Militarization in Miami

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Miami's New Police State

Bill Fletcher

Millions of us witnessed - or received a hint of - the Miami spectacle last week at the time of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meetings and protests. Brought to us by the same people who oversaw electoral fraud in November 2000, this stunning and threatening presence of police was almost unbelievable, particularly in light of the fact that the protests were peaceful.

I flew into Fort Lauderdale and took a very expensive cab ride to Miami. The first thing that struck me was that, when I called my hotel for directions, the tone of the hotel staffperson's voice was full of panic. The hotel employee indicated that Biscayne Blvd. and other streets near the hotel had been closed by the police. So the cab driver dropped me off at an exit ramp on Route 95 and I had to walk three-fourths of a mile or so, bags in hand, to get to the hotel. I walked past innumerable police and police vehicles. These police officers looked like they had been plucked from a scene out of a science fiction movie. Armed and armored with helmets and visors, they were everywhere. I felt as though I were walking through a city where a military coup d'etat had just taken place.

Streets were blocked off, stores were closed, helicopters were flying overhead, yet demonstrators found ways of converging on the legally permitted rally site. While the march that was held following the initial rally the afternoon of November 20th was peaceful and uneventful, a couple of hundred marchers returning to the rally site approached an artificial wall that had been set up by the police to restrict protestors from getting too close to the meeting site where the FTAA was being debated. It was at that point that that the police marched on these direct action protestors.

I watched as rubber bullets and tear gas were fired at the unarmed protestors. The police converged on the protestors, almost like a scene from the classic film Potemkin, where Russian troops marched on demonstrators in 1905. While this was taking place, the official news coverage was disparaging the protesters as hooligans, inflaming the environment.

That was Thursday. On Friday, when nothing big and exciting was planned, I witnessed another dramatic show of force by Miami's finest. This time, the provocations by the police were evident for all to see. I witnessed young anti-FTAA activists being pulled over, who were simply walking down the streets or driving. In several cases these individuals were put up against walls, forced to sit down in front of the police and/or arrested outright. Stories continue to circulate about what happened or is alleged to have happened to those arrested.

The anger that I hold due to this display of arrogant intimidation is difficult to communicate. A legal protest had been planned. It was planned by labor unions, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, and various other activists. It was planned to demonstrate opposition to a fundamentally undemocratic trade deal that was being forced down the throats of the people of the Western hemisphere by the Bush administration in its mad quest for better conditions for corporate profitability. Having been excluded from any meaningful participation in the lead up to the FTAA gathering, activists from the entire hemisphere converged on Miami to express their outrage and antipathy toward such an agreement.

As it turned out, the Miami (and Florida) establishment went out of its way to promote an atmosphere of panic and dread within the larger population. For weeks prior to the FTAA meetings and protests, the press had been promoting anticipation of the worst, something akin to the fear that Romans must have felt as Attila the Hun and his hoards approached the gates of their fair city. Inferences of terrorist threats and mad anarchists were floated in order to color the view of the entire protest. Despite the fact that the labor unions under the leadership of the AFL-CIO, along with other protestors, planned around a peaceful expression of opinion, the news media turned the whole situation on its head into invasion Miami.

I have seen a possible future for the U.S.A. and it is not a pretty picture. The lords of the White House, along with their various corporate and political allies have decided in no uncertain terms to play upon the post-9/11 fears among the people in order to restrict the ability of the people to express themselves. Moreover, they are carrying out a preemptive political strike against any and all opponents of their corporate-guided globalization. It was not simply a matter of the police presence, however. The pitiful national coverage of the Miami events, as well as the caricaturizing of the protestors by local and national media, presented the demonstrations as more of a circus than an example of growing opposition to President Bush and his determined march toward a world safe for profits for his corporate friends and allies.

Miami was living proof that the USAPatriot Act and the growing repression that we have experienced since 9/11/2001 has very little to do with any war against terrorism. Rather, the entire scene is as if it were out of a film, scripted to the "t." Play upon fears, encourage passivity in the face of arrogance, distort the news, foment lies and half-truths, this becomes the screenplay for the 21st century entry of the police state into the U.S.A.

Interestingly, it is not just and no longer Black folks who are the sole recipients of the baton and pepper spray in this brave new world. This go round all one has to do is to raise one's hand and say, "…excuse me, but I don't agree…" and, presto, one becomes an enemy of homeland security.

Miami crowd control would do tyrant proud

St. Petersburg Times

Miami police Chief John Timoney must be mighty proud of the social order he maintained during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit a couple of weeks ago in Miami - sort of the way Saddam Hussein was proud of quieting dissension in his country.

