Police checkpoints fail
to stop SOA protest
By Willy Rosencrans
Nov. 19 (AGR)— Over 10,000 people showed up at
the gates of Ft. Benning in Columbus, GA on Nov. 16 and 17 to
demand the closure of the US Army counterinsurgency training
center once known as the School of the Americas, now popularly
called the School of Assassins (SOA). Organizers said that,
despite unprecedented efforts by authorities to prohibit access
to the gathering, it was one of the largest yet in the annual
demonstration’s thirteen-year history.
Thousands of protesters bearing white wooden
crosses rally at the gates of Fort Benning in Columbus, GA,
on Sunday, Nov.17, 2002.
The day before the demonstration, Judge Clay Land ruled that
the city of Columbus could erect police checkpoints, complete
with metal detectors, at the entrances to the protest site.
SOA Watch, the organizing group committed to shutting the school
down, responded by issuing thousands of forms declaring that
the bearer did “not consent to this search.”
“We have monitored protests for decades,” said Gerry
Weber of the American Civil LIberties Union (ACLU), “and
this is the first time we’ve ever heard of a plan to conduct
mass searches of all demonstrators.”
“It’s totally inappropriate for people to be searched
in order to exercise their right to freedom of assembly,”
added Solstice, a member of SOA Watch’s staff. “The
court’s ruling was a very bad precedent; we’re appealing
it.”
At checkpoints erected between curbside greenery freshly mowed
by prison convicts, police armed with metal detector wands confiscated
an arbitrary assortment of metal objects. No weapons were found.
“They took some staples and a paint can opener from me,”
fumed David Christian, a puppetista from Atlanta who came to
work on the event’s puppet pageant. “Apparently a
paint can opener is a deadly weapon these days.”
Karl Meyer of Nashville, TN refused to submit to the search;
he made it through the checkpoint without stopping and was arrested.
The 65-year-old activist served 6 months in prison last year
for trespassing onto Ft. Benning.
Local businesswoman Miriam Tidwell staged a first-time counterprotest
at Express Automotive Service, near the checkpoint. A nearby
marquee read “God Bless Ft. Benning Day – Oil Change
$15.99;” the sign was changed to read “Godless Ft.
Benning Day” at some point during the night.
Participants at the SOA Watch vigil heard music ranging from
folksingers to hip hop and Mayan bands, and testimony from a
diverse group of speakers including torture survivor advocates,
student groups, drug policy researchers and a representative
of displaced Afro-Colombians.
A puppet pageant including almost 400 performers reenacted
Argentina’s struggle through the violent military repression
of the 70s and 80s, through its recent spate of successful popular
uprisings, to the growing number of bakeries, clinics, and other
enterprises run by and for the people.
The pageant’s second run followed the traditional funeral
procession, during which thousands of mourners walked to the
fence erected across the entrance to Ft. Benning after the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington, DC, to decorate
it with crosses bearing the names of SOA victims, along with
offerings such as banners, baby-sized coffins, and paper cranes.
Many wept as the names of victims, ranging in age from the unborn
to the elderly, were recited from the stage.
No complete record exists of deaths orchestrated by SOA graduates;
they number in the uncounted thousands and include atrocities
like the El Mozote massacre of 1981, in which about 900 Salvadorans
were killed. The date of the vigil commemorates the assassination
of six Jesuit priests, their housekeeper, and her daughter,
also in El Salvador, in 1989. Graduates have been implicated
in virtually every major human rights violation in Latin America.
In 1996 the Pentagon admitted that the SOA had used manuals
advocating torture for years. Current manuals encourage the
use of counterinsurgency techniques against labor organizers,
student groups, and people critical of their government. In
January, 2001, the school was renamed the Western Hemispheric
Institute for Security Cooperation in an attempt to deflect
criticism. These days its opponents often refer to it as a “terrorist
training camp.”
“Our foreign policy has been hijacked by corporations,”
says Solstice. “Institutions like the SOA reflect neither
the values nor the interests of the American people. And we
believe that these policies are making us a lot of enemies…
“There are two possible paths we can take after September
11. We can teach our children to fear and avoid people who criticize
what our government is doing, people who engage the democratic
process through street protests and other means of nonviolent
engagement. Or we can choose a direction where we say ‘Now,
more than ever, we need to take responsibility for the policies
of our government.’”
Civil disobedience has been a major part of the vigil since
its earliest days, typically consisting of trespassing onto
the base to demand the SOA’s closure. This year, police
arrested 92 people. Five were released without being charged,
including four juveniles, one of whom was abandoned by military
police (MPs) at a gas station by herself, at night, and had
to find her own way back to SOA Watch’s Legal Collective
office.
Of the rest, the majority were charged with a Class B federal
trespassing misdemeanor, which carries a maximum sentence of
six months and a $5,000 fine. Four were charged with Class A
misdemeanors, including “running a police checkpoint”
(the woman in question had taken a wrong turn onto Ft. Benning)
and property damage (the cutting of a lock on Ft. Benning’s
gates); Class A carries a maximum sentence of one year and a
$100,000 fine.
Judge G. Mallon Faircloth set bail at $5,000, releasing one
on personal recognizance because his position as a tenured professor,
according to Faircloth, made him less of a bail-jumping risk.
Bail was briefly revoked for some because they refused to give
personal information required by incorrectly used Federal Marshal
forms; the forms are meant to be used after conviction, for
people being transported to federal prison.
“There’s obviously no ‘innocent until proven
guilty’ in Faircloth’s court,” said Becky Johnson,
a member of the Legal Collective. “And exacting punitive
damages before a trial has even occurred for them – it’s
appalling.” Over $40,000 was required to satisfy the excessive
bond.
As of this writing, two remain in jail – one for refusing
to post bond until the judge releases her on personal recognizance,
and the other for insisting on calling himself Peace; without
his real name, federal prosecutors have had to refer to his
case as “The United States of America vs. Peace.”
Peter Jessup, 22, a student from Omaha, NB, and one of those
arrested, described his experiences Monday evening shortly after
his release. He had not planned to get arrested, but was moved
to climb the fence after the funeral procession.
“Even if only one person had to face the horrors perpetrated
by SOA grads, it would be a good enough cause,” said Jessup.
“We need to do more than just say we’re opposed…
The feeling of support as we were cheered on was incredible.
And the people I was incarcerated with were wonderful. We were
all really scared; but that we all had the same fears, and the
same optimism, really lifted us up. It was very powerful.
“[But] people were denied water and food; people were
cold. Elderly people especially. There was no access to warm
clothing… A diabetic who hadn’t eaten for 12 hours
was denied appropriate food.”
Earlier this year, 43 people were convicted year for trespassing
at last year’s action. 26 remain in prison.
Adrian Tate, 19, a resident of Southgate housing complex which
lies just outside Ft. Benning, sympathized with those who committed
civil disobedience. “I’m glad they’re doing it,”
he said. “I don’t want to see all those people going
over there and getting locked up. But it ain’t nothing
but the truth – they ought to close that motherfucking
school.”
Eight-year-old Holly Rose Black of Asheville, NC was one of
the last to cross the line, at sunset, long after the vigil
was over. Oblivious MPs crunched their way up and down a growing
garbage pile of crosses nearby as she took the last paper crane
from the fence.
“I was really happy that so many people were brave enough
to cross the line and go to prison,” she said afterward.
“I’m glad there were so many people there to help
close the SOA.”
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