What's going on in Philadelphia right now is a civil rights catastrophe the\r\nmagnitude of which is difficult to express in words. As I'm writing this,\r\ntwo well known activists are being held on 1 million dollars bail each. Both\r\nwere picked up while walking down the street during the recent protests\r\nagainst the Republican National Convention. Others arrested have bails set\r\nas high as 500,000 dollars. Most of the 341 protesters still incarcerated,\r\nwhose charges range from obstructing a highway to disorderly conduct, have\r\nbails set in excess of 10,000 dollars. These are the highest bails on record\r\nin the US for these charges. Needless to say, most cannot afford these bails\r\nand are practicing jail solidarity (refusing to give their names in order to\r\nget demands for fair treatment met) regardless. Almost all have been moved\r\nto county prisons at this point. In a country that prides itself on freedom\r\nof expression and assembly, they are political prisoners. There is simply no\r\nother term. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nAs I'm writing this, reports of intimidation, abuse and torture continue to\r\npour in from the jails. Prisoners in custody up to 80 or more hours before\r\nbeing allowed a phone call or access to a lawyer. Prisoners being denied\r\nfood and water, kept in sweltering buses until they went into heat stroke,\r\nprisoners denied life saving medication (including meds for HIV, asthma and\r\nepilepsy), prisoners with broken wrists or hands, torn ears, chipped teeth,\r\nabused genitals. This isn't a laundry list of horror stories. This is a\r\nlist of testimonies I've heard personally, from the mouths of those it\r\nhappened to or their friends. People red-faced, stunned, grieving. These\r\nare people I--and probably you--know. This is real. This is happening right\r\nnow. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe police have isolated people they see as \"leaders\" for interrogation and\r\nexorbitant bails. Many have not been able to meet with lawyers. A friend of\r\nmine, a puppeteer from Austin TX, was detained by police before the protests\r\nbegan. This occurred outside the Haverford puppet space during the raid that\r\ndestroyed nearly all the signs and props people had been building to\r\ncommunicate their messages during the demonstration. The puppets have since\r\nbeen out through an industrial shredder and my friend is being held on seven\r\nmisdemeanor charges, for 250,000 dollars bail. Dozens of others, arrested\r\nmiles from the demonstrations in the puppet warehouse, are still in jail on\r\ncharges ranging from \"conspiracy\" to \"obstructing a highway.\" The highest\r\nprison term being mentioned so far is 20-40 years, attached to a person\r\naccused of assaulting Commissioner Timoney. In addition to going after the\r\npuppets, police systematically picked off and arrested those with cell phones\r\nor radios the day of the action. Other \"organizers\" were weeded out of\r\nmilling crowds, police having identified them by previously taken photos. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe state and federal governments are attempting to break the back of this\r\nmovement and it has what seems to be unlimited resources to do so. For\r\nmonths before the protests, police presence near activist spaces and\r\nsurveillance of activists has been extreme. They tapped phones, photographed\r\nthe house I was staying in, send operatives into deep cover to befriend us\r\nand utilized a nationwide network of intelligence information to acquire\r\nknowledge about our movements as we were deciding these things ourselves. \r\nAll this for a group of non-violent people planning to block traffic! \r\nObviously, the resources delegated to stopping and punishing the protesters\r\nare there not for what we did but for why we did it. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nAnd why is that? Ironically, the day most of the 455 protesters were taken\r\nin was themed The Criminal In-Justice system, with rallies and direct actions\r\nplanned to call attention to the growing private prison system and the\r\ndisproportionate number of poor people and people of color in the jails and\r\non death row. I could restate the statistics but we all know them by heart. \r\nThe politicians know them and the people on the street know them. The racist,\r\nclassist prison system is part of our national heritage and national shame,\r\nsomething every American but the 2 million behind bars is complicit in\r\nallowing to continue. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe messages are simple, yet members of the mainstream press claimed they\r\ndidn't understand. They called the message obscure, while thousands of police\r\nwith batons and plastic cuffs stood in stony formation at city\r\nintersections. Demands for an end to police brutality became more and more\r\nclear as instances of police violence broke out towards the end of the day. \r\nI saw on the local news that police did \"nothing more than yell at\r\nprotesters\" and were \"a model of restraint.\" But I also saw a girl go down\r\nafter taking a baton in the leg. And I saw my friend's broken thumb, bent\r\nback by two other hands simply because no one was there to record it. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nI remember marching from the jail Wednesday night in the rain. The wicks on\r\nour red candles had gone wet and black, the media had almost all left. \r\nHundreds of cops cordoned off the hundred and fifty members of the vigil, one\r\nat the front with a rifle out, its muzzle pointed cattycorner to our thighs. \r\nI was walking with a reporter from the Philadelphia Inquirer, telling her\r\nwhat I'd seen, telling her that people were being hurt. She said, \"I know. \r\nBut if we can't verify it, we can't print it.\" The ink on her pad was\r\nsmeared and illegible, the paper soaked and translucent. Together we crossed\r\nthe line off that rifle with our breath in our throats. My fingers had gone\r\nnumb, my intestines icy, my mouth frozen open in evaporated song. I looked\r\naround and all I saw was policemen after policemen, a sea of powder blue\r\nshirts and shiny chrome bicycles. All I saw was the muzzle of that rifle and\r\nwhat it meant. I had the sense of history demanding something of me and\r\nevery other person at that jail, in Philadelphia and in this country. I had\r\nthe sense of incredible loss. And I knew that it didn't matter because no one\r\nwas writing it down. