Fax Florida State Attorney re: Miami FTAA Civil Rights Violations

FREE FAX: http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=248&source=29

ACTIVISTS RELEASED FROM JAIL, BUT THE FIGHT IS JUST BEGINNING TO SAVE OUR CIVIL LIBERTIES!

More than 5,000 faxes have been sent in the past two weeks to Miami Mayor Diaz demanding the release of activists unjustly imprisioned during the November Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) protests. Thanks to your faxes and the diligent media and legal work of folks in Miami and around the country, our fellow fair traders have been released from Miami jails.

But this is only the first step in the campaign to Save Our Civil Liberties and fight for our rights to democratic dissent. We must demand that the illegal charges leveled against protesters be dropped and that an independent investigation be conducted into the police brutality and contsitutional and human rights violations that took place in Miami. Local activists and the legal team need our solidarity to pressure Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle to drop all charges against FTAA protesters.

FREE FAX: SEND Florida State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle a fax demanding that ALL CHARGES BE DROPPED AND AN INDPENDENT INVESTIGATION CONDUCTED!

http://www.citizen.org/fax/background.cfm?ID=248&source=29
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The abuses in Miami have prompted strong response from Amnesty International and the ACLU, the Steelworkers and AFL, the Sierra Club, and a broad coalition of labor, antiwar, direct action, global justice, civil liberties and community groups. It has been rumored that Bill Moyers is seekng video footage.

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Personal Voices: Hope and Fear in Miami
David Solnit, AlterNet

A veteran activist finds much to fear, but also bits of hope, after being jailed in Miami.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17342

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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.

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Arresting The Future
Tom Hayden, AlterNet

Even as FTAA protestors and trade ministers poured out of town in droves, the city's Robo-Cops continued to demonstrate the 'Miami model' of suppression -- with pepper spray, rubber bullets and drawn weapons.
http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=17246
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Information Control:

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
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Starhawk's Miami Journals,
www.starhawk.org/activism/activism-writings/miami_journals.html
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This is a link to all of the Miami Herald coverage..
 http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/ftaa/
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pics of 'projectiles'
http://www.hulla-balloo.com/ftaapics/projectiles
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this is a critical issue

Fax sent.

:kick:

thanks and done.

Big kick

Margaret Krome | Heavy-Handed Police Tactics Uncalled for In Democracy

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1210-02.htm
a

disgusting that something like this gets so little response.

a lot of people see, 'send fax' and roll their eyes. The WH and most Congressional leaders tend to ignore them. In this particular case, I think they may be effective.

The general lack of interest in the "Miami model" is of great concern though.
We still talk about the dogs and water hoses being turned on MLK and his fellow activists and the brutality of the Chicago police at the '68 Dem convention.
Interest in this seems minimal. :shrug: