Fw: [csaw] Peaceful Anti-War Demo in Long Beach Raided by Police State

["Nello Margiotta" <animarg at tin.it>]

 Subject: [csaw] Peaceful Anti-War Demo in Long Beach Raided by Police State
 Date: Sun, 23 Dec 2001 16:33:57 -0800 (PST)

 About 45 activists showed up at the Anti-War demo in
 Long Beach. We came to this demo that was organized by
 Local High School students to get together and speak
 out against the war, Last week we went and sat through
 a 5 hr. city coucil meeting to let Long Beach City
 council know about our PEACEFUL demo. we had a
 community agreement that stated no drugs, no violence,
 so and so forth.. we even went to the police to let
them know about this and told them that we wanted to
 communicate w/ them and did not want any trouble. none
 of this seems to have mattered.

 The demonstration started as a rally at the park with
 speakers and music. We then decided to march over to
 the outside shopping center to hand out leaflets to
 people coming out of stores. During this time we were
 followed by police in a Monella jeep, along with a
 white car. Everything seemed to be going smoothly
 without any trouble. We engaged locals in coverstaion,
 gave out stickers and flyers on why we are against the
 war, and also flyers on where local people can plug in
 to the anti war movement.

 Police then decided that they were going to arrest two
 demonstrators, one person who was holding a "Veterans
 for Peace" flag who is a lawyer, and another doing
 media coverage, this man had on him an AP press pass
 and video taping the arrest. They police didn't say
 why these two individuals were being arrested, except
that they were "on private property" and that they
 were not moving. The small crowed of demonstrators
 gathered peacefully around the police as the two
 individuals were being take away. At this point, a
 helicopter arrived at the scene circling overhead.
 Then countless police cars began to flood the area.
 Like an armada, I must have counted at least 18 police
 cars in the first few minutes. Crowds of onlookers
 gathered around as demonstrators chanted, "this is
 what democracy looks like! this is what democracy
 looks like!". One officers took out his baton and
started threatening demonstrators. He warned us that
 if we didn't move back, he was going to "use his
 baton", and/or arrest us. He repeatedly pushed his
 baton into me and threatened to arrest me. At this
 point we were gathered around the police car as the
 two individuals were being taken away. We repeatedly
 asked for the officers badge number (the one whirling
 his baton), but he refused to give it to us.

 The car then left the scene, taking the demonstrators
 to the station. At this point, floods of police cars
 were still arriving at the scene. This peaceful
 demonstration had come under siege by the Long Beach
 police state.

 We then decided to walk back to the park, as it
 probibly wasn't the best idea to stick around as loads
 of police cars kept flooding into the scene. As we
 were marching back, we noticed even more police cars
 STILL arriving to the scene. This was seriously a
 complete overkill. Once we got back to the park, we
 gathered to talk about the events. Police drove their
 SUV squad car up onto the grass, and had extra cops
 surrounding us. They also continued to video tape us.
 We decided not to stick around as the police would
 probably "scoop us up", so we decided to leave. As I
 was leaving with another person, the police tried to
 follow us in my car. I also noticed that the
 residential streets behind the park were flooded with
 police cars.

 And all this because a small group of people sought to
 exercise the so-called "freedom of speech" in this
 country.

 A demonstrator asked, "For once can we go out and
 demonstrate with police harassing us!?".

 We are living in a police state. This is one of the
 many tools engendered by the capitalist system. And
 it's only going to get worse if we don't do something
 about it.

 It seems that countless law suits have no effect on
 the issue. They still continue to manifest their
 militarization and repression over our communities.
 They still harass, discriminate, beat down, rape, and
 kill people. It seems after every law suit, they only
 get more repressive. They only get worse.

 UPDATE both people who went to jail are now released..
 the AP press guy had all of his equipment.. around
 $5,000 worth taken from him and police are refusing to
 return it to him.

 It seems that countless law suits have no effect on
 the issue. They still continue to manifest their
 militarization and repression over our communities.
 They still harass, discriminate, beat down, rape, and
 kill people. It seems after every law suit, they only
 get more repressive. They only get worse.
 xoxo
 Chantel