- MIAMI -- We were loading
our video equipment into the trunk of our car when a fleet of bicycle cops
sped up and formed a semi-circle around us. The lead cop was none other
than Miami Police Chief John Timoney. The former Police Commissioner of
Philadelphia, Timoney has a reputation for brutality and hatred of protesters
of any kind. He calls them "punks," "knuckleheads"
and a whole slew of expletives. He coordinated the brutal police response
to the mass-protests at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia
in 2000. After a brief stint in the private sector, Timoney took the post
of Miami police chief as part of Mayor Manny Diaz's efforts to "clean
up the department."
-
- We had watched him the night before on the local news
in Miami praising his men for the restraint they had shown in the face
of violent anarchists intent on destroying the city. In reality, the tens
of thousands who gathered in Miami to protest the ministerial meetings
of the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit were seeking to peacefully
demonstrate against what they consider to be a deadly expansion of NAFTA
and US-led policies of free trade. There were environmental groups, labor
unions, indigenous activists from across the hemisphere, church groups,
grassroots organizations, students and many others in the streets. What
they encountered as they assembled outside the gates to the building housing
the FTAA talks was nothing short of a police riot. It only took a few hours
last Thursday before downtown Miami looked like a city under martial law.
-
- On the news, Chief Timoney spoke in sober tones about
the tear gas that demonstrators fired at his officers. No, that is not
a typo. Timoney said the protesters were the ones launching the tear gas.
He also said the demonstrators had hurled "missiles" at the police.
"I got a lot of tear gas," Timoney said. "We all got gassed.
They were loaded to the hilt. A lot of missiles, bottles, rocks, tear gas
from the radicals."
-
- Seeing Timoney up close and personal evokes this image
of Mayor Daley at the '68 Democratic Convention ordering his men to shoot
protesters on sight. He is that kind of guy.
-
- Back at our car, Timoney hopped off his bike as a police
cameraman recorded his every move. It all had the feel of being on an episode
of COPS. He demanded the license and registration for the car. Our colleague
Norm Stockwell of community radio station WORT in Madison, Wisconsin gave
him his license. We informed him we were journalists. One of his men grabbed
Norm's press pass, looking it over as though it was a fake. They looked
at all of us with nasty snares before getting back on their bikes and preparing
to continue on to further protect Miami. Timoney gave us this look that
said, you got away this time but I'll be back. You could tell he was pissed
off that we weren't anarchists (as far as he knew).
-
- As Timoney was talking with his men, one of the guys
on the bikes approached us with a notepad. "Can I have your names?"
he asked.
-
- I thought he was a police officer preparing a report.
He had on a Miami police polo shirt, just like Timoney's. He had a Miami
police bike helmet, just like Timoney's. He had a bike, just like Timoney's.
In fact there was only one small detail that separated him from Timoney-a
small badge around his neck identifying him as a reporter with the Miami
Herald. He was embedded with Chief Timoney.
-
- That reporter was one of dozens who were embedded with
the Miami forces (it's hard to call them police), deployed to protect the
FTAA ministerial meetings from thousands of unarmed protesters. In another
incident, we saw a Miami Herald photographer who had somehow gotten pushed
onto the "protesters side" of a standoff with the police. He
was behind a line of young kids who had locked arms to try and prevent
the police from advancing and attacking the crowds outside of the Inter-Continental
Hotel. He was shouting at the kids to move so he could get back to the
safe side. The protesters ignored him and continued with their blockade.
-
- The photographer grew angrier and angrier before he began
hitting one of the young kids on the line. He punched him in the back of
the head before other journalists grabbed him and calmed him down. His
colleagues seemed shocked at the conduct. He was a big, big guy and was
wearing a bulletproof vest and a police-issued riot helmet, but I really
think he was scared of the skinny, dreadlocked bandana-clad protesters.
He had this look of panic on his face, like he had been in a scuffle with
the Viet Cong.
-
- Watching the embedded journalists on Miami TV was quite
entertaining. They spoke of venturing into Protesterland as though they
were entering a secret al Qaeda headquarters in the mountains of Afghanistan.
Interviews with protest leaders were sort of like the secret bin Laden
tapes. There was something risqué, even sexy about having the courage
to venture over to the convergence space (the epicenter of protest organizing
at the FTAA) and the Independent Media Center. Several reporters told of
brushes they had with "the protesters." One reporter was quite
shaken after a group of "anarchists" slashed her news van's tires
and wrote the word "propaganda" across the side door. She feared
for the life of her cameraman, she somberly told the anchor back in the
studio. The anchor warned her to be careful out there.
-
- So dangerous was the scene that the overwhelming majority
of the images of the protests on TV were from helicopter shots, where very
little could be seen except that there was a confrontation between police
and "the protesters." This gave cover for Timoney and other officials
to make their outrageous and false statements over and over.
-
- Timoney spun his tales of "hard-core anarchists"
rampaging through the streets of Miami; "outsiders coming to terrorize
and vandalize our city." He painted a picture of friendly restrained
police enduring constant attacks from rocks, paint, gas canisters, smoke
bombs and fruit. "We are very proud of the police officers and their
restraint. Lots of objects were thrown at the police officers," Timoney
said. "If we didn't act when we did, it would have been much worse."
-
- It was much worse.
-
- Timoney's Paramilitaries
-
- After last week, no one should call what Timoney runs
in Miami a police force. It's a paramilitary group. Thousands of soldiers,
dressed in khaki uniforms with full black body armor and gas masks, marching
in unison through the streets, banging batons against their shields, chanting,
"back back back." There were armored personnel carriers and helicopters.
-
- The forces fired indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed
protesters. Scores of people were hit with skin-piercing rubber bullets;
thousands were gassed with an array of chemicals. On several occasions,
police fired loud concussion grenades into the crowds. Police shocked people
with electric tazers. Demonstrators were shot in the back as they retreated.
One young guy's apparent crime was holding his fingers in a peace sign
in front of the troops. They shot him multiple times, including once in
the stomach at point blank range.
-
- My colleagues and I spent several days in the streets,
going from conflict to conflict. We saw no attempts by any protesters to
attack a business or corporation. With the exception of some graffiti and
an occasional garbage can set on fire, there was very little in the way
of action not aimed directly at the site of the FTAA meetings. Even the
Black Bloc kids, who generally have a rep for wanting to smash everything
up, were incredibly restrained and focused.
-
- There was no need for any demonstrator to hurl anything
at the forces to spark police violence. It was clear from the jump that
Timoney's men came prepared to crack heads. And they did that over and
over. After receiving $8.5 million in federal funds from the $87 billion
Iraq spending bill, Miami needed to have a major combat operation. It didn't
matter if it was warranted.
-
- Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the police actions last
week a model for homeland security. FTAA officials called it extraordinary.
Several cities sent law enforcement observers to the protests to study
what some are now referring to as the "Miami Model."
-
- This model also included the embedding of undercover
police with the protesters. At one point during a standoff with police,
it appeared as though a group of protesters had gotten into a brawl amongst
themselves. But as others moved in to break up the melee, two of the guys
pulled out electric tazers and shocked protesters, before being liberated
back behind police lines. These guys, clearly undercover agents, were dressed
like any other protester. One had a sticker on his backpack that read:
"FTAA No Way."
-
- The IMC has since published pictures of people dressed
like Black Bloc kids--ski masks and all--walking with uniformed police
behind police lines.
-
- The only pause in the heavy police violence in Miami
came on Thursday afternoon when the major labor unions held their mass-rally
and march. Led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the march had a legal
permit and was carefully coordinated with the police. Many of the union
guys applauded the police as they marched past columns of the body-armored
officers on break from gassing and shooting unarmed demonstrators.
-
- But as soon as the unions and their permits began to
disperse, the police seized the moment to escalate the violence against
the other protesters. Fresh from their break during the union rally, Timoney's
forces ordered the protesters to clear the area in front of the Inter-Continental.
Some of the demonstrators shouted back that they had a right to peaceably
protest the FTAA.
-
- Boom. The concussion grenades started flying.
-
- Hiss. The tear gas was sprayed.
-
- Rat-a-tat-tat. The rubber bullets were fired.
-
- Bam, bam. The batons were swinging.
-
- The police methodically marched in a long column directly
at the several hundred protesters who believed they had a right to protest,
even without John Sweeney at their side. They fired indiscriminately at
the crowds. One woman had part of her ear blown off. Another was shot in
the forehead. I got shot twice, once in the back, another time in the leg.
My colleague, John Hamilton from the Workers Independent News Service was
shot in the neck by a pepper-spray pellet--a small ball that explodes into
a white powder. After a few moments, John began complaining that his neck
was burning from the powder. We doused him in water, but the burning continued.
When I tried to ask the police what the powder was, they told me to "mind
myself."
-
- I've been in enough police riots to know that when the
number of demonstrators dwindles and the sun sets, that's when the real
violence begins. Eventually, the police forced the dissipating group of
protesters into one of the poorest sections of Miami, surrounding them
on 4 sides. We stood there in the streets with the eerie feeling of a high-noon
showdown. Except there were hundreds of them with guns and dozens of us
with cameras and banners. They fired gas and rubber bullets at us as they
moved in. All of us realized we had nothing to do but run. We scattered
down side streets and alleys, ducking as we fled. Eventually, we made it
out.
