams.org
Hogtied and Abused at Fort Benning
by Kathy Kelly
On Sunday, November 23, I took part in a nonviolent civil disobedience action
at Fort Benning, GA, to protest the U.S. Army´s School of the Americas (SOA,
now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for Security Cooperation -- WHISC).
Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort Benning and were arrested,
US Military Police took us to a warehouse on the base for “processing.” I
was directed to a station for an initial search, where a woman soldier began
shouting at me to look straight ahead and spread my legs.
I turned to ask her why she was shouting at me and was ordered to keep my mouth
shut, look straight ahead, and spread my legs wider.
She then began an aggressive body search. When ordered to raise one leg a
second time, I temporarily lost my balance while still being roughly searched
and, in my view, ‘womanhandled.’
I decided that I shouldn’t go along with this dehumanizing action any longer.
When I lowered my arms and said, quietly, “I’m sorry, but I can’t any
longer cooperate with this,” I was instantly pushed to the floor. Five
soldiers squatted around me, one of them referring to me with an expletive
(this f_ _ _ er) and began to cuff my wrists and ankles and then bind my wrists
and ankles together.
Then one soldier leaned on me, with his or her knee in my back. Unable to get a
full breath, I gasped and moaned, “I can’t breathe.” I repeated this many
times and then began begging for help. When I said, “Please, I’ve had four
lung collapses before,” the pressure on my back eased.
Four soldiers then carried me, hogtied, to the next processing station for
interrogation and propped me in a kneeling position. The soldier standing to my
left, who had been assigned to “escort” me, gently told me that soon the
ankle and wrist cuffs, which were very tight, would be cut off. He politely let
me know that he would have to move my hair, which was hanging in front of my
face, so that my picture could be taken. I told him I’d appreciate that.
I was then carried to the next station. There, one of the soldiers who’d been
part of pushing me to the floor knelt in front of me, and, with his nose about
two inches from mine, told me that because I was combative I should know that
if I didn’t do exactly as instructed when they uncuffed one hand, he would
pepper spray me. I asked him to describe how I’d been combative, but he
didn’t answer.
After the processing, I was unbound, shackled with wrist and ankle chains, and
led to the section where other peaceful activists, also shackled, awaited
transport to the Muskogee County jail.
At our bond hearing on Monday, Nov. 24, a military prosecutor told the federal
judge that the military was considering an additional charge against me for
resisting arrest. I explained my side of the story to the judge, grateful that
there are at least sevreal witnesses upon whom I could call.
The federal judge determined that most of us were “flight risks” and
increased by 100% the cash bond required before we could be released, from last
year´s $500. to $1000. Today I have a black eye and the soreness that comes
with severe muscle strain. Mostly, I’m burdened with a serious question,
“What are these soldiers training for?”
The soldiers conducting that search must have been ordered not to tolerate the
slightest dissent. They were practicing intimidation tactics far beyond what
would be needed to control an avowedly nonviolent group of protesters who had
never, in thirteen years of previous actions, caused any disruption during the
process of arrest.
Bewildered, most of us in the “tank” inside the Muskogee County jail
acknowledged that during the rough processing we wondered, “What country do
we live in?”
We now live in a country where Homeland Security funds pay for exercises which
train military and police units to control and intimidate crowds, detainees,
and arrestees using threat and force.
This morning’s aches and pains, along with the memory of being hogtied, give
me a glimpse into the abuses we protest by coming to Fort Benning, GA. As we
explore the further invention of nonviolence in our increasingly volatile time,
it’s important that we jointly overcome efforts to deter our determination to
stand together against what Martin Luther King once called, “the violence of
desperate men,” -- and women.
Kathy Kelly is the founder of Voices in the Wilderness, a human rights group
based in Chicago that worked to lift the economic sanctions against Iraq.
.
|
