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Quarantining Dissent by Intimidation:

''I saw no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers'', said Circuit
Judge Richard Margolius, 60, who made these remarks in open court last
week, saying he was taken aback by what he witnessed while attending the
protests.   1.

The Miami Model

The “Miami Model” is a term that has been coined to describe the ‘plan’ for
handling the demonstrators outside the “Free Trade area of the Americas
Summit”. This Summit took place in Miami Fl. Nov. 20th & 21st. This was a
highly organized plan, choreographed by Police Chief John Timoney, former
Chief of Police for Philadelphia where he gained fame with his thuggish
repression of demonstrators at the 2000 Republican National Convention.
Funding for this plan was provided by the Federal Government using 8.5
million dollars from the 87 Billion authorized for the rebuilding of Iraq. And so
that you don’t miss the impact of what you just read, I will repeat that sentence
again. Funding for this plan was provided by the Federal Government using
8.5 million dollars from the 87 Billion authorized for the rebuilding of Iraq.

Forty different police agencies, federal, state, county and city deployed more
than 2,500 heavily armed troops equipped with 3 foot bats, tasers, concussion
bombs, shotguns and rifles loaded with skin piercing hard rubber bullets and
bean bags, tear gas guns and pepper spray. They had vans, trucks,
surveillance boats (for bay front viewing), and Military Attack Vehicles.
Helicopters hovered above the crowds constantly. Most of the police were
clad in black riot gear, from head to toe, flak jackets, shields and helmets; their
eyes hidden behind dark Plexiglas face shields. This was the crew sent to
“meet and greet” the demonstrators to sunny Miami!

By most accounts their were about 10,000 demonstrators comprised of
activists, seniors and union members. (although some estimate were as high
as 30,000). So there was 1 fully armed officer for every 4 protesters (or if you
go with the 30,000 – 1 to 12. still pretty manageable odds for armed troops
even if 1100 senior citizens had been anarchists).

Julie and I attended a meeting here in Kansas City last week where 3 of the
participants in the protest showed us photos and told us what they saw and
experienced in Miami. For the sake of their privacy, I will not divulge their
names; but they represented the Cross Borders Network, the Sierra Club and
the Student Green Party. These groups are hardly groups you would label
anarchist. In the audience there were 4 or 5 other people who also were in
Miami, they joined in, verified and expanded on the stories.   We looked at
pictures of lines of “Robocop's”, lining the streets, blocking intersections, and
one picture of a solid line of officers who seemed to be protecting the restroom
area (a bank of porta potties). They had placed themselves between the
crowd and the porta potties.

And then we heard some stories!

Our Student Green Party presenter explained that Miami had passed an
ordinance immediately before the demonstration (This was passed
immediately before the conference,no doubt,to avoid it’s legality being tested
in the courts) It read: No group of more than 6 people may gather in one
place for more than 29 minutes without a permit. So the students made sure
they traveled in groups of 4 only. At one point the police told his group to
move on, and as they were doing so, the police started following them. When
the police started to catch up with them they started to run. A caravan of
police in cars started pursuing them. They ran for a full thirty blocks with the
police pulling up on them and then backing off, and pulling up amongst them
and backing off; before the police stopped. As he explained after you have
run for 30 blocks in fear you are pretty well done for the night.

Our Sierra Club rep. told the story of a young lady, a rather petite student who
was caught up in a group that was pushed into a chain link fence. I managed
to find an article that gives a more complete account of her apprehension from
which I have obtained additional facts. To read the complete account please
go to (5.) below.

Laurel a college student, is said to be smart, driven, and socially conscious;
she has been a member of the Sierra Club since her teen years. “On Nov. 21,
Laurel was part of a vigil outside the county jail for the protesters arrested the
day before. After three hours, the Miami-Dade police ordered everyone to
leave. As anyone who watched the scene unfold live on television can attest,
the police moved forward into the crowd of 100 people, cutting off about 40
protesters and trapping them against a chain link fence.

''The front line of the police all had shields, and they kept pushing in, pinning
us against the fence,'' recalls Laurel,. After a few minutes, Laurel said she fell
to the ground and covered her head, whereupon an officer grabbed her wrists
with one hand, lifted her arms and began blasting her with pepper spray.

''I started screaming in pain,'' Laurel says. ``He had held the canister so close
to my face that my hair and face were dripping with pepper spray.''

In the melee, she said she badly twisted her ankle. She was taken to a
makeshift jail in Earlington Heights for processing and decontamination.

''Because I couldn't walk, they dragged me,'' she recalls. ``They had a shower
set up in the parking lot. Two officers held me up as I was drenched for a few
seconds with water. I was then dragged into this tent. It was dark. There were
four men in white biohazard suits. I'm still coughing and crying from the pepper
spray. I can't really tell what is happening.''

With her hands still bound behind her back, she said she felt her T-shirt
coming apart. ''That's when I realized they had scissors and they were cutting
my clothes off of me,'' she says.

She said she begged them to stop, saying she could take her own clothes off.
And she asked why there wasn't a female officer present. ''They didn't say
anything to me,…. ``No one ever said a word to me while they were doing this.

