Miami a site of massive repression. This is the future and it is not working.
I have received a few of these reports from Miami and whereas I do not want to believe it, I have heard from trusted sources that this brutality is real. If you feel the need to believe this is not true, please take the time to check your assumptions even though it might be painful to do so.
Michelle M
1. Subject: [riseup] Very important! I am sending this out to everyone that I know....
Things here in Miami are very bad. For those of you that do not know, I have been in Miami for the last two weeks organizing for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meetings. I have been working at the welcome center for all the anti-FTAA activists, and the police here have been excruciatingly brutal. I myself was beaten and suffered a head injury on Thursday without reason, but others are much worse.
There are many people in jail that have been beaten and pepper sprayed at close range. The people of color from our mobilization have been specifically targeted and attacked. The people of color have been put in cells without bathroom facilities and had their shoes and other clothes that would keep them warm taken away, and they are hosed down with cold water every two hours with high powered water hoses. During the night one Hispanic male and an African American male were taken from the group and the Hispanic was beaten and pepper sprayed within inches of his face for two hours then returned to the cell. He was beaten so badly that his skin split open. Another person of color had a head injury from the police before being taken to jail and was refused care and they beat him again and he is hemorrhaging from the brain and in intensive care now.
This is only a glimpse of what is going on with the police and the jails here in Miami.
Two trans-gendered people have been sexually assaulted in jail, as well as reports of one woman being forced to give oral sex to an officer. Female protesters were separated and held by four officers who then cut off their clothes when taken to jail. Again this is only a bit of what is going on here. For more information on what has been going on check out
http://www.FTAAIMC.ORGI am appealing to ALL OF YOU to call Miami, call your representatives, send money for bail and anything else that you can think of doing to help out. Check out the
http://www.StopFTAA.org website for where to send money and who to contact. The police state here in Miami is
terrible and I am on the brink of breaking down. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD about what is going on here in Miami. This is TYPICAL of the police and jail here. We need help and support. I am sending this out because I do not know what else to do. The message is not getting out in the corporate-ruled
press, so please write letters to your local papers and other news agencies to DEMAND coverage and
accountability. I am not in jail so I am going to be working here until my flight back home on Monday, but if anyone has the means to get here, help and reinforcements would be greatly appreciated.
This is not supposed to happen in this country, where we are supposedly protecting our so-called freedoms, and if I was not already ashamed to be american, this would make me so. Please help out in the name of humanity...
Stephen
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"Fascism should more appropriately be called Corporatism because it is a merger of State and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
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2. Urgent Call to Action: FTAA Protesters Brutalized in Miami!
This week thousands of protestors came to Miami to oppose the FTAA. The Free Trade Agreement of the Americas is an international trade agreement that aims to extend mega-corporate rule throughout
the Western Hemisphere, without regard to a nation's law on labor rights, the environment, rights to medicare, education, food safety and water. It is brutal and savage type of capitalism driven by the avaricious right-wing politicians, who are heavily invested or bought by the very corporations looking to bloat their profits.
Prior to the mass action last weekend, there was a calculated campaign on the part of the police to intimidate and harass protestors. One officer characterized this campaign by saying ?You can beat the rap, but not the ride?.
As we feared, our protests were met by a massive show of state repression, backed by $8.5 million in US Government funding, garnered under the $87 Billion billed rammed through Congress by Bush for the so-called 'rebuilding' otherwise known as the complete Corporate takeover of Iraq.
[( When the war in Iraq was officially declared 'over', over 400,000 Iraqi's were laid off from the public sector including hospitals, water and sewage systems, transportation, education, electrical facilities, and public run oil drilling, refinery & delivery systems. Halliburton Oil Services, which was on the verge of collapse like Enron and where US vice-president Dick Cheney was a former CEO, is now the beneficiary of $3 Billion in contracts to take over Public services in the Iraq oil sector among others. )]
Miami Police Commissioner John Timoney oversaw a massive, paramilitary assault on our constitutional and human rights (Freedom of Assembly).
Protestors were attacked by police wielding batons, tear gas, pepper spray, rubber, wooden, and plastic bullets and other chemical agents. Over 100 protestors were treated for injuries; 12 were
hospitalized. Police dispersed large groups of peaceful protestors with tear gas, pepper spray
and open fire with hard rubber bullets. Small groups leaving the protests were harassed, arrested
and beaten. This campaign of fear and intimidation culminated in the closure and militarization of downtown Miami. There were confirmed reports of military tanks patrolling the streets after dark
on Thursday night.
