{"article":{"id":13518,"heading":"Philadelphia Police PULL GUN TO DEMONSTRATORS HEAD - EYEWITNESS ACCOUNT","author":"rtf","created":"2001-12-12 09:22:27","modified":"2005-08-15 00:48:25","last_modified":"Mon, 15 Aug 2005 07:48:25","article":"","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/www.raisethefist.com","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"image\/gif","summary":"I was at the mumia march in Philadelphia on Dec 7th. I very much saw what happened when the police started to riot on the crowed. I saw how this was clearly a setup as well.","numcomment":1,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2001\/12\/phcc.gif","filesize":"77.0 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2001\/12\/13518.php","image":{"original":"\/uploads\/2001\/12\/phcc.gif"}},"attachments":[],"comments":[{"id":13519,"heading":"article","article":"here's the article (didn't seem to post it):\r\n\r\nI was marching in the back of the march with 2 friends. One of them was Matt (who got the gun pulled to his head), and another I'll call 'Z'. \r\n\r\nAs we were marching, I noticed a jeep we passed with piece of paper tapped to it's window which read, \"FRY MUMIA\". I looked at it and kept marching, then I looked at one of my friends and asked him if he saw it. We then looked back and the lady in the car kept telling us, \"come here.. come here\", she gestured with her finger for us to come back and talk to her. She did this as she then unbuckled her seatbelt and got out of her car. So we decided what the hell, might as well talk to her and try to educate her on the issue. We then peacefully approached her asking her why she wanted mumia to be killed. She then pulled down Matt's face mask, and said, \"Why are you wearing a face mask?!\". She then pulled down my mask. I simply told her it was to protect our privacy. She then asked the same question, \"Why are you wearing a face mask?!\", Matt then replied, very politely, \"why do you want mumia killed?\". Even though we were talking to her politely, and peacefully, she then decided to grab onto Matt's arm. Then she started screaming for the police. Please take note that Matt didn't lay a finger on this lady. I was right there. At this point the lady had just assaulted Matt. Matt tried to get away but the lady had a very tight grip on Matt's arm. At this point my friend \"Z\" acted in self-defense for Matt and was able to pull Matt away from the lady. At this point, after the lady assaulted Matt, she then continued screaming for the police. Knowing exactly what was going to happen, and WHY this just happened, Matt darted up to the front of the march for his own personal safety. A few seconds later I saw about 2-3 cops running through the march after Matt. At this point I, along with other bloc demonstrators started running after the cops. The police were chasing a demonstrator for nothing. He didn't do anything. When I reached the front of the march the cops had just got onto Matt and were trying to bring him to the ground. Several demonstrators tried to pull the cops off Matt as they were assaulting him. The police then slammed Matt down to the concrete face first. The cop then pulled out his gun and held it to Matt's head. He then slid the gun down to Matt's neck. Another cop removed a gun from his waste and began pointing it at the rest of the demonstrators. He literarily held the gun in peoples faces. At this point, I could see a whole swarm of police coming in on our right. I had no idea how they got there so quick, it seemed as if they were secretly hiding someplace. They began beating people with batons, and making random arrests. They also started to pepper-spray people. No one was being violent. They began arresting people who were simply standing around, or trying to help their fellow comrades that were being brutally attacked. I noticed the cops dragging several people up the street. At this point the march had become fragmented onto parts of the sidewalk, and the cops had taken the middle of the street. Matt was still on the ground with a gun to his neck. \r\nAgain, Matt did not do anything. He didn't assault anyone. He didn't incite any riot. He didn't do anything. \r\n\r\nThe cops then started pushing people back away from the scene. They began swinging their batons, and ramming us with the sides of their bicycles. The march then resumed around the block to the Church. \r\n\r\nMatt was released on Bail which was posted the next day. However, he is still being charged with a whole list of BOGUS charges: \r\n\r\naggravated assault, aggravated assault conspiracy to commit, riot, riot conspiracy to commit, simply assault, reap, resisting arrest, failure to disperse, disorderly conduct, criminal mischief, obstructing highway \r\n\r\nAgain, Matt did not do anything. Matt was assaulted not only by the lady, but by the police officers. Again, I was there, along with \"Z\", and many other whiteness. Matt did nothing. The whole march was completely peaceful. There is no doubt in our minds that the lady was a Provakator who was possibly working for the police. She seemed very in urge to start a conflict. I only wanted to educate her when we went back to talk to her. Matt tried to ask her a simple question, very politely, and she responded in a violent manner which erupted into this police riot. \r\n\r\nThis is just one of the many examples of the repression we face under the police state. We are under siege. Our streets are no longer our streets. Our communities have been hijacked. There have been an increasing number of incidents with police drawing guns on protesters. With the shooting in Sweden, the death of Carlo at the G-8 summit in Italy who was shot twice in the head..etc. \r\n\r\nWe are living in a police state. And it's not getting better. It's only getting worse. It's going to continue getting worse unless we take action. Passiveness will not work. We must take action. \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n","author":"rtf","parent_id":13518,"mime_type":"text\/plain","created":"2001-12-12 09:23:28","modified":"2001-12-12 09:35:48","fileurl":""}]}