My pal Kevvy writes a great post looking back on the protests of March 20, 2003.
Oh the good times! Being threatened by officers donned with clubs! Trampled by horses in broad daylight, and to a good soundtrack even!
This was one of the first flashmob protests too! Even we didn’t know where we were going until the people that had text messaging/blackberries told us 🙂
This will still always be the most frightening cilp i think. (blog entry that goes with it)
(But that’s only because I never got the horse trampling footage up.)
So what’s changed between now and then? Not a whole hell of a lot, except we’re not in the streets anymore. What the hell’s up with that? We’re spending billions of dollars a day on this fucking war, and it has all played out just like we said it would – corrupt war profiteering businesspeople and politicians have openly traded blood for oil — which was why we were protesting in the first place, but somehow, when what we said was gonna happen, happened, we got discouraged and just… I dunno… just gave up I guess. It’s pretty lame.
There was a pathetic little protest in Berkeley today, and they couldn’t even agree whose turn it was to speak — I mean they were arguing about it. And I didn’t know which was worse, that their protest was so pathetic, or that I had the nerve to call their protest pathetic, when I was even more pathetic for not having gone to a protest in years. (Years!)
And then Kevin sent me this link, and I realized that five years had gone by since I cared enough to stand up against this war, and then I realized that, over the last five years, since the war has actually started, I don’t feel like I’ve done enough, not nearly enough, to try to stop this war.
Damn.
Thanks Kevin! For the Reminder! Let’s rekindle
our protest tradition soon!
And please protest organizers! Let’s make sure we have good DJs and musicians for the protests ok!?
I’ll do my part to help out with that, I promise. Email me and I will hook you up with great talent – free of charge!! I know lots of great musicians/artists/djs that are ready to come together to make a difference!
That’s why this protest was so cool, for instance…
Category Archives: Adventures In Hacktivism – March 20, 2003
Help Free The Berkeley 3!
1 Reply
Time constraints prohibit me from elaborating on this. Read for yourselves 🙂
(Thanks, Kevin.)
Help Free The Berkeley 3!
11-17-03- Drop All Charges Against The Berkeley 3!
Free speech at Berkeley is under attack. Anti-war student organizers need your immediate help.
Call, email or write to: Asst. Chancellor John Cummins Office of the Chancellor 200 California Hall #1500 Berkeley, CA 94720-1500 jcummins@uclink4.berkeley.edu 510-642-7464
**Please CC your emails to the administration to: DefendBerkeley3@aol.com
Dean of Students Karen Kenney turned the clock back decades by approving sanctions against three Berkeley students for their part in a peaceful on campus sit-in on March 20 (for more details go to www.antiwarnetwork.org). The protest was organized by the Berkeley Stop the War coalition and involved 4,000 students at a rally with 400 participating in the sit-in. Rachel Odes and Snehal Shingavi face 20 hours of community service and a letter of reprimand permanently placed on their academic record. Michael Smith faces 30 hours of community service, plus a stayed suspension for one semester. Outrageously, Smith will be forced to submit to “anger management” at the university’s infirmary. If he completes that “successfully,” his suspension might be commuted to a letter of reprimand. This use of psychological treatment as punishment for a political activity recalls the classification of dissent as a “psychiatric disorder” in Stalinist Russia. Dean Kenney’s actions mock Berkeley’s reputation as a haven for freedom of speech and progressive political action.
Besides the obvious chilling effect on student’s exercising their civil liberties on campus, the university continued its disregard for due process procedure in sentencing the students. For example:
*Chair of the Disciplinary Hearing Board Prof. Robert Jacobsen arbitrarily ruled that only 25 members of the Berkeley campus community could attend the hearing, despite repeated requests on the students’ part that the hearing be open. At least 15 university police and private security guards barricaded the entrance to the hearing site to enforce this decision.
*Jacobsen missed the university-mandated deadline for issuing the disciplinary report.
*The university provides only unpaid undergraduates “advocates” to help with the defense. When the three students obtained legal representation on their own initiative, Jacobsen announced that he would allow the lawyer to participate only marginally in the hearings at his discretion as chair.
