Sierra Club

Justice Department Should Investigate Abuses of Civil Rights During Miami Trade Summit

Dear President Bush:

On November 20 and 21st, Sierra Club members were proud to exercise their constitutional rights by protesting the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) meeting in Miami, FL. The Sierra Club believes that a healthy, public debate on the FTAA is necessary in drawing attention to trade policies that can weaken environmental standards and eliminate jobs across the Americas.

We were appalled that the local police, supported by $8.5 million in federal funds and the Department of Homeland Security, engaged in a systematic campaign of intimidation that violated the constitutional rights of thousands of law-abiding citizens.

I am calling upon you to instruct the Attorney General of the United States, John Ashcroft, to form an independent, bi-partisan commission to hear public testimony and gather evidence on the events in Miami.

In Miami, the Sierra Club partnered with labor, human rights, family farm, and faith communities allies to create a coalition that worked to organize peaceful and legal protest activities in full collaboration with local authorities. Miami police Chief John Timoney gave assurances prior to November 20th that police would protect the rights of law-abiding citizens.

In this critical objective, the police failed miserably. Specific examples of police intimidation at the FTAA meeting include:

• Untold numbers of Sierra Club members were intimidated out of participating even before the protests started. A drumbeat of hyped-up
press coverage of riot police preparing for the protests created a climate of fear that dissuaded many law-abiding citizens from exercising their constitutional rights of assembly and free speech;

• The unnecessary and overwhelming presence of riot police and armored vehicles intimidated Sierra Club members who turned out, peaceably and legally, on the morning of Nov. 20 outside Bayfront Amphitheater, the site of the Rally & March for Global Justice;

• That morning, without any provocation, a riot policeman pointed a rifle loaded with rubber bullets at the heads and bodies of Sierra Club staff and volunteers gathered peaceably on the side walk outside Bayfront Amphitheater;

• Police illegally confiscated the property of a Sierra Club member on the day of the demonstrations;

• Falsely claiming that Bayfront Park was full, the police blocked access to the park and toilet facilities for hundreds of law-abiding citizens,
including Sierra Club members, violating their constitutional right of assembly;

• At the conclusion of the peaceful coalition march, riot police advanced on several thousand demonstrators, the vast majority of whom were assembled peacefully and lawfully on Biscayne Boulevard. The police failed to provide the crowd with a safe route to disperse, and then used pepper spray and rubber bullets indiscriminately against law-abiding citizens as they tried to leave the scene. Many were trapped by the police and subjected to pepper spray, tear gas, rubber bullets, verbal abuse, and, in some cases, arrest.

• Police verbally abused, pointed weapons at, detained, and threatened to arrest two Sierra Club members seeking to leave the scene who had merely asked officers for clarification about confusing and contradictory orders; and

• A female member of the Sierra Student Coalition was arrested after a peaceful demonstration the following day at the Gerstein Justice Building. Despite promptly complying with police orders to disperse, this young woman was arrested, handcuffed, physically abused, pepper sprayed in the eyes while obeying police orders, and stripped of her clothes by four male police officers in a "detoxification" center, then later denied medical treatment for her injuries.

These incidents directly, and blatantly, abused the civil rights of the protesters gathered in Miami. An independent, bi-partisan commission is necessary to determine:

• The extent to which federal funds were involved in the abuse of civil rights;

• The extent to which the Department of Homeland Security aided or coordinated abusive and illegal police activity in Miami.

• Who is accountable for specific civil rights violations, and

• How reparations should be made.

The fundamental constitutional rights of all Americans are in jeopardy if the intimidating tactics used by the Miami police become the model for dealing with future public demonstrations. We trust that your administration will ensure that the police misconduct that occurred in Miami never happens again.

Sincerely,

Carl Pope
Executive Director
Florida Sierra Club