At the beginning of this footage, you can hear me talking to my friend Kevin Burton on the phone. (Here it is in two parts for those of you with slow connections: part 1, part 2.)
I had been in the same spot for almost a half hour. There was a line of cops in the street, but they had been there the whole time and there was no reason to believe that anything was “wrong” per se.
The last thing I remember (and indeed, the last thing that happens on-screen before all hell breaks loose) is watching my friend Kevin wave to me as he is walking across the street. I had just finished telling him that I decided to take a few steps back so I wouldn’t be “in the street.” The cops would talk to us to tell us what we could do to not be in trouble, although they could have easily done so using a megaphone or some other means available to them — but I could figure out that blocking traffic were what they were so upset about so I (so foolishly) thought I would be OK if I stayed on the sidewalk.
There was little or no communication between the cops and the protesters before the line of cops rushed into the crowd and started hitting people with billy clubs and selecting members of the crowd at random to be arrested.
I wish I could say that I stood my ground and just kept filming, but as my footage will demonstrate. I backed up to the far end of the sidewalk to make sure I wasn’t going to get hit before I could concentrate on filming again.
It was then that I noticed “gangs” of 2 or 3 cops picking on certain individuals — usually male. I got some shots of this (http://www.lisarein.com/3-20-03-copgang.gif) and then turned to see a cops throw a girl into a newspaper machine. I turned the camera on her in time to see her try to stand up while a cop confronted her and she tried to back away from him while he hit her with his club (med res) (hi-res and small) and was about to do it again when she ran off screaming. (I interview her here.) (Hi-res version of interview.)
Again: the violence I witnessed seemed to be at random, unprovoked, and without warning. If they’re trying to scare us out of exercising our free speech rights, they’re sure doing a good job. I’m going to get my footage up today and see what the scene is before going back out there today.
Okay so back to describing this scene. After the cops rushed the crowd, and selecting certain individuals and having them put their hands behind their backs since they were going to be arrested, the crowd begins booing and screaming. “The whole worlds watching,” it screams. (“Ha!” I thought to myself, “I wonder if the crowd or the cops know how true that is!” 🙂
Kevin was shouting, “You don’t have to do this!” Someone else shouted “Take some pride in your work”. I kept having to run from the action periodically so the camera keeps getting shaky, but I decided to leave in all of that footage so you could see the whole conflict within its proper context from beginning to end.
I was seriously worried that I was going to get attacked by one of these cops — even though I was just standing there, far away from the street, with my camera, peacefully. I’ve never personally witnessed cops just running into the street hitting people at random that haven’t provoked them before, and have generally been very supportive of San Francisco cops’ behavior during the protests for this reason. Now I’m scared, and very, very sad (perhaps more sad than anything else).
One good thing I saw the cops doing was about four of them stopped to help an old man that was about to pass out. They stood with him for several minutes while he came around. At first people thought they were going to arrest him or something, and then we realized what was going on and spread the world that they were actually helping him out. (I just felt compelled to pass the incident along, to their credit.)
Photos of cop beating up girl from incident mentioned above:
Here are some other grabs I took from my footage, with captions:
Kevin Burton running out of the street when the cops start attacking people.
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A gang of cops attacking a protester.
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A shot of the crowd during the incident.
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Another shot of the crowd during the incident. (At this point, everyone was putting their hands above their heads in peace signs, hoping they would see that we werent fighting back so they would stop hitting us.)
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A cop brandishing the biggest baton I’ve ever seen in my life.
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Cops restraining randomly chosen folks in the crowd.
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Another shot of the same group of cops as above restraining the same guy (a randomly chosen protester in the crowd).
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A very sad police officer who looks like he wishes he was somewhere else. (There were many sad cops just like this guy.)
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Shots of the scuffle.
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Another shot of the scuffle.
MR. Bennett,
You obviously don’t believe in a countries’ right to self-determination and choose to be blinded by all other motivations of this administration. Open your eyes, noone says Saddam is a good guy, but neither is this administrations motives. Wake up, the world is not just America anymore.
Richard Bennett said, above, that “rioting during wartime is un-American.”
