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Sava
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GO GO GO!
Mar 2001
time: 23:32
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quote:
FREE TRADE MEETING
Judge: I saw police commit felonies
A judge who said he witnessed some of the anti-free trade protests complains in open court about how police handled the demonstrations.
By AMY DRISCOLL
adriscoll@herald.com
A judge presiding over the cases of free trade protesters said in court that he saw ''no less than 20 felonies committed by police officers'' during the November demonstrations, adding to a chorus of complaints about police conduct.
Judge Richard Margolius, 60, made the remarks in open court last week, saying he was taken aback by what he witnessed while attending the protests.
''Pretty disgraceful what I saw with my own eyes. And I have always supported the police during my entire career,'' he said, according to a court transcript. ``This was a real eye-opener. A disgrace for the community.''
In the transcript, he also said he may have to remove himself from any additional cases involving arrests made during the Free Trade Area of the Americas summit.
''I probably would have been arrested myself if it had not been for a police officer who recognized me,'' said the judge, who wears his hair in a graying ponytail.
CIRCUIT JUDGE
Margolius, appointed to the bench in 1982, retired as a circuit judge in 2001 but said he still hears cases 15 to 20 weeks a year when courts are overburdened.
On Friday, he chose not to elaborate on the remarks he made from the bench Dec. 11.
''I can't comment on pending cases,'' he said. ``It was inappropriate for me to make the comments I made. A reasonable person could question my neutrality because of statements I made in open court.''
The judge did not single out a police department. More than three dozen agencies were part of the FTAA security effort. The Miami Police Department coordinated most police operations.
Angel Calzadilla, executive assistant to Miami Police Chief John Timoney, said: ``The chief's not going to comment on something this vague. If the judge would like to file a complaint with the CIP [Citizens Investigative Panel] he can do that like any other citizen.''
Nelda Fonticiella, a spokeswoman for the Miami-Dade Police Department, which had a large presence during the protests, also said the judge can file a complaint. ''It would be our hope and expectation that if this is how he feels, that he would recuse himself from those cases,'' she said.
Margolius had been hearing the cases of Joseph Diamond and Danielle Kilroy, both arrested during the FTAA protests. Diamond had been charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, a felony; the charges were dropped by the state at the Dec. 11 hearing.
RESISTING ARREST
Kilroy also faced felony charges -- battery on a police officer and resisting arrest with violence. Her charges were reduced to a single misdemeanor, resisting arrest without violence, according to members of the Miami Activist Defense, a legal group monitoring the court hearings.
During the Dec. 11 hearings, the judge asked an assistant state attorney, ``How many police officers have been charged by the State Attorney so far for what happened out there during the FTAA?''
None, the prosecutor replied.
''None?'' asked the judge. ``Pretty sad commentary. At least from what I saw.''
The judge also wondered aloud how much the ''whole episode'' had cost taxpayers.
''I know one thing. There were police officers from every agency -- I couldn't believe the sheer numbers,'' he said.
Laurel Ripple, a protester who was arrested and is working with MAD, said she was in the courtroom during Margolius' remarks.
''I'm really glad he saw for himself what was happening . . . I'm really glad he was out there,'' she said. ``As a lifelong Miami resident and victim of the police during the FTAA, it was really supportive to hear that kind of affirmation from Judge Margolius.''
The FTAA summit, Nov. 20 and 21, sparked marches and protests in downtown Miami and resulted in 231 arrests. Since then, at least 27 misdemeanors have been dropped, according to prosecutors' records last updated Dec. 2. Additional cases have been dropped or the charges reduced, according to MAD members.
Two citizens' panels plan to hold a joint meeting Jan. 15 to hear comments and complaints about police conduct during the FTAA, and both Miami-Dade and Miami police are conducting internal reviews. Amnesty International, the AFL-CIO and the United Steelworkers of America all have called for independent probes.
A Miami police spokeswoman said officers were instructed to make arrests only as necessary.
MIAMI POLICE
''We were told to deal with situations that were serious but we were always told to be very patient with people,'' said Herminia ''Amy'' Salas-Jacobson, a Miami police spokeswoman.
``In the training sessions we were told to be professional, be patient and to do everything right. There was one thing that was stressed at every meeting: Always be professional.''
