TWO MARCHES, A CONTRAST by drdrdoc Friday October 12, 2001 at 07:58 PM |
as activists are attacked, there is a telling difference in how people react; a recent exemple:
TWO MARCHES, A CONTRAST
Denver, Colorado. September 29, 2001
...As the march went on, there came an abrupt
halt at Colfax And Pearl,when a young man, not wearing
black or a mask was randomly detained andasked for his
ID. A crowd gathered around this individual and the
policewho were harassing him. Naturally a large
portion of the people remaininginstead of walking
right by, were anarchists who wanted to show
theirsolidarity with this person. Around 300 people
were gathered, simplywaiting to see if the police
would release this person who seemed tohave done
absolutely nothing to deserve this random search and
ID check.As we stood on the sidewalk, observing the
situation, the police randomlyand very suddenly rushed
toward the crowd. They were very deliberateand very
quick in their actions. They grabbed four people in
black whowere wearing masks. They attempted to grab
others, but these people evadedcapture at that point.
During this violent and illegal seizure of people,the
police also managed to punch one womyn in the face
causing her lipto bleed. They also hit and knocked
over numerous other people. Theytook the people who
had been arrested into separate police cars as
themajority liberal crowd stood around watching and
doing virtually nothingto protest this huge injustice................
Denver, Colorado. 6th October, 2001 Transform Columbus Day March and Rally
As the South TCD march went on a young man, wearing
black but not masked, was randomly detained and asked
for his ID and cuffed. The AIM Leaders present and the
AIM Security and TCD Alliance Marshals halted the
march of over 700 people. They confronted the police
and demanded the immediate release of our brother in
black. Our entire group backed them in demanding his
release. From the youngest kids and the
Grandparents/Elders, to Security and the StreetMedics
we backed our demand by refusing to move until this
unknown brother was released . He was released.
Later when the cops made it clear that looking like
BB is a crime in Denver the StreetMedics and AIM
Security along with our Legal team accompanied and
protected those who were in black and masked and
provided a buffer to keep the cops away. We
accompanied the Block to a place of safety so theycould de-block.
Some of those who placed themselves in harms way to
protect the BB folk were Anarchists but some were
Communists and other Leftists. Some were eventraditional Pacifists.
All were part of an ALLIANCE and obviously took thisseriously.
Quite the contrast. Movement Solidarity vs the same old Liberal BullshitNB;
One person who went off on his own to the porta-potty
was busted. Two small groups of BB folk chose to leave
the main rally on their own and one group was detained
and printed and the other was arrested while waitingto board a bus.=====
"As you come to know the seriousness of our situation--the war, the racism,the poverty in the world--you come to realize it is not going to be changed just by words or demonstrations. It's a question of risking your life.
It's a question of living your life in drastically different ways."
--Dorothy Day, Seeds of Peace
(from a-infos)