The first-round bell has rung in the contest
to define what happened at the FTAA protests two weeks ago. In one
corner is officialdom, where Miami Mayor Manny Diaz praises police for
showing restraint; the editorial page of the boosterish Miami Herald
proclaims "the police, well prepared and out in massive force, kept the
order"; and Miami Police Chief John Timoney snorts derisively at his
critics.
In the other corner are the AFL-CIO, Teamsters, and United
Steelworkers of America, along with hundreds of individuals who say
they were illegally arrested, searched, beaten, and had their personal
possessions destroyed, discarded, or simply taken by police and never
seen again. This corner maintains that myriad constitutional rights were
literally trampled under a black-booted foot. They're vowing an array
of lawsuits and are calling for a congressional investigation into
police misconduct.
After a week of blistering press conferences by the unions and unaffiliated protesters, Timoney launched his return
salvo. In a five-page letter to South Florida AFL-CIO boss Fred Frost,
Timoney rebutted allegations his department overreacted to the largely
peaceful protests. This is the first major controversy he's faced as
chief, and the first test of his credibility. He's failing.
Essentially Timoney said it was regrettable that force was used,
but it was necessary because troublemakers hid amid union members to
attack police. The union, Timoney charged, must take responsibility for
allowing those violent protesters to infiltrate their ranks.
Specifically he wrote: "The Miami Police Department and its law
enforcement partners, in training for the FTAA, placed primary emphasis
on avoiding the use of force. This goal was impossible to achieve due to
the violent actions of unaffiliated protesters using labor events and
membership as cover."
Timoney's version of events simply doesn't square with the facts.
Let's examine his assertion that police were attacked by stealthy
protesters hiding within union ranks. There were five permitted and
scheduled union events: a workers' forum at the Gusman Theater of the
Performing Arts on Flagler Street at 3:00 p.m. Wednesday, November 19,
followed by a concert that night at Bayfront Park Amphitheater. At 10:00
a.m. on Thursday there was a seniors' rally at the amphitheater. That
became a general union rally at noon. It culminated with the big union
march downtown at 2:30 p.m.
I did not attend Wednesday's events, but numerous people who did
attend say the gatherings were entirely peaceful -- plus there were no
news reports of protesters clashing with police. Thursday's union
rallies at the amphitheater were also peaceful. Television
news footage taken from helicopters showed no disturbances inside the
venue. I walked with union members on their march through downtown, and
it too was calm. In his letter Timoney himself concedes that "the
AFL-CIO parade was escorted without incident by Miami Police Department
bicycle officers in short sleeves and short pants." (My emphasis.)
Maybe I'm missing something, but I see no evidence that violent
protesters used these union events as cover to attack police. Besides,
how could the unions be expected to control who did and did not join
them during a huge public rally?
Yes, there was trouble downtown. On Thursday morning police
clashed with small groups of activists near the Starbucks on SE First
Street at Third Avenue. Protesters hurled objects that included rocks
and paint, according to police reports. But the episode was quickly
quelled. A bit later, at approximately 10:00 a.m., a group of protesters
threw a grappling hook over the security fence that stretched across
Biscayne Boulevard at Flagler Street. As they tried to pull down the
fence, someone from the crowd tossed over the top what appeared to be a
smoke bomb. Those provocations prompted police to respond by firing a
concussion grenade, rubber bullets, and at least one tear-gas canister.
Neither incident, however, took place anywhere near a union-affiliated
event.
After those confrontations, the day was relatively uneventful. By
late afternoon bored onlookers were dispersing. At 4:30 p.m., after
union members completed their march and reconvened at the amphitheater,
something happened that led police to cut loose like marauding soldiers.
Here's Timoney's version: "As these criminals exited the amphitheater,
they attacked police lined up one block to the south between protesters
and the Inter-Continental Hotel [where the FTAA meetings were being
held]. As had occurred in the morning attack, officers were pummeled
with projectiles including rocks, bottles, slingshot-fired marbles and
steel bolts, paint, unidentified white powder, unidentified liquids
feared to be human excrement, powerful fireworks, and ignited road
flares. Protesters set fires and erected roadblocks. A firm rapid
response was necessary to prevent severe injuries and significant
property damage."
I wasn't there, but several people who were, including members of
the press and other neutral observers, provide a completely different
version of events. Biscayne Boulevard had largely cleared out by 4:30
except for a few stragglers who observed some protesters sitting in the
street. A few set small trash fires. Some threw items and taunted
police, but no one I talked to saw a wholesale attack and persistent
barrage of items that "pummeled" police, as Timoney describes.
Carl Kesser, a long-time Coconut Grove resident, professional
photographer, and filmmaker, was there working. He and his staff had
three digital video cameras set up to cover the protests. By 4:00 p.m.
things had quieted sufficiently that he sent most of his crew home.
Kesser, however, kept his own camera handy. He was not there to witness
what happened outside the amphitheater, specifically whether "criminals"
attacked police. But he did show me footage he shot of events that took
place immediately afterward, as police pushed people off Biscayne
Boulevard and west along NE Third Street.
In the footage isolated protesters stand before a line of riot
cops. Among them are a young man in a green shirt and a woman in a red
suit jacket and pleated skirt holding a sign. Police shoot pellets at
both. "Excuse me, a lady in a suit who's been walking peaceably in front
of you for half an hour you shoot in the back?" she scolds them.
Timoney in his bike gear can be seen observing from the sidelines. Then
police start marching forward, without giving orders to disperse.
Kesser, filming as he retreats, walks along the sidewalk toward Miami
Dade College amid other photographers and a smattering of protesters,
who are also in retreat.
The cops bang their shields with their batons as they advance.
You see Bryan Brown, a Miami native and a handyman, on his bicycle ride
in front of the police line. Suddenly half a dozen cops reach out and
slam him to the ground, wrenching his bike from under him. Then, again
without warning or apparent provocation, officers begin firing pellets,
rubber bullets, and pepper spray.
Photographers, onlookers, and protesters run for cover. Police
keep firing and moving forward. Suddenly Kesser's camera jerks violently
and the lens is spattered with blood. That's the moment a police
projectile hit him in the head, splitting open his scalp and lodging
over his right temple. (He underwent emergency surgery not long
afterward.) "To tell you the truth, before this happened, I thought
police handled it very well," Kesser says from the living room of his
Grove home, his head swaddled in bandages. "But there was no provocation
for this."
In the wake of this Third Street violence, police went out
hunting. They arrested people all over town, as far away as North Miami
Avenue and NE 20th Street. You didn't even have to look like a protester
to run afoul of the cops. They arrested a 71-year-old retiree, several
AFL-CIO organizers, a New Times reporter, and scores of college kids.
Some have said these people deserved what they got because they
knew how tumultuous it was going to be downtown and they put themselves
in harm's way. I know other people who were curious and wanted to visit
the protests but were afraid they'd be arrested. The trouble with both
sentiments is that they automatically cede our right to attend a highly
anticipated, widely publicized demonstration. This is what organizers
have been saying all along -- that the police were out to intimidate
people to keep them from attending, and thus squelching their free
speech.
Timoney's overstatement of the facts in his letter mirrors the
cops' overreaction on the street, and in that factual vacuum the cops
have proved the protesters' point.
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