[lit-ideas] Recap of RNC Week in New York-long
- From: Eric Yost <NYCEric@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Lit-Ideas <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 19 Sep 2004 01:53:55 -0400
Local NYC activist/poet Pete Dolack is well-known among the downtown
poetry groups for his outspoken views and activist writings. I received
his E-mail account of the Republican National Convention week from the
protester's POV, and pass it on to those interested in recent history. -EY
__________
Subj: RNC week: A report from the streets
Date: 9/15/2004 10:17:50 PM Eastern Daylight Time
From: pdolack@xxxxxxx
Sent from the Internet (Details)
RNC week: A report from the streets
By Pete Dolack
If five days in the streets during the Republican National Convention
proved anything, it is how truly frightened the ruling elite of the
United States are of dissent. From the comically absurd ³warnings² of
³anarchists² ready to ³commit serious crimes² by the stenographers for
the police, the Daily News, to the arbitrariness of mass arrests to the
continual trickery and deceit of the police to the concentration-camp
conditions of a temporary prison not considered fit to store buses, a
united bloc from George W. Bush to Billionaire Bloomberg was intent on
stifling any challenge to the Bush administration.
They failed.
Attempts to scare people from attending even the massive August 29 legal
demonstration reached a fever pitch three days earlier with the Daily
News¹ already infamous ³Police intelligence [sic] warning: Anarchy Inc.²
story that quoted solely unnamed ³police sources.² The story named
several ³violent groups² that seem guilty of nothing more than opposing
U.S. government policy. For instance, the No Police State Coalition was
accused of having a ³history of violence, whose members are willing to
be arrested for serious crimes.² Since the group¹s activity consists of
holding speakouts in Union Square Park in which anyone can take the
bullhorn and talk to whatever audience happened to have assembled, the
accusation says far more about the police than the groups that were
libeled. But just to make sure, that evening, the police, who routinely
illegally videotape the speakouts, arrested six people and confiscated
the bullhorn (which still hasn¹t been returned).
The next evening, August 27, was the day of the monthly Critical Mass
bicycle ride. For several months, the police had allowed the regularly
scheduled event, in which thousands of bicyclists ride together through
the streets of Manhattan, to take place without interference. But that
day¹s ride ended with hundreds arrested and their bikes tossed onto a
truck bed as if they were garbage, with the bikes becoming entangled
with one another. A cop walked over the top of them, just for good
measure. No arrestee will have his or her bicycle returned until their
days in court, months away. One Critical Mass rider told me he spent 37
hours locked up only to be given a desk appearance ticket, a process
that normally takes two to four hours. The length of his stay was
typical. And the police threw out his groceries.
Sunday, August 29, was the day of the big United for Peace and Justice
march. Despite applying for a permit 14 months ahead of time, the march
route was not settled until three days before, with a failed court
challenge ending in a typical bourgeois comedy when a judge declared
that UPJ couldn¹t get permission to go to Central Park because they
waited too long! A united front from Billionaire Bloomberg to ³liberal²
one-time Students for a Democratic Society leader Todd Gitlin demanded
everyone stay home and hide under the covers. At least 500,000 ignored
them. It did appear that the march would be allowed to go forth
relatively unmolested when police finally negotiated a route to Union
Square at the last minute, meaning that relatively cooler heads within
City Hall realized that a repeat of the February 2003 debacle would only
reflect badly on them. The police generally didn¹t provoke people at
this march and so it happened almost without incident, to the
disappointment of the corporate media.
Afterward, many went to Central Park as a matter of principal; others
joined the loosely defined ³Mouse Bloc² to confront RNC delegates as
they attended sanitized, Disneyfied broadway shows. No, none of the
delegates were given tickets to Caroline, or Change or to Avenue Q,
although one delegate was quoted in the New York Times grumbling about
his ticket to cliché-ridden Hollywood-style Bombay Dreams when he¹d
rather see an ³All-American show.² The Times, incidentally, paid about
$1 million for all the delegates¹ tickets that night. Perhaps the Times
was simply showing its gratitude for the Bloomberg administration
levelling an entire city block and giving it millions of dollars of
subsidies for a new office two blocks from its current home.
