posted 11-24-2003 11:07 PM            

http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17234

Miami Vice

By Tom Hayden, AlterNet
November 20, 2003

Editor's Note: Tom Hayden, reporting for AlterNet from the Free Trade Area of the Americas conference in Miami, filed this update Thursday evening. The original story follows the update.

UPDATE. MIAMI. 10:30 EST, Thursday An ugly and bloodier ending to the Miami FTAA meeting was averted by a sudden decision tonight to end the closed official events one day early. FTAA co-chairs from the US and Brazil both described the summit as a step forward though it was widely understood that the agreement was far less than the American business community and the White House originally hoped for.

At 5:30 pm, besieged protestors at the convergence center, threatened by the spectre of mass arrests, put out a televised appeal for public solidarity. At virtually the same moment, word came from within the FTAA meeting that an agreement had been reached. At 6:45, the agreement was announced at a press conference of all the trade ministers, and shortly afterwards the police encirclement of the convergence center seemed to be lifted.

"They finished early because there was nothing to be gained from another day of bad publicity from the streets, and there was nothing to negotiate beyond an agreement to keep negotiating in the future," said Washington-based trade expert Mark Weisbrot. A perplexed Wall Street Journal reporter asked FTAA officials whether "after nine years you've agreed to keep moving forward but with lesser goals than before." Brazilian foreign minister Celso Amorim, carefully choosing a word in English said only that the agreement was "enabling."

Enabling what? The beginning of "NAFTA on steroids" for the whole hemisphere, as global justice advocates fear? Or the further retreat of the Bush Administration from its pretensions to empire as American public opinion begins to swing against unilateralism in trade and war. That is the big question the global justice movement now confronts.

-------------------------------------------

Earlier in the day

MIAMI – Protestors seemed to skirmish with heavily armored Miami police outside the Riande Hotel Thursday morning, but nothing is at it seems this week. These "anarchists" were undercover police officers whose mission was to provoke a confrontation.

The crowd predictably panicked, television cameras moved in, the police lines parted, and I watched through a nearby hotel window as two undercover officers disguised as "anarchists," thinking they were invisible, hugged each other. They excitedly pulled tasers and other weapons out of their camouflage cargo pants, and slipped away in an unmarked police van.

On the other side of the impenetrable police barricade, a young woman with a video camera was bent over, vomiting from pepper spray. The nonviolent revolutionary Starhawk stood blinded for 10 minutes as friends washed her eyes. Others knelt paralyzed on the street.

A few hours later, hundreds of peaceful protestors – and a few shocked reporters – sitting quietly in Bayfront Park on Biscayne Boulevard were sprayed like unwanted pests by officers who described themselves as Robo-Cops.

So began a day that could be explained as a planned overreaction by the City of Miami, the Governor of Florida and his supportive brother in the White House. Within a few hours, the massive police force was firing pepper gas and rubber bullets at 120 miles an hour against a small crowd of surrounded resisters who could have been easily contained.

"Jeb Bush would love to see a riot over FTAA," lamented Fred Morris, Florida director of the National Council of Churches, when I interviewed him the day before. It seemed a little paranoid at the moment, but Rev. Morris spoke from experience. "They've been bringing in riot units from all over Florida to patrol streets when nothing was going on. My wife and I were stopped twice by police this week and they were very hostile. I can handle that, but somebody younger and more impatient might get shovy."

We were standing on a downtown street corner where the local ACLU, Catholic activists and Unitarians held a press conference condemning First Amendment abuses. Under a newly adopted ordinance, groups of seven or more people are forbidden to stop on a sidewalk for longer than 29 minutes without a permit. The Miami City Council decided not to criminalize puppets but banned materials such as stilts "more than three quarters inch in its thickest dimension" and "containers of any kind."

Hundreds of downtown businessmen, hearing that "Seattle-type anarchists" were descending on Miami, lost hundreds of thousands of dollars by closing their doors for the past week. The few who remained open – camera stores, small shops, taco stands – did brisk business without a single incident of property damage (as of 6:00 p.m. Thursday).

A few days ago, police shattered a parked car at Florida State University when they noticed a "suspicious container" that turned out to be gray paint for a photo gallery.

Next, the entire downtown was shut down by hundreds of officers in response to the arrival of a nonviolent march by 200 farm worker supporters from Ft. Lauderdale, 34 miles away.

Then on Wednesday, police uncovered a nest of alleged "anarchists" in an abandoned Miami mansion, and led television crews to a cache of weapons including newly minted chain and bright new gasoline cans. The evidence smelled, and not of gasoline, but not a single reporter questioned the incident. The anarchist stash was not exactly weapons of mass destruction, but enough to justify the police buildup on the eve of the protests.

With $8.5 million provided from the taxpayer funds meant for Iraq, the Miami police have splurged on "non-lethal" weapons, including CS-gas sprays. Gleaming new desert-colored armored personnel carriers and bright green water-cannon trucks backed the police presence on the streets.

Newscasters embedded Iraq-style among the police provided a complementary narrative rationalizing the show of force. For example, when a young white woman holding her fingers in a V-sign was shot point blank with a rubber bullet, the local ABC commentator said without the slightest evidence, "She took a rubber bullet in the stomach, she must have done something. You wanna play, you gotta pay."

A local NBC commentator seemed to speak for official Miami when she proudly declared that, despite a few incidents, Miami "was nothing like Seattle in 1999."