Our legal team estimates more than 250 arrests. People have become political prisoners and are being held in jail. More than 50 of them were arrested while holding a peaceful vigil outside the jail in solidarity with those inside. They were surrounded by riot police and ordered to disperse. As they did, police opened fire and blocked the streets preventing many from leaving.
We are now receiving reports from people being released or calling from jail that there is excessive brutality, sexual assault and torture going on inside. People of color, Queer and transgender prisoners are particularly being targeted. There is a confirmed report of one Latino man arrested along with 62 others outside Miami-Dade County Jail Friday, who is currently hospitalized in the Intensive Care Unit for an injury he received after being beaten in the head with night stick by an arresting officer.
People have also been denied access to attorneys, visitation rights, vegetarian or vegan food, and access to essential medication and medical attention.
We call on people from around the globe to take action immediately to support our sisters and brothers who are being unfairly arrested and brutalized. We are calling for three immediate actions:
1) Call, fax, email elected officials with the demands listed below. Contact information below.
2) Money is urgently needed to get people out of jail. They are making everyone post between $100 - $5000 I in bail. We are working with bail bondsmen, but this is not enough. Send money to cover legal and jail-support expenses including: bail, getting people rides back home and other legal costs. Please send money to: United for Peace and Justice. Online donations are possible at
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/ftaadonateYou can also mail a check or money order to: United for Peace and Justice/FTAA Fund P.O. Box 607, Times Square Station, New York, NY 10108. Please specify 'Legal Fund' in the memo field:
3) Global Day of Action on Monday at any time and any appropriate location. This could be US Embassies, Departments of Justice or FBI offices
THESE ARE OUR DEMANDS:
Drop all charges.
Release all political prisoners.
Meet basic human needs: no more brutality,
provide appropriate food, access to medicine and medical attention, warm clothing.
Provide access to attorneys and visitation rights.
Provide equitable treatment to all prisoners.
Do not share information collected with the INS.
Fire Chief Timoney!
and call for the impeachment of George W Bush!
Many thanks for your support. It is urgently needed.
In solidarity,
Direct Action Contingency, Miami
To send a free fax:
http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?
ID=245&source=19
PLEASE CALL AND WRITE:
MANUEL A. DIAZ, Mayor, City of Miami
305.250.5300
305.375.5071
[email protected]
ALEX PENELAS, Mayor, Miami-Dade County
305.829.9336 home
305.375.5071 office
Chief of Staff: Francois Illas
http://www.miami-dadeclerk.com
Miami-Dade Jail (felonies)
Facility Supervisor: Captain E. Cambridge
Address: 1320 NW 13 Street Miami, FL. 33125
Facility Phone: (786) 263-4100
Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center (misdemeanors)
Facility Supervisor: Captain M. Fernandez
Address: 7000 NW 41 Street Miami, Fl. 33166
Facility Phone:(305) 470-7600
Carlos Alvarez, Director of Metropolitan Sheriff Department
Miami-Dade Police Department
9105 Northwest 25th Street
Miami, FL 33172-1500 USA
Telephone: +1-305-471-2100
Fax: +1-305-471-2163
OTHER CONTACT NUMBERS OF CITY OFFICIALS
ALEJANDRO VILARELLO, City Attorney
E-mail: [email protected]
KATY SORENSON, Miami Dade County Commissioner
305.375.5218
305.378.6677
Commissioner Angel Gonzalez
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: (305)250-5380
Commissioner Tomas P. Regalado
District 4
E-mail: [email protected]
Telephone: (305)250-5390
City Manager Joe Arriola E-mail:
http://www.ci.miami.fl.us/mayor/synopsis.as
Alex Penelas Mayor of the County of Miami
305-829-9336
305-375-5071
Police Chief Timoney
305-673-7925
305-579-6565
Demand an end to police brutality, dropping the charges and releasing the prisoners, and demand that Timoney be fired for gross abuse of power. Tonight he said on the news that until the last protestor is gone from Miami, he will continue to ?pick them off.¹ This all is being done to people who have simply been exercising our right to speak out, and who in many cases were simply walking on the sidewalk.
Previous updates are posted on http://www.starhawk.org and http://www.utne.com
a full update from Thursday/Friday¹s will have to wait as it is now past 3 AM.
Starhawk