Guantanamo on the Platte

By Brenda Norrell

DENVER -- If you like chaos, you should be in the streets of Denver. If you like being surrounded by squads of riot police with nothing to do but irritate people, you should definitely be in Denver. If you like downtown shop owners saying, "Our restrooms are out of order," and "We turned the Wi-Fi off for the week," you should really be in Denver.

I don't know how anyone else's day went, but for me, I spent eight hours accomplishing nothing. First, there's the downtown Kinkos, the worst in the nation. You can pay $30 for what should cost $5 to accomplish because the computers are pitiful. It has been that way for years.

While many shop owners just handled the chaos  this way: "Our restrooms are broken," (Kinkos) or "We turned off the Wi-Fi for the week," (Paradise Bakery)" on down the street, Barnes and Nobles tried another approach. It was so hot in there that babies were sweating.

Finally I gave up and sat in a coffee shop. Across the street, the anti-abortion crowd had huge posters of fetuses. The restaurant owners were very upset because people really couldn't eat looking at these. There seemed to be lots of drama, as police and news reporters kept rushing back and forth as confrontations came and went. But one thing was clear, these protesters, mostly white Christians from small towns, were treated very different by Denver's riot police, than the peaceful marchers for political prisoners on Monday. 

For people of color, the police drew their weapons. The alternative crowd wasn't treated well either. For the peaceful Food Not Bombs group, there was a huge buildup of police delivering intimidation and repression. Finally, for all the alternative protesters near the Civic Center there was a huge arrest sweep on Monday night. Medics, documentary filmmakers, and reporters said they were detained for one and one half-hours during the roundup.

Apparently Denver police felt Monday's crowd was entirely too peaceful and arrests were in order. There was no other way to explain the big roundup and arrests Monday night. Police sprayed people with pepper spray and shot pepper bullets at them. As for the bizarre single file procession of dozens of police through the Food Not Bombs dinner of rice and lentils, there's no way to explain that.

Still, there are great handmade signs all over Denver. However, there's little indication that the "haves" at the Democratic National Convention are paying any attention to the people in the streets. The people taking to the streets of Denver have come from all over America. Anyone who has a cause is here. Two signs today read, "911 was an inside job," and "Clean coal spending $2 million on convention." On the lighter side, here's a few great signs from the streets: "Give everyone everything," "Get rid of government everything," and "Free hugs."

Anyway, back to today. As I was leaving the Civic Center area, I heard from a young woman photographer who had witnessed one of the police attacks. She said one person was simply photographing his friend being arrested. The police told him to halt, so he dropped the camera and put his hands in the air. The young man taking photos was then tackled by three riot police and arrested. His crime was taking a photo. She also filled me in on the fenced dog cages being used as jails during the convention.

The locals call it after their river, "Guantanamo on the Platte."

(PHOTO: Denver riot police ready for the big sweep on Monday. Apparently the people were too peaceful, as the guy sleeping on the grass demonstrates. The photo was taken shortly before the sweep and arrests in the Civic Center area on Monday evening. Photo Brenda Norrell)

Denver police: Intimidation and provocation

Denver police stage bizarre behavior

By Brenda Norrell

DENVER -- On Monday, Denver police spent the day intimidating and provoking peaceful protesters. By day's end there were entirely too many police with too much time on their hands. They were eager to arrest people in Denver. It didn't matter if the people were simply walking down the street. Medics were even detained.

Flashing a wide variety of weapons, Denver police positioned police gangs around the peaceful Food Not Bombs. Police even made a single file procession through the heart of Food Not Bombs' peaceful dinner. As people were eating, Denver police made one of the silliest processions ever through a dinner of rice and lentils.

After spending the late afternoon in bizarre staging and intimidation tactics in the Civic Center area, Denver police began spraying people with pepper spray and shoving people randomly by day's end. Finally, apparently bored and itchy to arrest, they arrested people for their Democratic National Convention dog cages. It was a sad and embarrassing day for Denver police, proving that lawlessness reigns for US police.

In the Streets of Denver: Free Political Prisoners

'Taser bait' in Denver

Article and photo by Brenda Norrell
DENVER -- It was an incredible morning in the streets of Denver, with the voices of the people spilling out through this city during the Political Prisoners March and Rally. It was clear that there is another divide underway, those who are in the Democratic National Convention with their expense accounts and those in the streets, lending powerful voices to define the future. With most US citizens in a state of post traumatic stress syndrome, the brave faced off with Denver police and marched through the streets this morning. What began as a small crowd near the Civic Center grew as hundreds joined the march through the heart of the city.
Among those speaking out was Ben Carnes, Choctaw, who read a message from Leonard Peltier. King Downing, with ACLU's Campaign against Racial Profiling, described how he was arrested in a racial profiling incident and won his case. Mumia Abu Jamal's message was heard from death row in a recording for the event. Jamal described the true portrait of US democracy.
At one point, a police officer drew his weapon on the crowd in front of the federal courthouse. A legal observer with the Lawyer's Guild confronted him and after a standoff, the officer walked away. There was the feeling that we could all soon be "taser bait."

