Saturday was opening day for a Little League division
in Downtown Milwaukee.

This is major news because it was a section of town
that hasn't had a league in many many years. To start
things off on the right foot they held a massive parade
down MLK drive.

When they got to North Street they cut right between
our two halves of an anti-war protest.

This is major news, but I didn't see anything in this
mornings local daily paper today. Shame on the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel. Your ignorance is transparent and
telegraphed.

But I digress.

Most of us didn't know it yet, but a group of about
100 children wearing all black including black berets,
and frankly black hair and black skin complexion too,
was about to march up the street right in the middle
of the Little League parade as well.

[youthonamove2.jpg]

This march was very spirited and quite empowered.


[youthonamove.jpg]

And "Surveillance Guy" [undercovercopandcar.jpg] looked
visibly nervous. He got out of his car and stood in the
street.



Two motorcycles stopped in the middle of the road between
the two halves of the protest. A weekly "Stand For Peace"
demo.

[motorcyclecopatprotest.jpg]

Until you realized it was a parade, a sudden police presence
like that felt quite disturbing to the whole group. Many
looked even more nervous than Surveillance Guy.


[motorcyclecops.jpg]

I walked up to the surveillance guy (they show up to every
single protest we've ever had in Milwaukee, including when
I played guitar at a Midwest Express labor rally to prepare
for a strike last fall. Yup. Videotaped a bunch of flight
attendents.) and asked him in a very non-threatening way
"is this a Little League opening day parade or what?" from
about 5 feet to his left and behind.

At first I thought he didn't hear me because he completely
ignored my question. So not feeling threatened myself, I
cleared my throat, and asked again a little louder and more
clearly.

He looked at me, looked away and barked a loud command to
"get up on the sidewalk."

I did immediately. I then took a photograph of him and
began to leave. He turned around really fast, stopped
surveilling the march or the rally and hollared at me
to get away from him and leave him alone.

Which seemed odd to me because I in fact WAS leaving.
I stopped to say it's a public forum and looked back
and forth between his $800 Sony digicam and my $30
Akira 35mm point-and-shoot.

He looked at my camera, then me, and said "I'll show
you what happens in a public forum, you just keep messing
with me."

"I'm not," I said. "I complied with your order to get on
the sidewalk and now I'm complying to leave."

He yelled at least five more times for me to leave him alone
and each time I stood there saying "I'm leaving, let me
leave. I'm leaving, let me leave. I'm..." At some time he
finally left me alone and paid attention to his main task
again and I continued on away from him.

I'm still working out old rage and anger from being brutalized
in DC, and I did make one bad move after that and show something
just a little less dignified there. But that can be easily
forgiven I think.

[copsatsmallprotests.jpg]

Once I was a comfortable enough distance from him and much
nearer to a bus stop full of people about my age, I just
shouted out to no one in particular, "hardheaded mother
fucker!"

They laughed with me a lot.

I smiled at them and then blended back into my obligatory
role of 50% independent journalist and 50% protester.


[threestandup.jpg]

Most of the rest of the day went fairly smoothly save for
all the dirty looks Surveillance Guy kept giving me from
inside his late model grey sedan.

At one point three or four local african american people
joined our rally and I thought Surveillance Camera Guy
was gonna have a fit. He whipped out his equipment very
attentively again and filmed them joining us. I was
standing right next to them when I saw him overreact
so I faced him square and shifted to my old-school
position of "parade rest" and just fixed a smile directly
on him until he put his camcorder away.

Oh, I left out something I don't remember exactly
where to put chronologically. I took his picture but
before he began verbally assaulting me. Hmm. It might
have been in the middle of it, I know I was already
on the sidewalk, as per his "command."

I looked him in the eye and said, "Marc Frucht."

"I know who you are," he said rolling his eyes and
actually serving as quite an ally because he just
then confirmed that the filmwork is being used FOR
A WHOLE LOT MORE THAN JUST THEIR STATED PURPOSE OF
DOCUMENTING THE ENTIRE EVEN FOR THE PROTECTION OF
ALL PERSONS.

marco