[Peace-discuss] RE: P4P ground rules

[Kranich, Kimberlie]

Linda,

Great suggestions!  I have written a draft of ground rules for participating
in our demos on Prospect Avenue that reflect our goals of nonviolent direct
action as well as safety for ourselves and others.  

The ground rules also reflect the conversations AWARE has had with the
police of which I took part. I agree that these or some version of these
ground rules be handed to every demonstrator every week. They also include
info. about our vigil in the event of war, our regular meeting schedule, how
to get a "No IraQ War" sign and how to subscribe to our listserves. 

The ground rules have been sent to Ricky and Carol. I agree that we also
need designated "leaders." These leaders should have cell phones and the
police dsipatch numebr and should watch our line during our demonstration.

Kimberlie

-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Evans
To: peace-discuss at lists.groogroo.com
Sent: 2/17/2003 1:40 PM
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Boycott Tires Plus?

I agree with Kimberlie (and many of the people who
brought the subject up in last night's meeting) that
we need to have designated people watch out for
incidents like the shoving and the car parked at Tires
Plus.  I know AWARE is a little different than most of
the groups I worked with in DC, but here are a couple
things that worked for us.

1.  If we were asking the public to come join a
protest, we handed out a very short explanation of
peaceful protests to everyone.  Some people who joined
had never been to a protest before so the handout
explaining how to deal with certain issues was very
helpful.  Basically, it said things like not to fight
back physically, how to find the designated 'helpers'
if there were signs of trouble, try not to 'name call'
or be disrespectful to people who are arguing with us,
etc.  

2.  The 'helpers' or 'body guards' whatever you want
to call them usually wore all black or a yellow hat or
something so they could be spotted by people who
needed their help quickly.  This type of thing was
suggested last night and I really think it is needed
when we have 100+ people out there.  Someone suggested
we have the big guys do this job.  It has been my
experience that women are sometimes better at bringing
the outrage down to a peaceful discussion so please
don't overlook the women in the group for this job.

3.  I don't know if we already have this or not, but
most groups I've worked with before had people who
were designated to talk to press and people who were
to deal with police.  I know we haven't had much
problem with the police.  I have to say this is one of
the few protest groups I've worked with that hasn't
had someone arrested. 

4.  I know this has been brought up in meetings
before, but I think it will be more and more
important...legal council.  Do we have anyone who is
willing to be AWARE's legal council pro bono or for a
reduced fee?

Yes, I would be more than happy to help out with any
of the above suggestions.  :-)

I talked to the guy who got pushed Saturday and he
felt awful.  He said his sign did touch the man's car
because the wind blew it.  He has nothing to feel bad
about!  But, we were closer to the street because of
the snow and I am glad we didn't haven someone sliding
into us due to the ice, etc.  Hopefully, we won't have
much more snow to deal with, but we should try to stay
on the sidewalk if possible.

A police officer did show up Saturday about the
pushing incident.  I just overheard a little, but it
sounded like the officer was there because the man in
the car called the police.  Who ended up talking to
the police?

As far as the Tires Plus people, I personally will not
buy anything from Tires Plus and I mention the
problems we've had to friends.  I don't think we
should put anything in writing, especially without
talking to a lawyer.  I think it would probably be a
waste of time anyway and something we don't need to
worry about right now.  We may want to put something
in the literature about not parking in the Tires Plus
parking lot, but if we tell people in writing to park
somewhere specific (Lowe's) then we should probably
ask the store's permission (something we may not want
to do since they may end up saying 'no').

Linda


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