No authority or pundit questioned why the protestor turnout was less than 15,000 after months of official "intelligence" warning that 20,000 to 100,000 might blight the city's blissful reputation. Here in Miami, the AFL-CIO turnout was perhaps 5,000, including steelworkers wearing T-shirts declaring "FTAA Sucks."

Two hundred forty trade unionists wearing "Wellstone Lives" T-shirts journeyed all the way from Minnesota. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney attacked the FTAA fiercely and paid a visit to the protestors' convergence center. But a comparison with Seattle four years ago, where 50,000 trade unionists marched, was never planned or considered realistic by the protest coalition.

It may be hard for most Americans to believe this was all a hoax, and of course the Miami events are not over yet. But the telling comparison that should be made is not with Seattle 1999, but with the anti-WTO protests in Cancun, Mexico, just two months ago. There a Mexican police force with a long record of human rights abuses protected the WTO Ministerial with no offensive force, no gassing, no beatings and virtually no arrests. Protestors outside the fences in Cancun were far more aggressive than in Miami today. It was the first significant de-escalation of state violence in the history of anti-globalization protests. Miami and U.S. police officials were there as observers, but chose not to repeat the non-violent peacekeeping example of Cancun.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the police presence "a model for homeland defense." Two weeks ago, Miami chief John Timoney was quoted as saying his strategy would be "a failure" if tear gas was used. Tonight he actually claimed on CBS that the demonstrators and not the police used the tear gas. Anyway, he continued, it was not tear gas but "pepper spray with a capsule formula."

posted 11-24-2003 11:11 PM            

Arresting The Future

By Tom Hayden, AlterNet
November 21, 2003

Editor's Note: Tom Hayden is reporting for AlterNet from the Free Trade Area of the Americas conference in Miami.

MIAMI, Friday 8:21pm EST – The police force continued operating with the brains and appetite of a carnivorous shark today as city officials kept demonstrating "the Miami model" of suppression even as protestors and trade ministers were leaving the city in droves.

At a Friday afternoon press conference, Thea Lee, the chief international economist of the AFL-CIO, spoke of feeling terrified Thursday as police fired pepper gas and plastic bullets at peaceful marchers. Other labor leaders, including AFL-CIO president John Sweeney expressed "outrage" over the police blocking of a permitted gathering, and cited specific abuses such as a union retiree being denied necessary medication after an arbitrary arrest.

Global Exchange co-founder Medea Benjamin and others were pulled over Thursday night by a dozen officers who pointed guns at them. The Sierra Club's Washington D.C. advocate, Dan Seligman, also described officers holding a weapon to his head and that of another colleague. Mark Rand, coordinator of a group of foundation funders, displayed a large bluish bruise on the back of his leg from a rubber bullet.

When 100 protestors ventured to the Dade County jail today to speak out against yesterday's arrests and detentions of some 145 people, a third on felonies, the same cycle of avoidable suppression they were describing unfolded yet again.

David Solnit, one of the founders of the Seattle movement, attributed the harsh police measures to Miami's character as a center of "vulgar capitalism." Unlike other cities, where authorities may appear to assimilate dissent for political reasons, he said, Miami has attempted to sweep it away as a foreign curse. AFL-CIO leader Ron Judd speculated that the police suppression deflected public attention from working-class trade issues, while Medea Benjamin accused authorities of "trying to get the people of this city and county used to this militaristic model" instead of the relatively benign model of policing used at Cancun only two months ago.

I came to Miami with eight students from Harvard University, where I have been teaching a study group on social movements this semester. They carried with them questionnaires to sample the opinions of this new generation of protestors, and received a first-hand education in police suppression today. After the press conference outside the county jail, about 200 young people marched 100 yards, stopping in a parking lot across a street from several hundred heavily equipped police officers.

Negotiations between a police commander and activist lawyers produced peaceful coexistence for an hour late in the afternoon. There were high spirits, even humor, among the protestors who invented chants like "There ain't no riot here, take off that stupid gear" and songs like "We all live in a failed democracy."

The protest could easily have been contained by a handful of officers, or might have simply faded as the day ended. Instead, at approximately 5:00 p.m. the commanding officer summoned the activist lawyers to announce that those milling, waiting or sitting in the parking lot had become an "unlawful assembly" with three minutes to disperse. In addition, he said with a straight face, there was "intelligence" that some in the crowd had rocks. There was no evidence shared with regard to this secret intelligence and no rocks were seen in the events that followed.

Instead of resisting, the crowd began dispersing along 14th Street, the only egress route available. With the Harvard students, I was among the last to leave, along with camerawoman Ana Nogueria and reporter Jeremy Scahill from Democracy Now! Crossing a driveway I met David Solnit again, who had decided not to take it any more.

"Come on, Tom, here's your historical moment," he said. "We need civil disobedience to say no to all this."

I replied with words to the effect that I was writing about this, not leading it, feeling slight pangs of nostalgia and guilt. But there was no more time for talk. The police were advancing only a few feet behind us. I stayed with my Harvard students, having warned them earlier that they might be caught up or hurt in the unpredictable police sweep.

Solnit and six others sat down suddenly on the sidewalk, holding their hands up in V-signs. A phalanx of 25 police closed in on them as we took photographs and notes from a few feet away. In moments the seven on the sidewalk were handcuffed and led away. More police were swarming everywhere now, overwhelming the remaining protestors by ten to one.

