|
""On the eve of mass protests, police tell tales that turn out not to be true.. "It is a little-known fact that no one at an anti-globalization protest in the United States has ever thrown a Molotov cocktail. Nor is there reason to believe global justice activists have planted bombs, pelted cops with bags of excrement or ripped up sidewalks to pummel them with chunks of concrete, thrown acid in policemen's face or shot at them with wrist-rockets or water pistols full of urine or bleach. Certainly none have ever been arrested for doing so. Yet somehow, every time there is a major mobilization, police and government officials begin warning the public that this is exactly what they should expect... used to justify extreme police tactics... "April 2000, Washington, DC. Hours before the protests against the IMF and World Bank are to begin, police seize the activists' Convergence Center. Chief Charles Ramsey loudly claims to have discovered a workshop there for manufacturing Molotov cocktails and homemade pepper spray. DC police later admit no such workshop existed... "July 2000, Minneapolis. Days before a scheduled protest.. police claim that activists detonated a cyanide bomb.. and might have their hands on stolen explosives. The next day the Drug Enforcement Administration raids a house used by organizers, drags off the bloodied inhabitants... Police later admit there never was a cyanide bomb... August 2000, Philadelphia. Hours before protests against the Republican convention are to begin, police, claiming to be acting on a tip... arresting the seventy activists.. Chief John Timoney announces the discovery of C4 explosives and water balloons full of hydrochloric acid. Police later admit that no explosives or acid were found... "..the police strategy consisted almost entirely of pre-emtive strikes against activists... The press, meanwhile, has been airing increasingly outlandish accounts... Some police officials have become notorious amoung activists for their Gothic imaginations... "Such charges invariably make splashy headlines at the time, only to be later exposed as false or fade away for lack of evidence. Timoney has also become notorious for brutal tactics: In Miami his men opened fire on activists with an array of wooden, rubber and plastic bullets, tazer guns, concussion grenades and a variety of chemical weapons... ".. it rarely occurs to most Americans that so many of the officials charged with protecting them could be intentionally, systematically lying" (David Graeber. "Lying in Wait." The Nation, Apr. 19, 2004, 18-20).
"Overnight, a sheriff can stack a department with second-rate cronies and arm them with high-powered guns... "...Hardy [the sheriff] raised his badge in the air and told everyone [the officers] in the room, "This give you the right to do anything you want. This makes you like God"" (Felix Gillette. "Sheriff, Interrupted." Texas Observer, 5/7/04: 5, 16).
"I point out police collusion with gamblers, drug dealers, prostitutes and, indeed, anyone whose sexual activities have been proscribed by a series of state legal codes that were -- are -- the scandal of what we like to call a free society. These codes are often defended because they are very old. For instance, the laws against sodomy go back 1,400 years to the Emperor Justinian, who felt that there should be such laws because, "as everyone knows," he declared, "sodomy is a principal cause of earthquake"... "The period of Prohibition called the "Noble Experiement" brought on the greatest breakdown of law and order that we have ever endured -- until today, of course. Lesson? Do not regulate the private lives of people, because if you do they will become angry and antisocial, and they will get what they want from criminals, who work in perfect freedom because they know how to pay off the police... "...we are afflicted with all sorts of secret police, busily spying on us. The FBI, since it founding, has generally steered clear of major crime like the Mafia. In fact, much of its time and energies have been devoted to syping on those Americans whose political beliefs did not please the late J. Edgar Hoover, a man who hated commies, blacks and women in, more or less, that order... The bureau also has had a nasty talent for amusing Presidents with lurid dossiers on their political enemies. Now in the year 2004... Homeland Security appears to be uniting our secret police into a single sort of Gestapo with dossiers on everyone" (Gore Vidal. "State of the Union, 2004." The Nation, Sep. 13, 2004: 23-29).
