|
|
|
|
Statement on the RNC Protest
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
by Mary Beaudoin and Polly Mann, W A M M
|
|
Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) is an organization dedicated to nonviolence, which means that it does not engage in any activities that cause violence to people. On September 1st, the first day of the Republican National Convention held in St. Paul, Minnesota, WAMM was one of the organizations that rallied at the state capitol and marched in coalition to the Excel Center, to oppose war and demand reallocation of resources to human needs. The march was peaceful and uneventful not because of, but perhaps in spite of, the 11-foot-high fences that caged us in—fences that were to defend the RNC and the city from a supposedly free people walking in our own streets.
At other times and in other places during the Republican National Convention, there were serious problems, however. Of the many people who participated in activities for various reasons, the vast majority were completely nonviolent, but they were met with violence from police. Law enforcement is not a “punishment” agency. When police officers see an individual engaging in illegal activities, they are to arrest that individual, using only the necessary amount of force. According to eyewitness accounts, this was not always the case during the Republican National Convention. In fact, there were many reports of gratuitous police violence against unarmed demonstrators. Many people were trapped by law enforcement in situations that they could not escape from and yet those people had behaved nonviolently.
Police and law enforcement personnel who confronted people did not wear identification and therefore conditions were ripe for them to act with impunity. Prior to the RNC, protest groups had been told by Mayor Chris Coleman of St. Paul and Mayor R.T. Rybak of Minneapolis that police were to be under their (local) control and thus responsible to the citizens of the Twin Cities. This was not the case, as Homeland Security was given ultimate authority. As a result, many activists feel betrayed by the mayor of St. Paul and by the mayor of Minneapolis.
While WAMM is very disturbed at the unnecessary display of militarized police power at the local level, it is the connection with the national level that is most ominous. Federally funded “less lethal” weapons—tear gas, pepper spray, rubber bullets, tasers, projectiles, and concussion grenades—were used on protesters, and even bystanders who were trapped as well. After the RNC, $14 million worth of equipment was left with law enforcement, the majority of it going to the St. Paul Police Department, which, according to their spokesman Tom Walsh, now has the “training and experience.”
It is also chilling that during the RNC, law enforcement targeted journalists (who act as witnesses), held them in detention, and even beat some, confiscating property such as cameras and cell phones that they needed to record events. Even medics, whose Red Cross emblems clearly indicated who they were, were targeted, attacked, and arrested, even while trying to help the injured. There were also reports of mistreatment and worse of those who were detained in jail.
It is fortunate that many witnesses and enough film survived the occupation of St. Paul for people to know what occurred. WAMM has always been opposed to the U.S. engaging in military madness against foreign countries and aware of incidents of violence in our cities. But now, with the militarization of our local police force—and additionally, a U.S. army battalion reported to be at the ready in case of domestic unrest—military madness has come home.
As citizens of Minnesota, in a democracy, we do have an obligation to our fellow citizens and
visitors to our state to: protest unfair, abusive law enforcement and demand accountability in regard to their actions and also for government officials who created the situation in the first place. We have an obligation to demand that unfair charges be dropped against nonviolent dissidents and protesters, and that there be an independent investigation of what has occurred in our cities. And we have to work hard to get back our civil liberties —and end wars and occupations—foreign and domestic.
Ed. Note: The National Guard, who came to be part of the “security” at the RNC, arrived from Iraq only a few weeks prior to the convention, and they had barely been debriefed (if at all).
Source: Chante Wolf, Veterans for Peace. |
|
|
Co$ts of War
Prozac Army: 20,000 troops suffer stress
One in six American soldiers in Afghanistan and one in eight in Iraq are taking daily doses of prescription antidepressants, sleeping pills or painkillers to help them cope with the stresses of combat, according to figures contained in a US Army mental health advisory team report seen by The Herald.
The findings mean that at least 20,000 troops are on medication such as Prozac or diamorphine while serving in the front line or on equally dangerous convoy escort or driving duties in conflicts where insurgents regularly target the supply chain.
While the vast majority would have been barred automatically from combat roles in earlier wars on medical and safety grounds, the pressure to provide up to 200,000 soldiers at any given time for the two major deployments has led to a relaxation of the rules.
Most of those affected are on their second or third tour of duty and 10% are predicted to be at high risk of developing “stress illnesses” including post-traumatic stress disorder.
—8/29/08,
The Herald Exclusive
by Ian Bruce,
Defence Correspondent
|
|
|
|
|
© 2008 Women Against Military Madness. All rights reserved.
|
 |
|
Complete November 2008 Index - click here
|
|
 |
|
|
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
|
|
|
|
|
|
