Early on Thursday morning, Bentley Killmon boarded a chartered bus to
take him from Fort Myers to Miami so he could protest the proposed Free
Trade Area of the Americas. The 71-year-old, retired airline pilot said
he was amazed by the heavy police presence in downtown Miami when he
arrived.
Throughout the day, he said he watched police overreact to
incidents. He saw a 53-year-old woman get shot in the chest with rubber
bullets. He saw other peaceful protesters being gassed with pepper
spray. He saw young people, who weren't doing anything illegal or
improper, being pushed and harassed by cops.
''My father was in the Norfolk City Police Department for many
years,'' he said. ``Until Thursday, I respected the badge. I respected
the job the police had to do. But I no longer respect the badge. Not in Miami.
Not after what I saw. Not after what happened to me and others.''
As the day ended, Killmon, along with others from the Alliance
for Retired Americans, were trying to find their way back to their
buses.
''We ran into a line of brown shirts,'' he said, referring to the
uniforms worn by the Miami-Dade Police Department. ``They were very
rude. They would not let us pass, and they sent us down the railroad
tracks.
''That's when we saw the black shirts coming at us,'' he said. Miami police wore black uniforms.
''They were pointing their guns at us,'' he continued. ``I guess
they had those rubber pellets in them, but I didn't know, I was just
incredibly frightened. Some of the people with us got down on their
knees, and as I got down on my knees, I was briskly pushed to the
ground. It felt like I had a foot to my back knocking me down. Everyone
in our group was knocked to the ground and handcuffed. I had my hands
cuffed behind my back for 7 ½ hours.''
Killmon said he was charged with disorderly conduct.
''I still don't know what it was I did,'' he said Saturday.
After spending the night in jail, he said a judge dismissed the charges against him.
''Miami was a police state,'' he said.
While city and county leaders pat themselves on the back and
Miami Police Chief John Timoney talks about the ''remarkable restraint''
shown by officers, one of them may want to contact Killmon and tell
this man what a great job the police did.
Miami's Angel Calzadilla, Timoney's executive assistant, said he
couldn't comment on Killmon's arrest until he was certain which police
agency arrested him.
''As the story comes out, over the next
few hours and days and weeks, the public is going to learn what we saw
on the street, that the police provoked these exchanges and went way out
of their way to increase the magnitude of their response,'' said Ron
Judd, a regional director for the AFL-CIO. ``There was nothing measured
in their response. We had retired steel workers, retired firefighters,
retired teamsters harassed and arrested Thursday.
''When you start shooting seniors with rubber bullets and using
pepper spray on them and arresting them, it's just outrageous,'' Judd
said. ``And if their stories don't get people's dander up and the public
isn't outraged by this, then folks in South Florida have no heart.''
As far as the national leadership of the AFL-CIO is concerned,
what happened in Miami was an insult to every member of the
organization.
''You are going to hear from us loud and clear over the next few
weeks and months,'' he said. ``All of the options are open -- asking the
Justice Department to investigate civil rights abuses, filing our own
lawsuits against the city and the county and whatever we can think of.
That is how outraged we are by this.''
Fred Frost, president of the South Florida AFL-CIO and its 150,000 members, agreed.
''Am I happy with the way the police treated regular working
people and the respect that I think we are due?'' he asked. ``The answer
is no. I think they treated us like we were the enemy. The police just
seemed to be so hyped up. I felt like I was in a war zone. This wasn't
my city. This wasn't the city I know.''
FAIR USE NOTICE: This page contains copyrighted
material the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the
copyright owner. NoNonsense English offers this material
non-commercially for research and educational purposes. I believe this
constitutes a fair use of any such copyrighted material as provided for
in 17 U.S.C § 107. If you wish to use copyrighted material from this
site for purposes of your own that go beyond fair use, you must obtain
permission from the copyright owner, i.e. the media service or newspaper
which first published the article online and which is indicated at the
top of the article unless otherwise specified. |