Urgent help needed for Miami protestors

by: Whitney Lanphear/ANSWER coalition

Free speech was subject to police repression in Miami on 20 November .
PHOTO: Tiros/ftaaimc.org , tiros@mediosindependientes.org

Miami, Florida: The ANSWER Coalition calls on all those who have been involved in the anti-war movement to show their support for those in Miami protesting at the FTAA negotiations who are being brutalized and incarcerated in a coordinated police state action designed to stifle dissent in the United States.

Police have attacked protestors with tear gas, pepper spray, concussion grenades, stun guns and by shooting activists with rubber bullets. Medics have not been allowed in through the police lines to treat the injured.

Protestors have been grabbed, seemingly at random, and taken off the >street in snatch operations conducted by police in unmarked vehicles. The police are also directly targeting the legal support for the demonstrators, including National Lawyers Guild Legal Observers. Many who have been taken away have been beaten.

Your urgent help is needed now. The National Lawyers Guild and the Miami Activist Defense are asking that you contact the Mayors, the City Attorney, Police Chief Timoney and the media. Below is contact information please call or email now and let them know their actions will not be tolerated.

The attack on the protestors gives lie to the claim that the US is fighting for democracy abroad -- when people who participate in political dissent at home are subject to brutal systematic police abuse and government repression.
The US government in pursuit of corporate globalization uses all methods in its arsenal - from invasion and bombing to economic sanctions and IMF imposed austerity plans. The FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas) is merely another mechanism to extend the exploitative reach of corporate domination over the people of the Americas.
Show your solidarity with the people in the streets of Miami. Miami >Activist Defense asks that the following be contacted:

ALEX PENELAS Mayor, Miami-Dade County +1 3058299336 home, +1 3053755071 office

MANUEL A. DIAZ Mayor, City of Miami +1 3052505300, +1 3053755071; mannydiaz@ci.miami.fl.us

JOHN TIMONY Chief of police +1 3056737925, +1 3059796565

ALEJANDRO VILARELLO City Attorney +1 3054161800; law@ci.miami.fl.us
JOE ARRIOLA City Manager; jarriola@ci.miami.fl.us

JOHNNY WINTON Miami City Commissioner +1 3058587344 home, +1 3052505333 office
KATY SORENSON Miami Dade County Commissioner +1 3053755218, +1 3053786677

Local media has been grossly biased in their coverage. While this is somewhat to be expected the following are numbers that people could call. CBS4: +1 3056394551, +1 3056394601, +1 3056394426 WPLG channel 10: +1 3055766397 WSUN Fox: +1 9545240388 (Rosh Lowe)

Another interesting story can also be read about a protestor being hit by a rubber bullet. This can be found at http://ftaaimc.org/en/2003/11/1975.shtml
Additional information on FTAA can be found at http://ftaaimc.org

Source: ANSWER Coalition