Timoney has a well-deserved reputation for using paramilitary tactics to turn any city where large protests are planned into a place where the Constitution has taken a holiday. During the FTAA meeting on Nov. 20, Timoney dispatched 2,500 police officers in full riot gear against a crowd estimated at 8,000 people, mostly union members and retirees.

The result was a show of force that would have made a Latin American dictator blush.

Slavish public officials such as Miami Mayor Manny Diaz touted Timoney's handiwork as "a model for homeland defense," and the Miami Police Department has responded to complaints by saying that officers demonstrated "a tremendous amount of restraint."

But this is hardly the way eyewitnesses described it. The scene was a "massive police state," according to the president of the United Steelworkers of America, who has demanded a congressional investigation. Congress gave Miami $8.5-million for security during the FTAA meetings - funds slipped inside the $87-billion measure for Iraq. The steelworkers called it money for "homeland repression."

The National Lawyers Guild, a liberal legal organization, said the day was punctuated by "indiscriminate, excessive force against hundreds of nonviolent protesters with weapons including pepper spray, tear gas, and concussion grenades and rubber bullets."

Observers said the provocation for officers to shoot rubber bullets and paint balls filled with pepper spray at the predominantly peaceable crowd was often one person lobbing an orange in the direction of police or lighting a trash can on fire.

Nikki Hartman, a 28-year-old Pinellas County resident, was shot three times with rubber bullets - once, she said, when a police officer fired point-blank at her behind after she stooped to pick up a bandanna she'd dropped. The officer had kicked it her way before shooting her. She was later shot in the back while retreating from police lines. Her friend Robert Davis was shot seven times while trying to help Hartman to her feet.

In addition to such shootings, police abandoned any legitimate basis for searching and arresting people. Miles Swanson, 25, a legal observer for the lawyers guild, was punched numerous times while being taken in by officers for pointing out undercover police dressed up as protesters. Eight of 60 guild observers were arrested that day; they wore distinctive green hats and were apparently targeted. When Swanson was grabbed off the street by three Broward County sheriff's deputies - two of whom were in ski masks - he said they told him "this is what you get when you f-- with us." Then, Swanson said, the deputies drove him around while looking for another legal observer to arrest. He ultimately pleaded no contest to one charge of obstructing justice so he could return to law school in Washington, D.C.

Celeste Fraser Delgado, a 36-year-old reporter for the Miami New Times, was interviewing protesters when she was arrested. According to an Associated Press report of her ordeal, she overheard police arguing about what to charge her with. The two misdemeanors - failure to obey a legal command and resisting arrest without violence - were dropped the next day.

The police seemed especially sensitive to having their actions photographed or taped. Sean Lidberg, who was stringing for a Minnesota paper, said his group of friends was aggressively detained and searched by police because one of them had picked up and put down a coconut found on the ground.

"We're from Minnesota and never saw coconuts growing wild," said the 20-year-old Lidberg. When he tried to take video of the police searching through his backpack, Lidberg said, "they shoved the camera down and wouldn't let me document anything said or done." Police proceeded to take most of what he had in his backpack, which included two gas masks. He doesn't expect to see his stuff again.

When contacted for comment, the Miami police first asked for case numbers. When those were provided, the public information officer said he didn't have time to comment on the incidents and hung up when his name was requested.

Ever since the melee at the 1999 World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, where demonstrators blocked streets and vandalized stores, conference planners and public officials have adopted a no-holds-barred approach to potential large-scale protests. And Timoney is their man. Militant protesters, "punks" as he calls them, are anathema to Timoney. Shutting them down with Pinkerton prowess is his specialty. Rights, schmights.

Anyone who cares about civil liberties might remember Timoney as the police commissioner of Philadelphia during the 2000 Republican convention - an event marked by police making pre-emptive arrests on baseless charges and smashing heads. This led to lucrative private consulting offers for Timoney and then, this year, to the top-cop spot in Miami.

His antiprotester philosophy is a fitting sign of the times and intersects nicely with the new FBI protocols established by Attorney General John Ashcroft. Ashcroft recently junked FBI guidelines that prevented agents from monitoring groups without evidence of criminal wrongdoing, saying it was vital for antiterrorism operations. But in a J. Edgar Hoover redux, it turns out that this flexibility is being used to spy on and collect intelligence on antiwar protesters.

When men like Timoney and Ashcroft are on the A-list of the nation's law enforcers, free speech doesn't stand a chance. It is open season on dissent. A vignette reported by the Miami Herald says it all: During the FTAA action, Timoney came upon a protester who was pinned against a car being arrested; without knowing anything about the circumstances, he pointed a finger at the demonstrator's face and said, "You're bad. F-- you!" People exercising their First Amendment rights are now considered the enemy.