One block away, the dispersing crowd was walking backwards as more police marched on them with helmet visors down and guns and clubs drawn. By now five of my students had joined this retreating witness, all holding their hands over their heads and chanting "We are dispersing" again and again.

How could the police not notice how young they were, how utterly unthreatening, how innocent?

I moved alongside the advancing and retreating lines to take a photograph when I noticed that a policeman was aiming a shotgun straight at my chest. Fear leaped in me, then he pointed the weapon down. But a moment later he was looking down the barrel at me again. I was holding a camera, notebook and pen. Suddenly I found myself asking him, "Are you really pointing that f***ing gun at me?"

Nothing happened, and I turned back to look for the students. They were on the public sidewalk, but by now more police had arrived to prevent them from walking any further.

The last I saw of them – Anne Beckett, Maddy Elfenbein, Jordan Bar Am, Rachel Bloomekatz and Toussaint Losier, all undergraduates – their hands were still up as they were swallowed up by the black-and-brown uniformed horde. When they were on the ground, one officer added a final squirt of pepper spray. How brave they look, I added to myself.

Two of my other students avoided arrest by happening to turn in another direction and, minutes later, Touissant, a tall African American with dreds and a video camera, magically walked free because the police were too busy with their already downed dissidents. A minute later, I learned that Democracy Now's Ana Nogueira – and her camera – had been enveloped and arrested too. It was another experiment in the "Miami model." What I remembered of this imperial aggressiveness at the ballot box from November 2000 now seemed to be repeating itself on the streets.

Police subsequently informed the larger world that a mob of menacing protestors had disobeyed orders to dissolve an unlawful assembly and were treated accordingly.

In truth the police may have radicalized a new generation of America's future leaders.

posted 11-24-2003 11:20 PM            

Early this morning I was sitting in a jail cell in Miami, cold,
hungry and trying to ignore the cockroaches crawling on the floor of
the cell. My clothes had been taken away from me and thrown out
because they reeked of pepper spray.

I was arrested because I had not embedded myself with the Police
Department before doing my job of covering the protests for the
nationally syndicated public radio and tv program Democracy Now!
Instead, I was swept up late Friday afternoon with about 70 others as
we tried to obey an order to disperse from an "unlawful" jail
solidarity rally.

Mine is not an isolated case. Four other independent reporters were
arrested with me and three of them remain in jail: Jeanette Lee and
Michael Medow, both of Michigan Independent Media Center, as well as
an IMC reporter who goes by the name of Winter. Todd Price, a
Madison, WI, journalist who was formerly the executive director of
community television station WYOU, was arrested with me but has been
released.

In addition, Justin Lipson of the NYC IMC Video Team was arrested on
Thursday and is being held on a $10,000 bond. Police smashed his
camera and have charged him with two felonies. Miami New Times staff
writer Celeste Fraser Delgado was also arrested on Thursday while
trying to interview protesters. Her purse and press credentials were
left at the scene of her arrest.

I am out now thanks entirely to the pressure that Democracy Now!
supporters and staff put on the jail to release me. If not for all
the emails and phone calls the police received demanding my immediate
release, I would still be there. However, I am still facing charges
and will most likely have to return to Miami to appear in court.

I thank everyone who stood up for the right of independent media
today and contacted the jail urging them to release me. But there is
more we need to do. Our colleagues in Miami are receiving disturbing
reports of ongoing abuse of prisoners inside the jail, including
severe beatings, being held in a cold room with no toilet, getting
cold-showered every two hours. People of color and transgender people
feel that they were specifically targeted. We must all act now to
demand that the torture stop and all charges against the journalists
be dropped.

Please, tell everyone you possibly can to call the numbers below to
demand the release of Jeanette Lee, Michael Medow, Winter, and Justin
Lipson, the dropping of all charges against journalists, and the fair
treatment of all prisoners.

-- Ana Nogueira, Democracy Now! producer

= = = = = = = = = =
ACTION:

Call/Email These Authorities:

Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (TGK)
305-470-7636 or 305-470-7600 (Press 2 for TGK, then 7 for booking or
9 for shift commander)

The Joint Task Force on Law Enforcement
Major Role (cell): 305-216-6594

FTAA Miami Unified Command Joint Information Center
Phone: 305-579-6420

Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas
mayor@m...

City of Miami Mayor Manuel A. Diaz
Telephone: 305-250-5300
E-mail: mannydiaz@c...
Janet Lopez, Director Office of Communications
Phone: 305-416-1036
Pager:305-312-2981

posted 11-24-2003 11:23 PM            

http://www.democracynow.org/print.pl?sid=03/11/24/1455248

TRANSCRIPT

AMY GOODMAN:Welcome back, first of all, Jeremy and Ana.

ANA NOGUEIRA AND JEREMY SCAHILL: Thank you.

AMY GOODMAN: Ana, why don't you describe what happened. I think the story of what happened to you tells a lot about police conduct and also about how journalists were treated in Miami.

