Report from Miami FTAA Protests, #2 From Erik Esse, Right Here Media Collective Hello All- This may be brief, because I am writing on a very expensive Sheraton Inn computer. I just looked at the CNN website and saw the headlines include the fact that Michael Jackson may well be sexually abnormal and "Paris Hilton cancels Letterman booking." And nothing about what is happening here in Miami, which is unquestionably the most important story in the US today. I've never been to another large protest against globalization, but I have heard from everyone of every stripe who has that this one was different. Never has anyone seen an American city so locked down, so militarized. Constantly shifting police barricades make navigation a nightmare. Thousands and thousands of police in riot gear keep appearing. I have heard the sound of helicopters for most of the time I've been here. Others have compared it to what Latin America felt like under their military dictatorships. Downtown has been empty for days, so the thousands of union members who marched today marched for an audience made up almost entirely of police officers. Almost no one is being allowed to see this protest for themselves, to interact with the people who object to the FTAA and to make a human connection. At best, they will hear about it from the news, in which any small acts of "violence" are highlighted (the only local radio report I've heard spoke only of the fact that one protester set fire to his sign). But most people will never know it even happened. I have interviewed many people today, both on the street and, once Bob Cahill, our camerman, arrived, in a makeshift studio we set up here in the hotel, and hopefully you all will be able to hear about them all later. But I just wanted to leave you with two of my strongest impressions for now. One took place as night was falling, when police began to move en masse into the neighborhood where the convergence center is, and began arresting young people try to walk away from downtown. They just jumped out of their cars, throw these kids to the ground, often hitting them, and tied their hands behind their back with plastic handcuffs. When I, flashing my media pass, asked them what the kids were being arrested for or where they were being taken, they wouldn't answer. The worst moment for me was when they pulled each kid to their feet, led them to the paddy wagon, and took a Polaroid of them before they put them in. The moment they took that photo made we want to vomit. Where is that kid going? What will happen to him? Where will that photo end up and what will it be used for? Later, I was told by many people of much more severe beatings and the media center being raided and shut down. The other impression also has to do with the police. Apparently, police have been moved here from as far away as Texas, but we may never know. That's because most of them have no identification, no badge numbers, no agency name, and will not answer you when you speak to them. One spoke to me only to tell me that they have been ordered not to speak. What I have seen here is not only an act of speech by thousands of Americans silenced, but thousands of Americans who have no right of free speech because they are police officers. How are we supposed to practice democracy if we cannot communicate? How are we supposed to make informed decisions if we are under order to not ask questions? Sorry I can't make a very upbeat report tonight. The one saving grace was interviewing the Minnesota union members (mostly middle-aged and elderly nurses) in our room tonight. Their courage, conviction and humor helped replace a little bit of my faith in people, in this country. From occupied Miami, Erik _____________________________________________________________ Report #3 from Erik Esse (of Right Here Media Collective) in Miami Hello from glamorous South Beach, Miami, It was a quiet day in Miami today. Most of the union folks were taking planes back home, and over 100 (perhaps much more) protesters are in jail. Near Bayside Park, dozens of police in riot gear lounged on patches of grass. The Free Trade Area of the Americas talks were called off early and all the trade ministers flew out last night. Fearing a walkout like the one that occurred at the recent WTO talks in Cancun, the US decided not to push its agenda and instead delayed most decisions until the next meeting in Puebla, Mexico, in February. Bob and I met some young people from Gunnsion, Colorado, at their first protest. They described how yesterday, after the main march, they were standing near the police line watching some people dance and drum in the street. Even though the official march was over, the police announced that they would be allowed to continue to assemble. But just a few minutes later, without warning, the police charged, pushing people back with batons, hitting people, and eventually firing rubber bullets and other projectiles. Several of the Gunnison folks were hit, one in the face. A young woman of the group said she had come to Miami to be a peaceful presence in a tense situation. She had been looking an office straight in the eye, trying to connect with him as a human being, when he suddenly charged forward, shoving his baton into her stomach. In every description of the violence of yesterday I have heard- from medics, from the AFL-CIO chief economist, and others, the police initiated the violence, firing tear gas without warning at peaceful protesters. Only after the police attack did some of the "black bloc" begin to erect barricades and return fire by throwing rocks and water bottles. The chief economist of the AFL-CIO, the president of the Sierra Club, and several union retirees were tear-gassed and hit with projectiles. One 70-year retiree is still in jail. He is on six medications, and when he called his wife for the names of the medications, he was refused a piece of paper to write them down. This afternoon we had the privilege to be at a press conference in which the Sierra Club, the AFL-CIO, and other big NGO's registered their disgust with the behavior of the police. It was held before the "Torch of Friendship" by Bayside park, erected in 1964 to represent the friendship between the US and the countries of the Americas. According to the woman who had been negotiating for the unions with the police for three months, the police violated every part of their agreement, from preventing buses of retirees from entering the area, to changing the parade route, to lying to union members and forbidding them from entering their own speaking event at the park. One of the heads of the Sierra Club had a gun pointed directly at his head at close range. An interesting element of the press conference was watching the other media. At the beginning of the press conference, all the local corporate TV stations were there. One of the reporters asked me who was going to speak, and when I said it was someone from the AFL-CIO, he asked, "what is that?" Another camera man loudly complained about the behavior of the police, calling them "gestapo." By the second speaker, the local news stations began to remove their microphones and go home. By the time the speakers from the rest of the Americas got to speak, the last corporate microphone left, taking the microphone stand with him. So I became the new mic stand, sitting on the ground holding the Free Speech TV mic as well as our Right Here Media mic. Those of us who stayed got to hear from representatives of the water workers of Peru, the postal workers of Canada, a member of the presidential trade panel of Venezuela, as well as reps from Bolivian and native Canadian groups. These were some of the most informative statements I had heard all week, and I thought of the shame that the so-called " mainstream" media so disrespeted our friends to the north and south. After the press conference, we saw the police chief of Hialeah (a Miami suburb) congratulate his force, saying that what they had done would be a model that other cities would follow. I can only hope that he is wrong. I have to note hear the amazing work Bob Cahill did setting up quickly in all kinds of odd situations so we could record this event. Hopefully, you will all soon get to see the fruits of Bob's labor. So now we're back in South Beach. The streets are full of tourists, beautiful people of all sexes, and the homeless, and the fancy restaurants are full. We snuck through a construction site to go to the dark beach and put of feet in the surf. With the gleaming hotels behind us, I thought about all the people across that water who have and will risk anything to come to this paradise, to come to the place where their resources are being exported to. For more info on the events in Miami, check out www.indymedia.org, and stay tuned to our site, www.rightheremedia.org for more news and the launch of our TV show. And apparently I'm now being published at www.twincities.indymedia.org. So long for now. Erik At approx. 5 pm Friday evening, Nov. 21, Democracy Now! producers Ana Nogueira and Jeremy Scahill were reporting on the arrest of approximately 20 people who were in Miami to oppose the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Nogueira and Scahill had their press credentials clearly visible. Nogueira was videotaping the arrests. At the time of this writing, Nogueira was being held, handcuffed, in a Miami Police patrol wagon. Jeremy Scahill has learned that there will be a mandatory overnight detention. According to Scahill, his efforts to alert the police that they had arrested a journalist were met with the reply, "It doesn't matter if she's a journalist – she shouldn't have been there." CALL NOW and demand that the Mayors of Miami City and Miami-Dade County restrain their police from further violence and violation of constitutional rights. RELEASE Democracy Now! journalist Ana Noguira IMMEDIATELY. For news and updates see: http://www.ftaaimc.org and http://democracynow.org