Bill Nevins, New York
The August 30-September 2 Republican National Convention in New York City was marked by systematic and cynical violation of the free speech and free assembly rights of those protesting President George Bush and his war on Iraq. This 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly reporter witnessed the illegal arrest and handcuffing of 200 peaceful marchers on a sidewalk near the World Trade Center site, Ground Zero, on August 31.
Minutes prior, I attended a sidewalk meeting of the protest march leaders and five New York Police Department captains. The NYPD officers calmly and with smiles assured the march leaders that "there will be no problem" if the anti-Bush protest marchers walked two by two on the sidewalk from Ground Zero up Broadway to the Republican Convention site at Madison Square Garden. Hands were shaken all around and the protest walk began.
As soon as a block full of protest marchers had crossed the street legally and stretched two by two along the next block's sidewalk, the NYPD moved in dozens of officers who wrapped the whole block of marchers in plastic fencing and proceeded to handcuff the marchers one by one and put them in police buses, under arrest.
Marchers called out their names to nearby legal observers and reporters, and repeatedly asked, "Why are we being arrested?". The NYPD gave no answer, and individual police officers questioned by reporters simply stated, "We are just following orders".
These anti-Bush marchers, like another 2000 or so anti-Bush protesters, were held in crude and dirty "emergency" jails along the city docks and elsewhere, many for several days. This outrageous and illegal detention, on minor or nonexistent charges, prompted a judge to threaten NYC with massive fines and to demand the protesters' release. Fellow demonstrators waited for hours, even days, outside the makeshift "jails" for the release of their "disappeared" comrades.
This tactic had the effect of removing peaceful anti-Bush protesters from the streets of New York during the Republican National Convention. It is widely viewed as a cynical, illegal move by the NYC Republican Party-led administration to quiet and chill protests. Parallel tactics included the NYPD's massing of huge numbers of police and paramilitary troops around the convention site and the blocking off of streets in the area.
Lawsuits against NYC have been filed by advocacy organisations representing the arrested and harassed protesters. Many protesters, both those arrested and those witnessing the arrests, called for Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry to publicly condemn these "police state tactics", which ironically included the arrest by the NYPD of many of Kerry's former colleagues in the War Resisters League and other progressive organisations.
Despite these outrageous actions by the Republican-directed NYPD, a massive anti-Bush street demonstration took place without disruption on August 29. Hundreds of thousands of people from NYC and from across the USA marched in the bright sun under the banner of United for Peace and Justice to demand a positive political change in the USA, an end to the Iraq war and an end to the Bush regime.
The message was clear: "We will not accept this outrageous war! We will not be intimidated by police state threats! We will not surrender our country to the Bush regime. We shall overcome!"
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 15, 2004.
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