First-hand accounts of marches in New York and Colorado
Springs

From Karil Daniels

Please spread this news of the awful treatment of US protesters on Feb
15th...also the organisers of the Jan 18th march in Cairo Egypt have been
arrested and there is evidence they are being tortured....

For those of us who marched in Europe and Australia, these two
accounts from the US must seem from a different planet.


Karil Daniels wrote:

It was eerie how no trucks or cameras from the major networks were to be
found. They are under direct orders to ignore this event."

For those of you who attended peace rallies this weekend,
compare your experiences to what this participant saw in New
York City.


Date: Sat, 15 Feb 2003 20:22:36 -0500 Subject:
This morning in New York City

Dear Friends, This morning in New York City the temperature was 17 degrees
Fahrenheit. Nevertheless, one million people turned out
to demonstrate against the preposterous "war" being hyped by the
never-elected Bush and his cronies. The figures given by your
network news shows and warmongering channels such as Fox are lies. There
where 250,000 people on Third Avenue alone, where I
was. In reality there were three demonstrations, one each on First, Second,
and Third Avenues. Each Avenue was forcibly separated
from the other by thousands of riot armor wearing New York City police. Mind
you, this was not a crowd of radical crazies, but
regular folks like you and me. It was notable how many elderly people and
children were in the crowd. No one was in a violent or
belligerent mood. We sang "Give Peace a Chance".

There stood a little old lady, not more than five feet tall, with a sign
reading,"God is Peace" She wore a very nice fur coat and was clearly frail
and suffering from the extreme cold. When I asked her why she felt compelled
to demonstrate, she answered,"Because I
remember when I was a little girl and the Nazis drove their tanks into
Warsaw, that's why." Not long after that, I pulled her out of the
way of the oncoming Police cavalry as they rode up the sidewalk clearing
these dangerous old ladies, children, and their parents out of the way. More
about that later.

The Police were not in a friendly mood. On Third avenue, they herded us
uptown from 51St. to the intersection at 57th, then surrounded us and
wouldn't let us move or try to link up with the main demonstration on First
Ave. I was in cell phone contact with various friends on Second and First,
who described similar tactics
being used. A very tense standoff at that intersection ensued, until
spontaneously, the crowd, perhaps 20,000 strong, decided to head
back to 51st from which we came, chanting "Let us through, Let us through!"

At 53rd, we encountered a phalanx of mounted police, supported by hundreds
of baton wielding helmeted riot cops. These men and
women are New Yorkers and Americans just like us, some of their friends died
on Sept. 11. We bore them no ill will. I never thought I would live to see
the day when Americans would beat other
Americans simply for speaking their minds, or that mounted riders would ride
straight into a crowd of unarmed citizens. You won't see
this on your nightly news. In fact, it was eerie how no trucks or cameras
from the major networks were to be found. They are under
direct orders to ignore this event. I was there, I saw it. Only the young
men fought back and they were subdued and arrested. A
gray-haired guy with a "Vietnam Vet Against War" sign took one on the chin.
I didn't get to see what his fate was because at that
moment they drove a fire truck, foot by foot, directly into the crowd up
53rd St. through little old ladies, mothers clutching children,
pretty young girls, AMERICANS! Then the horses fanned out onto the
sidewalks, and drove the crowd towards the west side, with foot
police shoving and yelling all the way. An old black lady fell down.My
friend Peter, the photographer, took a few whacks as he
frantically photographed what he saw, I yanked the little Polish lady out of
harm's way. Girls were crying, people were screaming.
Helicopters hovered overhead, you could see machine gun muzzles sticking out
of their sides. I wept as I walked home. Has the world
gone mad? Where is the Evil Regime really? Times Square was completely
barricaded, I live on the other side.

The police guard at 47th street demanded ID; I had nothing that proved I
lived on West 43rd St., so I tried 42nd St. where both sides of the street
were lined from 5th Avenue to 8th Avenue by riot police, shoulder to
shoulder. At 7th Avenue an encirclement began,
but I sensed it coming and backtracked to 5th Ave and down to 39th St. where
there were no barricades to the west side. Frozen, I
stumbled into my door.

Now I want to urge everyone to get the truth. You can't get it from ABC,CBS,
NBC, CNN, or FOX. If you have cable, watch the BBC
or Deutsche Welle, who broadcast in English. On the Internet, go to
www.worldnews.com, where you can access news services
worldwide. I find the Swiss News Service especially accurate and
fair. Bill Moyers is a lone voice of sanity in the moronic trashy quagmire
of American TV. Also Charlie Rose. Learn about what is
really happening. To dictators, ignorance is bliss. It can happen here. I
love my country, and would defend it if attacked. Attacking other countries
is un-American. Don't give a power-hungry, rich brat a blank check
to kill in your name, put you and your children at risk of retaliation, or
impoverish generations to come with the debt this war will produce.

Peace and only Peace, Bill


From: Jeff Fuller [mailto: j.b.fuller@attbi.com]
Sent: Monday, February 17, 2003 7:59 PM
Subject: Colorado Springs: a chilling first-hand report

Hello friends. I have learned more in the last two years than at any
other comparable period in my life. My time with Diana has been
blessed with long-awaited lessons on acceptance, stability, and
appreciation for that which lies before me. She has also exposed me to
specific events and experiences that corroborate many of my
deeper feelings about humanity in general and in the U.S. in particular.
This weekend was perhaps the most powerful of those
experiences.