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nWe need help. At the rallies outside the jail, people chanted \"The whole\r\nworld is watching.\" But it often felt like no one was. While isolated\r\nmembers of the press have worked hard to provide objective coverage, for the\r\nmost part the media has been biased against us to the point of criminal\r\nnegligence. This shouldn't surprise me. Newspapers and television stations\r\nare powered by and exist to serve the same corporations we in the streets\r\nhoped to unmask. Still, I am surprised. Surprised because after all these\r\ncompanies are staffed by people, by human beings I assume have a sense of\r\nempathy, responsibility and justice, if not simple horror at the idea of a\r\nworld without first amendment freedoms. Ditto for the cops. Each man and\r\nwoman in uniform in Philadelphia has seen this group of people (not to\r\nmention the many other groups who have faced and continue to face much worse)\r\nsystematically vilified and abused. Don't they understand tomorrow it could\r\nbe them? That (for many of them) it has been and continues to be them? I\r\ncan only hope that everyone involved in the brave new police state I see\r\ncropping up all around me realizes their complicity in the situation and the\r\npower they have to stop it. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe whole world is not watching. People's lives are being destroyed. \r\nIncredible people: community organizers, gardeners, writers, dancers. The\r\npeople I know behind bars cook food for the homeless, publish magazines,\r\nbuild bikes for kids. I have never seen or heard of any engaging in an act\r\nof violence. They are carpenters. Most would rather build an alternative\r\nphysical or economic structure than break the window of an existing one. \r\nWhich is exactly what makes them so threatening. \r\n<\/p>
\r\nThe world is not watching, and it needs to be. The press is not watching. \r\nIt hasn't been for a long, long time. The convention is over but the abuse\r\nit still happening. Over three hundred people are in jail tonight in\r\nPhiladelphia as part of what can only be described as a coordinated act of\r\npolitical repression. Thousands of demonstrators have been portrayed as\r\ndangerous criminals for continuing a tradition of civil disobedience passed\r\non to us from Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. They join the millions of\r\nother Americans serving time for non-violent offenses in US jails, and the\r\ntens of millions in communities of color who are systematically terrorized\r\nwith state surveillance and police violence. This is a crucial moment for\r\nanyone who considers him or herself free. As a friend put it\r\nyesterday--after we were followed and photographed yet again by a\r\nplainclothes policemen: \"this is the first page in a very big book.\" \r\n<\/p>
\r\nPlease help: \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Write letters to your local newspaper and television stations. Demand\r\ncoverage of the situation in Philadelphia and the demonstrators still in\r\njail. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Write to national media such as the NY Times and cnn.com, demanding the\r\nfull story on continuing human rights violations. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Go to the Philadelphia Inquirer \r\nhttp:\/\/web.philly.com\/content\/inquirer\/ \r\nand Philadelphia Tribune \r\nhttp:\/\/www.phila-tribune.com\/ \r\nAnd respond to them about thier coverage. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Call District Attorney Lynn Abraham at 215-686-8701 and Mayor John Street\r\n(who has stated that Philly will throw the book at protesters) at\r\n215-686-2181. Let the Mayor know that while Police Commissioner John Timoney\r\nis riding high in the press right now, Street had better distance himself\r\nfrom the monster before the full story about systematic physical torture and\r\ncivil rights abuses reaches the public. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n*Hook up with the Moms for Justice by emailing your name, phone and email to\r\nSue Mammarella at suemam@aol.com or Carolyn McGuckin-Robinson at\r\ncrobin@icdc.com. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n*** Make a tax-deductable and urgently needed donation to the PDAG\r\n(Philadelphia Direct Action Group) Legal and Bail Fund by sending checks\r\npayable to \"ISMCH\" to PDAG\/ PO Box 40683\/ Philadelphia, PA 19107. Please put\r\n\"legal fund\" on the memo line.*** \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Read the statement by the John Does at CFCS \r\nhttp:\/\/www.thepartysover.org\/media\/cfcfletter20000806.html \r\nWrite prisoners in jail as the addresses become available over the\r\nwww.phillyimc.org site. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Read the LA Times Article on Upcoming DNC Protests \r\nhttp:\/\/www.latimes.com\/news\/state\/20000807\/t000073900.html \r\nWrite them on thier coverage, let them know how important the press will be\r\nat the DNC protests and urge them to give critical focus on the issues people\r\nare demonstrating about. \r\n<\/p>
\r\n* Forward this or more concise info from the links listed to everyone you\r\nknow, espeically those who might be willing to help, or who might have money\r\nto contribute to the bail fund. \r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"gorillagorilla@hotmail.com","link":"","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"Political repression and police abuses during and after the RNC. A plea for help from those in other cities and suggestions on how to provide it, to be forwarded to all. \"This is the first page in a very long book.\"","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/08\/political_.txt","filesize":"10.7 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/08\/471.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":475,"heading":"Old\/Bold\/Peace\/Warrior","article":"I am 70 yrs.on this planet.I was a\r\nCombat Marine in Korea. I am a\r\nChristian Church Minister\/Psychologist\/TV Producer\/and\r\nfather of 5 great kids. I produced the\r\nVoices of Peace TV series. Filmed at\r\nWounded Knee\/Custer South Dakota\/BIA\r\nIndian Occupation\/I have been falsely\r\nimprisoned...I am televising everyday\r\nin LA with the IMC...tell me how I can\r\nbest document what will happen here\r\nas related to police brutality et al.\r\n\r\nYours for freedom...Rev. Buddy.","author":"Rev.Willis\"Buddy\"Clark,Jr.","parent_id":471,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2000-08-10 14:02:15","modified":"2000-08-10 15:00:01","fileurl":""}]}