Free the Phoenix Five. Charge the Phoenix PD.

Here's the footage I told you would be coming: this is why the MCSO won't be able to get away with their racial profiling, either. Everyone has a camera, and the truth exposed usually plays out in our favor.  Last word I had this PM was that Channel 5 aired footage showing that the PPD was clearly the aggressor, and that they were even calling for an investigation of the Phoenix PD's conduct at the march. Can't find any evidence of that on their website though - still the same BS article from yesterday.


Here's the link to Brian Wilkins' blog again, by the way, for another account of the police attack on protesters. He promises to follow what's happening with each of them - maybe we can do a  CourtWatch for them together. You can find a couple of video links to the police at the protest there as well.

The "Phoenix Five", by the way, is how our comrades were referred to today by anarchists/prison abolitionists in the Netherlands. 

They send their best. 

Here's a link they led me to:

http://www.youtube.com/user/pametaloka#p/a/u/0/96nxVHpKDX8. 

The woman who posted this video also posted one prior to it, with the following comment: 

PIGS at anti-arpaio march 2010

the pigs who pepper sprayed us!....Unfortunately, I don't have the polic...   more "... the pigs who pepper sprayed us!....Unfortunately, I don't have the police officer's name but she is the one who f****d up! no one was throwing rocks or water bottles as it has been reported by the media (who was not present)...I was there, just behind the "anarquist in black"....innocent people were affected by pepper spray including a young girl (about 4 yrs old), my underage cousins, and many many more! STOP POLICE BRUTALITY....STOP THE PIGS!!!!"

---------------

The links below came via Matt with the Phoenix Immigrant Rights listserve. I bet a lot of this footage was thanks to Copwatch. I'm sure more has yet to be edited and posted, so stay tuned.

Anti-Arpaio Human Rights March 1/16/2010

VIDEOS

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=285196586348&ref=nf (great video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9ysthwvIyM (good video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qyFlxteC3YI (good video)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrlxDZGUu8w

http://www.youtube..com/watch?v=hyk9RhOMvEA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WaCYA26BJMc

LOCAL NEWS REPORTS

http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2010/01/76283.php

http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2010/01/phoenix-pd-attack-protesters-at-anti.html

http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/01/scuffles_between_anarcchists_a.php

NOT LOCAL ARTICLES

http://anarchistnews.org/?q=node/10479#comment-92238

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dawn-teo/protest-against-americas_b_425970.html

PHX Class War Council: Protesters Attacked by Police.

As I suspected, the media and police are full of it.  Here's the story about the real disruptive elements in the protest yesterday, from a credible source...along with a very good critical analysis about the bigger issue. Fires Never Extinguished is the journal of the Phoenix Class War Council. 

Way to go, folks.

This is from them:

------------

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Phoenix PD attack protesters at anti-Arpaio March

We couldn't agree with Sal Reza more when he says, "There was provocation by some groups who came here for their own purpose to disrupt a peaceful march." We know he isn't talking about us, because Tonatierra invited members of the Diné, O'odham, anarchist/anti-authoritarian bloc on stage to speak at the rally at Falcon Park.

So, who is the outside faction Sal's talking about? In our opinion it must be the Phoenix Police. Unprovoked, a female officer on horseback (who later covered her name on her uniform) charged her horse headlong into the march, colliding with several people and in the process almost running over at least one child in a stroller. After attacking families and protesters, she then whipped out her pepper spray and let loose on the whole crowd, who fled the noxious spew. In the process, children were blasted with pepper spray.

After that, other Phoenix PD officers stormed the crowd, violently attacking marchers, dragging several to the ground and further deploying their chemical weapons from all directions in an attempt to justify their their aggression by nabbing a few people. Dozens were so affected that they were soaked in chemicals, having to strip off clothes to stop the burning. Street medics (not Phoenix Fire Department) and other protesters came to each others' aid. At the end of the melee, out of the more than a hundred that marched together, four of our comrades were in chains and countless others stood bleeding, bruised and momentarily stunned.

Still, shaking it off, we rallied, facing down the cops, until eventually they withdrew. We celebrated and took turns speaking out about what it's like to be under attack by a system that values property and power over people.