ANA NOGUEIRA: Right. Well, I was at a jail solidarity protest on Friday afternoon, probably with about 200 other folks and they -- it was a very peaceful protest. People were in the parking lot, not even on the sidewalk, chanting, singing songs, "free the prisoner, not free trade." We were totally surrounded by riot cops and we were eventually given an order to disperse and people decided they did not want to be arrested so they started walking away. And I was walking away with them when the cops started coming up behind us and eventually, you know, people stopped and turned around and said, put your guns down, we are dispersing as they are walking backwards. And they started getting surrounded on the streets and, again, they were given another orders to disperse, which they did. They walked on to the sidewalk and started walking away when a line of riot cops cut them off and I was trying to get past them, but they cut us off, surrounded us and pushed us into a corner very violently. People were falling over each other. They were beating people with batons and they pushed us up against a fence. My camera was knocked around and they started -- they pulled out the pepper spray and knocked us down to the ground and beat people.

AMY GOODMAN: Were you wearing your press ID?

ANA NOGUEIRA: I was wearing my press ID, and I had my camera and they pretty much left me alone, even though they were pushing us around a lot. They did not spray me directly. They sprayed my clothes but not my face, like they did with other protesters. They weren't pushing me down onto the ground as hard as they were pushing other protesters down. But they forced us against a fence, a chain-link fence and push so hard that the fence came down and we fall on top of each other and, again, they pulled out the pepper spray and they were kind of playing cat and mouse with us. They would tell us to get up and walk away and then push us down to the ground again and then get up and walk away and push us down. Eventually they arrested us one by one. Again, as I said, they didn't know what to do with me. One officer seemed uncertain as to whether he should arrest me or not until the other officers around him said she's not with us, she's not with us, and they immediately arrested me.

AMY GOODMAN: What does that is mean?

ANA NOGUEIRA: It could mean one of two things. It’s either that I'm not an undercover police officer with the protesters using a camera because it certainly seemed that there were some of those around. And actually I have some footage of them with the cops earlier on but -- or it could mean I'm not embedded with the police department. there were embedded reporters who had almost full-on riot gear on as well and I believe Jeremy witnessed an occasion where an embedded reporter even hit a protester himself.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, let's talk about this. This is very serious issue. Again, not talk about reporters embedded in the front lines in the troops in Iraq, but now adopting that policy, both, we see the militarization of police and the same policies that the military uses with reporters. I guess it worked very well in Iraq. Jeremy, can you talk about this process of -- and it may surprise many right now to hear -- they're actually talking about and practiced in Miami, embedding of reporters in the police department.

posted 11-25-2003 02:08 PM            

Over 800 million people in the Western Hemisphere will be affected by the FTAA negotiations that are going on here in Miami and as I witnessed last night, there is a huge campaign of intimidation and coercion to keep people from expressing the powerful tool of many voices—demonstrating in the streets as a form of protest.

As I approached the gathering last night in Bay Front Park (in downtown Miami) with the goal in mind of photographing these historic events, I felt the excitement and keen responsibility that I was exercising an important and basic right described in our constitution. A right that our government espouses is important for other nations to provide and protect and often refers to as one of our basic “Freedoms” when trying to persuade our citizenry to support interventions in other nations (most recently in the invasion of Iraq).

I was excited about going, but I also had a lot of fear and misgivings that I have never experienced before when going to this type of event. I am new to Miami having moved here just seven months ago from the San Francisco Bay Area, a place where there is no social stigma to the word “protester” and demonstrations are plentiful and quite normal. My husband was out of town on business and I chose to go with a friend of mine who like me, is concerned about what is at stake in these talks, namely the jobs that mean economic viability for most Americans. Earlier in the week my daughter had come home from school with the news that the Mayor of Miami had decided to cancel her school’s early dismissal because “the children may be hurt by the protesters.” Each day there were reports in the newspapers about the Miami police engaging in special training for the protests and the great show of force that would be made during the events. I took-in these details and expected a very different scene from San Francisco, but nothing could have prepared me for what we encountered.

We decided to take the Metro into the downtown from our suburb in the South and were astounded to see that as we approached our destination there was not a soul traveling with us. Not one person. It was very odd to be going to such an event (where the expected attendance was projected between 10 to 25 thousand) and not see a single individual and my friend and I nervously joked about this as I photographed her in the empty Metro car. The two closest stations to the event were closed “for security purposes” and as we walked the desolate blocks to the amphitheater, our anxiety grew. We still had not seen any sign of protesters and passed a group of men idling outside of a bar, the only establishment open. We arrived at Bay Front Blvd. where a contingent of police in helmets and riot gear lined the street in each direction. It was quite an ominous sight. The police were dressed all in black and were eerily highlighted by the streetlamps, each with legs spread apart in a militant stance. Again, not a soul was in sight except for the police who did not acknowledge us in any way, until three protesters appeared in front of us heading up the ramp to the amphitheater. Walking-up the ramp to the entrance we began to see more people. A couple of people, seeing my camera told me I would not be able to bring it in. One guy actually said, “If you value your camera you should leave now.” I was puzzled by this but chose to see for myself what the security policy was, and found that the policy seemed to be pretty arbitrary, that some people were turned away with their cameras but we were let in.

Inside the amphitheater the atmosphere was tense. The police presence was less in numbers but they were still very much present. There was none of the light-hearted festival-like atmosphere of San Francisco, where people sometimes show-up in costume and with large theatrical puppets. People here were looking around nervously at each other and at the police. I kept on trying to brush away the ridiculous feeling I had that we were all doing something wrong just by being there, and thought I recognized some of this same sentiment in other people’s body language and eye contact. Then there was the question that hung-over the entire event like a giant question-mark, “Where was everybody?” As we mingled and talked to different people this was the question that was murmured over and over again. My friend and I, evaluating the entire scene estimated no more then two to three thousand people were there. We talked to individuals from different church groups and humanitarian organizations. Many of them were wondering where other groups were who may have taken alternative march routes to the event. “I wonder if they have been arrested?” people asked. Even when the music started-up the somber tone did not lift and except for an eruption of a spontaneous rally from a group of twenty or so Haitian unionists, the tone remained through the night.