During Margolius' informal speech, he noted that he couldn't recognize officers because ``everybody had riot gear on.''
''I hope the state has the good, common sense to deal with these cases in an appropriate manner, with an eye on justice,'' he added.
Herald staff writer Charles Rabin contributed to this report.
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Jeb Bush's goon squads did a great job attacking protesters and firing rubber bullets at journalists. 
I also have a recording from a WJNO reporter who was shot three times at point blank range by police.
****ing fascists
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Lars-E
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I was watching channel 7 during the riots. I was shocked by all the bias from the reporters against the demonstrators.
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debeest
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Here's my own experience at a demonstration against the U.S.-induced Honduran bombing of Nicaragua back around 1986: the police said "alright, everyone out of this area we've encircled, and we're going to arrest everyone who doesn't leave," so I left the area, and then a cop came up behind me and grabbed me and threw me through the line of linked-hands police officers into the arrest area. I was arrested, spent the afternoon at the jail, and then all of us were released because there had been no basis for the arrests in the first place.
I didn't need a permit, and I followed police orders completely. I violated no law except the law that "thou shalt not voice thy opinion in front of the police."
Many of my friends and acquaintances have participated in many different demonstrations over the years, specifically including the WTO demonstrations that have been labeled "violent" "riots." What these knowledgeable and honest people have told me is that consistently, the police initiate almost all of the violence, usually with no provocation and no legal basis for it.
Now the police have developed the habit of singling out those who bring video equipment, beating them, and stealing or destroying their equipment. Do the police do this because the people recording police behavior are committing criminal acts, or because the police are committing criminal acts they don't want recorded?
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debeest
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Ned, you seem to assume that I'm stupid. Please don't insult my intelligence just because you have no basis for argument. The police order was very clear and explicit: "Those who remain inside this police circle will be arrested. If you don't want to be arrested, step outside the circle." I stepped out of the circle and was at least ten feet away from it (and it couldn't have been any clearer where "in" and "out" were). This cop had to grab me and forcibly drag me over to the circle and, quite literally, throw me THROUGH the linked arms of his colleagues into the circle.
The order was not to "disperse." Why act as if you know what happened to me? You weren't there, I don't think. The order was specifically directed at restoring access through the main doors of the Federal Building in San Francisco, not at making us go away. There was nothing illegal about the demonstration. Why are you assuming that the demonstration was illegal? Do you think all demonstrations are automatically illegal? Are you unaware that demonstrating is a right guaranteed by the Constitution? The police didn't even suggest that the demonstration was illegal, only the blocking of doors, and I was 100 feet away from the doors.
What makes you think that every time cops and demonstrators are face to face the demonstrators are doing something illegal? At the Port of Oakland about a year ago, with no provocation whatsoever, the police started shooting not only demonstrators, but longshore workers simply going to work, and bystanders. It got extensive coverage in the Oakland Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jose Mercury, and surely many other papers. It's not only my own acquaintances who document this stuff, sometimes even the media cover it (and I assure you these are not wild radical newspapers).
How much time have you spent at demonstrations observing the behavior of the demonstrators and the police?
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Tripledoc
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FTAA
MAD
AFL-CIO
Isn't excessive acrynomization a sign of increasing militarism?
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OzzyKP
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Rockville, MD
Oct 1999
time: 00:32
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quote:
Originally posted by debeest
Here's my own experience at a demonstration against the U.S.-induced Honduran bombing of Nicaragua back around 1986: the police said "alright, everyone out of this area we've encircled, and we're going to arrest everyone who doesn't leave," so I left the area, and then a cop came up behind me and grabbed me and threw me through the line of linked-hands police officers into the arrest area. I was arrested, spent the afternoon at the jail, and then all of us were released because there had been no basis for the arrests in the first place.
I didn't need a permit, and I followed police orders completely. I violated no law except the law that "thou shalt not voice thy opinion in front of the police."
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Thats exactly what happened here in DC. I forget which protest it was from (we've got so many) the protesters gathered in, I think it was Freedom Plaza (ironic, eh?) and from what I hear they weren't even protesting really. They were just sitting around, beating drums, resting, etc. The police encircled the park on all sides, issues the order to dispurse that anyone remaining in the park will be arrested, then anyone trying to leave was forced back into the park. A few hundred people were arrested.
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22-12-2003 22:12
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