06-Feb-04 10:45

Miami Police Admit Absolute Responsibility

author: Jennifer Van Bergen e-mail: jvb000@earthlink.net

Miami Police testimony at the CIP hearing yesterday, February 5, 2004, consistently provided justification for police misconduct, but it was full of lies and contradictions.

Miami Police Admit Absolute Responsibility
By Jennifer Van Bergen

He tried to get them to calm down, he said. There was such momentum building up in the press before the FTAA ministerial meeting in Miami. Community members were concerned and Timoney promised he�d keep them secure and safe. Deputy Chief Frank Fernandez, in charge of operations during the FTAA demonstrations, met with groups such as the AFL-CIO prior to the demonstrations and declared that �most people were satisfied with the conclusion of these negotiations.� After all, this was after the WTO conference in Seattle � �not law enforcement�s best day.� This was after 9/11. There were new groups coming, not with the intention of peaceful demonstrations, but to wreak vandalism and violence. Fernandez showed a well-produced video to the Civilians Investigative Panel (CIP). It intercut shots of protestors with the words, �They said they were coming�. They said what they were going to do �..� One protester, when asked what he wants to say to the police, �Fuck you. We�re taking over.�

So, the police say, they were justified in their responses. �The police behaved admirably,� said Timoney. The police gathered articles from every newspaper in the country that noted complaints about police misconduct, said Fernandez, and they put them all in one big file, five inches thick, that they were graciously turning over to the CIP. �Every operation, you gotta learn something you can do better,� Fernandez declared. They followed up on every single complaint, went out, investigated, and it�s all there in the file.

What a relief it is to know that the police have kept files on all our complaints. I feel so much safer. Particularly after they let us know how well they were protecting us by pepper spraying, shooting rubber bullets and bean bags, tasering, and, not least, �subduing� our rabble-rousing seniors and arresting even our medics and legal observers!

The Miami police coordinated this massive effort to protect Miami. For one thing, Timoney emphasized, �the issue of terrorism in this event was a real issue, make no mistake about it.� �People can say whatever they want,� he declared, �but we could not allow violence or serious property damage.� �Not everything went perfectly,� Timoney admitted, �only a fool would say that.� But Timoney took exception �to those charges out there in the public domain.�

I wouldn�t want to be in Timoney�s shoes right now. To be responsible for the safety and security of an entire city of millions, knowing that whatever happened, no matter who did it, I�d be held accountable. And the truth is, Timoney said it, himself: the Miami Police Department was absolutely in control of and responsible for the entire operation. They assumed the leadership role, as Fernandez put it. Timoney noted that there are only five or six cities that could handle an event like the FTAA ministerial and demonstrations. Most must rely on outside assistance. It�s a huge challenge of coordination and communication. No doubt.

Timoney stated that he had �a top notch team of thinkers and planners that came up with a security plan� for this event. There was a huge amount of training that went into it. He declared, however, that protesters had a game plan and a post game plan, which included charges in the press and civil law suits against police. Interesting way of viewing the results of one�s own misconduct. Others are responsible for their misconduct. They�re responsible for everything, in command of everything, taking a leadership role, but the protesters have pre-planned the police�s misconduct.

Okay, certainly protesters might have anticipated police misconduct. This is one reason why many wear scarves over their faces and bicycle helmets. But to imply that because people bring charges in the press and law suits against the police after police brutality and violations of civil rights, to claim that this was part of a �game plan� by demonstrators to ... what? ... trick the police into, to put it euphemistically, misconduct �. is to put the cart before the horse.

The police testimony, well-planned as it was, was full of these kinds of contradictions. The reports of police misconduct and overt brutality have been clear, overt, and substantial. These reports were given for four hours to the CIP panel only weeks ago. The panel continually requested evidence. Presumably, first-hand testimony is not evidence � or not good enough for the CIP, although it is exactly this sort of evidence that prosecutors use daily to obtain guilty convictions from juries. �I saw so-and-so do this! I was there!� What evidence is better that this? Or even more compelling, �They did this to ME!�

The police video was revealing in that it was clearly intended it to cover all the legal bases. That was its whole purpose. It was not only a propaganda tool � although it certainly was that. It was also a legal tool. It set forth the justification for just about any police action that occurred. They were justified, they implied, in any actions they took since demonstrators committed violence. They were justified because of what they anticipated after the violent protests in Seattle. They were justified because of 9/11 and the �very real� terrorist threat. They were justified because �they said they were coming, they said what they were going to do.�

Activists nowadays often have good reason for being suspicious of others they don�t know or haven�t worked with. After all, the FBI has admitted it infiltrates activist groups now. But imagine being the police prior to the FTAA! Every young person in black (or in colorful clothes), or with a scarf over her face, anyone with long hair, anyone with a puppet or sign, anyone coming to protest at all ... hey, any person NOT IN UNIFORM ... is SUSPECT! I wouldn�t want to be a police officer. I think it would drive me mad. You gotta have respect for anyone who lives like that and doesn�t go mad.

BUT. But, let me emphasize --- b-u-t �� none of this justifies how the police treated demonstrators on November 20, 2003. You want to put yourself in those shoes, you do have an absolute responsibility. That responsibility is HUGE. It is monumental. As I say, I wouldn�t want to carry that weight. But even Timoney and Fernandez understand that they were responsible for every single thing that happened on November 20th or the 19th or the 21st, in Miami, to every minister, yes, but they were never in danger. To every demonstrator, every union member, every demonstrator, every journalist, every medic, every BY-STANDER. Miami Police were RESPONSIBLE. There is no getting around this fact.

And when you have the Chief of Police or the Deputy Chief, or any spokesperson of the Police, lying outright, saying �We didn�t use ANY chemicals or gases against protesters,� when the evidence is overwhelming that THEY DID, in ABUNDANCE and without reserve or restraint � shooting people IN THE HEAD with bean bags and rubber bullets, pepper spraying people in the face FROM UP CLOSE, inches away, when there are videos of people being tasered repeatedly, when already down � THIS DEMANDS AN ACCOUNTING. It demands that the people in charge: (1) admit fault, (2) apologize, (3) resign, and (4) pay damages. It demands a declaration by this City that NEVER AGAIN will it use violence against its peaceful inhabitants and visitants who were doing nothing more than expressing their opinions PEACEFULLY.

No, Miami is NO MODEL for homeland security. NO. It is no model for police conduct. It is no model for global trade practices! Not this way.

Police have a hard job, but so do people who disagree with their government. Violence against PEACEFUL PROTESTERS is simply UNCONSCIONABLE AND IMPERMISSIBLE.

When Fernandez declared that police didn�t use chemicals or gasses against protesters, several people stood up in the audience and shouted. One woman showed pictures of her bleeding from the head. �And you didn�t use rubber bullets, either, did you?!� she screamed. Another person ... Ray Del Papa, a member of Broward Anti-War Coalition and a board member of the Broward ACLU ... yelled: �You�re lying! I was pepper-sprayed and tear-gassed. You�re nothing but a bunch of liars!�

Fernandez said, �Oh that wasn�t us. That was the Miami Beach Police.� But weren�t you the ones in charge? asked the panel. Weren�t you in absolute control? Yes, Fernandez admitted, I guess we were.

As Lida Rodriguez-Taseff told mainstream news after reading the police report, issued yesterday before the CIP hearing, �It�s a whitewash.� But it is more than that. Del Papa summed it up to Channel 6: �The police predetermined that they were going to move against demonstrators, peaceful or not, at four o�clock P.M., and that�s what they did.�

source url: http://www.ftaaimc.org/or/2004/02/3632.shtml

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Miami Police Admit Absolute Responsibility