Another exception (that was also one of the largest presences at the event) was that of the U.S. Steelworkers. These large brawny men seemed to be everywhere in their red caps and blue tee shirts. They were also recognizable by their easy manner and their North-Eastern accents. They seemed unfazed by the strange ambience of the event and their conversations had the conviviality and spirit one might find in a warm pub in Pittsburgh or Syracuse. At a certain point I had a realization about how adversely affected these men will be if the FTAA goes through in its current form. I hoped that the group I was looking at in front of me was not another endangered species, and that their livelihood and way of life would still be intact two years from now.

One of the speeches that really hit home with me was given by an Argentinean woman who spoke about the effects of trade liberalization policy on her country. She talked about how two years ago Argentina was held-up as the darling example of these policies, and now one out of every three Argentineans does not have enough to eat.

After a couple of hours the event seemed to be winding down and my friend and I decided to go home (as two women alone, we fretted about traversing back in the desolate Metro stations). We both made a parting assessment of the gathering and remarked about how we had attended many rock concerts with larger crowds. It was amazing that something so important as to effect more then 800 million lives would not draw a larger crowd.

Reflecting on this during our ride back we both wondered at how many more people would have come without the build-up of reports about the special police enforcement and training, not to mention the on-going negative campaigning and stigmatizing of the protests by Miami’s city officials including the Mayor. I went home somewhat disappointed but determined to go out again today.

Today I planned to meet-up with an acquaintance of mine who is a photojournalist with one of the city’s larger papers. I changed my mind however, when I received an email from him early this morning. He told me not to come without a helmet and a gas mask. For a couple of moments I pondered “would a bicycle helmet work?” and where I would get a gas mask at six o’clock in the morning. And then I realized I would not be going as I thought of my daughter sleeping peacefully in her room, and the effect of my being arrested (or worse) would have on her. No, The Mayor of Miami, the Chief of Police, and other irresponsible, powerful individuals had ruined it for me and thousands of other individuals who simply wanted to bring attention to something that will ultimately affect all of our lives. From the reports I have been getting all day, my journalist friend was not exaggerating. The descriptions of the police with tear gas, armored vehicles and even machine guns proliferate the media coverage. It is truly a sad day in our beautiful country.

posted 11-25-2003 02:50 PM            

quote:

---

Originally posted by KNOW-THIS:
It is truly a sad day in our beautiful country.

---

Excellent addition Know This. Thanks!

This is just a sample of the disinformation that goes on in our country. I hope this information will help wake up some of the disbelieving folks here and those that might come across this thread. PLEASE stop blindly believing what you are fed in the papers and through the TV. Dig deeper than that for the TRUTH!

Does this thread not make you step back and wonder what the heck is going on??? If it doesn't, then the principles this wonderful country was founded on might as well not even exist. We don’t deserve them then.

posted 11-26-2003 05:48 PM            

4000 post later and you are no closer to the cure for these problems then you were on day one!

You can complain here in this forum and all your doing is showing your lack of dedication to cure these problems...

posted 11-26-2003 06:04 PM            

And WHAT THE F**K have YOU done?

NOTHING.

I'm waking up minds all over the place all over the internet and in my community.I've gone to my city council to oppose the Patriot act in my City. I'm distributing information and handouts when ever I get a chance.

You haven't done S**T...so quit YOUR blood-clot cryin' mon.

http://themech.proboards22.com/index.cgi?board=dark&action=display&num=1069147460

posted 11-27-2003 05:17 AM            

Read folks, what we Liberals call "the Liberty amendment"
>THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE<
Listed numerous reasons why King George should be opposed by force of arms:
>HE has erected a Multitude of new Offices, and sent hither Swarms of Officers to harrass our People, and eat out their Substance.<
>HE has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

HE has combined with others to subject us to a Jurisdiction foreign to our Constitution, and unacknowledged by our Laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
<
>FOR imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

FOR depriving us, in many Cases, of the Benefits of Trial by Jury:
< http://www.law.emory.edu/FEDERAL/independ/declar.html

Of course,
any unbiased study of the past century in amerika would show that our most dangerous criminals carry badges:

Visit the links below to read about federal agents' provocateur http://www.apfn.org/OKC/doc.htm

Like the Federal agents provocateur who used Tim McViegh;

>...as it turned out, Howe was not the only informant at the Christian
Identity community. Founder Millar repeatedly shared information with
law enforcement officials. During a June 31, 1997 court proceeding, FBI
Senior Agent Peter Rickel testified Millar was in regular contact with
the agency in the years before the bombing. Millar confirmed that he
frequently talked to government officials the next day, telling the
Tulsa World newspaper that he had answered questions from such agencies
as the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Writing about the revelation in the July 1, 1997 issue of the McCurtain
Daily Gazette, Cash said, "Millar's position as a mole for the FBI could
explain why the compound has never been raided. Despite its use as a
hideout for gunrunners, drug dealers, bank robbers and suspected members
of the conspiracy that bombed the Alfred E. Murrah federal building in
Oklahoma City, Elohim City has enjoyed a reputation as a place where
fugitives can live without fear of arrest."