Indeed, during the entire march the Phoenix police had been provoking marchers. Riding bikes and golf carts into people. Pushing and shoving. For what? To keep one northbound lane open? Rather than assaulting people expressing their legitimate desires to see an end to oppression, why not shut down the street? Cops do traffic control all the time. What's wrong with PPD? Why, for instance, is it somehow possible for Tempe PD to shut down Tempe streets tomorrow for the corporate schlock that is "PF Chang's Rock n' Roll Marathon" tomorrow but not for PPD to close off a few streets so that people can assemble without threat of attack? Truly a backwards system indeed!

The police have so far put forward several different explanations for what happened, all of which contradict each other. On one channel they say that they were breaking up a fight. On another they say that people were throwing bottles. And on and on. What'll it be in five minutes, we wonder? The contradictory stories ought to be your first clue that what they're claiming happened didn't in fact happen. No surprise that the media swallowed it. But if we know they're lying, we have to wonder why anyone else would defend their actions?

Did people fight back against the police assault. We don't know because our eyes were full of pepper spray, but we wouldn't begrudge them if they did. To be charged into by a twelve hundred pound horse, while attacked by thugs using chemical weapons necessarily evokes the instinct to fight back, especially when your enemy is so vile as to assault children. Police demand the impossible from people. They expect you to allow them to attack you while at the same time demanding that you suppress your gut, human tendency to defend yourself. There is nothing "peaceful" in that relationship.

That sort of power relation is one that condemns those who resist while exonerating the violence of those from above. It reflects the current distribution of power -- a distribution we want to change drastically. This is as unnatural as fighting power without taking action. Movements, like people, have a right to self-defense. For us, that has to be in the form of direct action and civil disobedience against the system. It must be made not to work unless our demands are met. No more mediation through shady politicians. No more appealing to power through moral arguments. We can take our futures into our own hands, directly.

Still, we're not surprised that the police attacked. While it seems the leaders of the movement are eager to make excuses for police who attack children, we know that what we saw today is but a glimpse of what the cops do everyday. We see it with our own eyes. They are the outside, alien force that first and foremost defends white supremacy and capitalism. How can someone say they are organizing a "peaceful march" when they work with such sadists? Anyone who was at the point in the march where the attack took place obviously recognizes that the only physical threat to the march was from the police. No one in the march was at any time under threat from anyone in the march. Understand that and you also understand that naturally the cops were going to attack the march eventually, especially considering the militaristic fashion in which they deployed. Phoenix PD deports more migrants than Sheriff Joe and yet we are told that we ought to give them a pass so that we can focus on that clown Arpaio? We saw today just how foolish that strategy is.

In our eyes, this is but a symptom of the failure of the strategy being pursued by the movement as it is. White supremacy in Arizona goes far beyond one ancient sheriff in one county. Ballot measures attacking people of color will almost certainly pass in Arizona yet again this year with 70 or 80 percent margins. Is this Sheriff Joe's fault? Obviously not. But marches against Joe won't stop that.

We need a broader movement with a critique beyond Joe so that we can challenge the whole problem -- one that stretches from Tohono O'odham land down south to the land of the Diné up north. And everywhere in between. And we need to break from this mode of organizing that can only deliver more oppression and more violence down on our heads. No more politicians. No more working with cops. Look what it brings.

This is why we supported the call for the Diné, O'odham, anarchist/anti-authoritarian bloc. For someone to say now when it is inconvenient that we are an outside force is to replicate the marginalization that for centuries has dominated the discourse around land and movement in this region. But PCWC's native comrades didn't come from outside. They were always here. And we stand with them.

http://firesneverextinguished.blogspot.com/2010/01/phoenix-pd-attack-protesters-at-anti.html

We Are Human, too: Arpaio Protesters Attacked and Arrested.

Here's my contribution to the march yesterday.

I only made it there for the beginning, so have a few more photos below - I just don't have any stamina these days. 

 

So check this out: I have a hard time believing these folks were really planning to throw bottles and rocks at cops and go to jail dressed like this. In fact, they seem to be having  a nice dialogue with this one. 

Now, most people wouldn't look at these folks and think they were Anarchists - they're some of our finest, actually, and they're some of the most creative protesters I know. They don't need to throw stuff - this is much more effective at getting the message across: Alienation. That tells me there wasn't necessarily some agenda among the area Anarchists to pick a fight with anyone. 

Now, this is me. I don't know enough about Anarchy to be a spokesperson for it, so I don't call myself an Anarchist - but I'm pretty much in alignment with a lot of it. Do I look like some kind of radical Anarchist? 

Really?

C'mon. Never mind the "Rage Against the Machine." I'm 45 years old and maybe 105 lbs. I'm neither young, male, nor really even white enough to fit your stereotype. But Anarchists are the folks I gravitate towards, and I would have probably been outside the jail with them if I could have handled the march. I could have easily "assaulted" a police officer, too, god knows.

Frankly, the Anarchists protest every oppression that the state has a hand in, and these cops probably had it in for us from the moment this demonstration was planned - they knew better than to go after the Puente families with kids, but I bet they couldn't wait to get their hands on some Anarchists. No one ever complains when the Anarchists are hassled - even on this count, the biggest complaint is that the police gassed children. They can even beat us up a little and  say that we were the ones who assaulted them - the rest of the Left usually stands mute, fuming at us. 

So, our allies are not often quick to come to our defense, assuming themselves, of course, that Anarchists necessarily digress into violence and are therefore likely to be to blame for any smear of violence at a protest. Sometimes I'm afraid they would let them execute us without much resistance, just because of this latent hostility towards Anarchists. I've read enough Anarchist literature to know that it's because we call them on their shit just as we do to the Right. The Left here are mostly just capitalists, too. That's not very Left. 

So, we get a little antagonistic with our friends - someone needs to be. Someone should be appropriately outraged and on the edge of everything. I think the Anarchists are.

Check these guys out, by the way. The Indigenous Anarchist community is awesome.

As for me, I think the state routinely employs excess violence, and the handful of anarchists arrested yesterday - or the 10,000 people they were with - weren't such a threat to the security of Tent City that they needed to be sending horses into that crowd pepper-spraying children. That's a guarantee that someone's going to get hurt. Look at how their lack of control quickly becomes our fault. 

Frankly, it sounds to me from the accounts I've read as if the Anarchists might have easily been trying to defend people in the crowd from the police incursion. The cops just freaked out. Or they were being provocative because nothing yet had really happened they could arrest anyone on (boy, I bet I'm making fast friends in law enforcement today...).

I'm posting this news piece that's up on AZ Indymedia - if you want to read the garbage the police and the media spit out, find the article from the AZ Republic or Washington Post or something.  Steve Lemons gave it a write up in the PHX New Times - and will have more today, I guess. Couldn't tell if he was more disgusted with the protesters or police, though. He doesn't want to blame the "so-called" Anarchists - it think he's pissed at the protesters - but I'm pretty sure those are real Anarchists involved, God Bless them. 

I bet there's plenty of video footage showing what actually happened - if nothing else, the Anarchists are usually covered by Copwatchers and cameras, since they otherwise have a hard time defending themselves. Sometimes no matter how passive you are, if you're wearing black with a bunch of others who have bandannas covering their faces, there's just no way to avoid a resisting arrest or assaulting-an-officer charge - especially if they're the ones who assaulted you. Not that some of us don't fight back - we have the right and responsibility to defend ourselves and comrades against state violence. But there are a number of ways to fight back that don't necessarily engage the cops with fists.

Last I heard a couple of these folks still needed $1,800 bail. They were organizing at Conspire Phoenix when I was there last night - if you have something to give to their defense, that's where I'd inquire first. 

I'm still trying to raise money for my own favorite criminal - she's about to turn 59, has a compromised immune system, and jail could just kill her - so keep dropping by my place, if you're looking for some good additions to your library and want to support the cause. All the stuff is at Free Marcia Powell, now, so this doesn't look like the home shopping channel. I've been depending a lot on the support of Anarchists for that, actually. Guess they have their hands full, now. 

Still, I think even if one of them did pop a cop, we should try to spring them. It was a heated moment, and they were in a more vulnerable position than the cops (you know how big those horses are?). Nothing attributed to them is near as bad as the violence cops perpetrate and get away with all the time, and I can't say I haven't had the impulse to punch someone in uniform than once myself - some of them are real bad criminals. Besides, they aren't the ones hitting children with pepper spray. If that can be an accident, so can brushing up against a cop with your flagpole. The cops should cut them all loose and apologize for attacking the crowd in the first place.


So, let's be there for our comrades. 

