|
|
|
|
|
|
|
While Hilary Clinton and Bill Gates hobnobbed with other bigwigs inside the World Economic Forum, New York police arrested over 200 protestors for saying similar things -- just linking them with a deeper criticism of imperialism. A friend sent MIM the following testimonial from an arrestee. Amerikans are always telling MIM: "Your are lucky to live in a free country." Incidents like this -- and the fact that the United $tates leads the world in per capita imprisonment -- remind us that they have a twisted idea of "freedom."
Most of you already know probably that there were 201 people arrested in New York in relation to the NYPD's need to justify its outrageous overtime during the WEF protests. Most of the people were arrested on Sunday when we were in smaller groups (of 100 or so) converging in the East Village. Many of the arrests were also from the Animal and Earth Liberation March later on Sunday. Though the newspapers covered the ITAL one END person who broke a window, the activists were mostly all just marching down side walks. In the group I was in, we deliberately went with the walk/do not walk signs and decided we would not jaywalk, throw cig butts or anything else that might be considered illegal in these fascist times. Nevertheless, the kops closed in and started beating with their clubs, spraying pepper spray and kicking activists. There were even people arrested and illegally detained that were just standing on the sidewalk at the time, having nothing to do with the WEF events or the ACC (Anti-Capitalist Convergence). They then put us all in excruciatingly tight plastic cuffs for several hours. So bad that many of us could not feel or move our fingers. At least one woman got very sick because of this and they refused to loosen the cuffs until we'd made a big stink about it for a couple hours. Another person was ignored despite having kidney/bladder problems that were made very painful because she was not allowed to urinate.
They did not allow us to see our lawyers. They never Mirandized us. It wasn't until our arraignments when we knew what the charges were or even if we had been arrested (they kept saying that we were not arrested.) They used things like letting us pee, giving us food, taking the cuffs off and giving us hygiene necessities etc... to exert their control. When they did give us food, it was infrequent, and not vegetarian. We were in very overcrowded cells with hoards of roaches and cold floors and mice. They also wouldn't allow us to have prescription medication. They also made it close to impossible for us to get any sleep. They kept saying that they lost our paperwork. So they did the paperwork over and over, took our pictures multiple times. Would tell us we were being released, then continue to hold us. They'd move us in and out and in and out of cells, vans etc... They were seriously the most unprofessional people any of us had ever seen. Very disorganized, but that's because they were just trying to fuck with our heads. My charges were typical: Disorderly conduct; marching without a permit; and obstructing official government administration.
Actually, many of the activists only had one of those -- which amounted to a 'violation'. A violation is like a traffic ticket-- something that cannot be used to hold someone overnight. The other charges were misdemeanors which can be used to hold someone over night. In any case, the majority of the wimmin were held overnight illegally. They tried a lot of psy-war shit. Like when we finally got to the place to be arraigned.
We waited for our PLC or NLG lawyer. They said that those people were too tied up in other cases and that they would not be coming and that we just had to go with one of the public pretenders. It was a lie. Something I think my small sub group dealt with OK, but a person alone having to deal with that might have been screwed. Point being that at that point, they had separated us hoping to divide us in our decisions. Most of us pleaded not guilty. Which means that we have to return to New York and work the cases through in court. The court cases will mostly be heard between March 5th and 18th or so. In any case, after 40, 50 or so hours, I believe that everyone was released. Finally, the guards were real pigs. A few were nicer, getting us pads or food when others wouldn't. One of the nicer ones said that they were treating the wimmin like they were, and would hold us as long as they could because it was political and because they thought it'd be easier to intimidate the wimmin. Fuck that. But we are also trying to be clear that we ITAL know END that the shit and abuse activists went through was nothing compared to what most arrested have to deal with. We talked a lot about how to get people on the outside to understand that if this happens to a bunch of mostly white activists, then they gotta start understanding how the prison system in general is a tool of social control and that the general population has it much worse in terms of being abused and messed with. Especially because they don't have sympathetic lawyers or protesters outside the jails like we did.