Another informant who lived at Elohim City was James Ellison, a former
CSA member who helped devise the original Murrah building bombing plan
in the early 1980s. A few year later, Ellison testified in court against
several members of The Order. Because of this, he was considered a
traitor and snitch by all racist leaders - except Millar. On May 19,
1995, Ellison even married Millar's daughter, Angela.

The leader of the Aryan Republican Army was also an informant. Peter
Langan, the son of a retired U.S. Marine intelligence officer, and
Richard Guthrie, another racist, robbed a Pizza Hut in Georgia in
October 1992. A short time later, Langan was arrested by Georgia
authorities. Remarkably, the U.S. Secret Service intervened, arranging
for Langan to be released on a signature bond. At the time, the Secret
Service said that Langan had agreed to find Guthrie, who was suspected
of threatening the President. Langan did not turn Guthrie in, however.
Instead, the two men formed the ARA, recruited several other members,
and launched one of the most successful bank robbery sprees in U.S.
history.

The Secret Service link has prompted several researchers to wonder
whether the ARA was, in fact, a covert government operation. They note
that the ARA never encountered any bank guards or other law enforcement
officials during any of their robberies. They also note that Langan,
Guthrie and the other ARA members were not arrested until after the
press began reporting on Elohim City. Guthrie was found dead in his
prison cell a few days after telling relatives that he was writing a
book on the ARA that would embarrass the government. Although the death
has been ruled a suicide, the coroner's report has never been released....<
http://sandiego.indymedia.org/en/2003/10/101272.shtml
the cop mentioned in posts previously
http://www.publiceye.org/liberty/Feds/ci-chomsky.htm
>student was the target of an assassination attempt by a secret terrorist army organized, funded, armed and directed by the FBI, which concealed evidence of the crime and prevented prosecution of the FBI agent in charge and the FBI infiltrator who led this organization in its rampage of fire-bombing, shooting, and general violence and terror aimed at the left, all with the full knowledge and cooperation of the Bureau.

In this case, the intended victim of the FBI assassination attempt escaped injury, though a young woman was seriously injured. Others were not so lucky. The most notorious case is that of Black panther leader Fred Hampton, who, along with Mark Clark, was murdered in a pre-dawn gestapo-style police raid - the phrase is accurate - in December 1969, with the complicity of the FBI, which had turned over to the police a floor plan of his apartment supplied by an FBI provocateur who was chief of Panther security. the floor plan no doubt explains the remarkable accuracy of police gunfire, noted by reporters. Hampton was killed in bed, possibly drugged; according to eyewitnesses, murdered in cold blood.

The FBI prank followed an earlier effort to have Hampton murdered by a criminal gang in the Chicago ghetto, the Blackstone Rangers. The Rangers were sent an anonymous letter by the local FBI office informing them that the Panthers were intending to murder their leader,
<
COINTELPRO AND THE AMERICAN LABOUR MOVEMENT Covert action against ...
" ... of diverting substantial funds that had been raised ... FBI agent provocateur Joe Burton targeted the United ... Burton infiltrated the union and repeatedly disrupted ... " www.wakeupmag.co.uk/articles/usalabour.htm
>Covert action against the new left and anti-war movements in the US also persisted since the supposed close of COINTELPRO. When activists mobilised to protest the 1972 Republican Party convention in San Diego, the FBI's campaign against them culminated in the January 6th 1972 attempt on the life of a protest organiser by the "Secret Army Organisation" (SAO).
The SAO, a crypto-fascist group created and financed by the FBI during 1969-70, was established "to use violence against radicals". During the early 70s, the SAO engaged in a range of activities including burglary, bombings, kidnappings and assassination plots. All of this was supervised directly by the FBI, as revealed by two ex-San Diego agents Nanda Zocchino and Howard Berry Godfrey, while the Bureau itself did little to deny it.
<

COINTELPRO AND THE PEACE MOVEMENT
" ... Ryan, who had two commendations to his credit during a ... The Bureau also infiltrated the Committee in Solidarity with ... In 1986, FBI agents paid personal visits to ... " www.wakeupmag.co.uk/articles/peacemovement.htm

>In January 1988, successful lawsuits brought under the freedom of Information Act by attorneys for the Centre For Constitutional Rights (CCR) forced the FBI to release more than 3,600 documents revealing a massive and prolonged Bureau campaign against over 200 social, religious and political organizations between 1981 and 1988. For instance, the FBI admitted infiltrating the San Francisco Bay Area branches of Physicians for Social Responsibility and other peace groups from 1982 to 1984.<
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/NSA/Bureau_War_Peace_LS_html
>The Lawless State
The crimes of the U.S. Inteligence Agencies<

posted 11-27-2003 06:07 PM            

Yeah...and you will make it 150% easier for the fascists to throw your monkey @$$ in jail for a long time when you say things like that.

That's EXACTLY what they want to hear.

posted 11-28-2003 12:02 AM            

If there is going to be a "so-called" Military take over against the United States people; Im not going to stand around like a helpless Jew being steped on by the Nazis.

I live a peaceful and harmonious life with some good wealth. Im not worried about my future, because I know it will be good. If there is a mutual respect between the people I come across, there will be no violence.

posted 11-28-2003 01:01 AM            

Watch your evening news.

People are every day, their homes being invaded and themselves arrested.
Some are guilty of the crimes charged.
Some may be innocent of any crime.

