Thanks Patrick Leahy, re: Police brutality in Miami

IMO, it is critical to not let this situation get swept under the rug.
They are practicing with the "Miami model" and we may be seeing it used on all peaceful protests in the future.
--------


Dear......

Thank you for contacting me about alleged civil rights violations during demonstrations protesting the recent trade negotiations held in Miami. I appreciate knowing of your concerns.
Negotiations concerning the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were held in Miami on November 16 - 21.

Demonstrators protesting the free trade negotiations claim that Miami police monitoring the large crowds used excessive force. Press accounts report that of the 8000-10,000 people participating in the demonstrations, police arrested 196 individuals. 112 demonstrators reported to an activist medical center for treatment.

While Miami has defended the police actions as necessary to keep order, Amnesty International and other civil rights groups have asked for an independent investigation into these allegations. If force was used against protester for exercising their First Amendment rights, I find that very disturbing. The First Amendment protects the right of all Americans to think, speak, and write as they please, without the threat of censorship or punishment by the government. It also includes the right to peacefully assemble. My hope is that officials in Miami will thoroughly investigate the incidents to determine whether the use of force was justified in this instance.

As the son of a Vermont printer, I have always cherished the right to freedom of expression. The First Amendment is the foundation of our government and our way of life. Should this issue arise in the Senate, you can be sure that I will continue to work to protect the civil liberties of all Americans.

Thank you again for contacting me. Please keep in touch.

Patrick Leahy
United States Senator
http://leahy.senate.gov/

That's great re Leahy. I contacted my Senators about police brutality in Miami, and neither has replied so far.

I haven't heard back from mine yet ?

just a few stories:

St. Petersburg Times: Miami Crowd Control Would Do Tyrant Proud
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1130-07.htm

Miami police Chief John Timoney must be mighty proud of the social order he maintained during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit a couple of weeks ago in Miami - sort of the way Saddam Hussein was proud of quieting dissension in his country.

Timoney has a well-deserved reputation for using paramilitary tactics to turn any city where large protests are planned into a place where the Constitution has taken a holiday. During the FTAA meeting on Nov. 20, Timoney dispatched 2,500 police officers in full riot gear against a crowd estimated at 8,000 people, mostly union members and retirees.
The result was a show of force that would have made a Latin American dictator blush.
...more...

-----------------------
INFORMATION WARFARE
The 'Miami Model' used during the anti-FTAA protests represents a new police strategy whose aim is to control not just the streets, but also the story told by the media.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17293

<snip>
The police effort to crack down on protesters in Miami was funded through the $87 billion dollar War on Terror package. The money paid for over-time for the DEA, the ATF, Immigration and Customs, Miami Dade Police Department, and the US Fish and Wildlife Service officers, to name a just a few of those brought in to maintain "order." It also financed the state of the art weaponry on display on the streets of Miami, from de rigeur tear gas and rubber bullets to new and exotic toys such as taser guns, mobile water cannons, and electric shields.

What became clear in the lead up to the FTAA was that the "Miami Model" – as law enforcement enthusiasts are calling it – has goals that go way beyond merely keeping the peace. The bigger agenda of the Miami policing operation was to control the public perception of mass protest and grassroots movements. Only days after that FTAA protests on Nov. 23, the New York Times broke a story on the FBI's ongoing policy of infiltrating and spying on the anti-war and global justice movements. Miami was the mainstreaming of overt information warfare against non-violent protest.

Information warfare is defined by Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instruction Number 3210.01 as "actions taken to achieve information superiority by affecting adversary information, information based processes, and information systems."

The relevance of information warfare to social movements and political conflicts have been the subject of study of Rand Corporation researchers John J. Arquilla and David F. Ronfeldt. Over the past decade, they have written extensively about an aspect of information warfare they call "netwar," which they define as: "trying to disrupt or damage what a target population knows or thinks it knows about itself and the world around it...It may involve public diplomacy measures, propaganda and psychological campaigns, political and cultural subversion, deception of or interference with local media."
<snip>

So we can use it as inspiration (or in my
case plagiarism) for letters to our senators,
congresspeople, et al.

Very helpful.
And you're right. The Miami model is how they'll
handle peaceful protests unless some drastic happens.

I have no doubt they were practicing for the Pug
convention in NY.

:kick: