Gee, that really looks like the exercising of 'free speech'.
Posted on 11/20/2003 10:10:58 AM PST by finnman69
By MIKE SCHNEIDER, Associated Press Writer
MIAMI - Officers and hundreds of demonstrators clashed Thursday near the site of talks to create a free trade zone for North and South America. Police blanketed downtown, remembering trade-related riots in other cities.
Officers clad in riot gear used long batons to restrain protesters, some of whom wore surgical masks or bandannas across their mouths. Other demonstrators carried gas masks. Some tried to pull down restraining fences with large hooks.
Meanwhile, AFL-CIO organizers planned a noontime rally that they said should include more than 10,000 protesters against the proposed 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas. They pledged that it would be peaceful.
Officers were using their batons mostly to push back the roughly 1,000 militant protesters, but occasionally used them to strike demonstrators. The confrontation, which continued throughout the morning, was a few blocks from the hotel where the trade meetings were being held. An unknown number of demonstrators were arrested.
In a brief flareup, gas that smelled like rotten eggs was fired by police. A protester scrambled forward and tossed back a canister.
Still, many other protesters kept the peace, carrying puppets, holding signs and chanting, "This is what a police state looks like." One stood in front of the officers waving an American flag.
"At this point, we are holding strong," police spokesman Jorge Pino said at late morning. "We're basically trying maintain the peace downtown, but there are some individuals that are unfortunately trying to disrupt our efforts."
Protester Joshua Xander, 21, of Cincinnati, said the police are "totally doing what they feel necessary. We are doing what we think is necessary — conflict of interests." He was tapping on an African drum.
On Wednesday, negotiators approved a draft text of a free trade pact, choosing a version that allows countries to opt out of more controversial clauses of the agreement. Trade ministers were to spend two days working to finish the text, which so far speaks in generalities.
U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick denied that the United States was backing away from creating an agreement that would tear down all trade barriers from Alaska to Argentina, which was how the FTAA was originally conceived. He called the buffet comparison inaccurate.
"I look at it as a full-course dinner, but each country has to decide how much to eat with each course," he told business leaders.
Critics of free trade agreements say they take jobs from American workers, exploit workers elsewhere and lack safeguards such as environmental standards.
Near the hotel where the trade ministers were meeting Thursday, several hundred protesters gathered at the fence that blocked them from getting closer. They held colorful signs with slogans such as "Corporate Greed" and "FTAA Contaminates Fish."
Police had escalated their street presence because of violent demonstrations and vandalism at similar free trade meetings, including five days of riots during a 1999 World Trade Organization (news - web sites) meeting in Seattle.
Parts of downtown Miami resembled a police state. Checkpoints with armed officers blocked pedestrians without proper credentials on several streets. Squad cars were on almost every block. Troopers searched vehicles before they could move on.
Business owners shuttered their facades.
"Everybody is scaring us. They say there's going to be trouble," said Sami Virani, who was placing plywood in the window of his shop Watch Time. "It's worse than a hurricane."
On Wednesday, police arrested seven people in a vacant Miami mansion who were allegedly had crowbars, metal chains with locks on them, flammable materials, gas masks and leaflets protesting the trade talks. They were charged with burglary.
It's like the 'stereotypical gunowner'.
Most protestors have been peaceful and well-behaved.
The exception is the self-identified anarchist group. The 'anarchists' have no clue what they are protesting, but they have home-made weapons and love to provoke and attack the cops.
Downtown Miami has been shut down since last Saturday; there are many more cops than demonstrators in the streets near the convention hotels.
There will be no Seatle-type riots in Miami. The typical Miami macho cops have shown incredible restraint and professionalism.
Kudos to Miami Chief of Police.
The local news shows have been running interviews with the protestors, and you won't believe the BS these protestors are spewing.
My favorite response comes from the anarchists. When asked what they are protesting, one anarchist said "Duh!" and laughed like a person high on pot. Another anarchist answered the same question with a very insightful response, "Uhh, that's b-a-d!"