"...our government and law enforcement officials, including local cops, are doing some extraordinary things these days. "In Missouri, they beat and mace peace protesters; they go undercover in Colorado to spy on and monitor law-abiding peace activists; campus police spy on students and their professors for the FBI in Massachusetts; cops fire on marchers in California; in Iowa prosecutors empanel a grand jury and issue subpoenas all around to find out what peace activists are doing; and New York City cops interrogate peace activists about their political affiliations, then enter their information into a database... "A favorite tactic of the Bush administration is to herd out of view of his motorcade, and into "designated protest zones," people protesting this president's many controversial policies and actions. Those who refuse to go into protest zones are then arrested. In contrast, avowed Bush supporters are allowed to remain alongside the presidential motorcade and within his earshot. "This tactic is being used nationwide to suppress dissent and undermine the essential First Amendment right to express disagreement in a public forum with the policies of governmental officials... "...the administration has a clear "pattern and practice" of discrimination against those who disagree with its policies... "They are not only denying people the right of dissent against their government, but also intimidating them from exercising their freedom of speech. "Beside insulating government officials from seeing or hearing the protestors and vice-versa, this practice gives to the American public -- through the media -- the appearance that there exists less dissent from the government official or their policies than there really is" (Nadine Strossen. "We Can Be Safe, Secure and Free -- To Dissent." ACLU Civil Liberties, Spring 2004: 2-3).
"High-powered tasers are the new fad in law enforcement. They are becoming ever more prevalent even as their safety is increasingly in question. The proliferation of tasers in police departments across the country has led to unconventional uses. Among those hit by tasers are elderly people, children as young as one year old, people apparently suffering diabetic shock and epileptic seizures, people already bound in restraints, and hospital mental patients. Police used tasers against protesters at the 2003 Miami Free Trade Area of the Americas demonstration and against rowdy fans at the 2005 Fiesta Bowl. School systems are employing the weapons, with some officers carrying tasers even in elementary schools. "But doctors, reporters, and human rights groups have raised questions about the safety of the devices, which shoot two barbs designed to pierce the skin. The barbs are at the end of electrical wires carrying 50,000 volts. Last summer, The New York Times reported that at least fifty people have died within a short time after being hit with a taser. By November, when Amnesty International releasted its report, that number had risen to more than seventy... "Police like tasers, sometimes for good reason... says the taser "is a tool that is effective in ending what could otherwise be a violent conflict without injuries. We're finding that time and again"... "In Portland, Oregon, police used a taser to shock a seventy-one-year-old blind woman four times on her back and once on the right breast. They also pepper-sprayed her and beat her... "Amnesty International... warns it is "not advisable" to use its high-power devices on someone who is pregnant or elderly... "Many police departments say that use of tasers has reduced injuries and fatalities. The city of Phoenix saw a 54 percent drop in police shootings the year it began to use tasers. In 2003, Seattle, which also uses tasers, for the first time in fifteen years had no shootings that involved officers. That correlation has made tasers popular... "But Amnesty International says the tasers are making it too easy for the police to use excessive force... "In contrast, taser usage has increased dramatically, becoming the most prevalent force option in some department... "A number of the stories in the Amnesty report involve police use of tasers on people who were already restrained, including two who were strapped to gurneys and on their way to, or already inside, hospitals... "Amnesty International wants the devices temporarily banned "pending a rigorous, independent, and impartial inquiry into their use and effects"... "On December 10, 2004, police in Pembroke Pines, Florida, used a taser on a twelve-year-old boy who tried to stab another child with a pencil and then became combative with police... "Back in May, a nine-year-old run-away girl in Tucson, who was already handcuffed by police and sitting in a police vehicle, was shocked with a taser when she began to kick at the car and bang her head... "Even one-year-olds have been shocked, according to records... The company also told the San Jose Mercury News that its taser can be used safely on toddlers... "A scientist who tested some of the early tasers for the Canadian government recommended that the government ban the devices... his tests showed the devices could cause death... "...a trend: the increasingly common use of tasers against students. Taser International says that 32 percent of the police departments it interviewed include tasers in local school systems... "Taser International, which features the slogan "Saving Lives Every Day" on its website, is also hawking tasers directly to consumers... calling them "home self-defense systems"" (Ann-Marie Cusac. "The Trouble With Tasers." The Progressive, April, 2005: 22-27).
"Why is police accountability so important?.... There's a long history of police brutality and lack of accountability in the state of Texas. It's almost to mythical proportions. Think about it: According to the Washington Post, the number one most violent police department is the Harris County Sheriff's Department. Number two is the Houston Police Department. What does that say? We've got serious police accountability issues in Texas... a repressive regime like Texas..." (Jake Bernstein. "Spokesmodel Makes Good." Texas Observer, April 15, 2005: 10-14, 28).
|