-
- After nearly an hour, we managed to find a taxi. We got
in and the driver started choking from our pepper-sprayed clothes. She
wanted us to get out of the taxi. We apologized for our smell and offered
her more money just to get us to the hotel. She agreed.
-
-
- The Real Crime: Failure to Embed
-
- The next day, we went to a midday rally outside the Dade
County Jail where more than 150 people were being held prisoner. It was
a peaceful assembly of about 300 people. They sang "We all live in
a failed democracy," to the tune of "We all live in a yellow
submarine." They chanted, "Free the Prisoners, Not Free Trade,"
and "Take off your riot gear, there ain't no riot here."
-
- Representatives of the protesters met with police officials
at the scene. The activists said they would agree to remain in a parking
lot across the street from the jail if the police would call off the swelling
presence of the riot police. They reached an agreementor so the police
said.
-
- As the demonstration continued, the numbers of fully-armed
troops grew and grew. And they moved in from all four sides. They announced
that people had 3 minutes to disperse from the "unlawful assembly."
Even though the police violated their agreement, the protesters complied.
A group of 5 activists led by Puppetista David Solnit informed the police
they would not leave. The police said fine and began arresting them.
-
- But that was not enough. The police then attacked the
dispersing crowd, chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them
to the ground and beat them. They gassed them at close range. My colleague
from Democracy Now!, Ana Nogueira, and I got separated in the mayhem. I
was lucky to end up on the "safe" side of the street. Ana was
in the melee. As she did her job--videotaping the action--Ana was wearing
her press credentials in plain sight. As the police began handcuffing
people, Ana told them she was a journalist. One of the officers said, "She's
not with us, she's not with us," meaning that although Ana was clearly
a journalist, she was not the friendly type. She was not embedded with
the police and therefore had to be arrested.
-
- In police custody, the authorities made Ana remove her
clothes because they were soaked with pepper spray. The police forced her
to strip naked in front of male officers. Despite calls from Democracy
Now!, the ACLU, lawyers and others protesting Ana's arrest and detention,
she was held in a cockroach-filled jail cell until 3:30 am. She was only
released after I posted a $500 bond. Other independent journalists remained
locked up for much longer and face serious charges, some of them felonies.
In the end, Ana was charged with "failure to disperse."
-
- The real crime seems to be "failure to embed."
-
- In the times in which we live, this is what democracy
looks like. Thousands of soldiers, calling themselves police, deployed
in US cities to protect the power brokers from the masses. /Posse Comitatus/
is just a Latin phrase. Vigilantes like John Timoney roam from city to
city, organizing militias to hunt the dangerous radicals who threaten the
good order. And damned be the journalist who dares to say it--or film it--like
it is.
-
- Jeremy Scahill is a producer and correspondent for the
nationally syndicated radio and TV program Democracy Now! He can be reached
at jeremy@democracynow.org. For more reports on the FTAA protests, go to:
www.democracynow.org
-
- ===============
-
-
- Militarization In Miami - Threatening The Right To Protest
-
- By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
- Miami Herald
- 11-27-3
-
- There was a real threat to the social order on the streets
of Miami last
- week, during the Ministerial Meeting of the Free Trade
Area of the
- Americas (FTAA).
-
- It wasn't protesters, not even those calling themselves
anarchists or
- even those dressed in black.
-
- No, the threat came from the Miami police, Florida state
troopers and
- the other police and military forces patrolling the city.
-
- With more than $10 million in special funding (including
an $8.5 million
- allocation in the federal government's Iraq appropriations
bill), 2,500
- or so officers -- many clad in full body armor and backed
up by armored
- vehicles -- turned Miami into a veritable police state.
-
- As was almost inevitable, the police used wildly excessive
force to deal
- with protesters. They launched unprovoked attacks against
people who
- were doing nothing illegal. They sprayed tear gas and
pepper spray at
- protesters -- including retirees -- and shot many with
rubber bullets.
- They used taser guns. They knocked down peaceful protesters
and held
- guns to their heads. They blocked thousands of retirees
and union
- members on buses from joining a rally and march for which
all required
- permits had been obtained. They attacked journalists
viewed as hostile.
- They arrested approximately 250 persons, according to
the best
- estimates, with little or no rationale. Credible reports
have emerged of
- brutality and sexual harassment against several of those
jailed.
-
- At least as serious, the police deterred thousands from
even considering
- joining the FTAA protests -- and protests into the future.
-
- In sunny Miami, it was a dark week for the First Amendment,
for civil
- liberties and for the right to dissent.
-
- A South African activist told us how deeply frightened
she was walking
- down the streets of Miami. Even before the police violence
erupted,
- marching in the streets amidst thousands of armored police
sent chills
- down her spine, she said.
