The Miami Model: Paramilitaries, Embedded Journalists and Illegal Protests. Think This is Iraq? It's Your Country

["nello margiotta" <nellomargiotta55@virgilio.it>]

FONTE: Znet

By Jeremy Scahill

MIAMI--We were loading our video equipment into the trunk of our car when a
fleet of bicycle cops sped up and formed a semi-circle around us. The lead
cop was none other than Miami Police Chief John Timoney. The former Police
Commissioner of Philadelphia Timoney has a reputation for brutality and
hatred of protesters of any kind. He calls them "punks," "knuckleheads" and
a whole slew of expletives. He coordinated the brutal police response to the
mass-protests at the Republican National Convention in Philadelphia in 2000.
After a brief stint in the private sector, Timoney took the post of Miami
police chief as part of Mayor Manny Diaz's efforts to "clean up the
department."

We had watched him the night before on the local news in Miami praising his
men for the restraint they had shown in the face of violent anarchists
intent on destroying the city. In reality, the tens of thousands who
gathered in Miami to protest the ministerial meetings of the Free Trade Area
of the Americas summit were seeking to peacefully demonstrate against what
they consider to be a deadly expansion of NAFTA and US-led policies of free
trade. There were environmental groups, labor unions, indigenous activists
from across the hemisphere, church groups, grassroots organizations,
students and many others in the streets. What they encountered as they
assembled outside the gates to the building housing the FTAA talks was
nothing short of a police riot. It only took a few hours last Thursday
before downtown Miami looked like a city under martial law.

On the news, Chief Timoney spoke in sober tones about the tear gas that
demonstrators fired at his officers. No, that is not a typo. Timoney said
the protesters were the ones launching the tear gas. He also said the
demonstrators had hurled "missiles" at the police. "I got a lot of tear
gas," Timoney said. "We all got gassed. They were loaded to the hilt. A lot
of missiles, bottles, rocks, tear gas from the radicals."

Seeing Timoney up close and personal evokes this image of Mayor Daley at the
'68 Democratic Convention ordering his men to shoot protesters on sight. He
is that kind of guy.

Back at our car, Timoney hopped off his bike as a police cameraman recorded
his every move. It all had the feel of being on an episode of COPS. He
demanded the license and registration for the car. Our colleague Norm
Stockwell of community radio station WORT in Madison, Wisconsin gave him his
license. We informed him we were journalists. One of his men grabbed Norm's
press pass, looking it over as though it was a fake. They looked at all of
us with nasty snares before getting back on their bikes and preparing to
continue on to further protect Miami. Timoney gave us this look that said,
you got away this time but I'll be back. You could tell he was pissed off
that we weren't anarchists (as far as he knew).

As Timoney was talking with his men, one of the guys on the bikes approached
us with a notepad. "Can I have your names?" he asked.

I thought he was a police officer preparing a report. He had on a Miami
police polo shirt, just like Timoney's. He had a Miami police bike helmet,
just like Timoney's. He had a bike, just like Timoney's. In fact there was
only one small detail that separated him from Timoney-a small badge around
his neck identifying him as a reporter with the Miami Herald. He was
embedded with Chief Timoney.

That reporter was one of dozens who were embedded with the Miami forces
(it's hard to call them police), deployed to protect the FTAA ministerial
meetings from thousands of unarmed protesters. In another incident, we saw a
Miami Herald photographer who had somehow gotten pushed onto the "protesters
side" of a standoff with the police. He was behind a line of young kids who
had locked arms to try and prevent the police from advancing and attacking
the crowds outside of the Inter-Continental Hotel. He was shouting at the
kids to move so he could get back to the safe side. The protesters ignored
him and continued with their blockade.

The photographer grew angrier and angrier before he began hitting one of the
young kids on the line. He punched him in the back of the head before other
journalists grabbed him and calmed him down. His colleagues seemed shocked
at the conduct. He was a big, big guy and was wearing a bulletproof vest and
a police issued riot helmet, but I really think he was scared of the skinny,
dreadlocked bandana clad protesters. He had this look of panic on his face,
like he had been in a scuffle with the Viet Cong.

