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Fw: [csaw] Peaceful Anti-War Demo in Long Beach Raided by Police State
- To: <pck-pace@peacelink.it>
- Subject: Fw: [csaw] Peaceful Anti-War Demo in Long Beach Raided by Police State
- From: "Nello Margiotta" <animarg@tin.it>
- Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2001 18:48:47 +0100
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