-
- Last week's outrages had their roots in months of planning
led by Miami
- Police Chief John Timoney. He whipped the city and the
police force into
- a frenzy. The absurdist invocation of an anarchist threat
convinced the
- local media (especially television reporters) and much
of the local
- population that downtown would be a riot zone. That was
enough to empty
- the downtown, and scare many local Miamians from joining
any of the
- protests, no matter how tame.
-
- We had first-hand experience with this problem. We had
been involved in
- a planning a small demonstration on Tuesday -- two days
before the main
- protests. We had obtained all requisite permits from
the police. "With
- agreement from their schools, more than 100 high school
students
- were eager to join our small action highlighting how
the FTAA and trade
- agreements interfere with anti-smoking and other public
health measures.
- But no school could feel comfortable sending students
to a militarized
- downtown, and so the students were not able to demonstrate."
-
- This was a small incident. Our demonstration wasn't going
to change the
- world. (We do, however, intend to win on our demand to
exclude tobacco
- products from all trade agreements.) But as an illustrative
example, it
- is incredibly important, for it shows how police overdeployment,
scare
- tactics and militarization intimidates people from marching
in the
- streets and opposing corporate- and state-approved policy.
-
- It wasn't just the public and media that Timoney managed
to frighten.
- There's little doubt that the police themselves buy the
propaganda.
- After months of excessive training and hearing about
the dangers posed
- by protesters, and empowered by new body armor, shields,
batons and
- other equipment, the police were, to say the least, overeager
to lunge
- at protesters. (Said one of a group of 10 cops on bikes
as they crossed
- the street to assess the scene at our news conference,
and with one of
- us standing right next to them, "Let's go fuck 'em
up.")
-
- By the time of the main demonstrations on Thursday, the
police couldn't
- hold themselves back.
-
- In different circumstances, it would have been funny
to see the police
- outnumbering the direct action protesters, or the comically
attired
- "undercover" agents who were a bit too well
built to credibly seem part
- of the ranks of the slight direct action protesters --
many of whom are
- vegans.
-
- But it wasn't funny.
-
- Not when the police -- responding to the smallest provocations,
such as
- a couple small fires lit in trashcans -- went berserk
and attacked large
- crowds of protesters. Not when credible reports say some
of those
- undercover agents may have been provocateurs, and when
several of them
- emerged as some of the most brutal in attacking protesters.
-
- There is immediate need now to support those who were
jailed and
- mistreated, and force the city to drop trumped up charges
against protesters.
-
- You can help by sending a fax to Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz
protesting the
- violation of constitutional rights. Public Citizen has
established a
- free fax site at:
-
- http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=245&source=19
-
- Those who are facing charges will need legal help. You
can donate to
- support them by going to:
-
- http://stopftaa.org/article.php?list=type&type=42
or to
-
- http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ftaadonate
-
- Activists, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil
Liberties
- Union and other civil liberties standard bearers must
do all they can
- and will do to oppose the rising repression evidenced
in Miami. But
- that's not enough.
-
- There will, undoubtedly, be civil lawsuits down the road,
and, if there
- is any justice, they will succeed. But that's not enough,
either. As
- important as such litigation is, it is clear from recent
crackdown on
- protests around the United States that police forces
are willing to
- absorb the costs of these suits.
-
- The present cycle is that the media and political establishment
applaud
- the police for running scare campaigns, militarizing
cities, directing
- violence against protesters and blatantly violating civil
liberties.
- Often, as details emerge, criticism emerges from those
same pillars of society.
-
- This must change. The establishment must speak out now,
immediately
- after the abuses occurred. They are apparent to anyone
who cares to know
- about them.
-
- In the future, the establishment -- we mean newspaper
editors, political
- leaders of all parties, lawyers, even corporate executives
-- must
- insist on appropriate police tactics in advance of large-scale
protests,
- and they must make clear that regular police and top
officers alike will
- be held personally accountable for abuses. If they fail
to pursue this
- course, the consequences for the right to protest will
be grim indeed.
-
-
- Russell Mokhiber is editor of the Washington, D.C.-based
Corporate Crime
- Reporter, http://www.corporatecrimereporter.com. Robert
Weissman is
- editor of the Washington, D.C.-based Multinational Monitor,
- http://www.multinationalmonitor.org, and co-director
of Essential
- Action, a corporate accountability group. They are co-authors
of
- Corporate Predators: The Hunt for MegaProfits and the
Attack on
- Democracy (Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press; http://www.corporatepredators.org).
-
- (c) Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman
-
- This article is posted at: <http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/corp-focus/2003/000169.html>.
- _______________________________________________
-
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