Diana and I were both arrested in Colorado Springs. We watched riot police
tear gas and pepper spray nonviolent citizens exercising
their alleged first amendment right to peacefully assemble. We traveled to
the Springs, the belly of the far right beast, the land of Cheyenne
Mountain, Peterson Air Force Base, Lockheed Martin, Focus on the Family, and
the Air Force Academy, to express our
discontent with our country's path to war. About 3 thousand people waving
anti-war signs spread out along both sides of a *
mile stretch of Academy Boulevard. Many of the passing motorists ignored
us, many honked and supported us with thumbs up and
cheering, and a few, a very few, flipped us the finger and shouted things
like, "We should drop a big one on the them all." The police
themselves eventually closed off both ends of the road so that traffic could
not pass through. At first I thought this was to prevent
our passing fellow citizens from hearing our message. In retrospect, I think
the closing of the street had a very different purpose.

Once the traffic stopped, in swept twenty or thirty fully clad riot police:
shields, batons, strings of handcuffs, tear gas, rubber
bullets, attack dogs, pepper spray. The whole arsenal of democracy.

Once they closed the street, the protesters left the sidewalk and entered
the street. The riot police deployed at the head of the crowd and started
sweeping forward. "IF YOU DO NOT LEAVE THE STREET, YOU WILL BE ARRESTED."
We left the street.
We all left the street and once again lined up along the sidewalk.
The police arrayed themselves in battle formation, shields held high,
straddle-legged, fists coming together in rhythmic bravado.
After a few minutes, the word came and the gas masks left their plastic
bags.

The next 10 minutes were calm, demonstrators on the sidewalk, the brave blue
firmly holding the street. The peace marshals came
alongside the demonstrators and suggested we leave the scene and move to the
Air Force Base where a civil disobedience action was planned. It seemed
like a good idea to me, so I, and most
everybody else, started walking. As the crowd dispersed, the police
followed along. After I walked about 400 yards I turned to see clouds of
tear gas.

As I walked back to the mess, I came upon the mother of one of my algebra
students. I gave her water to flush the gas from her red
and burning eyes. She told me that the people were leaving the scene when
the police just started rolling tear gas canisters down
the street. A large man, coming from the chemical fog, walked past me
carrying his 4-month old baby. I left my friend and walked
closer to the scene.

I stood at the edge of Palmer Park, the starting point for the whole rally.
I stood there and watched the police driving people across a
field and onto a sidewalk in front of some small houses. As the people
proceeded in my direction along the sidewalk, police
walking along in the street repeatedly stepped up onto the sidewalk spraying
pepper spray in people's faces. When the police arrived at
the street, 15 feet in front of me, they stopped. The people they were
following turned the corner and walked away up the hill.

For the next 5 minutes, I just stood there surrounded by 20 riot police all
wearing gas masks. Then the word came to sweep the
park and remove all persons. ALL meant the twenty or so people spread out
across 4 or 5 acres. Most of the police swept right past
me but one came over.

He told me that I needed to leave the park or I would be arrested. I asked
him to tell me which law that I was breaking. He said the
assembly was declared unlawful and therefore I must disperse. I told him
that I would leave but I wanted to ask whether he truly believed that what
he was doing was correct. He hesitated,
stumbled a bit, and said yes. I was not convinced. He told me that he was
following orders. I responded that orders have been
followed many times in the past, and they have not always been right. As I
left, I asked him to be kind to people. He said he would. I believed him.

I found Diana and my friend Walt and we left. We drove over to Peterson Air
Force Base where a civil disobedience action had
been planned. The 10 participants were planning to stand in front of the
entrance and block the gates knowing that they would be
arrested. By the time we arrived at the base, the action was over and the
ten arrested. We were hungry so we went into a sandwich
shop located in a strip mall just outside the base. I ordered a sandwich
and sat down and took a bite. The owner of the place,
an old Chinese woman, started calling from the front door to her husband.
She was yelling in Chinese but from the tone I realized
something important was happening outside. I went out the front door and
immediately a group of ten police officers charged up.
"YOU WERE GIVEN AN ORDER TO DISPERSE AND YOU MUST
LEAVE NOW OR YOU WILL BE ARRESTED!" I said that I had not
been given an order to disperse as I was just inside eating a sandwich and I
had just come out to see what was happening.
"ARREST HER; ARREST HIM."

That was it. Within 10 seconds of leaving the restaurant I was in police
custody. 30 seconds later I was in handcuffs and in the
back of police car. Diana was put into another car and we were taken to
separate locations. Over the next few hours I heard the
stories of the other 21 people who were arrested. (I am # 22 as it
says quite clearly in bold blue ink on my right hand) Diana watched
an officer pepper spray a man in the face as he was trying to enter
his car to comply with the dispersal order. Two officers grabbed another man
as he was about to enter the Dairy Queen. Another
woman was pulled from the front seat of her van. A mutual friend, a retired
68-year old man, was arrested because he was told to walk
away and not look back. He looked back.

After a couple of hours the whole thing came to a close. They took our
pictures but not our prints. I never heard anything about my
rights. Does Miranda still exist?

March 11 we return to the Springs for our court appearance.

This morning I awoke to a beautiful sunlit carpet of new snow. The evening
grosbeaks were at the feeder, flashing their black and
yellow as they flitted from tree to feeder and feeder to tree. The airwaves
were bringing a Native American flute into the room.
There was something in that flute that I needed. I don't really know
what it was but I think it might have been simplicity. I will find it.