When armed thugs bust open your door and shoot anyone who moves;
When reporters merely parrot the official version of events;
When techs "recover" files from your computer by first planting those files on your hard drive;

Then you become just another (insert despicapable crime here) who was arrested,
and nobody cares!

Anyone dealing with amerika's "criminal" justice system, quickly learns that innocence is no defense.

There are in amerika, people who, for a living, goad others into criminal activity.

My post above about elohim city is intended to illustrate that with factual examples.

I recommend anyone read
"1984" by Orwell
Here is a link to the entire book online in a searchable version: http://www.online-literature.com/orwell/1984/
>One day, while walking home, Winston encounters O'Brien, an inner party member, who gives Winston his address. Winston had exchanged glances with O'Brien before and had dreams about him giving him the impression that O'Brien was a member of the Brotherhood. Since Julia hated the party as much as Winston did, they went to O'Brien’s house together where they were introduced into the Brotherhood. O'Brien is actually a faithful member of the Inner-Party and this is actually a trap for Winston, a trap that O'Brien has been cleverly setting for seven years. Winston and Julia are sent to the Ministry of Love which is a sort of rehabilitation center for criminals accused of thoughtcrime.<

posted 11-28-2003 01:45 AM            

I can see the world closing in each day. Talk of having a World Court, SARS and AIDS getting bigger while masses of people flood the drug stores to pick up prescriptions each day.

I know I have an FBI profile with a physical ID number. I was kicked out of the Army for smoking legal Marijuana in Amsterdam. Now the government slaps me a bill for $20,000 saying I owe them...haha. They ain't getting squat.

posted 11-28-2003 10:44 AM            

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it ... "-Santayana

zoso,
Violence towards others or towards yourself is not the answer.
On 911, there were only a few dozen of us saying, "something smells, and it ain't in Denmark."
Now Millions of people worldwide realize 911 was an inside job.

Fill your head with facts, and help us spread the truth.

Violence is only an excuse for more repression.

The 3rd Reich was opposed until death by the Storm lantern of the White Rose, by courageous Germans who fought repression and lies with facts and truth.

After Germany fell to the one party rule of it's own rightwing extremists; a group of patriots,
>Die Wasse Rose was obsessed with >awakening those who sat back and did nothing.<
Storm Lantern of The White Rose
Please read the leaflets at: http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/leafoneeng.html
____________________________________________
-Many work here and elsewhere work to spread the word,
about what we see as a growing threat to America, by an out of control Administration,
which >serves only the base ambitions of a Party clique?<
(Leaflet #1 of the White Rose)
____________________________________________
And most of us have noticed
>It is impossible to engage in intellectual discourse with< (they referred to Germany's rightwingers).
(Leaflet #2 of the White Rose)
>They will not see and will not listen. Blindly they follow their seducers into ruin.
Cast off the cloak of indifference you have wrapped around you.
Make the decision before it is too late.<

>Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, the protection of individual citizens
from the abritrary will of criminal regimes of violence-<
(Leaflet #5 of the White Rose)
{To us those are not mere empty rhetoric, but living ideals!}
________________________________________________
We shall not give up & surrender to thugs.
>We will not be silent. We are your bad conscience.
The White Rose will not leave you in peace!<
(Leaflet #4 of the White Rose)

>The members of The White Rose..
.recognized their shared disgust for Adolf Hitler, the Third Reich and the Gestapo.<* http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/
The White Rose worked day and night,
cranking a hand-operated duplicating machine thousands of times to create the leaflets
which were each stuffed into envelopes, stamped and mailed from various major cities in Southern Germany.
Recipients were chosen from telephone directories and were generally scholars, medics and pub-owners
(which seemed to puzzle the Gestapo - but who better to spread the word or post a leaflet!).<
_________________________________________________
America has it's own Die Wasse Rose
who are obsessed with awakening those who today sit back and do nothing.
>who better to spread the word< than we on the internet? http://news.globalfreepress.com/

But advocating violence is wrong and only gives them an excuse to shut down yet another truth website.

Now the words of their leaflets need only a change of names
to apply to Bush's-America instead of Hitler's-Germany. http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/leaflets.html
>Nothing is so unworthy of a civilized nation as
allowing itself to be governed without opposition
by an irresponsible clique that has yielded to base instinct.<
(Leaflet #1 of the White Rose)
====================================
From Goethe’s The Awakening of Epimenides, Act II, Scene 4.
SPIRITS:
Though he who has boldly risen from the abyss
Through an iron will and cunning
May conquer half the world,
Yet to the abyss he must return.
Already a terrible fear has seized him;
In vain he will resist!
And all who still stand with him
Must perish in his fall.

HOPE:
Now I find my good men
Are gathered in the night,
To wait in silence, not to sleep.
And the glorious word of liberty
They whisper and murmur,
Till in unaccustomed strangeness,
On the steps of our temple
Once again in delight they cry:
Freedom! Freedom!
(Leaflet #1 of the White Rose)

The Bush Administration, like the 3rd Reich
>can support itself only by constant lies.<

And we, like the opponents of Hitler believe
>our present "state" is the dictatorship of evil<

But, we are America's law abiding political factions,

and rather than violence we seek non-violent solutions:
(ballots-NOT-bullets)

>Through passive resistance, without a doubt.
We cannot provide each man with the blueprint for his acts,
we can only suggest them in general terms,
and he alone will find the way of achieving this end:<
(Leaflet #3 of the White Rose)
___________________________________________
>There is an ancient maxim that we repeat to our children:
"He who won't listen will have to feel."
But a wise child will not burn his fingers the second time on a hot stove.<
(Leaflet #4 of the White Rose)
http://www.jlrweb.com/whiterose/index.html

>February 22, 1943, 9am... Three students from the University of Munich are brought to trial for treason. The trial lasts until 1 pm and by 5 o’clock all are dead. What have these three young people done to cause the top justice of Hitler's People's Court to personally oversee the trial? Why are their voices silenced? And how many more innocent people will have to die before they are heard?

