We were loading our video equipment into the trunk of our car when a
fleet of bicycle cops sped up and formed a semi-circle around us. The
lead cop was none other than Miami Police Chief John Timoney. The former
Police Commissioner of Philadelphia Timoney has a reputation for
brutality and hatred of protesters of any kind. He calls them punks,"
"knuckleheads" and a whole slew of expletives. He coordinated the brutal
police response to the mass-protests at the Republican National
Convention in Philadelphia in 2000. After a brief stint in the private
sector, Timoney took the post of Miami police chief as part of Mayor
Manny Diaz's efforts to "clean up the department."
We had watched him the night before on the local news in Miami
praising his men for the restraint they had shown in the face of violent
anarchists intent on destroying the city. In reality, the tens of
thousands who gathered in Miami to protest the ministerial meetings of
the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit were seeking to peacefully
demonstrate against what they consider to be a deadly expansion of NAFTA
and US-led policies of free trade. There were environmental groups,
labor unions, indigenous activists from across the hemisphere, church
groups, grassroots organizations, students and many others in the
streets. What they encountered as they assembled outside the gates to
the building housing the FTAA talks was nothing short of a police riot.
It only took a few hours last Thursday before downtown Miami looked like
a city under martial law.
On the news, Chief Timoney spoke in sober tones about the tear
gas that demonstrators fired at his officers. No, that is not a typo.
Timoney said the protesters were the ones launching the tear gas. He
also said the demonstrators had hurled "missiles" at the police. "I got a
lot of tear gas," Timoney said. "We all got gassed. They were loaded to
the hilt. A lot of missiles, bottles, rocks, tear gas from the
radicals."
Seeing Timoney up close and personal evokes this image of Mayor
Daley at the '68 Democratic Convention ordering his men to shoot
protesters on sight. He is that kind of guy.
Back at our car, Timoney hopped off his bike as a police
cameraman recorded his every move. It all had the feel of being on an
episode of COPS. He demanded the license and registration
for the car. Our colleague Norm Stockwell of community radio station
WORT in Madison, Wisconsin gave him his license. We informed him we were
journalists. One of his men grabbed Norm's press pass, looking it over
as though it was a fake. They looked at all of us with nasty snares
before getting back on their bikes and preparing to continue on to
further protect Miami. Timoney gave us this look that said, you got away
this time but I'll be back. You could tell he was pissed off that we
weren't anarchists (as far as he knew).
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 TimoneyÑa
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 (it's hard to call them police), deployed to protect the FTAA
ministerial meetings from thousands of unarmed protesters. In another
incident, we saw a Miami Herald photographer who had somehow gotten
pushed onto the "protesters side" of a standoff with the police. He was
behind a line of young kids who had locked arms to try and prevent the
police from advancing and attacking the crowds outside of the
Inter-Continental Hotel. He was shouting at the kids to move so he could
get back to the safe side. The protesters ignored him and continued
with their blockade.
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.
Watching the embedded journalists on Miami TV was quite
entertaining. They spoke of venturing into Protesterland as though they
were entering a secret al Qaeda headquarters in the mountains of
Afghanistan. Interviews with protest leaders were sort of like the
secret bin Laden tapes. There was something risque, even sexy about
having the courage to venture over to the convergence space (the
epicenter of protest organizing at the FTAA) and the Independent Media
Center. Several reporters told of brushes they had with "the
protesters." One reporter was quite shaken after a group of "anarchists"
slashed her news van's tires and wrote the word "propaganda" across the
side door. She feared for the life of her cameraman, she somberly told
the anchor back in the studio. The anchor warned her to be careful out
there.
So dangerous was the scene that the overwhelming majority of the
images of the protests on TV were from helicopter shots, where very
little could be seen except that there was a confrontation between
police and "the protesters." This gave cover for Timoney and other
officials to make their outrageous and false statements over and over.
Timoney spun his tales of "hard-core anarchists" rampaging
through the streets of Miami; "outsiders coming to terrorize and
vandalize our city." He painted a picture of friendly restrained police
enduring constant attacks from rocks, paint, gas canisters, smoke bombs
and fruit. "We are very proud of the police officers and their
restraint. Lots of objects were thrown at the police officers," Timoney
said. "If we didn't act when we did, it would have been much worse."
It was much worse.
Timoney's Paramilitaries
After last week, 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 tazers. 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.
My colleagues and I spent several days in the streets, going from
conflict to conflict. We saw no attempts by any protesters to attack a
business or corporation. With the exception of some graffiti and an
occasional garbage can set on fire, there was very little in the way of
action not aimed directly at the site of the FTAA meetings. Even the
Black Bloc kids, who generally have a rep for wanting to smash
everything up, were incredibly restrained and focused.
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. After receiving $8.5 million in federal funds from the $87 billion
Iraq spending bill, Miami needed to have a major combat operation. It
didnÕt matter if it was warranted.
Miami Mayor Manny Diaz called the police actions last week a
model for homeland security. FTAA officials called it extraordinary.
Several cities sent law enforcement observers to the protests to study
what some are now referring to as the "Miami Model."
This model also included the embedding of undercover police with
the protesters. At one point during a standoff with police, 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."