Well if unprovoked police violence *is* American, then we can kiss this country goodbye. If this is what our country stands for, then what we pledged allegiance to is just a story in a book.
Whatever you think about the war, wake up and do homage to what has made our nation both great and good; honor our Constitution.
Before being an American comes to mean something unrecognizably ugly.
I think these trouble makers got what they deserve. As you can see be the red haired hippy, she was not where she should have been. Stay behind barricades and away from police. I wish they would drop some gas on these protesters just like the Iraqis did!
One loon cites Al Jazeera, and another speaks of Iraq’s right to self-determination under the reign of a genocidal dictator. The left is surely mad.
Go cops! Kill Pinky!
I think that the cop was only practicing his rights to free speech.
I hope when Pinky takes a trip to Planned Parenthood (you know she and Cop Rassler the Boyfriend aren’t smart enough to use a condom correctly and wouldn’t take responsibility for their actions, anyway), anti-abortion protesters really let her have it. Would she ask for a police escort into the clinic?
Also, for all you who claim to be experts on American history and how American democracy works, I don’t know why you have no concept of how the electoral college works. Bush won Florida (the recounts even after he was named winner showed this; otherwise Al Gore certainly would’ve pursued it), and thus he had enough electoral votes to win the Presidency. May I remind you that Bill Clinton never received a majority of the popular vote, either. I didn’t see any of you ‘democracy warriors’ taking to the streets to protest the ‘Clinton regime’ in 1992 or 1996…
I can’t wait for the 2004 election when Bush beats the Democratic ticket of Ralph Nader/Michael Moore. Someone better go found a think tank now to come up with the most creative excuses.
Also, if you care so much about civilians dying in Iraq, why don’t you mind that Saddam puts them through plastic shredders? Oh, I forgot, that’s peaceful.
Nothing would feel better than to put my fist through the back of any liberal’s head right now. Evil regime? Puppet president? Life is easy when your wet noodle Clinton rides the economic waves to public approval success. And what the hell do you rainbow huggers know about ‘regimes’? You live in America you freakin’ crybabies. Not all people of the world are lucky enough to eat tofu and drink Frappacinos.
And last time I checked, cops are supposed to supress riots. It’s their job. So, like zay said, if you are ready to protest against war, you’d better be ready to get a club in the face.
Right on Abe. I agree with you 100%…pussy liberals…fuck you.
Having had wasted about 20 mins reading through the immaturity of you whining, spoiled brats that actually believe 1. Your crying about something beyond your control will actually do something, 2. Your vehement violation of the law is unpunishable …would mention more, but, why bother? I have plenty more to bitch about –
I have learned that I cannot be wrong in my political beliefs if I determine what today’s college students and the French support…I opt for the opposite and seem to be right thus far.
Protesting is fine but why protest? So you can see yourself on CNN? I haven’t seen you, because I watch FOX.. If you are currently protesting against our mission, you’re wrong. Do some research. Learn to think for yourselves. WMD or not. What’s the problem with invading Iraq?
We, as a country, are a world dominating power. It is about time we conquer what we need to survive. Iraq for oil. Canada and South America for lumber. France for its wine. Cuba for its vacationland (Revitalized by our newly found oil surplus revenues). Rome did it for a 1000 years. Its time we do the same, because we can.
Spend your time looking for a job to pay for a haircut and shave. Its about time you learn to wipe your own ass rather than expecting someone to do it for you.
Regardless of how you feel, remember our troops. Some may be on the line and not agree with what they are doing. However, they took the vow and commitment to obey orders. Pray for them and their safe return, no matter the outcome nor your beliefs.
Having had wasted about 20 mins reading through the immaturity of you whining, spoiled brats that actually believe 1. Your crying about something beyond your control will actually do something, 2. Your vehement violation of the law is unpunishable …would mention more, but, why bother? I have plenty more to bitch about –
I have learned that I cannot be wrong in my political beliefs if I determine what today’s college students and the French support…I opt for the opposite and seem to be right thus far.
Protesting is fine but why protest? So you can see yourself on CNN? I haven’t seen you, because I watch FOX.. If you are currently protesting against our mission, you’re wrong. Do some research. Learn to think for yourselves. WMD or not. What’s the problem with invading Iraq?