And please remember mine. I'm selling Tenacious Zines to raise the funds to keep her free. I'm not sure what we'll do for these folks, but we'll do something.

-------------

 

Here's the list:

Suspects arrested and booked into jail:

Daniels, Sarah Grace  W/F  23 years old: Booked for Agg Assault on Police P623076

Henry, Jeremiah M  W/M  18 years old: Booked for Agg Assault on Police P623071

Klasek, Garyn  W/M   30 years old: Booked for Agg Assault on Police & Disorderly Conduct P623074

Brock, Claire E  W/F  23 years old; booked for Resisting Arrest & Disorderly Conduct P623069

Emadi, Issa A  W/M  26 years old; booked for Agg Assault on Police P623068

-------------
 
Police unleash pepper gas on non-violent protesters; 5 arrested 
 
More than 10,000 demonstrators came out on January 16 to protest against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his repression of unauthorized immigrants. In the latest and largest in a series of protests against Sheriff Joe, demonstrators marched to MCSO's "tent city", an urban concentration camp where inmates, many arrested on immigration charges, are held 24-7 in the open air.

While marchers focused on Arpaio's 287g arrangement with federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement and his high-profile immigration raids, other participants questioned the focus on immigration alone, given the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office's role in forclosure evictions, and also that the Phoenix Police Department turned over more unauthorized migrants to ICE in fiscal year 2009 than did Arpaio's sheriff's department.
Toward the end of the day, police attacked marchers, indiscriminately deploying pepper gas in an area that included a number of young children and families. In addition to street medics, EMTs were called to provide emergency care to at least three individuals, including an infant and young child. Five individuals were singled out for arrest and are being charged with aggravated assault of a police officer. In a news story on the march, the Arizona Republic repeated police statements that demonstrators attacked a police horse with metal poles, despite such allegations contradicting numerous eye-witness accounts, including the following post to Arizona Indymedia:

"Unprovoked, a female officer on horseback (who later covered her name on her uniform) charged her horse headlong into the march, colliding with several people and in the process almost running over at least one child in a stroller. After attacking families and protesters, she then whipped out her pepper spray and let loose on the whole crowd, who fled the noxious spew. In the process, children were blasted with pepper spray. After that, other Phoenix PD officers stormed the crowd, violently attacking marchers, dragging several to the ground and further deploying their chemical weapons from all directions in an attempt to justify their their aggression by nabbing a few people. Dozens were so affected that they were soaked in chemicals, having to strip off clothes to stop the burning."

Disbar Andrew Thomas Rally, Dec 21. Phoenix.

We have a lot of trouble with our lawmen out here...


In case you are confused: Out of respect for the protest non-organizer's desire to reposition himself as being professional (rather than impassioned and vehemently outraged at the perpetrators of injustice who hold office in this state), I took down the copy I had posted of his original call to action that hit the blogs: boy was it good. Guess he has a fine line to walk. Glad I don't have a career to be compromised.


Here's the official call to action, via the Phoenix New Times...I like this guy, Paul Rubin.


---------------

UPDATE: More on Upcoming Anti-Andy Thomas Rally from "Non-Organizer" Jim Belanger

By Paul Rubin in County Craziness

Mon., Dec. 14 2009 @ 3:58PM

Shortly after publishing the previous blog post on the scheduled December 21 demonstration by local criminal-defense attorneys against Maricopa County Attorney Andy Thomas, someone forwarded us another missive being disseminated by lawyer Jim Belanger.

Belanger suggests that he and his fellow barristers should act "civilly," and not take to the streets as the Italian soccer fans in the photo did a few years ago after things didn't go so well for their boys.

He wrote, "Second email: I do not consider myself an organizer of a rally. I consider myself as someone who has an idea for people who choose to do so to publicly and civilly express their sentiments.

"For me, the idea for the rally was triggered by the felony charges against Judge Gary Donahoe. At that point, in my mind, the actions of the county attorney went from political self-interest to dangerousness. The public gathering is intended to express the following things:

"(1) To show the rest of this county and the country that there are many, many people who do not agree with the way the county attorney conducts himself and his office; (2) to show that, again, there are many, many people and lawyers in this county who have a high degree of respect for the rule of law and the Maricopa County judiciary even when we disagree with them or their rulings; and (3) to give the many people who have asked me what we can do a means to civilly and publicly express their personal embarassment and outrage that this county attorney has acted in the fashion that he has.


