[corp-focus] Correction - Militarization in Miami: Threatening the Right to Protest

[Robert Weissman]

Friends,

There was an error in the column we sent out earlier today.

The sentences:

"With agreement from their teachers, hundreds of high school students
were ready to join our small action highlighting how the FTAA and trade
agreements interfere with anti-smoking and other public health measures.
But no teacher could feel comfortable sending students to a militarized
downtown, and so the students were not able to demonstrate."

should have read:

"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 is the only change.

A corrected version follows below.

Sorry for the confusion.

---------



Militarization in Miami: Threatening the Right to Protest
By Russell Mokhiber and Robert Weissman

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. We turned
our rally into a news conference.

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/2003/000170.html>.