Militarization in Miami: Threatening the Right to Protest

Counterpunch

There was a real threat to the social order on the streets of Miami last week, during the Ministerial Meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

It wasn't protesters, not even those calling themselves anarchists or even those dressed in black.

No, the threat came from the Miami police, Florida state troopers and the other police and military forces patrolling the city.

With more than $10 million in special funding (including an $8.5 million allocation in the federal government's Iraq appropriations bill), 2,500 or so officers -- many clad in full body armor and backed up by armored vehicles -- turned Miami into a veritable police state.

As was almost inevitable, the police used wildly excessive force to deal with protesters. They launched unprovoked attacks against people who were doing nothing illegal. They sprayed tear gas and pepper spray at protesters -- including retirees -- and shot many with rubber bullets. They used taser guns. They knocked down peaceful protesters and held guns to their heads. They blocked thousands of retirees and union members on buses from joining a rally and march for which all required permits had been obtained. They attacked journalists viewed as hostile. They arrested approximately 250 persons, according to the best estimates, with little or no rationale. Credible reports have emerged of brutality and sexual harassment against several of those jailed.

At least as serious, the police deterred thousands from even considering joining the FTAA protests -- and protests into the future.

In sunny Miami, it was a dark week for the First Amendment, for civil liberties and for the right to dissent.

A South African activist told us how deeply frightened she was walking down the streets of Miami. Even before the police violence erupted, marching in the streets amidst thousands of armored police sent chills down her spine, she said.

Last week's outrages had their roots in months of planning led by Miami Police Chief John Timoney. He whipped the city and the police force into a frenzy. The absurdist invocation of an anarchist threat convinced the local media (especially television reporters) and much of the local population that downtown would be a riot zone. That was enough to empty the downtown, and scare many local Miamians from joining any of the protests, no matter how tame.

We had first-hand experience with this problem. We had been involved in a planning a small demonstration on Tuesday -- two days before the main protests. We had obtained all requisite permits from the police. With agreement from their teachers, hundreds of high school students were ready to join our small action highlighting how the FTAA and trade agreements interfere with anti-smoking and other public health measures. But no teacher could feel comfortable sending students to a militarized downtown, and so the students were not able to demonstrate. We turned our rally into a news conference.

This was a small incident. Our demonstration wasn't going to change the world. (We do, however, intend to win on our demand to exclude tobacco products from all trade agreements.) But as an illustrative example, it is incredibly important, for it shows how police overdeployment, scare tactics and militarization intimidates people from marching in the streets and opposing corporate- and state-approved policy.

It wasn't just the public and media that Timoney managed to frighten. There's little doubt that the police themselves buy the propaganda. After months of excessive training and hearing about the dangers posed by protesters, and empowered by new body armor, shields, batons and other equipment, the police were, to say the least, overeager to lunge at protesters. (Said one of a group of 10 cops on bikes as they crossed the street to assess the scene at our news conference, and with one of us standing right next to them, "Let's go fuck 'em up.")

By the time of the main demonstrations on Thursday, the police couldn't hold themselves back.

In different circumstances, it would have been funny to see the police outnumbering the direct action protesters, or the comically attired "undercover" agents who were a bit too well built to credibly seem part of the ranks of the slight direct action protesters -- many of whom are vegans.

But it wasn't funny.

Not when the police -- responding to the smallest provocations, such as a couple small fires lit in trashcans -- went berserk and attacked large crowds of protesters. Not when credible reports say some of those undercover agents may have been provocateurs, and when several of them emerged as some of the most brutal in attacking protesters.

There is immediate need now to support those who were jailed and mistreated, and force the city to drop trumped up charges against protesters.

You can help by sending a fax to Miami Mayor Manuel Diaz protesting the violation of constitutional rights. Public Citizen has established a free fax site at:

http://www.citizen.org/

Those who are facing charges will need legal help. You can donate to support them by going to:

http://stopftaa.org/

or to

http://www.unitedforpeace.org

Activists, the National Lawyers Guild, the American Civil Liberties Union and other civil liberties standard bearers must do all they can and will do to oppose the rising repression evidenced in Miami. But that's not enough.

There will, undoubtedly, be civil lawsuits down the road, and, if there is any justice, they will succeed. But that's not enough, either. As important as such litigation is, it is clear from recent crackdown on protests around the United States that police forces are willing to absorb the costs of these suits.

The present cycle is that the media and political establishment applaud the police for running scare campaigns, militarizing cities, directing violence against protesters and blatantly violating civil liberties. Often, as details emerge, criticism emerges from those same pillars of society.