My second favorite response came from a union teacher who claimed that the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas will threaten her job, because the school system will be privatized.
Free speech in a public venue, such as the streets is constitutionally protected.
Gee, that really looks like the exercising of 'free speech'.
America's middle class will be forced to sink to the lowest common denominator of 3rd world pissholes with respect to wages, hours and working conditions as corporations are forced to offshore in order to remain competetive.
These meetings will determine the trade laws, and through them, employment laws in this country and they aren't open to the public, or public scrutiny in any way shape or form.
Among rules being debated is one that allows foreign companies to sue the US if any of our laws infringe upon their profits. This is an intolerable infringement upon our sovereignty.
Yes, the protesters are stupid looking and many of them are leftists and even disruptors. I don't care - this trade agreement is a sellout of the US.
There have been little infringement on the free speech of marchers and protestors. As a matter of fact, the police and business owners have gone out of their way to allow free speech in Miami.
When the anarchists threatened publicly to break windows and destroy business properties, the local business owners closed their shops and businesses in downtown Miami, boarded up their glass doors and windows, and let the protestors have the streets since last Saturday.
The anarchists have publicly taunted the police with threats of violence, some violent demonstrators have broken into for-sale houses to set up training camps and drug parties, and several protestors have been caught with dangerous illegal weapons.
Nevertheless, the cops have not overreacted. They have continued to protect these punks from themselves.
I expect the officers to act like thuggish slobs at all times, regardless of whether one is breaking the law or not.
Thank you for your opinion about the agreement; IMHO, the way to improve the agreement does not involve throwing feces to the local cops and using chains to beat up cops.
Of course, destroying property while cooking drugs is not a very effective way to convince me to accept any of the anti-free-trade tirades.
As the demonstrators gathered in greater numbers on Thursday, the police began aggressively declaring the demonstration an "unlawful assembly" and assaulting the participants with physical attack, including hitting them with batons and bicycles, with chemical weapons, including what seemed to be tear gas, pepper spray, and an unknown chemical, as well as tazer (electric devices that cause pain and unconsciousness) and rubber bullet attacks. At 14th and 2nd St., police "ran over a cyclist" according to reports from demonstrators.
Demonstrators challenged commercial media reports that they were attacking police officers. One woman struck over the head by the police was insistent that "this was a peaceful demonstration" as she was taken away by medics.
There were many reports of police intimidation, including a report that some demonstrators were followed by men (apparently police officers) dressed as protestors (including an anti-FTAA t-shirt) who carried a 9mm pistol on his lap and told the demonstrators "you don't want to ____ with us."
The police blocked streets, denying the movement of the early morning march as well as blocking union vans attempting to join the AFL-CIO march later in the day. Throughout the day, the police have herded demonstrators into contained areas on the streets, where they then proceeded to demand the demonstrators disperse, as well as fire tear gas, water cannons, and physically attack protesters with batons. There are reports of up to 185 buses that have been stopped enroute to Miami, or right outside of Miami, on their way to peaceably march against the FTAA. While the AFL-CIO has invited other demonstrators to join their march, the police are demanding identification at times to enter the amphitheater where they are assembling and speaking."
Look, I don't personally care for these protesters either, but the right to protest must be preserved. We're going to need it!
Agreed. The disruptive portion of protesters gives their own cause a bad name and distracts from the real issue, and gives police a convenient excuse to deny free assembly to law-abiding (even though weird looking) protesters.
They're just too young and stupid to know it.
I live in South Florida, I go to downtown Miami for business at least once a week, and I have plenty of friends and business associates who live near downtown.
I have kept abreast of the local developments, and my friends contradict your "Indymedia" sources. Eyewitness accounts and video tapes have shown the demonstrators attacking the cops, and the cops acting only defensively.
I don't expect to get an unbiased opinion from Indymedia anymore than I expect to get one from CNN. I want to hear everyone's side of the story and decide for myself. If you have eye-witness accounts, by all means post them.
This is the beauty of the internet - unfiltered news.
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