``After they cut my shirt off, they cut off my jeans and my underwear. I'm
standing there totally naked. I felt completely violated. It was humiliating.''

Wearing a set of surgical scrubs, she was booked into jail barefoot, and claims
she never received medical attention for her ankle.
Her criminal charge: unlawful assembly, a misdemeanor.” 5.

I mentioned earlier the 1100 senior citizens; prior to the convention it was
arranged with the police that the 25 bus loads of seniors would be allowed to
unload at the amphitheatre (the “free speech zone). Some of these people
were 70-80 and even 90 years old; only a few of the busses made it to the
amphitheatre, many were stopped far away from the agreed to stop, making
these people walk as much as 2 miles to their destination. 18 busses were not
even allowed into the city. The city was shut down. “hundreds of totally
unthreatening old folks, many of them war veterans from the “greatest
generation” … were unceremoniously stripped of their First Amendment rights
of assembly and free speech” 2.

The demonstrators at the meeting we attended said they saw only one
instance of civil disobedience. Somebody lit a trash barrel on fire! And “City
officials have since congratulated themselves on the small amount of property
damage in Miami”. 3

And now for some other stories not found in the mainstream press!

“A columnist for the St. Petersburg Times reported that a young woman was
shot three times “ (with rubber bullets) “ including taking a bullet in the butt at
point blank range when she stooped to pick up a banana she dropped… A
friend was shot seven times trying to help her up. The woman was then shot
in the back while trying to leave the area.” 2.

Ben Killmon 71, member of the Alliance for Retired Americans, was trying to
get back to his bus, with other members of his group. He says they ran into a
line of Brown Shirts (Dade County Police) who were very rude and wouldn’t let
them pass. He said, they sent us down the railroad tracks and we were met by
some Black Shirts (Miami Police) who were pointing guns at us. I was incredibly
frightened. We were all knocked to the ground and handcuffed. Ben was
kneed in the back because he didn’t get down fast enough and handcuffed.
His group was then taken to a parking garage where they were placed in a
wire cage. He remained handcuffed, hands behind his back, for eleven hours.
His charges were dropped the following morning, and he was released. Ben’s
parting comments “Miami was a police state”

There were stories of people being arrested and stripped of their belongings
(backpacks, purses, camera etc) that were just thrown in the street and left to
be run over by cars.   And more and more and more. I know you don’t want to
read forever, but please read the article by Michelle Goldberg # 3 below. It
covers Ben’s Story in depth and includes a story about a reporter for
Democracy Now who was subjected to the same “demeaning shower” as our
college student. Or read #4 it’s pretty interesting too.

At the end of the day; there were 231 arrests (most of them thrown out of
court the next day), 193 injuries, 19 confirmed head injuries. Number of Police
charged “0”. 1.

And how does the local government feel about their actions? “Miami Mayor
Manny Diaz called the cops' performance "a model for homeland security."
Officials from across the country, including members of the Department of
Homeland Security and the FBI, showed up to observe how Miami handled the
demonstrators.” 3.

What of the FTAA? Brazil, Argentina, and Bolivia, pulled out of the
conference, the people back home had let their politicians know that if they
sign away any more power to foreign multinationals they may as well not come
home. 4. They did indicate they were thankful to the demonstrators for letting
them know they had support in this country.

And what about Police Chief Timoney, well he is headed to Boston to oversee
the crowd control at the Democratic National Convention.

I have to apologize… for two things; 1. writing too much, I’m sure you are
tired. 2. Only covering ½ of the story. I didn’t even mention the people
arrested who were not part of the demonstration, (the vacationer buying
lemonade, the couple visiting their friends who ended up in jail, asking what is
the FTAA?; the imbedded reporters, the anarchists metamorphosing into
police, And the labor leaders outrage about the inhumane treatment of people,
etc. etc. This fiasco was so big the stories would and will fill volumes. There
are about 100 articles on this website covering the demonstrations, the
investigations into the Police activities, and the many lawsuits that are being
filed. http://www.geocities.com/ericsquire/ftaafla.htm#miami    Go to Miami 2003

So after all is said and done you say: “So boo hoo for the demonstrators, stay
home and this stuff won’t happen”. Well I guess that is one way to look at it.
One the other hand, people went to Miami to exercise their constitutional right
to peacefully demonstrate and were met by fully armed troops; with an
organized plan, funded by the Federal government, intended to scare and
intimidate the demonstrators. People went to Pittsburg, St. Louis, St.
Petersburg, Columbia SC. and other cities , to be heard. They were confined
to the “Free Speech Zones”, sealed off from the press and arrested if they
dared to step out outside their zone. Many peaceful demonstrators fear for
their safety today. So is the new “American Model”?

Can this arrogant position the government has taken affect the average
person who think they have nothing to hide?

Next Time – Patriot Act, Patriot II, TIPS, CAPPS II, MATRIX. Who are your
associates? What are you reading? Where are you going? Why? Do you
really have nothing to hide? Are you sure? Will the gubment agree?

Take Care

Paul