Update: Denver police stage bizarre behavior, make arrests: http://www.bsnorrell.blogspot.com

Here is the list of speakers that brought me here: Pamela Africa - MOVE Organization;

American Indian Movement Spokesperson Leonard Peltier Defense Committee - Ben Carnes, with a message from Leonard, direct from Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary; Rosa Clemente - United States Vice Presidential Candidate for the Green Party; Kathleen Cleaver - The Panther Nine from San Francisco; King Downing - National Coordinator of the ACLU's Campaign Against Racial Profiling; Jenny Esquiveo - Spokesperson for Eric McDavid (Political Prisoner); Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. - Prisoners of Conscience Committee; Mumia Abu Jamal - Current Political Prisoner (Recorded from Death Row); Cha Cha Jimenez - Founder of the Young Lords (Puerto Rican Resistance Prisoners); Ricardo Romero - National Coordinator for the Mexican National Liberation Movement (MLNM); Natsu Saito - Author, Activist, and Human Rights Scholar (Guantanamo Inmates); Spokesperson for the Cuban Five and a special musical performance by Native hip hop youth activists The Savage Family.
Listen later for the audios. We were live on the radio and web this morning on Earthcycles:
http://www.earthcycles.net/
In the streets of Denver, Brenda
Statement from Leonard Peltier
by Leonard Peltier Monday Aug 25th, 2008 10:08 AM
Greetings my friends and relatives, First of all, I can't express to you, near as much as I'd like to. The sincere appreciation I have that you would gather together remembering all the political prisoners, hostages and myself the way you have. Gatherings like this are extremely important because it reminds people of the sacrifices that are made daily through out the world for freedom, justice, and a clean and sane environment for our future generations. The powers that exploit our resources and people will always be there, generation after generation. And the creator will always call upon people to stand against that exploitation. Even if the creator does not call. Any just man or woman, with any semblance of justice, be it spiritual, social or environmental, He will find cause to take issue with those enemies of humanity and nature.

Read more

Photo: Ben Carnes, Choctaw, at the Freedom for Political Prisoner reads Peltier's statement outside the federal courthouse in Denver. Photo Brenda Norrell.

US commits genocide of infants and children at the border

US violates rights of infants and children
In this news article, La Jornada in Mexico reports that the United States is violating the rights of infants and children by abandoning them at the border

Translation of:
http://www.jornada.unam.mx/2008/08/11/index.php?section=politica&article=018n1pol
In 7 months, the United States deported 90,000 Mexican children
Others remain abandoned, left to their luck on the border
As of this writing, during the first seven months of the year, at least 90,000 Mexican children were deported by the government of the United States, in the context of its anti-immigrant politics, according to a PRI task force study group of work on immigration matters to Mexico's House of Representatives. Also about 300,000 adults have been deported. The report states that 15 per cent of the children, approximately 13,500, live on the Mexican border, without any type of governmental protection. However, ideally they are attended by religious institutions or non-governmental organizations.The coordinator of the group and secretary of the Commission of Population, Borders and Immigration Matters, the deputy from PRI Edmundo Ramírez Martínez, specified that the children are entrusted to "polleros" or human traffickers to be taken to the United States with their parents. If the parents attempt to regain their children, they are deported. The children are practically left on the Mexican border, since the families, for fear of having the same luck, do not claim them. Also, the report explains that for every three adult deportees from the United States, one Mexican origin child is left in this nation. The report said that many of the minors accompanied parents to the north to find work, but they were deported by the authorities of this country.
Violated rights
On the northern border of Mexico there are children, "parked" who remain in the care of DIF hostels, religious or civil organizations. But, a very high percentage devote themselves to begging to survive and to try to go to the United States. The report detailed that the deportation of infants has a major impact, with consequences felt in areas with high migratory flow such as: Michoacán, Jalisco, Zacatecas and Guanajuato.
The report expressed remorse for the systematic violation to the rights of the infants on the part of the authorities of the United States and the absence of a program of support on the part of the Mexican government.
The legislative report exhibits that the International Convention of the Rights of the Children determines that in case of minors they must not be deported but repatriated. But in fact, it is believed that only 25 per cent arrive directly to their state of origin, the rest suffer the same luck as the adults who are left at the border and there they are left to their luck.
Ramírez Martínez described the difference between deportation and repatriation as "one of funds." The first one implies practically an expulsion, whereas the second one forces the country to take responsibility of the care and tutelage of the minors.