Watching the embedded journalists on Miami TV was quite entertaining. They
spoke of venturing into Protesterland as though they were entering a secret
al Qaeda headquarters in the mountains of Afghanistan. Interviews with
protest leaders were sort of like the secret bin Laden tapes. There was
something risqué, even sexy about having the courage to venture over to the
convergence space (the epicenter of protest organizing at the FTAA) and the
Independent Media Center. Several reporters told of brushes they had with
"the protesters." One reporter was quite shaken after a group of
"anarchists" slashed her news van's tires and wrote the word "propaganda"
across the side door. She feared for the life of her cameraman, she somberly
told the anchor back in the studio. The anchor warned her to be careful out
there.

So dangerous was the scene that the overwhelming majority of the images of
the protests on TV were from helicopter shots, where very little could be
seen except that there was a confrontation between police and "the
protesters." This gave cover for Timoney and other officials to make their
outrageous and false statements over and over.

Timoney spun his tales of "hard-core anarchists" rampaging through the
streets of Miami; "outsiders coming to terrorize and vandalize our city." He
painted a picture of friendly restrained police enduring constant attacks
from rocks, paint, gas canisters, smoke bombs and fruit. "We are very proud
of the police officers and their restraint. Lots of objects were thrown at
the police officers," Timoney said. "If we didn't act when we did, it would
have been much worse."

It was much worse.


Timoney's Paramilitaries

After last week, no one should call what Timoney runs in Miami a police
force. It's a paramilitary group. Thousands of soldiers, dressed in khaki
uniforms with full black body armor and gas masks, marching in unison
through the streets, banging batons against their shields, chanting, "back.
back. back." There were armored personnel carriers and helicopters.

The forces fired indiscriminately into crowds of unarmed protesters. Scores
of people were hit with skin-piercing rubber bullets; thousands were gassed
with an array of chemicals. On several occasions, police fired loud
concussion grenades into the crowds. Police shocked people with electric
tazers. Demonstrators were shot in the back as they retreated. One young
guy's apparent crime was holding his fingers in a peace sign in front of the
troops. They shot him multiple times, including once in the stomach at point
blank range.

My colleagues and I spent several days in the streets, going from conflict
to conflict. We saw no attempts by any protesters to attack a business or
corporation. With the exception of some graffiti and an occasional garbage
can set on fire, there was very little in the way of action not aimed
directly at the site of the FTAA meetings. Even the Black Bloc kids, who
generally have a rep for wanting to smash everything up, were incredibly
restrained and focused.

There was no need for any demonstrator to hurl anything at the forces to
spark police violence. It was clear from the jump that Timoney's men came
prepared to crack heads. And they did that over and over. After receiving
$8.5 million in federal funds from the $87 billion Iraq spending bill, Miami
needed to have a major combat operation. It didn't matter if it was
warranted.

Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the police actions last week a model for
homeland security. FTAA officials called it extraordinary. Several cities
sent law enforcement observers to the protests to study what some are now
referring to as the "Miami Model."

This model also included the embedding of undercover police with the
protesters. At one point during a standoff with police, it appeared as
though a group of protesters had gotten into a brawl amongst themselves. But
as others moved in to break up the melee, two of the guys pulled out
electric tazers and shocked protesters, before being liberated back behind
police lines. These guys, clearly undercover agents, were dressed like any
other protester. One had a sticker on his backpack that read: "FTAA No Way."

The IMC has since published pictures of people dressed like Black Bloc
kids-ski masks and all-walking with uniformed police behind police lines.

The only pause in the heavy police violence in Miami came on Thursday
afternoon when the major labor unions held their mass-rally and march. Led
by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the march had a legal permit and was
carefully coordinated with the police. Many of the union guys applauded the
police as they marched past columns of the body-armored officers on break
from gassing and shooting unarmed demonstrators.

But as soon as the unions and their permits began to disperse, the police
seized the moment to escalate the violence against the other protesters.
Fresh from their break during the union rally, Timoney's forces ordered the
protesters to clear the area in front of the Inter-Continental. Some of the
demonstrators shouted back that they had a right to peaceably protest the
FTAA.

Boom. The concussion grenades started flying.

Hiss. The tear gas was sprayed.

Rat-a-tat-tat. The rubber bullets were fired.

Bam, bam. The batons were swinging.