"What the State Bar ultimately chooses to do, if anything, is almost certainly out of our hands. That is as it should be. In fact, I think almost all of us would agree that the process and rules to which the county attorney and all of us are subject should unfold as they are written and as they are intended. I was not and am not anticipating a series of speeches or flamboyant gestures.

"Rather, I was thinking that there would be a respectful and civil gathering from 12:15 until 12:45 or so and that, after a very few remarks, there would be 60 seconds or so of silence to express solidarity with and support of what I have articulated above.

"The Preamble to Arizona's Rules of Professional Responsibility tell us that lawyers have a special responsibility to ensure that justice and the rule of law are respected and that we are to act with honor and integrity.

"I believe that."

Immigration Rhapsody, Arpaio, and Klan

This comes to us via my friend at the blog Chaparral respects no borders. This is what blogs and Indymedia are for. Check out what the Phoenix New Times covers later today, too, and take a look at Humanleague002's Youtube site in the next few days - he's got hours of footage from last night to edit before he can post. He's a great videographer (I hope that's what you're called, Dennis), and he's got all the Anti-Joe and Anti-racist rallies in Phoenix up there - plus a bunch of Copwatching. He's everywhere in this town with his camera in white supremacists' faces in particular - including the ones with badges and guns.


Keep up with the solidarity visits out there, by the way - just keep in mind that whenever you land here and wherever you link to from here, your IP addresses can get registered by more than just me. Things are kind of ugly in nevada, but they need outside support to get some transparency. We're still in a pretty heated battle out here too, of course; last night was definitely a manifestation of our potential collective power, though. 

Here's the song that sent Arpaio home. I don't think he'll be running for governor.  It was an incredible, liberating event, the whole First Amendment theme was right on. I think Arizona's going to be hard, but we might come through alright. There are some civil rights activists agitating herewho are rooted in their communities deeper than Pearce et al will ever be planted. 

Find footage of this if you can...pictures to come later today.


- Peg

--------------

Immigration Rhapsody: Song Interrupts Arpaio

Protesters started singing towards the end of the event at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at ASU on Monday. They sang the following song:

Immigration Rhapsody

http://arizona.indymedia.org/news/2009/11/75603.php

Is this legitimate?
Is this atrocity?
Caught up in politics-
No sense of reality-
Open your eyes
Look down to the south and see-
The border stops brown folks, they cannot cross the line.
But its easy come, easy go,
for the rich, n’their cargo.
Anyway the migrants flow, doesn’t really matter to me,
To me

How do you… just kill a man,
Let him wither on his route,
Criminalized and shut out,
How do you… detain someone,
Because you perceive a threat to your privilege?
NAFTA, ooo,
Caused folks to lose their land
Just so the rich could profit off the outcome
Limit choice, lower pay, as if their lives don’t matter.

The hate, minutemen promote,
Sends shivers down my spine-
Heart is aching all the time,
Goodbye to bigotry –you’ve got to go-
Gotta leave this place behind n’reveal the truth-
Freedom ooo- (any way the migrants flow)
Without walls and jails,
What does it take for freedom to ring for all?

I see a little editorial ‘bout some creeps,
Russell Pearce, Russell Pearce could you be more fascistic?
Andrew Thomas presiding -very very frightening me-
Hey Arpaio , Hey Arpaio,
Hey Arpaio Hey Arpaio
Hey Arpaio payaso- payaso-o-o-o -
The border stops brown folks, they cannot cross the line -
Yeah the border stops brown folks, breaks up a family-
Spare all these folks from this monstrosity-
Easy come easy go, will you let them go?
Tent City! no-,they will not let you go-let ‘em go-
Tent City! they will not let you go-let ‘em go
Tent City! they will not let you go-let ‘em go
Will not let them go-let them go
Will not let them go let them go
No,no,no,no,no,no,no-
Hey Arpaio , Hey Arpaio, Hey Arpaio , let them go-
Rising up are the people in the streets, you see, you see, you see -

So you think you can jail me and spit in my eye-
So you think you can hate me and leave me to die-
Oh Arpeeo-cant do this to me Arpeeo-
Just gotta get out-just gotta get out of Tent City-

Media only matters,
Anyone can see,
Attention only matters-, ego only matters to he/me