The randomness of the police began to become apparent later that night
as protesters roamed across Times Square heckling RNC delegates on the
streets without interference from the police, although there had been
several arrests there earlier in the evening. Keeping in small numbers
and not lingering at any one spot seemed to make a difference. When
confronted with the fact they the Republican Party is trying to take
political advantage of the massive tragedy of 9-11, the delegates
generally scurried away, almost never making eye contact. Some
protesters took a much more profane tact, expressing disgust with them
in a confrontational style. Either way, it was a small taste of the real
world for people who likely are treated as monarchs back home. In still
another tactic, one man stood on a Times Square corner trying to sell a
³Rich Men Rule² sticker for $20, declaring to passing delegates that
³you can afford it² and that it¹d make a ³great gift for your mistress.²
Monday, August 30, would see significant police provocation and mass
arrests. The refreshingly militant Kensington Welfare Rights Union,
which had set up ³Bushvilles,² had declared its intention to march from
the United Nations to Madison Square Garden without asking for
permission. The group had used the same tactics at the 2000 Philadelphia
RNC and forced the police to allow a march down Broad Street. If enough
people showed up at Dag Hammarskjold Plaza, then the issue would be
forced. Indeed, the police gave way, allowing the crowd of a couple of
thousand to march, down Second Avenue, across 23rd Street and up Eighth
Avenue.
All along the way, people stepped out of offices, stopped on sidewalks
and leaned out of windows to roar their approval. Spirits were high and
the size of the march grew, and a police captain with a bullhorn who was
giving instructions and running commentary seemed to be enjoying
himself, a sight normally never seen at any demonstration. But two
police wagons at the front of the procession carried an unspoken hint of
menace, and the police quickly turned violent once the front of the
march reached Eighth Avenue and 30th Street. There, police abruptly
barricaded the street, although the front of the march was a block shy
of the ³official² protest pen. Another line of police quickly broke into
the crowd at 29th Street, breaking the demonstration into two parts and
locking down those between 29th and 30th streets.
The locked-down block was lined at both curbs by interlocking metal
barricades, a favorite police tactic to trap protesters. Acting quickly,
people began unlocking and moving the barricades, so a now-possible
retreat onto the sidewalks would provide a little mobility. But an
undercover policeman, on an unmarked motorized scooter, began driving
into the crowd below 29th Street, running into people. At the time,
nobody knew who this scooter driver was; he never identified himself.
After this happened repeatedly, a protester knocked him off his scooter
attempting to protect the crowd from potential serious injury. The
protester who acted to protect everyone from the out-of-control scooter
driver was arrested the next day when allegedly recognized by police,
and he, rather than the scooter driver, faces felony assault charges.
This incident also provides a classic example of corporate-media
manipulation. The night this happened, local cable news network NY1
showed an aerial shot of the scooter plowing into the crowd. The next
night, after the arrest, NY1 showed only the scooter driver, now
identified as a police officer, being knocked to the ground and roughed
up, without any context, as if the police story that some crazy guy
arbitrarily attacked a policeman were true.
After this incident, the police then forcibly began breaking up that
half of the march, charging with metal barricades and more motorized
scooters. Eventually, the crowd was allowed to leave, but not before
more arrests, including one woman who was hauled off for the crime of
writing ³freedom of speech² on the street with chalk. We see indeed just
how much freedom of speech Americans have.
Tuesday was the A31 day of direct action. It was also the day that best
exposed the police state that New York City had become. That morning,
the War Resisters League and other pacifists scheduled a funeral
procession that would begin at Ground Zero and wind up near Madison
Square Garden with a ³die-in² to dramatize the ongoing deaths in
occupied Iraq. The War Resisters League is well known, and carefully
worked out the route of the procession and other details with the
police. But the procession hadn¹t left the first block, on Fulton
Street, when a police captain burst into an arm-waving frenzy, screaming
that everyone was breaking the law and ordering the entire block to be
arrested. Officers then raced out with their new orange fences,
literally wrapping up everyone on the block, including passers-by who
had nothing to do with the march.
More than 200 were arrested, and all spent more than 24 hours in jail
under gruesome, unsafe conditions. Police spokesmen and Billionaire
Bloomberg ranted in newspaper interviews that no disorder would be
tolerated, but that is disingenuous. The New York police are more than
capable of handling a march and of routinely managing a large group of
people staging a die-in who will not resist, and whom they know very
well would not cause any disturbances. This was a pre-emptive mass
arrest carried out for the sole reason of suppressing legitimate
peaceful dissent, and it was far from the only example.
A series of actions broke out across Manhattan, including the ³Man In
Black Bloc² that assembled in front of the ultra-exclusive Sotheby¹s
auction house, where the legacy of legendary working class singer Johnny
Cash was shamefully exploited for the benefit of Tennessee RNC
delegates. Many protesters were arrested for various direct actions,
such as blocking a financial district street, although other groups were
arrested simply for opposing Bush. Eventually, groups from several
locations converged at Herald Square, a block east of Madison Square
Garden, and completely took over the square, blocking the streets and,
according to some reports, disrupting the MSNBC cable network, which was
broadcasting live from a heavily guarded section of the square. Police
eventually drove the crowd onto the sidewalks, and those on the
sidewalks near 34th Street were forced down to 33rd Street.