The police methodically marched in a long column directly at the several
hundred protesters who believed they had a right to protest, even without
John Sweeney at their side. They fired indiscriminately at the crowds. One
woman had part of her ear blown off. Another was shot in the forehead. I got
shot twice, once in the back, another time in the leg. My colleague, John
Hamilton from the Workers Independent News Service was shot in the neck by a
pepper-spray pellet-a small ball that explodes into a white powder. After a
few moments, John began complaining that his neck was burning from the
powder. We doused him in water, but the burning continued. When I tried to
ask the police what the powder was, they told me to "mind myself."

I've been in enough police riots to know that when the number of
demonstrators dwindles and the sun sets, that's when the real violence
begins. Eventually, the police forced the dissipating group of protesters
into one of the poorest sections of Miami, surrounding them on 4 sides. We
stood there in the streets with the eerie feeling of a high-noon showdown.
Except there were hundreds of them with guns and dozens of us with cameras
and banners. They fired gas and rubber bullets at us as they moved in. All
of us realized we had nothing to do but run. We scattered down side streets
and alleys, ducking as we fled. Eventually, we made it out.

After nearly an hour, we managed to find a taxi. We got in and the driver
started choking from our pepper-sprayed clothes. She wanted us to get out of
the taxi. We apologized for our smell and offered her more money just to get
us to the hotel. She agreed.


The Real Crime: Failure to Embed

The next day, we went to a midday rally outside the Dade County Jail where
more than 150 people were being held prisoner. It was a peaceful assembly of
about 300 people. They sang "We all live in a failed democracy," to the tune
of "We all live in a yellow submarine." They chanted, "Free the Prisoners,
Not Free Trade," and "Take off your riot gear, there ain't no riot here."

Representatives of the protesters met with police officials at the scene.
The activists said they would agree to remain in a parking lot across the
street from the jail if the police would call off the swelling presence of
the riot police. They reached an agreement.or so the police said.

As the demonstration continued, the numbers of fully armed troops grew and
grew. And they moved in from all four sides. They announced that people had
3 minutes to disperse from the "unlawful assembly." Even though the police
violated their agreement, the protesters complied. A group of 5 activists
led by Puppetista David Solnit informed the police they would not leave. The
police said fine and began arresting them.

But that was not enough. The police then attacked the dispersing crowd,
chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them to the ground and
beat them. They gassed them at close range. My colleague from Democracy
Now!, Ana Nogueira, and I got separated in the mayhem. I was lucky to end up
on the "safe" side of the street. Ana was in the melee. As she did her
job-videotaping the action-Ana was wearing her press credentials in plain
sight. As the police began handcuffing people, Ana told them she was a
journalist. One of the officers said, "She's not with us, she's not with
us," meaning that although Ana was clearly a journalist, she was not the
friendly type. She was not embedded with the police and therefore had to be
arrested.

In police custody, the authorities made Ana remove her clothes because they
were soaked with pepper spray. The police forced her to strip naked in front
of male officers. Despite calls from Democracy Now!, the ACLU, lawyers and
others protesting Ana's arrest and detention, she was held in a
cockroach-filled jail cell until 3:30 am. She was only released after I
posted a $500 bond. Other independent journalists remained locked up for
much longer and face serious charges, some of them felonies. In the end, Ana
was charged with "failure to disperse."

The real crime seems to be "failure to embed."

In the times in which we live, this is what democracy looks like. Thousands
of soldiers, calling themselves police, deployed in US cities to protect the
power brokers from the masses. /Posse Comitatus/ is just a Latin phrase.
Vigilantes like John Timoney roam from city to city, organizing militias to
hunt the dangerous radicals who threaten the good order. And damned be the
journalist who dares to say it-or film it-like it is.


Jeremy Scahill is a producer and correspondent for the nationally syndicated
radio and TV program Democracy Now! He can be reached at
jeremy@democracynow.org. For more reports on the FTAA protests, go to:
www.democracynow.org /

-- Jeremy Scahill Producer/Correspondent Democracy Now! Phone:
+1-212-431-9090 Fax:+1-212-431-8858 www.democracynow.org Sign up for the
Democracy Now! Daily News Digest: http://www.democracynow.org/maillist.pl