[Peace-discuss] US military thugs

[Ricky Baldwin]

Thanks for sending this, Carl-

I think we all know this brutality is shocking and
obviously has no place in a democracy.  I think Carl
may be right that we can expect more of this, but I
also think Doug is right that it isn't particularly
new.  Black, Latino and Native Americans especially
have encountered this kind of treatment almost without
interruption, with technological changes, for
generations.  

What is significant about this, in my opinion, is that
once again -- as in the 1960s -- increasing numbers of
middle class white folks are experiencing and indeed
confronting this underbelly of democracy if you will,
and speaking out about it.  Many North Americans who
would not necessarily sympathize with people of color
who are mistreated have been hearing more and more
tales of this sort since November 1999 (Seattle). 
Sometimes they have even found themselves
peppersprayed or shot with wooden dowels, etc., as
they were in Oakland recently when police attacked a
group of old ladies and shot at longshoremen standing
several yards away from a peaceful demonstration.

We would do well to remember that Iraq, Afghanistan
and Palestine are not the only militarily occupied
countries in the world.  In a sense, we are one, too.

Ricky


--- "C. G. Estabrook" <galliher at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu>
wrote:
> {Here's our guest Kathy Kelly's account of her
> treatment at the SOA
> demonstration last weekend.  Compare it with the
> stories coming from Miami
> about Gestapo tactics by the cops there to get an
> idea of how this
> administration is willing to deal with non-violent
> protest.  We can expect
> increasingly brutal confrontations between now and
> the election.  --CGE]
> 
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> 
> November 26, 2003
> 
> "What Country Is This?"
> 
> By KATHY KELLY
> 
> On Sunday, November 23, I took part in a nonviolent
> civil disobedience
> action at Fort Benning, GA, to protest the U.S.
> Army's School of the
> Americas (SOA, now called the Western Hemisphere
> Institute for Security
> Cooperation -- WHISC)
> 
> Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort
> Benning and were
> arrested, US Military Police took us to a warehouse
> on the base for
> "processing." I was directed to a station for an
> initial search, where a
> woman soldier began shouting at me to look straight
> ahead and spread my
> legs. I turned to ask her why she was shouting at me
> and was ordered to
> keep my mouth shut, look straight ahead, and spread
> my legs wider. She
> then began an aggressive body search. When ordered
> to raise one leg a
> second time, I temporarily lost my balance while
> still being roughly
> searched and, in my view, 'womanhandled.' I decided
> that I shouldn't go
> along with this dehumanizing action any longer. When
> I lowered my arms and
> said, quietly, "I'm sorry, but I can't any longer
> cooperate with this," I
> was instantly pushed to the floor. Five soldiers
> squatted around me, one
> of them referring to me with an expletive (this f_ _
> _ er) and began to
> cuff my wrists and ankles and then bind my wrists
> and ankles together.
> Then one soldier leaned on me, with his or her knee
> in my back. Unable to
> get a full breath, I gasped and moaned, "I can't
> breathe." I repeated this
> many times and then began begging for help. When I
> said, "Please, I've had
> four lung collapses before," the pressure on my back
> eased. Four soldiers
> then carried me, hogtied, to the next processing
> station for interrogation
> and propped me in a kneeling position. The soldier
> standing to my left,
> who had been assigned to "escort" me, gently told me
> that soon the ankle
> and wrist cuffs, which were very tight, would be cut
> off. He politely let
> me know that he would have to move my hair, which
> was hanging in front of
> my face, so that my picture could be taken. I told
> him I'd appreciate
> that.
> 
> I was then carried to the next station. There, one
> of the soldiers who'd
> been part of pushing me to the floor knelt in front
> of me, and, with his
> nose about two inches from mine, told me that
> because I was combative I
> should know that if I didn't do exactly as
> instructed when they uncuffed
> one hand, he would pepper spray me. I asked him to
> describe how I'd been
> combative, but he didn't answer.
> 
> After the processing, I was unbound, shackled with
> wrist and ankle chains,
> and led to the section where other peaceful
> activists, also shackled,
> awaited transport to the Muskogee County jail.
> 
> At our bond hearing on Monday, Nov. 24, a military
> prosecutor told the
> federal judge that the military was considering an
> additional charge
> against me for resisting arrest. I explained my side
> of the story to the
> judge, grateful that there are at least sevreal
> witnesses upon whom I
> could call.
> 
> The federal judge determined that most of us were
> "flight risks" and
> increased by 100% the cash bond required before we
> could be released, from
> last years $500. to $1000.
> 
> Today I have a black eye and the soreness that comes
> with severe muscle
> strain. Mostly, I'm burdened with a serious
> question, "What are these
> soldiers training for?" The soldiers conducting that
> search must have been
> ordered not to tolerate the slightest dissent. They
> were practicing
> intimidation tactics far beyond what would be needed
> to control an
> avowedly nonviolent group of protesters who had
> never, in thirteen years
> of previous actions, caused any disruption during
> the process of arrest.
> Bewildered, most of us in the "tank" inside the
> Muskogee County jail
> acknowledged that during the rough processing we
> wondered, "What country
> do we live in?" We now live in a country where
> Homeland Security funds pay
> for exercises which train military and police units
> to control and
> intimidate crowds, detainees, and arrestees using
> threat and force.
> 
> This morning's aches and pains, along with the
> memory of being hogtied,
> give me a glimpse into the abuses we protest by
> coming to Fort Benning,
> GA. As we explore the further invention of
> nonviolence in our increasingly
> volatile time, it's important that we jointly
> overcome efforts to deter
> our determination to stand together against what
> Martin Luther King once
> called, "the violence of desperate men," -- and
> women.
> 
> [Kathy Kelly is director of Voices in the
> Wilderness. She can be reached
> at: kathy at vitw.org]
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Peace-discuss mailing list
> Peace-discuss at lists.cu.groogroo.com
>
http://lists.cu.groogroo.com/cgi-bin/listinfo/peace-discuss
> 


__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
Free Pop-Up Blocker - Get it now
http://companion.yahoo.com/