Today, there are many memorials of the White Rose throughout Munich and their story is known to every German. The White Rose may have been silenced too early but their words echo on...
.
"Freedom!"<

posted 11-29-2003 12:10 AM            

You've got that right...and once they've railroaded you into wholly unfair, corrupt justice system...you are judged in a Kangaroo court that favors TPTB.

posted 12-03-2003 02:41 AM            

http://www.interventionmag.com/cms/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=572

posted 12-22-2003 01:02 AM            

Here is an update on the Miami FTAA issue. Apparently a retired Circuit Judge was not too happy at what he saw during the protest - and I don't mean on the demonstrator's end!
http://www.truthout.org/docs_03/122203C.shtml

Judge: I Saw Police Commit Felonies
By Amy Driscoll
The Miami Herald

Saturday 20 December 2003

A judge who said he witnessed some of the anti-free trade protests complains in open court about how police handled the demonstrations.

A judge presiding over the cases of free trade protesters said in court that he saw ''no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers'' during the November demonstrations, adding to a chorus of complaints about police conduct.

Judge Richard Margolius, 60, made the remarks in open court last week, saying he was taken aback by what he witnessed while attending the protests.

''Pretty disgraceful what I saw with my own eyes. And I have always supported the police during my entire career,'' he said, according to a court transcript. ``This was a real eye-opener. A disgrace for the community.''

In the transcript, he also said he may have to remove himself from any additional cases involving arrests made during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit.

''I probably would have been arrested myself if it had not been for a police officer who recognized me,'' said the judge, who wears his hair in a graying ponytail.

Circuit Judge

Margolius, appointed to the bench in 1982, retired as a circuit judge in 2001 but said he still hears cases 15 to 20 weeks a year when courts are overburdened.

On Friday, he chose not to elaborate on the remarks he made from the bench Dec. 11.

''I can't comment on pending cases,'' he said. ``It was inappropriate for me to make the comments I made. A reasonable person could question my neutrality because of statements I made in open court.''

The judge did not single out a police department. More than three dozen agencies were part of the FTAA security effort. The Miami Police Department coordinated most police operations.

Angel Calzadilla, executive assistant to Miami Police Chief John Timoney, said: ``The chief's not going to comment on something this vague. If the judge would like to file a complaint with the CIP [Citizens Investigative Panel] he can do that like any other citizen.''

Nelda Fonticiella, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, which had a large presence during the protests, also said the judge can file a complaint. ''It would be our hope and expectation that if this is how he feels, that he would recuse himself from those cases,'' she said.

Margolius had been hearing the cases of Joseph Diamond and Danielle Kilroy, both arrested during the FTAA protests. Diamond had been charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, a felony; the charges were dropped by the state at the Dec. 11 hearing.

Resisting Arrest

Kilroy also faced felony charges -- battery on a police officer and resisting arrest with violence. Her charges were reduced to a single misdemeanor, resisting arrest without violence, according to members of the Miami Activist Defense, a legal group monitoring the court hearings.

During the Dec. 11 hearings, the judge asked an assistant state attorney, ``How many police officers have been charged by the State Attorney so far for what happened out there during the FTAA?''

None, the prosecutor replied.

''None?'' asked the judge. ``Pretty sad commentary. At least from what I saw.''

The judge also wondered aloud how much the ''whole episode'' had cost taxpayers.

''I know one thing. There were police officers from every agency -- I couldn't believe the sheer numbers,'' he said.

Laurel Ripple, a protester who was arrested and is working with MAD, said she was in the courtroom during Margolius' remarks.

''I'm really glad he saw for himself what was happening . . . I'm really glad he was out there,'' she said. ``As a lifelong Miami resident and victim of the police during the FTAA, it was really supportive to hear that kind of affirmation from Judge Margolius.''

The FTAA summit, Nov. 20 and 21, sparked marches and protests in downtown Miami and resulted in 231 arrests. Since then, at least 27 misdemeanors have been dropped, according to prosecutors' records last updated Dec. 2. Additional cases have been dropped or the charges reduced, according to MAD members.

Two citizens' panels plan to hold a joint meeting Jan. 15 to hear comments and complaints about police conduct during the FTAA, and both Miami-Dade and Miami police are conducting internal reviews. Amnesty International, the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers of America all have called for independent probes.

A Miami police spokeswoman said officers were instructed to make arrests only as necessary.

Miami Police

''We were told to deal with situations that were serious but we were always told to be very patient with people,'' said Herminia ''Amy'' Salas-Jacobson, a Miami police spokeswoman.

``In the training sessions we were told to be professional, be patient and to do everything right. There was one thing that was stressed at every meeting: Always be professional.''

During Margolius' informal speech, he noted that he couldn't recognize officers because ``everybody had riot gear on.''