A-Infos (en) US, Miami: Report from FTAA Jail Solidarity - N21, 4 pm

[Worker <a-infos-en@ainfos.ca>]

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As described by Evan from Chicago Indymedia and transcribed by Catfish from Midwest Unrest*
At around 4:00 pm, demonstrators at 14th street and 13th avenue, about a
half-block away from the jail, were told they had 15 minutes to leave the
area because they were engaged in an illegal gathering.
The activists began to disperse, and at around 4:15pm there were still approximately
100 activist at the intersection who were leaving the area slowly. As demonstrators
were leaving, six people sat down in the street in an act of civil disobedience.
A mass of police dressed in riot gear (reporter did not give an estimate of
their numbers) moved into the area, pushing the crown of activists away
from the people engaged in civil disobedience.

The police ordered the six activists to get up and stated that the activists
were breaking the law. (it is not clear to transcriber what happened to
this group of six)

Press, both corporate and indymedia, were near the six activists. The riot
police ordered the press to back up and encircled the six activists,
blocking them from view.

At this point, about fifty demonstrators who had been dispersing on the
sidewalk went into the street. Some linked arms and some were flashing
peace signs. A few hundred riot police, in black and brown gear, gathered
near the activists.

The police announced that the activists were breaking the law and said
they had two minutes to get out of the street. The demonstrators began to
move out of the street onto the sidewalk. All of them were trying to
disperse at this point, none were attempting to stay in the street. Most of
the activists were not wear any protective gear, such as goggles or
vinegar soaked bandannas.

In what seemed to be less than two minutes, as activists were
dispersing, a line of riot police moved in and split the fifty so activists into
two groups.

The front group of 20-30 demonstrators had a clear path before them and
began to run. Police were hitting them in the back with their billy clubs
and pushing them in the back with shields. Police fired six shots from a
gun loaded with rubber bullets were audible. There were several action
medics with this group, all clearly marked with the red cross, at least one
of whom was shot in the back with a rubber bullet. The reporter followed
this group for a bit and says they all escaped the area.

At this point, approximately 4:30 pm, the reporter returned to the back
group of demonstrators, who numbered 20-30. The back group was
pushed off the sidewalk by the riot police and moved into a parking lot
about 50 feet away from the street. This group was then encircled by riot
police who blocked the view of the press. In the space of three minutes,
police in a circle around this group fired over 100 shots into the group
from guns loaded with rubber bullets. An aerosol sound, which the
reporter believes to be the sound of mace being released from canisters,
was heard. This went on for ten to fifteen minutes.

Then the riot police dragged the demonstrators out of the circle one by
one. They were handcuffed with plastic ties and stood up in a line. The
demonstrators were in visible distress and were drenched with liquid
which the reporter believes to be mace. No clouds associated with tear
gas were seen.

While this was happening, a man was pinned to the ground by riot police.
One police officer held the man down with his knee pressed into the
man?s back and handcuffed him with a plastic tie. The man being arrested
was heard to say, ?No, that is not OK!? The reporter interprets this
statement to be a response to questions from the riot police about the
tightness of the handcuffs.

At this point, the riot police began to move towards the press and the
reporter ran from the area with two photo journalists from the corporate
press.

Coppied from Infoshop.org

* Google: Midwest Unrest. Breaking Up With Capitalism. ... Midwest Unrest is autonomous,
decentralized and nonhierarchical. We object to capitalism. ...
http://www.angelfire.com/ill/stopftaa/call.html


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