We, as a country, are a world dominating power. It is about time we conquer what we need to survive. Iraq for oil. Canada and South America for lumber. France for its wine. Cuba for its vacationland (Revitalized by our newly found oil surplus revenues). Rome did it for a 1000 years. Its time we do the same, because we can.
Spend your time looking for a job to pay for a haircut and shave. Its about time you learn to wipe your own ass rather than expecting someone to do it for you.
Regardless of how you feel, remember our troops. Some may be on the line and not agree with what they are doing. However, they took the vow and commitment to obey orders. Pray for them and their safe return, no matter the outcome nor your beliefs.
Get the bigger picture: Bush has set into motion the events that will mark the end of any sort of a civil society. Internationally, the U.S. has become the new threat to world peace. In case anyone wasn’t paying attention, there was no war until we started it. That we’ve set a precedent for invading a country without it making any aggressive actions first is a calamity. Just wait till someone comes knocking on our door. Locally, we’re beginning to really feel the oppressive nature of a police state. The fact that we were attacked while we were assembling peacefully (check the 1st Amendment) and that there was no coverage of those events in the mainstream media shows a lot about how much influence the Bush administration has over us all. We don’t have politicians in office, we have business men, set up in the classic “Old Boys Network”, running one of the biggest scams the world has ever seen. And you thought Enron was a bad deal! And to those who support this war of self-interest, you’ll be kicking yourself in the ass when things fall apart.
Don’t let them do this to us and to the world!
Interesting situation.
While I find reports of police brutality worthy of investigation, it didn’t seem clear from the videos here that excessive force was used. I watched the main (longest) video and the interview with Sonja. I couldn’t get the video of just the part where the police officer clubbed her to work in my video player (xine), but I’m assuming it was clipped from the large piece.
I’ll all for free speech (I have much stronger opinions on this issue than most), but I don’t think that gives protesters the right to block the streets. The protests can take place on the sidewalk. Of course, the idea is to intentionally disrupt traffic to draw more attention to the protest. In that situation, I think it’s legitimate for the police to start arresting people and to hit them with sticks if they do not leave the street. Really, what do they expect? That everyone is just going to let that portion of the city be shut down?
From the interview, it sounds like Sonja’s boyfriend was fighting with some police officers and she rushed over to help him. That gives some important context to the reaction of the police officer. Even so, that clubbing may have been unfair. It didn’t look like she was hit at all hard, but it’s really hard to tell.
I’ve only seen one other video of the protest that alleged police brutality, and I couldn’t find anything questionable in it. It appeared to be nothing more than a video of a girl lying face down on the street as a couple police officers knelt beside her and handcuffed her with those plastic strips. It was hard to see, but I didn’t see anything to suggest she was being hit or otherwise mistreated.
It’s good that people are filming these scuffles. It keeps both sides accountable and provides a little bit of sanity in such chaotic, confusing situations.
Some notes on my political views:
I somewhat dislike the Bush administration. I really dislike Ashcroft. I find some aspects of the war disturbing, but I’m not wholly opposed to it.
I tried to refrain from replying, however I couldn’t help myself. “Sadly Smiling”, which is a name that proves my point of you and your peers taking a self-pitying notion upon yourselves. Most importantly, you’ve proved my point that you are oblivious to the laws governed by our society.
I respect Bethencourt’s remarks, as his statements are unbiased and lack a finite opinion, allowing others to believe what they wish and he understands that they are entitled to such.
SS, you may want to get the Entire Picture: We are the strongest member of the UN. Saddam has had more than a decade to come into alignment with the referendums imposed. As we have been attacked on our own soil, it is time we as a nation take an offensive stance rather than rolling over whenever someone cries foul. Saddam HIMSELF, not Bush, has set into motion the actions that can eliminate the world as a civil society. If we haven’t done what we’ve done so far and waited another ten years, it would have allowed him time to develop a full-blown nuclear weapon regime and probably sooner would have attacked us with his chemical/biological weapons (He doesn’t have any, but we’ve discovered his troops with protective equipment…You figure that one out)
Do we need to wait for 1000s more of our innocent citizens to perish before we do anything?