This must change. The establishment must speak out now, immediately after the abuses occurred. They are apparent to anyone who cares to know about them.

In the future, the establishment -- we mean newspaper editors, political leaders of all parties, lawyers, even corporate executives -- must insist on appropriate police tactics in advance of large-scale protests, and they must make clear that regular police and top officers alike will be held personally accountable for abuses. If they fail to pursue this course, the consequences for the right to protest will be grim indeed.

London and Miami: Cops in Two Cities

Alexandar Cockburn

The climax of the big demonstrations against President Bush on his recent London jaunt was the toppling of a papier mache statue of the commander in chief, a reprise on the carefully staged pulling down of Saddam's statue in Baghdad earlier this year. If those London jokesters had tried this in Miami during the recent protests against the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit, it's a pretty safe bet they would have been gassed, tasered with electric stun guns, battered with rubber bullets, arrested and charged with felony counts costing them thousands until a judge threw the charges out.

Mainstream coverage of the protests has missed a very big story, which is Miami proved once again that these days lawful political protest is a very dangerous business. Top cop in Miami was none other than Miami police chief John Timoney. Back in the summer of 2000 this same Timoney was police chief in Philadelphia, trampling on rights to lawful assembly during the Republican National Convention. His storm troopers were found later by the courts to have have infiltrated protesters' meetings and acted as agents provocateurs; to have acted with undue force; to have illegally detained peaceful protesters. The macabre climax of Timoney's rampages was the arrest as he walked down the street of John Sellers of the Ruckus Society. Sellers famously became the first American ever accused of brandishing a cellphoner with intent to commit a crime. Bail for Sellers was initially set at $1 million before a judge threw the charges out.

Listen to Jeremy Scahill, producer-correspondent for Pacifica's daily "Democracy Now" program.

"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 tasers. 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."

Scahill says 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. "

Miami got $8.5 million in federal funds from the $87 billion Iraq spending bill. Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the police actions last week "a model" for homeland security. As in Philadelphia, the model also included deployment of undercover police as provocateurs. At one point during a standoff with police, Scahill recalls, " 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.'"

Former California assemblyman Tom Hayden described later how:

"Protesters seemed to skirmish with heavily armored Miami police outside the Riande Hotel Thursday morning, but nothing is at it seems... These 'anarchists' were undercover police officers whose mission was to provoke a confrontation.

"The crowd predictably panicked, television cameras moved in, the police lines parted, and I watched through a nearby hotel window as two undercover officers disguised as 'anarchists', thinking they were invisible, hugged each other. They excitedly pulled tasers and other weapons out of their camouflage cargo pants, and slipped away in an unmarked police van."

Undercover cops embedded themselves amid demonstrators and journalists embedded themselves with the cops. Scahill describes how he and his colleagues were suddenly confronted by Timoney and a crew of cops on bicycles:

"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. We saw a Miami Herald photographer who had somehow gotten pushed onto the "protesters side" of a standoff with the police. 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."

If Timoney had been in charge of the London cops during Bush's visit we'd probably now be looking at news film of funeral processions for demonstrators crushed to death in police-inspired stampedes. That's the way the "Miami model" is headed.

Miami Heat: Unprovoked Attacks on Peaceful Demostrators

David Orr

I got back from Miami on Sunday. It was a different scene than Seattle, although the tear gas was just as real. The cops were much more aggressive and their tactics were clearly designed to create whatever pretext they felt they needed to bash, shoot, spray, threaten, and gas people at random.

I attended the AFL-CIO march and rally on Thursday, and was astonished to see the cops go on the offensive against a bunch of Steelworkers. I witnessed aggressive gassing, spraying, clubbing, and indiscriminate firing of rubber bullets into a peaceful crowd.

I saw large numbers of mostly college-age students injured by rubber bullets. The cops were routinely pointing rifles and shotguns right in the faces of people who were minding their own business.

One of the most bizarre things I saw was Police Chief Timoney on TV praising his officers for their "remarkable restraint," and claiming that all police actions were purely defensive in nature, against the protestors' "violent and terrorizing acts," including "throwing tear gas and hurling missiles" at the police, and even throwing "buckets of feces and urine."

Needless to say, I never saw anything like that but I did see repeated unprovoked attacks on numerous citizens including children, elderly, and disabled persons.

Now I read that this cop riot was funded entirely by Homeland Security and the money came from the $87 billion dollar Iraq war appropriation. If that's true then I guess thats a good example of the kinds of "security" efforts we're going to be seeing in the future at any mass mobilizations.

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