Rochester Police Attack Peaceful Student Protest and Other Stories (Free Speech News Roundup)
by: Lauren Reichelt on October 13th, 2009 | 7 Comments »
Today’s post: a news round-up of noteworthy stories that are not being widely reported elsewhere in the mainstream media or blogging world.
Police attack peaceful protesters in Rochester.
This BlipTV episode appearing on buzzflash was reported by all over the board. A small cohort of students gathered in a park in Rochester to protest military recruiting practices in public schools and to demand an end to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. About a hundred young people waving colorful banners chanted and banged on drums while marching in a peaceful and orderly fashion down a street.
Twenty seven police cars suddenly appeared, sirens wailing. The students, including several small children, walked around the cars. At this point, the police jumped out and began to arrest and physically assault protesters.
British Government Places Gag Order on The Guardian
Diarist Alfred E. Qaeda posted this article about an unprecedented gag order placed on The Guardian by the British Government. The Guardian reported, in an October 12 story, that it had stumbled upon a newsworthy story, but could not share details with their readers at this time.
The Guardian has been prevented from reporting parliamentary proceedings on legal grounds which appear to call into question privileges guaranteeing free speech established under the 1688 Bill of Rights.
Today’s published Commons order papers contain a question to be answered by a minister later this week. The Guardian is prevented from identifying the MP who has asked the question, what the question is, which minister might answer it, or where the question is to be found.
The Guardian is also forbidden from telling its readers why the paper is prevented – for the first time in memory – from reporting parliament. Legal obstacles, which cannot be identified, involve proceedings, which cannot be mentioned, on behalf of a client who must remain secret.
The only fact the Guardian can report is that the case involves the London solicitors Carter-Ruck, who specialise in suing the media for clients, who include individuals or global corporations.
Curious readers of The Guardian immediately set to work to unearth the mysterious question. Guido Fawkes speculates that the offending question was asked by Paul Farrelly in an attempt to gather information about a toxic chemical dump in Côte d’Ivoire by a corporate client of Carter-Ruck (the solicitors who requested the gag order) .
Paul Farrelly (Newcastle-under-Lyme): To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of legislation to protect (a) whistleblowers and (b) press freedom following the injunctions obtained in the High Court by (i) Barclays and Freshfields solicitors on 19 March 2009 on the publication of internal Barclays reports documenting alleged tax avoidance schemes and (ii) Trafigura and Carter-Ruck solicitors on 11 September 2009 on the publication of the Minton report on the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast, commissioned by Trafigura.
“Guido Fawkes” further speculates that the gag order was meant to supress a report that Carter-Rucks alleged client, Trafigura, had created a boatload of caustic waste in Texas, transported it to Africa, and dumped it, causing serious health problems there. He helpfully links to the report which is available on wikileaks for all to see.
I downloaded it onto my computer just to prove a point. I suggest others do the same.
The irony is, interested British netroots types will be dispersing all
of this forbidden info posthaste, and the evil machinations of the law
firm Carter-Ruck* are subject to massive backfire. Vive les
Intertubes!
*The iconoclastic humor and investigative journalism magazine “Private
Eye,” which has crossed swords with them a few times, persists in
referring to them as “Messrs Carter-F*ck.”
That is so true. In fact, thanks for the email you sent me regarding the twitter campaign. Maybe I’ll post it tomorrow!
Back in the 1980′s I worked with the NY State Police. It was an unforgettable experience studying cop culture for IAD. Watching the footage here just reminds me of the conversation I had with an LAPD officer, whom I had thought was my friend of five years, two days before the DNC protests in LA 1999 (or was it 2000?). He told me point blank after a long spate of verbal sparring and friendship-salvaging nice-making, “The only legitimate ‘protest’ the laws of this country permit are lobbying. If you go out there Friday, you’re my enemy and I will bring you down, bring you down hard. That’s what I’m paid by the People to do; shut you lawless bastards down.” Two days later, documenting undercover LAPD throwing concrete over the chainlink “free speech zone” into the crowd listening to RATM, those words had a very unsettling effect in my guts. Twenty minutes later as I fled the hail of rubber bullets, I kept thinking of my kids and the fact that I couldn’t afford to post bail if I had to, and that ACLU might not cover me. I’m grateful to those younger people on the street in Rochester. I feel heartsick for those deluded cops thinking they’re “doing their job” and that their job definition is so screwy and unconstitutional to justify their disgusting behavior towards fellow citizens. How perverse can a society be? As my 12 year old says, “It’s just wrong.”
Thanks, Lauren, for keeping us abreast of the underreported or unreported events that we need to know about.
Regarding the students in Rochester, several questions should be asked. 1) Are the provisions of the Patriot Act which require local police to work with the FBI to counter “terrorism” in any way responsible for widespread reports of police overresponse to harmless public gatherings? and 2) Have the officers on this local police force been trained to de-escalate situations through effective communication. In this case, simple verbal instructions to move to the sidewalk might have served their purpose better than fire trucks, 27 police units and batons.
I organized a training for local police in crisis response last year that included topics such as recognizing and dealing with mental illness, de-escalating situations through effective communication and recognizing PTSD symptoms in yourself and fellow officers. They LOVED it. Most local PDs are so understaffed and underfunded that they can’t send officers to this kind of training. And a surprising number of police officers suffer from PTSD, which can negatively impact their ability to respond appropriately to some situations.
I grew up in Rochester, NY and the police should be out there taking the drug violence/crime off the streets not disrupting a peaceful protest. They could have been asked nicely for them to move to the sidewalk as they were on downtown Main Street and disrupting the busy flow of traffic there. However, there should have been no force. Meanwhile (Rottenchester, Gang Land City, etc.) the criminals are having a ball while 27 cars are taken off the drug infested streets of Rochester. All I can do is shake my head.
Agreed. It is a failure of leadership. But as a health care provider who often works closely with police, I see that many officers are caring but are also overworked and undertrained. Police suffer from the same problems as teachers. Idiotic national policies encourage them to aggressively confront “terrorism” (i.e. civic engagement and immigration). We have pretty much cut off funding for behavioral health treatment and for community infrastructure. Police are expected to be the first responders in a crisis caused by a pscychotic episode without even a rudimentary training. Lacking any other tools, they use force, often with tragic consequences. As a result, many policemen suffer the effects of PTSD which causes them to overreact in situations like the one I diaried.
Our policies are designed to create infantrymen rather than peace officers. We need to recognize the role of policy and change it!
The comments in this series of diaries have given me an idea. I’m going to take a video camera into our jail and interview some of the guards and some of the inmates for Tikkun. Maybe I’ll film part of one of our trainings as well.