An Asheville person’s view from abroad
go to letter

NYC protesters face police
repression on Feb. 15

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

First, I want to applaud your newspaper. As a sociology major, I was first introduced to your newspaper through Prof. Scott at SUNY New Paltz. Global Report is by far the most progressive and informative newspaper I have ever read.

Beyond inflating your ego, I have written for another reason. I was at the NYC protest yesterday, and was wondering if you had heard anything about the police repression. Although I am not naïve about the use of police force to break up non-violent protest, I was still shocked to see it with my own eyes. The entire protest was non-aggressive. It was a wonderfully diverse crowd. There were people of all ages and colors. Families brought their children. There were even handicapped people wheeling through the crowd. What did the police do? They sectioned off different streets with barricades, and didn’t allow most protesters to reach the rally. Instead, they divided us. Not only could we not join the rally, but we also couldn’t join with other protesters who wanted to reach the rally.

I was at the intersection of 53rd and 3rd. It’s hard to say how many people were in our group. We were shoulder to shoulder in the streets, peacefully exercising our right to free speech. Among thousands of people, it was quite difficult to move. To move from one side of the street to the other, it would take at least 10 minutes. I knew if panic broke out, there would be nowhere to go. The whole time I was wary of the police using force on us. I saw the paddy wagons lined up behind the barricades. I was watching the police carefully from about 20 feet away. Nothing in their expressions showed any concern at all. In fact, they were mostly joking and laughing with the protesters. I saw no immediate danger. We were chanting things like "this is what democracy looks like," and "let us march." The "let us march" only meant we wanted to join the other protesters at the rally. They had denied our right to assemble, so we milled about using our voices.

This went on for about two hours. Then I saw the horses coming. I knew horses were a traditional method for breaking up crowds. No one else seemed worried except me. Even knowing this, I figured they wouldn’t charge a crowd with elderly people and children, especially since there was no provocation at all. They began to line the horses up behind the barricade. As soon as the last horse was in place, they charged the crowd without any warning. This obviously caused a panic. Since the streets were filled building to building with people, there wasn’t anywhere to go. When you have a giant animal running towards you, you find a way to move. I was in the middle of the street. I tried to forcefully push people to the side without hurting anyone. I knew if someone fell down, they would probably be trampled. I saw no one hurt myself. I just barely got to the side of the street before a horse trampled me.

This was a very scary experience. We collected ourselves at the sidewalk, only to hear some woman say they were now arresting people. At this point I decided to leave. I didn’t stay to see the arrests, but I believe they happened. Although I didn’t see anyone injured, it would have been impossible for someone not to be. I made sure no one in my general vicinity was hurt, but that doesn’t account for thousands of people. We were in a state of shock when we left.

We arrived at our car about 30 minutes later. We turned on an independent radio station broadcasting out of NYC. They had live correspondence from the streets. The same thing that happened to us was happening all over the city. I think we were the first. They were forcefully breaking up crowds all over, and making mass arrests. The woman on the radio spoke of groups of 40-50 people being arrested at a time. She saw a man taking photographs of police brutality, only to be violently forced to the ground and arrested. She saw the police clubbing people. It sounded like chaos in the streets.

I’m sure you are already investigating these events, but I thought my personal account might help sort things out. From everything I witnessed, this had to be planned. The cops knew the whole time they were going to disperse the crowds with these methods. They had to know.

Despite how the mass media would spin it, I know this was a totally unprovoked attack. They wanted us divided so they could break up crowds easier. Imagine them trying these tactics at the main rally. Although this in itself isn’t shocking, it does change things. The police will not only attack students, they now attack children, handicapped and elderly people. I have no more illusions about the use of state repression on peaceful protests. Chomsky is right, we are a more civil society. Unfortunately, our government is not.

Mitch Monsour

New Paltz, New York

back to top

An Asheville person’s view from abroad

Editors, Asheville Global Report,

I thought that people in Asheville would be interested to hear a little of my experience of anti-war sentiment from here. I have been spending the last month in Morocco and am at present in Melilla, a Spanish enclave on the Mediterranian coast of Africa.

Yesterday, in this town of 60,000, over 1000 people gathered in the pouring rain to march through the city streets chanting "No a la guerra. Si a la Paz." (No to war. Yes to peace.). The crowd was a broad mix of peoples: young and old, Muslim, Christian, Jew, traditional dress and modern. At the end of the march, in the city center, as hail pelted the crowd, speakers of Arabic, Spanish and Berber spoke against war. That evening, on the TV news from Andalucia, the southern region of Spain, over 15 minutes was spent showing anti-war demonstrations from around the world. This coverage included aerial shots, clips from speakers and on street interviews. The news reported nearly 2 million demonstrating in Madrid and more than 1.3 million in Barcelona.

In the time I have been in Morocco, I have not met a single person who spoke in favor of the war. There have also been weekly demonstrations in support of Iraq in Rabat, where I have spent most of my time since I have been here. Everyone I have spoken with about it thinks that the United States is crazy to be wanting to start a war. People most often believe that the US wants war in order to secure control of Iraq’s oil. One of the chants and several of the signs in yesterday’s march stated, "No blood in exchange for oil."

Cicada Brokaw

Asheville, North Carolina