The IMC has since published pictures of people dressed like Black
Bloc kids - ski masks and all - walking with uniformed police behind
police lines.
The only pause in the heavy police violence in Miami came on
Thursday afternoon when the major labor unions held their mass-rally and
march. Led by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney, the march had a legal
permit and was carefully coordinated with the police. Many of the union
guys applauded the police as they marched past columns of the
body-armored officers on break from gassing and shooting unarmed
demonstrators.
But as soon as the unions and their permits began to disperse,
the police seized the moment to escalate the violence against the other
protesters. Fresh from their break during the union rally, Timoney's
forces ordered the protesters to clear the area in front of the
Inter-Continental. Some of the demonstrators shouted back that they had a
right to peaceably protest the FTAA.
Boom. The concussion grenades started flying.
Hiss. The tear gas was sprayed.
Rat-a-tat-tat. The rubber bullets were fired.
Bam, bam. The batons were swinging.
The police methodically marched in a long column directly at the
several hundred protesters who believed they had a right to protest,
even without John Sweeney at their side. They fired indiscriminately at
the crowds. One woman had part of her ear blown off. Another was shot in
the forehead. I got shot twice, once in the back, another time in the
leg. My colleague, John Hamilton from the Workers Independent News
Service was shot in the neck by a pepper-spray pellet - a small ball
that explodes into a white powder. After a few moments, John began
complaining that his neck was burning from the powder. We doused him in
water, but the burning continued. When I tried to ask the police what
the powder was, they told me to "mind myself."
I've been in enough police riots to know that when the number of
demonstrators dwindles and the sun sets, that's when the real violence
begins. Eventually, the police forced the dissipating group of
protesters into one of the poorest sections of Miami, surrounding them
on 4 sides. We stood there in the streets with the eerie feeling of a
high-noon showdown. Except there were hundreds of them with guns and
dozens of us with cameras and banners. They fired gas and rubber bullets
at us as they moved in. All of us realized we had nothing to do but
run. We scattered down side streets and alleys, ducking as we fled.
Eventually, we made it out.
After nearly an hour, we managed to find a taxi. We got in and
the driver started choking from our pepper-sprayed clothes. She wanted
us to get out of the taxi. We apologized for our smell and offered her
more money just to get us to the hotel. She agreed.
The Real Crime: Failure to Embed
The next day, we went to a midday rally outside the Dade County
Jail where more than 150 people were being held prisoner. It was a
peaceful assembly of about 300 people. They sang "We all live in a
failed democracy," to the tune of "We all live in a yellow submarine."
They chanted, "Free the Prisoners, Not Free Trade," and "Take off your
riot gear, there ain't no riot here."
Representatives of the protesters met with police officials at
the scene. The activists said they would agree to remain in a parking
lot across the street from the jail if the police would call off the
swelling presence of the riot police. They reached an agreementÉor so
the police said.
As the demonstration continued, the numbers of fully armed troops
grew and grew. And they moved in from all four sides. They announced
that people had 3 minutes to disperse from the "unlawful assembly." Even
though the police violated their agreement, the protesters complied. A
group of 5 activists led by Puppetista David Solnit informed the police
they would not leave. The police said fine and began arresting them.
But that was not enough. The police then attacked the dispersing
crowd, chasing about 30 people into a corner. They shoved them to the
ground and beat them. They gassed them at close range. My colleague from
Democracy Now!, Ana Nogueira, and I got separated in the mayhem. I was
lucky to end up on the "safe" side of the street. Ana was in the melee.
As she did her job - videotaping the action - Ana was wearing her press
credentials in plain sight. As the police began handcuffing people, Ana
told them she was a journalist. One of the officers said, "She's not
with us, she's not with us," meaning that although Ana was clearly a
journalist, she was not the friendly type. She was not embedded with the
police and therefore had to be arrested.
In police custody, the authorities made Ana remove her clothes
because they were soaked with pepper spray. The police forced her to
strip naked in front of male officers. Despite calls from Democracy
Now!, the ACLU, lawyers and others protesting Ana's arrest and
detention, she was held in a cockroach-filled jail cell until 3:30 am.
She was only released after I posted a $500 bond. Other independent
journalists remained locked up for much longer and face serious charges,
some of them felonies. In the end, Ana was charged with "failure to
disperse."
The real crime seems to be "failure to embed."
In the times in which we live, this is what democracy looks like.
Thousands of soldiers, calling themselves police, deployed in US cities
to protect the power brokers from the masses. Posse Comitatus is
just a Latin phrase. Vigilantes like John Timoney roam from city to
city, organizing militias to hunt the dangerous radicals who threaten
the good order. And damned be the journalist who dares to say it - or
film it - like it is.
Jeremy Scahill is a producer and correspondent for the
nationally syndicated radio and TV program Democracy Now!
*NOTE:
The Miami Herald reporter embedded with Police Chief John Timoney wrote
to say that he was not wearing a police-issued bike helmet or police
polo shirt. He wrote, "At no point did I wear a single piece of
equipment issued by police or marked with any police insignias." We have
no video or photos of our interaction with Timoney and the reporter and
are therefore printing this in fairness to the Herald journalist.
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