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The below message, forwarded with permission, is an account from the streets of DC during the protests on Saturday.
I was there, too, photographing the march from Dupont Circle that went east along P street and then south on 14th street. When a critical mass got between K and L streets, the police cut off the march with lines of cops who swooped in prevented anyone from leaving that block of 14th street. That included journalists; I was stuck there and they wouldn't let me leave.
I was closer to L street and didn't see everything described below at the K street barricade. Some photos here: http://www.mccullagh.org/cgi-bin/photosearch.cgi?name=14th http://www.mccullagh.org/theme/2001-bush-inauguration-highlights.html
-Declan
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Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 17:21:51 -0500 From: "Michael T. Shinn" <mike at shinn.net> Organization: Collosus: The Voice of World Control To: declan at well.com Subject: Re: FC: Photos from George W. Bush inauguration celebration, protests
Declan,
I'm so glad to hear that you were at 14th and K where it seems like most the real big action happened on Saturday (although another large protest was supposedly going down at the Navy Memorial later on that morning/early afternoon). At least some big name reporter was there to cover it! *grin*
I was also at 14th and K (with Macki from 2600 and few other friends) video taping the protests (for IMC). I got alot of video tape from inside the police lines when the MPD had that small group of protestors, including me and some other reporters, pressed up against the wall on 14th and K, even though I had a nice big press badge on. I guess the police have reading comprehension skills too. It was a tense time when the police started beating a few protestors up and then, basically, arrested us for a period of time (not letting me leave is something I call an "arrest", especially when I haven't committed a crime or anything. The last time I checked, I still had the right to be free to go about my business, but not yesterday. The police wouldn't even tell us what they wanted to us to do, or not do. Or what they were going to do with us or why they wouldn't let us go. I guess *not* telling protestors to do anything is their new Sup3R SeKriT plan for getting protestors to dispurse! Hurrah for the new psychic powers of the DC police department!)
Regardless of all this I managed to video tape them beating a few people up and other interesting moments during the day. The IMC will hopefully put this online soon.
One rather comical moment I want to share with you was when a few stern faced police offices facing us became sweet as punch when an ostensibly republican couple (obviously lost) came up behind the police line and innocently asked how to get to their reserved seats for the inauguration. I almost wanted to yell "When are you going to tell us to eat cake?!" to the republican couple, but I figured it was better to just cover the story than to become the story, and, in fairness, they weren't the ones using excessive force on the protestors (and myself) nor did they have any direct hand in causing it (indirectly, perhaps *grin*). Especially since it was pretty clear that the MPD officers were not honoring press badges and didn't seem to appreciate the finer points of freedom of speech, I was in no mood to have my camera broken (or possibly my skull... they really split one protestors head open, which was one too many IMNHO). It was really bizarre that they wouldn't let myself and about a dozen other reporters out of the box they made around the protestors we were covering. Somehow, in their minds, we were no better than the protestors and so our civil rights meant nothing to them either. I, and the people with me, took great delight in the mass paniced retreat of the thugs... er... I mean "police" when another protestor group totally surrounded them and forced them to back off. Yep, a really good day for the police it would seem. They get to beat some people up, suspend civil rights, illegal detain/arrest some people, then fail to do their jobs and of course utterly fail to stop the protestors in the end. All in all, a total and complete waste of tax payer money.
The real irony in this story is that I *look like a cop* and yet the police were still treated me in a very heavy handed and excessive manner. So you can only imagine how they were treating the rest of the protestors I was with (one Black Bloc protestor early on even tried to "out" me a cop!). I was also an Army officer and spent almost 10 years in the Infantry in the US Army. And, I've trained police officers to respond to CD (Civil Distrubances, also known as riots, which yesterday was *not*) so I have an educated and expert knowledge of what the police are supposed to do and not do - and they were definitely NOT operating within the bounds of the law or accepted procedures for conducting CD operations. They not only endangered the protestors, but they placed a number of their own in foolishly over extended skirmish lines that caused them to quickly become surrounded (and, if you believe the police, they could have been hurt or possibly killed!). I have never seen, firsthand, such a bunch of incompetent fools respond to a mostly peaceful protest, and ANOTHER larger completely peaceful protest and I have seen ALOT of police departments and Army units conduct CD ops, and these guys were the worst at it I've witnessed first hand. We can only be thankful that things didnt further out of hand, or the police might have ended up hurting more people. If I were evaluating these officers, they would get a big fat F from me.
One cop with obviously low self estime yelled at me (as I had my back to him video taping another group of police roughing and then beating someone up, so you can imagine what a dangerous threat I posed to this tough guy with my video camera and my lethal weapon back exposed to him) "Do you want some of this?!" and then hit me in the back with his night stick repeatedly and kept yelling at first my back and then into my face, when I finally hand a chance to turn around "Oh, you want some more of this!". Frankly, as suprised as I was, I was also a bit amused by this obviously freightened and out of control thug/cop clearly lashing out at someone with his back to him that could clearly not fight back (legally at least). I had a nice big PRESS badge on too, plus I told him numerous time, ratherly loudly towards the end of the beatings/shovings, that I was a reporter and that I would happily move if he would just stop shoving and hitting me. This only seemed to further incourage his need to use excessive force on this obviously highly dangerous and heavily armed camera man. Quite a day indeed. Maybe the police just hate the press. Seems like a stupid thing to, opening attack someone holding a camera to your face, in a sea of people with cameras rolling too. LOL!
I have a new found disrespect for the police, which is a really new thing for me. I didn't consider them flawless before, but I expected them to be better at doing their jobs and more aware of a little concept called "rights". The MPD and the other uniformed officers there seemed unable to control themselves and clearly added to, if not outright caused, the very civil disturbances they claimed to be trying to prevent. Again, as someone trained in CD operations and as one that has trained company sized units in CD operations, I can unequivocacly say that the MPD of DC operated in an unprofessional and possibly illegal manner yesterday that only made matters worse and caused a number of people, including apparently one of their own, to get hurt. I'm all the more dismayed with the police because many of my friends are police officers or agents, and this is a group of people that I myself have worked with in the past, both federally and locally.
To further digress, something is seriously wrong with the police in this country and it seems to be getting worse. I noticed the beginnings of it about 6 years ago with the military training the US army was providing certain law enforcement agencies and police departments with. The police seemed more interested in treating suspects as the "enemy", instead of as citizens with rights, presumed to be INNOCENT. This is a dangerous mindset to be in when you are working with the people you are supposed to be working for and protecting (read: not the enemy). When training our own troops in the US Army to conduct CD operations (riot control) we continuously teach them that the protestors are NOT the enemy. That they are the *very* people you are there to protect.
Yesterday, many of the police at 14th and K clearly though everyone without a police badge was the "enemy" (I even have video tape of the chief running around directing things himself! It goes all the way to the top it seems). Until the mentality of treating anyone that is not a cop as the enemy changes, the police will continue to degrade into a even more dangerous threat to the public at large. I now fear the police more than the criminals. At least you can do something about criminals. The police it would seem are above the law.
-- Michael T. Shinn PGPKey: 0x2F7EB57C GnuPG Key: BC626A27 GnuPG fingerprint = 75D2 325D 7121 0B60 C28681C4 8B48 7F9F BC62 6A27 PGP fingerprint = B2D9 2678 6167 1C5B 2B89 C185 7EC5 E49B 2F7E B57C
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