[Dryerase] AGR Asheville police brutality
Shawn G
dr_broccoli at hotmail.com
Fri Nov 22 13:49:59 CST 2002
Asheville Global Report
WWW.AGRNews.org
Reprinting permitted for non-profit use and to the members of the Dryerase
news wire.
Pictures available at www.agrnews.org
Police checkpionts fail to stop SOA protest
By Willy Rosencrans
Nov. 19 (AGR) Over 10,000 people showed up at the gates of Ft. Benning in
Columbus, GA on Nov. 16 and 17 to demand the closure of the US Army
counterinsurgency training center once known as the School of the Americas,
now popularly called the School of Assassins (SOA). Organizers said that,
despite unprecedented efforts by authorities to prohibit access to the
gathering, it was one of the largest yet in the annual demonstrations
thirteen-year history.
The day before the demonstration, Judge Clay Land ruled that the city of
Columbus could erect police checkpoints, complete with metal detectors, at
the entrances to the protest site. SOA Watch, the organizing group committed
to shutting the school down, responded by issuing thousands of forms
declaring that the bearer did not consent to this search.
We have monitored protests for decades, said Gerry Weber of the American
Civil LIberties Union (ACLU), and this is the first time weve ever heard
of a plan to conduct mass searches of all demonstrators.
Its totally inappropriate for people to be searched in order to exercise
their right to freedom of assembly, added Solstice, a member of SOA Watchs
staff. The courts ruling was a very bad precedent; were appealing it.
At checkpoints erected between curbside greenery freshly mowed by prison
convicts, police armed with metal detector wands confiscated an arbitrary
assortment of metal objects. No weapons were found.
They took some staples and a paint can opener from me, fumed David
Christian, a puppetista from Atlanta who came to work on the events puppet
pageant. Apparently a paint can opener is a deadly weapon these days.
Karl Meyer of Nashville, TN refused to submit to the search; he made it
through the checkpoint without stopping and was arrested. The 65-year-old
activist served 6 months in prison last year for trespassing onto Ft.
Benning.
Local businesswoman Miriam Tidwell staged a first-time counterprotest at
Express Automotive Service, near the checkpoint. A nearby marquee read God
Bless Ft. Benning Day Oil Change $15.99; the sign was changed to read
Godless Ft. Benning Day at some point during the night.
Participants at the SOA Watch vigil heard music ranging from folksingers to
hip hop and Mayan bands, and testimony from a diverse group of speakers
including torture survivor advocates, student groups, drug policy
researchers and a representative of displaced Afro-Colombians.
A puppet pageant including almost 400 performers reenacted Argentinas
struggle through the violent military repression of the 70s and 80s, through
its recent spate of successful popular uprisings, to the growing number of
bakeries, clinics, and other enterprises run by and for the people.
The pageants second run followed the traditional funeral procession, during
which thousands of mourners walked to the fence erected across the entrance
to Ft. Benning after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington,
DC, to decorate it with crosses bearing the names of SOA victims, along
with offerings such as banners, baby-sized coffins, and paper cranes. Many
wept as the names of victims, ranging in age from the unborn to the elderly,
were recited from the stage.
No complete record exists of deaths orchestrated by SOA graduates; they
number in the uncounted thousands and include atrocities like the El Mozote
massacre of 1981, in which about 900 Salvadorans were killed. The date of
the vigil commemorates the assassination of six Jesuit priests, their
housekeeper, and her daughter, also in El Salvador, in 1989. Graduates have
been implicated in virtually every major human rights violation in Latin
America.
In 1996 the Pentagon admitted that the SOA had used manuals advocating
torture for years. Current manuals encourage the use of counterinsurgency
techniques against labor organizers, student groups, and people critical of
their government. In January, 2001, the school was renamed the Western
Hemispheric Institute for Security Cooperation in an attempt to deflect
criticism. These days its opponents often refer to it as a terrorist
training camp.
Our foreign policy has been hijacked by corporations, says Solstice.
Institutions like the SOA reflect neither the values nor the interests of
the American people. And we believe that these policies are making us a lot
of enemies
There are two possible paths we can take after September 11. We can teach
our children to fear and avoid people who criticize what our government is
doing, people who engage the democratic process through street protests and
other means of nonviolent engagement. Or we can choose a direction where we
say Now, more than ever, we need to take responsibility for the policies of
our government.
Civil disobedience has been a major part of the vigil since its earliest
days, typically consisting of trespassing onto the base to demand the SOAs
closure. This year, police arrested 92 people. Five were released without
being charged, including four juveniles, one of whom was abandoned by
military police (MPs) at a gas station by herself, at night, and had to find
her own way back to SOA Watchs Legal Collective office.
Of the rest, the majority were charged with a Class B federal trespassing
misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of six months and a $5,000
fine. Four were charged with Class A misdemeanors, including running a
police checkpoint (the woman in question had taken a wrong turn onto Ft.
Benning) and property damage (the cutting of a lock on Ft. Bennings gates);
Class A carries a maximum sentence of one year and a $100,000 fine.
Judge G. Mallon Faircloth set bail at $5,000, releasing one on personal
recognizance because his position as a tenured professor, according to
Faircloth, made him less of a bail-jumping risk. Bail was briefly revoked
for some because they refused to give personal information required by
incorrectly used Federal Marshal forms; the forms are meant to be used after
conviction, for people being transported to federal prison.
Theres obviously no innocent until proven guilty in Faircloths court,
said Becky Johnson, a member of the Legal Collective. And exacting punitive
damages before a trial has even occurred for them its appalling. Over
$40,000 was required to satisfy the excessive bond.
As of this writing, two remain in jail one for refusing to post bond until
the judge releases her on personal recognizance, and the other for insisting
on calling himself Peace; without his real name, federal prosecutors have
had to refer to his case as The United States of America vs. Peace.
Peter Jessup, 22, a student from Omaha, NB, and one of those arrested,
described his experiences Monday evening shortly after his release. He had
not planned to get arrested, but was moved to climb the fence after the
funeral procession.
Even if only one person had to face the horrors perpetrated by SOA grads,
it would be a good enough cause, said Jessup. We need to do more than just
say were opposed
The feeling of support as we were cheered on was
incredible. And the people I was incarcerated with were wonderful. We were
all really scared; but that we all had the same fears, and the same
optimism, really lifted us up. It was very powerful.
[But] people were denied water and food; people were cold. Elderly people
especially. There was no access to warm clothing
A diabetic who hadnt
eaten for 12 hours was denied appropriate food.
Earlier this year, 43 people were convicted year for trespassing at last
years action. 26 remain in prison.
Adrian Tate, 19, a resident of Southgate housing complex which lies just
outside Ft. Benning, sympathized with those who committed civil
disobedience. Im glad theyre doing it, he said. I dont want to see all
those people going over there and getting locked up. But it aint nothing
but the truth they ought to close that motherfucking school.
Eight-year-old Holly Rose Black of Asheville, NC was one of the last to
cross the line, at sunset, long after the vigil was over. Oblivious MPs
crunched their way up and down a growing garbage pile of crosses nearby as
she took the last paper crane from the fence.
I was really happy that so many people were brave enough to cross the line
and go to prison, she said afterward. Im glad there were so many people
there to help close the SOA.
_________________________________________________________________
Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*.
http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail
More information about the Dryerase
mailing list