Following the hearing, the university announced that it would eliminate students’ right to legal counsel so as to make the process more “educational.” The Berkeley Daily Cal student newspaper editorial board correctly noted that: “To suggest students have something to learn from defending themselves already assumes their guilt.” (http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=13525)
Perhaps the most shocking component of the administration’s prosecution stemmed from its conception of “progressive discipline.” Under this theory, students who take part in more than one political protest face harsher and harsher punishments. So, for instance, the university based its argument to prosecute Shingavi, at least in part, on the fact that he was the “point person” for a previous protest conducted by the Students for Justice in Palestine. Although he was not arrested or charged in connection with that protest, his association with that organization and protest helped single him out for “progressive discipline.” This legal theory of “guilt by association” led the Daily Cal to editorialize that “by picking out only three, the message sent from the university seems to be that free speech includes the right to participate in a protest, but not the right to organize one.” (http://www.dailycal.org/article.php?id=13176)
As the Bush administration carries out unprecedented attacks on hard won civil liberties, the Berkeley administration is shamefully jumping on the band wagon. Now that Dean Kenney has rubber-stamped Jacobsen’s verdict, the last appeal goes to Asst. Chancellor John Cummins. He will issue his final decision within 15 days.
Ironically, on November 20, Amy Goodman from Pacifa Radio’s “Democracy Now!” will receive the Mario Savio prize for free speech at a mass meeting on campus. The Berkeley Stop the War coalition plans to work with her to make sure that Asst. Chancellor Cummins hears the support for the Berkeley 3 loud and clear. We urge everyone who cares about free speech, the right to protest and academic freedom to take immediate action, by calling, emailing or writing to Cummins this week to demand that he drop all charges against the Berkeley 3. Especially, the frightening and irresponsible use of psychological “treatment” as a punishment for political activity.
We thank you in advance for you solidarity,
Todd Chretien Committee to Defend Student Civil Liberties
PS Many of you generously sent contributions towards the printing of a full page ad in the Daily Cal defending the Berkeley 3. That ad ran on October 27 and we believe it played an important part in forcing the university to back down from even harsher punishments for the students. (It can be viewed at www.antiwarnetwork.org) Some of you may have had your checks returned to you. That is because after the university found out that the Berkeley Stop the War coalition was soliciting defense donations, they took the unprecedented action of freezing all mail to that on-campus address. We are sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you. If you’d like to re-send your contributions (or send one for the first time), you can send them to: BSTW PO Box 4001 Berkeley, CA 94704-0001
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 7 of ?
At this point, the protest had pretty much deteriorated into a game of cat and mouse with imaginary rules that changed whenever the cops wanted them to. Let’s face it, they had the clubs. And they could take us to jail. Those were the important rules, as far as I was concerned.
That said. I stuck around to see what would happen. I mean I really wanted to leave. So did Kevin. Neither of us wanted to get arrested. And we were getting bitchy with each other and arguing about what we should do, until we realized it and took a couple deep breaths and decided what to do.
I decided that I felt like, if we left, I’d be letting you guys down or something. Kevin felt the same way. So we decided to stick around for a little longer.
At first, it seemed that the only behavior that the police had a problem with was people blocking the intersections when cars were trying to drive by. However, soon it wasn’t okay to stand on certain sidewalks either. The cops obviously wanted us to just go home, which, of course, didn’t make any sense to us, since many of us had just gotten there.
But soon, the sidewalks weren’t OK either. Then, depending on your timing, some sidewalks were OK, but only until they weren’t, and the cops started systematically crowding us off of them.
(I’ll include a complete instance of this later on video for those of you who are interested and link to it from here.)
In the first shot, Kevin climbs up on the outside of the BART entrance and grabs a long shot and some close ups for me (I was afraid of falling). It was pretty incredible the number of people there at that time. Wow.
Next is a shot of some graffiti: “The Best Vacation Is Revolution.” You can see me and Kevin in the reflection.
Followed by a clip of a tap dancer tapping for peace.
Then the cops start building up again. The crowd starts chanting “Whose streets? Our streets!” and acting a bit defiant.
The cops form a line across a third or so of the intersection at 4th and Market, so that cars can go by. Which is fine by the crowd. And that goes on for a while.
Then someone starts playing an awesome beat-driven soundtrack. And the horses arrive…
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 7 of ? (Small – 11 MB)
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 7 of ? (Hi-res – 94 MB)
An Account Of Last Week’s Day After Protest In Chicago
Dissent Is Patriotic
By Teofilo Reyes.
A jog down the road people made a B-line for Michigan Avenue
Day After/Day Of Adventure Parts 5 and 6
Part 5: More cops. Every so often they cops would bring an Ambulence into the crowd just to make them move of of the street, and, sometimes, the sidewalk too.
