Pacifists Nikki Hartman and Robert Davis believe police in Savannah
and Brunswick could learn a lot from the mistakes made during Miami's
anti-trade protests last November.
Hartman should know. She has the scars to prove it.
This time, with the G-8 Sea Island Summit approaching, the activists are arming themselves with lawyers.
Hartman and Davis will join at least a dozen volunteers and legal
advocates monitoring police response during anti-G-8 protests in
Brunswick next week.
The group, called the Justice 8 Legal Collective, hopes its
presence can prevent the kind of police conduct they saw in Miami - that
an independent panel described as "equivalent to martial law."
It will run a 24-hour legal hotline for those who are arrested during Summit protests.
The volunteers also will train members of the public to act as observers to document arrests and civil rights violations.
Information they collect might be used in protesters' defense and in lawsuits against police or government agencies.
Hartman and Davis joined in the Collective's efforts after Hartman was injured by non-lethal weapon fire in Miami last November.
The friends had traveled with a Tallahassee group called Students
United for Peace to protest the Free Trade Area of the Americas
conference.
After a Nov. 20 march, Hartman and Davis watched from a hillside as a group of protesters began chanting "Whose streets? Our streets!" at a line of police.
"Suddenly, I saw puffs of smoke and the line of protesters ran backward as the police started marching forward," Davis said.
"After they stopped, I heard an uncountable number of popping
sounds and a shotgun blast followed by screams from protesters," Davis
said. "The police marched forward again and this time ... started to
overtake the hill we were on. And I heard an officer yell, 'Get these
cameras out of here!'"
Davis and Hartman ran as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas. But both were hit.
Hartman fell to the ground.
"Bo and a couple of people tried to help me up," Hartman said.
"About then there was a huge puff of smoke and pain so intense I thought
I was hit with a tear gas canister."
Hartman doesn't know what hit her or who aimed the shot that cut her head, requiring five staples to repair the wound, she said.
"A video shows she was hit with pepper (spray) balls," Davis said.
Others who tried to help her, including volunteer medics, were shot at as well, both said.
One officer even sprayed pepper spray into a building being used as a clinic for injured protesters, Davis said.
Davis saw at least one protester throw a half-full water bottle at
the line of police and another throw back a tear gas canister.
"I didn't see anything thrown at them before they started shooting people," he said.
Last week, a Miami-Dade County group charged with examining police
conduct during the conference released a draft report citing
"unrestrained and disproportionate use of force" against some
protesters.
"Civil rights were trampled," the report states.
The report was based on the documents, photos,
video and testimony of Hartman and many others injured by law
enforcement, said Jorge Reynardus, chairman of the Miami-Dade County
Independent Review Panel.
"I saw a video of a police line advancing on a gentleman who was
standing with his hands at his side. He was a protester who refused to
move, and he should have been arrested. But a police officer took his
baton and hit the man along the side of the head," Reynardus said. "He
dropped like a sack a potatoes."
In another incident, a reporter was hit in the head with a bean bag round.
"Just a few more inches and it could have cost him his life," Reynardus said.
A judge presiding over the cases of protesters said in open court
that he saw "no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers"
during the November demonstrations.
"Pretty disgraceful what I saw with my own eyes," said Judge
Richard Margolius in a court transcript. "And I have always supported
the police during my entire career ... This was a real eye-opener. A
disgrace for the community."
Even though the county's report is critical of law enforcement's
reaction in November, Reynardus recognizes police stand against growing
challenges.
In addition to logistical mistakes in organizing and communication
among law enforcement agencies and a growing fear of terrorism, other
anxieties contributed to the reaction.
"It was a reaction to what happened at other parts of the country
and the world," including violent protests in Seattle in 1999 and later
around Europe.
Police response was marked by overreaction, he said.
"But our hope is we can help that pendulum swing more toward the middle," he said.
Also, public anxiety leading up to the protests lead to more problems, he said.
"All we heard for weeks was anarchists, anarchists, anarchists. It made us forget that these really were just citizens."
Hartman, who grew up wanting to be a police officer, has never
associated herself with anarchists or any political groups. She didn't
even consider herself an activist until after her experience in Miami.
In January, Hartman returned to Miami to tell her story to the
Independent Review Panel. It was there she met supporters already
working on the Justice 8 Legal Collective.
"They had an outlet for addressing what I believed was going on at these protests," Hartman said.
Hartman is scheduled to speak at a public vigil Tuesday night in
Brunswick. Through the rest of the Summit protests, both Davis and
Hartman will provide office support for the collective.
For Hartman, a new career of political activism is just beginning.
"It's a very big deal when you can't use your constitutional right to protest peacefully," she said.
"Getting involved in the G-8 is just the next logical step after Miami. And when that's over, there will be something else."
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Arrests in Miami's FTAA protests during Nov. 2003
Total reported arrests: 283
Total formally charged: 231
No. of misdemeanors: 203
Cases dismissed or withdrawn by prosecution: 90
Pleas taken (resulting in no criminal charge): 82
Convictions: 0
Remaining cases: 31
No. of felonies: 28
Dismissed or withdrawn by prosecution: 10
Reduced to misdemeanors: 12
Pleas taken (resulting in no criminal charge): 5
Convictions: 0
Remaining cases: 1
Source: Miami Activist Defense
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