This was a day in which at least 1,200 were arrested, many during this
convergence in Herald Square. But here was another example of the
arbitrariness of the police. After most of the crowd melted away, three
distinct groups were left, one on either side of 33th Street on the east
side of Herald Square, and a third at 33rd and the west side of Herald
Square. As this was the checkpoint to enter the ³frozen zone² from the
east, hundreds of delegates had to walk down 33rd, directly past the
remaining groups of protesters, who loudly heckled and booed every
delegate who walked past. A few waved or yelled something back, but most
scurried past as quickly as they could. Challenged as to how could they
be so shameless as to see 9-11 as an opportunity to be taken advantage
of, it was perhaps not surprising they were unable to respond. Police
sealed off these groups, keeping everybody else out of the square for
the rest of the night, but for more than two hours allowed whoever
remained to heckle. It was a rare opportunity for the delegates to hear
from regular people, and they didn¹t seem to enjoy it.
By the morning of Wednesday, September 1, the appalling conditions of
the Pier 57 holding facility on the Hudson River, had become widely
known, and a vigil cheered for the detainees as they were shipped by bus
to 100 Centre Street for processing (the city¹s normal holding facility,
known locally as ³the Tombs²). Pier 57 is an abandoned bus depot
believed to be full of asbestos, and the transit workers¹ union
reportedly had protested against further use of the building because of
that danger. The concrete floor was coated with oil and unknown chemical
residues; arrestees emerged covered with grime and many suffered
chemical burns on their exposed skin. The holding pens were so crowded
that it was not possible to lie down and there were few benches
available for sitting. No food or water was provided for long stretches,
the bathroom facilities were grossly insufficient and no communication
with lawyers was allowed. Plastic handcuffs were left on overly tight
for hours, and many wound up with painful cuts, bruises, welts and/or
numbness from the cuffs. It was not unusual for arrestees to be held
there for 24 hours before still more waiting time at 100 Centre Street.
The building is covered with razor wire and looks something like a
prison in documentaries about Third World dictatorships. From the side,
Pier 57 looks even more forbidding; a documentary filmmaker with a
somewhat manic personality, after interviewing two men participating in
the solidarity vigil, ventured a closer look to film the facility from
the side, but within seconds a police officer screamed at him to leave
immediately or he would confiscate his press credential and take his
camera.
The city government seemed very sensitive about its ³Guantanamo on the
Hudson,² as Pier 57 was quickly nicknamed. Billionaire Bloomberg had
conducted himself as ³Giuliani without the snarl² since taking office as
mayor, but he finally adopted the snarl when questioned about Pier 57.
³Jail is not supposed to be Club Med,² Billionaire Bloomberg barked.
³I¹ve been to Club Med.² Nobody expects jail to be pleasant and nobody
expects to be ³coddled,² to quote another of Billionaire Bloomberg¹s
preposterous claims, but it is not unreasonable to expect arrestees to
be treated as human beings ‹ cattle being treated in such a way would be
intolerable.
Billionaire Bloomberg later hit a new low when he compared RNC
protesters to terrorists. Claiming protesters ³have tried to destroy our
city,² the mayor said, ³That¹s what the terrorists did, if you think
about it, on 9-11.² Is it even necessary to point out the Orwellian
nonsense of this? The hard-line right-wing agenda of the Republican
Party is ceaselessly proclaimed from virtually every television station,
radio station, newspaper and news magazine; corporate interests are
presented as the only point of view from every sector of the
overwhelmingly dominant corporate media. The protesters have no other
way to be heard except by demonstrating in the streets, and even then
are given, at best, brief notice in the corporate media. Who is being
silenced? But by comparing nonviolent protest to terrorism, Billionaire
Bloomberg laid bare how much the corporate elite who control the United
States truly believe in democracy.
The corporate media was the target of another demonstration Wednesday
night, with stops in front of CBS and CNN before culminating in the
second rally of the week in front of the building housing Fox News.
Demonstrators had a great time listening to the drummers in the ranks,
dancing and chanting ³Shut the Fox up!,² a humorous play on Fox News
host Bill O¹Reilly¹s favorite tactic of screaming ³shut up² at any guest
who strays from the Bush line.
