Rense.com

Police Attack Oakland
Anti-War Protesters

By Martha Mendoza
From Common Dreams.org
4-8-3


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Police open fired Monday morning with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland, injuring several longshoremen standing nearby.
 
A protestor, who refused to give her name, bears the wounds after she says was hit by Oakland police weapon during a anti-war protest in Oakland, Calif., Monday, April 7, 2003 outside the port area. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
 
What Do You Think?
 
Tell Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown:
officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com
 
 
 
Berkeley resident Clay Hinson (R), who was shot once in the chest and twice in the back during an anti-war protest, shows his wounds to an Oakland Police sergeant (L) who takes his statement at the West Oakland train station, April 7, 2003. Oakland police fired rubber bullets and wooden pellets on Monday to disperse hundreds of anti-war protesters in what was believed to be their first such use against U.S. protesters since the American-led war on Iraq began. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne
Police were trying to clear protesters from an entrance to the docks when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were caught in the line of fire.
 
Six longshoremen were treated by paramedics and at least one was expected to be taken to a hospital. It was unclear if any of the protesters was injured.
 
"I was standing as far back as I could," saidlongshoreman Kevin Wilson. "It was very scary. All of that force wasn't necessary."
 
Last week, a San Francisco-based peace group, <http://www.actagainstwar.org/>Direct Action to Stop the War, had announced that it would stage a series of protests Monday involving new acts of civil disobedience.
 
The Port of Oakland was among the targets, organizers had said, because at least one shipping company is handling war supplies.
 
Trent Willis, a business agent for the International Longshore and Warehouse Union, said angrily that dockworkers were leaving the docks after the incident.
 
"They shot my guys. We're not going to work today," Willis said. "The cops had no reason to open up on them."
 
Police used non-lethal bullets, sandbags and concussion grenades to try to break up about 500 protesters, who split into groups in front of different terminals.
 
Oakland Police officer James Carroll said police set up a "skirmish line" and ordered the protesters to disperse.
 
 
 
 
"It escalated pretty quick," he said. "Usually you go to these protests and you wait around for three to four hours. Today, all of a sudden, people were being taken into custody." He could not confirm that anyone was hit by the bullets.
 
Protests also took place at the federal building in San Francisco and at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. Seven people were arrested when they temporarily blocked an exit ramp off Interstate 280.
 
An Oakland Police officer fires a shotgun towards a group of anti-war protesters near the Port of Oakland, April 7, 2003. Oakland police fired rubber bullets and wooden pellets on Monday to disperse hundreds of anti-war protesters in what was believed to be the first such use against U.S. protesters since the American-led war on Iraq began. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne
© 2003 The Associated Press
 
 FAIR USE NOTICE This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. For more information go to: <http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml>http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this site for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use', you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
Common Dreams <http://www.commondreams.org/>NewsCenter
© Copyrighted 1997-2003 <http://www.commondreams.org/>
www.commondreams.org
 
 
 
Comment
 
From Lucille
Spacek@ameritech.net
4-9-3
 
Friends,
Thoughts have come into my head, since I first heard about the protesters, in Oakland, who were shot with rubber bullets, wooden dowls and etc. Who are these policeman who can so wontonly carry out these assaults and attempted murders? Rubber bullets do kill, a dowl in the eyesocket could enter a brain, and kill. Where were these cyborg stormtroopers programmed and recruited from? Are many of them Gulf War vets? What of the marines and soldiers, whom everyone wishes to come home 'safely', arn't 'safe' anymore, in civilian populations? What of those who have been allowed to slaughter civilians at checkpoints in Iraq, don't have an 'off' switch, when they come 'home', to the good old USA, to their wives (remember Fort Bragg&Afghan vets), families, neighbors and friends? What if the programming to 'shoot anything that moves' is permanent in some of these killer elite cyborgs?
Are these the next new recruits for civilian police forces? The home front concentration camp 'guards'? The new 'Homeland Security' apparatus? If so, we don't stand a chance, just like the slaughtered, in Iraq. That's one reason, I feel we will suffer the same fate as Iraqi's, here, in the U.S.
Didn't Tim McVeigh say he was microchipped and programmed from his time in the Gulf War? Maybe it wasn't so farfetched, what he claimed. Are a bunch of Manchurian candidates about to come home to all those yellow ribbons? Heroes to an insane government who cheers on the savage acts of troops out of control with bloodlust. No consequences to the heroes who did their job and followed orders to destroy, steal and slaughter. Even when they come home and start beating, raping and shooting those who might oppose what they did over there, over here. Will they be able to resist the urge to destroy anyone who naysays them, says no, disagrees with their behavior, or points out their evil hypocrisy and bloodlust, in the homes, neighborhoods and bars they will visit when they come 'home'? How 'bout roadrage? Will they forget they arn't driving a tank and can't shoot pedestrians or other drivers who piss them off in traffic? Oh, people the possibilities are endless how the returnee's might 'adopt' back to civilian life.
I could go on, but feel FREE (for a bit longer) use your own imaginations. And just pray you or yours arn't 'preyed' upon by what returns from Iraq....
Sincerely,
Lucille
PS. Below is a sample of the future, from the not distant past, that will haunt us. These same young killer elite will come home and think it's A-OK, to shoot down children, if they pose a 'threat' to a soldiers precious precious body and decayed evil mind. Just what could that kid have done to precious precious Nick Boggs, with a rocket propelled grenade? Could he have loaded it into a launcher and shot it at Nick Boggs, or thrown it at him? A ten year old boy? No warning shots, just splatter the kid. Then show your officer and peers how 'tough' you are by not letting it bother you, that you just murdered a child. Ya, that's the important thing, Nick Boggs of Alaska, don't let your conscience trouble you, we wouldn't want that, now would we. There should be no consequences for murdering Iraqi children, just congratulations on a much deserved kill, of a child. You're a demon cyborg, Nick Boggs, you've sold your soul to the devil, to keep your precious precious body alive and your evil programmed mind ready for the next 'little' kill. But hey, you did what you HAD to do, right? You disgusting coward! You're not worth the powder to blow you up.
Killing A Child: "I Did What I Had To Do"
4-8-03
 