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 5 of ? (Small – 8 MB)
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 5 of ? (Hi-res – 79 MB)
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 6 of ? (Small – 8 MB)
Day After/Day Of Adventure – Part 6 of ? (Hi-res – 84 MB)
Part 6: I took some shots of a lovely artsy theatre group that were posing as dead bodies in a human sculpture of sorts on the sidewalk, and one of them tries to move and is stopped by photographers that hadn’t gotten their shot yet.
These clips demonstrate how many people collected at 4th and Market around 1pm.
All and all the vibe was starting to pick up a bit. (But not for long…)
Hi resolution files will be uploading for a bit — I have to leave but I wanted to get this stuff up so I could get the rest up tomorrow morning…
More Photos – Part 5 (below)
More Photos – Part 6 (below)
Day After/Day Of Adventures – Part 4 of ?
Our adventure continues: Kevin and I decide to leave the arrests (see parts 1-2 and part 3) and wait to see if the cops were going to launch another offensive. The cops were behaving so bizarrely at this point, sort of lining up in formation and running around for no reason in long lines, that I must admit, I was more curious than scared of anything at this point. (A good twenty minutes had gone by since I’d seen a cop whack anybody with one of their clubs, after all.)
Kevin had already filled up his camera and really wanted to download his pictures to his computer so that he could take more shots. He felt “defenseless” without his camera, but the cops had just started trying to divert people off onto a side street, and were actually communicating with people for the first time since I had been present at the protest, so I was intrigued by this sudden opening of a communications channel between the cops and protesters.
–so I told him I’d meet him over at the Starbucks.
I walked up to the cop with the mega phone and asked him if it was now OK to stand on the sidewalk. He replied that actually, no it wasn’t — that he wanted us to move completely off Market Street over to Hyde or Ellis or somewhere or other (didn’t really matter to me, because I had promised Kevin I would meet him back at the Starbucks, which was in the opposite direction, so I decided I’d better hurry before people were cleared off of the block entirely, if that was what was happening…)
On the way to Starbucks, I saw what was the only single incident of vandalism I witnessed the entire time I was downtown that day: a broken window of a Wells Fargo. (Perhaps this act of vandalism was why things had gotten so negative with the cops on that block?)
In the Starbucks, however, everything was normal. Oddly normal. Like nobody else but us was even paying attention to what was going on outside. Kevin and I watched the protest through a window as if it were a lifesized TV. And in a way, it was. It was TV where, if you chose to walk through a door, you would be part of the program.
When Kevin had downloaded his photos, we emerged from the Starbucks, and, magically, it was OK to stand on the sidewalk again!
However, things seemed to have heated up, and the cops continued to form in rather threatening formations without telling us why, or what we were doing wrong, or how we might make it better.
Day After/Day Of Part 4 of ? (Small – 10 MB)
Day After/Day Of Part 4 of ? (Hi-Res – 91 MB)
Day After/Day Of Adventures – Part 3 of ?
More footage of people getting arrested and being intimidated by the cops:
Day After Part 3 of ? (Small – 8 MB) (Hi-Res 97 MB)
Yes, she’s smiling below. So is the cop walking away from her. One of the happier moments of the day…
Someone Else’s Footage Who Was Standing Right Next To Me During the “Cop Attack”
Day After/Day Of Adventures – Parts 1-2 of ?
Note: This set of video clips does not contain the ones from my earlier posts here and here.
Note that the hi-resolution clips might not have uploaded yet till about an hour after this post. (I’m having tech difficulties and it could be longer.)
This is footage of people getting arrested and the people around me yelling at the cops. Note: Just to clarify… I myself am not yelling at the cops.
In general, as a personal decision, I choose to not yell at the cops.
(Call me conservative 🙂
It would also screw up my video footage if I yelled while I was filming.
Part 1 of ? – March 20, 2003 (Small – 8 MB)
Part 1 of ? – March 20, 2003 (Hi-Res 69 MB)
Part 2 of ? – March 20, 2003 (Small – 8 MB)
Part 2 of ? – March 20, 2003 (Hi-Res – 79 MB)
Freaking Out After The Cops Attacked
This footage goes after the other stuff I posted earlier. I think it will speak for itself. It’s just me and Kevin exchanging stories about what happened to us while keeping an eye on the cops in case they should attack us again. (They were all over the sidewalk at this point and it didn’t seem there was anywhere that was safe.)
I know it sounds silly, perhaps. Or over-reactive. But after what we had just witnessed, it was exactly what we were thinking.
I’ll be numbering the rest of my clips so it won’t be too complicated to know if you have a complete set.
The afterfreak. (4 MB)