But the scene was not nearly so festive later Wednesday, when some
protesters showed up outside the Copacabana, the scene of yet another
RNC party. Here, the police could show their true face at a location far
from any cameras. A police van tried to run down a group of people, and
would have if they hadn¹t jumped out of the way, and the driver then
yelled, ³Got a problem with that, motherfuckers?² The cops riding in the
van then banged their sticks on the window and pointed them. As the van
went past, those nearly run over could see printing on its back door:
³school safety.²
Early on the day of Bush¹s nomination, Thursday, September 2, a trickle
of arrestees were released from 100 Centre Street, where a large group
was holding a vigil and several recently released people were sleeping,
many veterans of Guantanamo on the Hudson noting that it was impossible
to sleep under the draconian conditions under which they were held. A
few corporate media reporters were there, interviewing the arrestees at
length, but there has been little reporting of this issue since it
contradicts the official line that horrible rabble got what they
deserve. Most arrestees received desk appearance tickets, a process that
ordinarily results in release two to four hours after arrest. Anybody
arrested, including those with more serious charges who must be formally
arraigned before a judge, must be processed and released within 24 hours
under state law. Almost all of the nearly 2,000 arrestees were held for
longer, often much longer. Lawyers for the arrestees finally got a judge
to order their release, but the city ignored three separate orders until
the judge finally began issuing fines. Normal Siegal, the former head of
the New York Civil Liberties Union, said to the judge that ³the only
people being inconvenienced are the protesters. We¹re arraigning robbers
who have been in only 10 hours.²
Another factor in the larger release of arrestees Thursday night was
that the convention was about to end with Bush¹s speech, so there was no
more need to pre-emptively keep as many people jailed as possible. A
police spokesman that day claimed the lengthy jail stays were caused by
³volume² and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly went further, claiming
that the delays were due to so many people deciding to get arrested. But
that, too, is nonsense ‹ law enforcement authorities had said months
earlier that they expected 1,000 arrests a day and had added courtroom
capacity to handle this hoped-for volume. There was only one day in
which more than 260 were arrested.
Perhaps the most farcical piece of reporting by the corporate media was
a mid-week story by the New York Times that incredibly asserted, with no
attribution of any kind, that protesters applauded the restraint of the
police. I talked to literally hundreds of protesters over five days and
not one said this. On the contrary, there was unanimous assent that the
police used violent tactics aimed at forcibly stopping any show of
dissent, and that the gigantic police presence throughout Manhattan was
a waste of taxpayers¹ dollars. A literal army was required to protect
Republican fatcats from the people, and that fact spoke louder than any
demonstration.
That afternoon, about a crowd of about 1,000 marched through Harlem, an
event called by Artists and Activists United For Peace to spotlight
issues such as racism and poverty. A multiracial crowd was greeted by
passers-by cheering and joining the chants against Bush.
The night of Bush¹s acceptance speech saw thousands of people gather in
Union Square, where United for Peace and Justice conducted a candlelight
vigil, No Police State members gave rousing speeches, a veterans group
organized a peace vigil and many others simply wished to be in the park
that had become the week¹s focal point. Five days in the street took its
toll, but the energy was so strong at Union Square that even the most
tired were buoyed. The International Answer Coalition also drew
thousands to its rally at Eighth Avenue and 31st Street, which at its
peak filled five city blocks. The Answer rally then became a march to
Union Square and as this was happening, large groups of people at Union
Square began to leave the park, intending to get to Madison Square
Garden. Police moved to block them, but eventually agreed to allow a
march up Sixth Avenue once the Answer marchers reached Union Square.
Large groups of protesters roamed Herald Square and Seventh Avenue as
the conventioneers, sated by Bush¹s orgy of lies, streamed from Madison
Square Garden. Once again, they were met by protesters letting them know
what they thought of their agenda. But among thousands of delegates,
even if they are the hard core of Republican operatives, there had to be
one nice person, and a pair of protesters were among those he stopped to
chat with in Herald Square. This delegate was a British native and said
he ran a company on Wall Street. Even if he had given his name it would
be withheld to keep him out of trouble since he admitted disliking
almost all of the Republican Party¹s agenda. He even said that Americans
should be paying $4 per gallon for gasoline! This suggestion was readily
agreed with, although he was advised to not say that too loud lest other
delegates try to slit his throat for such a heretical thought. So what
was he doing among that nest of cultural warriors trying to turn back
time to the 17th century? ³I love low taxes,² he giddily replied. After
some more discussion with the two protesters, he said he was enjoying
himself, then said he had given one million dollars to the convention
organizers. He was asked why he didn¹t give that money to charity
instead, and replied, ³I love low taxes.² This man is certainly honest,
and earned some respect for that. The delegate then wound up talking
with other protesters along Broadway, indeed enjoying himself.
What a contrast to the vastly more typical specimen of an RNC delegate,
Joe Kyrillos, the New Jersey Republican chairman, who declared ³New York
City is a fortress, and I love it.² Another delegate, when asked in
Herald Square if she was here to take advantage of 9-11, replied as she
walked away, ³Yes, that¹s why I¹m here.² And they wonder why so many New
Yorkers are upset with them?
At one of the final night¹s RNC parties, at Limelight, a group heckled
delegates, who responded by throwing their champagne glasses at the
protesters, a real Marie Antoinette moment, as the New York City
Indymedia Web site put it. Perhaps a fitting way to end the week.
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