(Reuters) -- When a young Iraqi boy stooped to pick up a rocket propelled grenade off the body of a dead paramilitary, US Army Private Nick Boggs made his decision.
 
He unloaded machinegun fire and the boy, whom he puts at about 10 years old, fell dead on a garbage-strewn stretch of waste land at Karbala.
 
Boggs, a softly spoken 21-year-old former hunting guide from Alaska, says he knew when he joined the army 18 months ago he might someday have to make a decision like that.
 
He hoped it would never come and, although he has no regrets about opening fire, it is clear he'd rather it wasn't a child he killed.
 
"I did what I had to do. I don't have a big problem with it but anyone who shoots a little kid has to feel something," he said after fierce weekend fighting in this Shi'ite Muslim holy city that left dozens of Iraqis and one American soldier dead.
 
As US troops take the Iraq war out of the desert and into the main cities, they are increasingly seeing children in their line of fire.
 
Many are innocent civilians in the wrong place at the wrong time and military officers concede that some may have been killed in artillery or mortar fire, or shot down by soldiers whose judgment is impaired in the "fog of war".
 
But others are apparently being used as fighters or more often as scouts and weapons collectors. US officers and soldiers say that turns them into legitimate targets.
 
"I think they're cowards," Boggs said of the parents or Fedayeen paramilitaries who send out children to the battlefield.
 
"I think they thought we wouldn't shoot kids. But we showed them we don't care. We are going to do what we have to do to stay alive and keep ourselves safe."
 
The boy he killed was with another child of around the same age when they reached for the RPG and came under fire. Boggs thinks the second boy was also hit but other soldiers think he escaped and that he dragged his friend's dead body away.
 
Boggs' platoon leader, Lieutenant Jason Davis, said the young soldier struggles with what happened even if he had no choice but to shoot.
 
"Does it haunt him? Absolutely. It haunts me and I didn't even pull the trigger," he said. "It blows my mind that they can put their children into that kind of situation."
 
Although Boggs plays down suggestions he was upset by the incident, he also says his view of combat has changed since Saturday, when his platoon came under intense RPG and rifle fire from the moment they entered Karbala until way after nightfall.
 
Before - like many young soldiers - he says he was anxious to get his first "kill" in a war. Now, he seems more mature.
 
"It's not about killing people. It's about accomplishing a mission ... When we talk, we don't say how scared we were. But we found out how you feel when an RPG hits the wall just up from you and you think 'Damn, I could have been right there'," he said.
 
 
 
Comment
 
From lee8798@shaw.ca
4-9-3
 
 
Jeff - Saw the pix on your website from Oakland. I have to say, I'm ashamed of my own people right now, and of muslim Americans/Canadians. These young people, these white kids in Oakland, Austin, NYC, DC, are standing tall and getting beat down in the streets for MY PEOPLE, while my people hide and remain silent. I'm ashamed to be an immigrant right now, let me tell you. We don't deserve to be here if we aren't prepared to stand and fight alongside these brave boys and girls. After all this is over, those immigrants who didn't stand up should all be shipped home... I mean that sincerely. If you've been attending these protests, please try and find some way to thank these kids for me personally.
 
I see you noticed the canisters. Well, now some Americans know how Palestinians feel. Those canisters are littered ALL OVER the streets of Ramallah, Jenin, East Jerusalem and Hebron's H2 by the thousands. Some are British CS gas, some are Flashbangs, some are blunt trauma rounds. They've been used against 10 year old rock children for 40 years.


 
 
 

Disclaimer





MainPage
http://www.rense.com


This Site Served by TheHostPros