I firmly believe that if 9-11 hadn’t happened, we wouldn’t be doing this today. However, if Bush and his ‘Hawks’ have an underlying motive and would be doing this anyway, unprovoked, I would feel very differently about what’s going on.
Anyhow, SS, someday you’ll come to an epiphany and realize that the world isn’t nor should it be fair.
And, a note on your video – I never saw anything that solidifies wrong-doing on eithers part. However, when you interfere with the sovergn rights that our society was based on (life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness), you impose a physical risk upon yourself. …Illegally blocking of the streets (did you ever say you had a permit for legal protest?)..How would you feel if someone died on the way to the hospital because the lack of your sensibility resulted in the lack of a throughfare??
A sidenote on my political beliefs:
When a police officer tells you to do something, whether or not you feel it’s wrong, you do it, otherwise he has the right to use lethal force – He doesn’t know who you are, he’s there to protect my life along with his.
I am in the army and in Iraq. So are my brother and cousin. The majority of the Iraqi people want our help. We are doing more good than bad. Sure we are doing it for all the wrong reasons. We should have ended all this shit years ago with Saddam. I know just like every one else that some innocent Iraqi
I am in the army and in Iraq. So are my brother and cousin. The majority of the Iraqi people want our help. We are doing more good than bad. Sure we are doing it for all the wrong reasons. We should have ended all this shit years ago with Saddam. I know just like every one else that some innocent Iraqi
You have so very little information of global policies and political infrastructure. You can’t make gut decisions because a Threatened President choses to act on confidential information he recieves from reliable sources. Maybe, just maybe you should protest the lack of controll you have over government decisions. That way you’ll be responsible for military actions or the lack there of, and realize the consequenses of your actions.
Think About It!
Mishka rules !
Boris rules !
Looking at those cops…I got a really bad feeling that they weren’t “normal”. They seem to be like “zombies” or “controlled”. As far as I am concerned, they were thugs in uniform.
The whole point here is that the Iraq war is a farce. The stated purpose for the war was finding WMD’s. None found. Then the purpose became to get Saddam because of ties to 9/11. No ties. Now the purpose is to “liberate” the people of Iraq. For the first year after 9/11 all you “patriots” wanted to kill every “towel-head” and “Camel Jockey” you saw on the streets. Now you want to be their savior? Whey the sudden change of heart. Each and every step of this war on terror has been a complete failure. The majority of the perpetrators of 9/11 were from Saudia Arabia; but we attacked Afganistan. We blew up a bunch of caves going after Osama Bin Laden and he’s still out there. As is Saddam Hussein. In the mean time, we’ve got soldiers dying every day in post war conflict while Halliburton (read: more money in the pockets of Cheney et.al.)is awarded a no bid contract worth $2 billon for the reconstruction. Tell me, how do we define success in Iraq? Patriotism is not blindly accepting what ever half truths the government puts out there. Patriotism is the people keeping the government in check, not the other way around. There are some post here that compare Bush to Hitler. If you read history, and understand it, you’ll know that Hitler created a common enemy to galvanized the nation. With enough propaganda you can get a nation of people to do and believe almost anything. Once the cold war was over, this nation was in search of a common enemy. At first it was Osa Bin Laden. Couldn’t find him so out of nowhere it became Saddam Hussien. G.W. Bush is out to finish the job for dear old dad. Tying Hussein to 9/11 is like the game that ties every actor out there to Kevin Bacon. If you use enough bridges you can make the connection.
The whole point here is that the Iraq war is a farce. The stated purpose for the war was finding WMD’s. None found. Then the purpose became to get Saddam because of ties to 9/11. No ties. Now the purpose is to “liberate” the people of Iraq. For the first year after 9/11 all you “patriots” wanted to kill every “towel-head” and “Camel Jockey” you saw on the streets. Now you want to be their savior? Whey the sudden change of heart. Each and every step of this war on terror has been a complete failure. The majority of the perpetrators of 9/11 were from Saudia Arabia; but we attacked Afganistan. We blew up a bunch of caves going after Osama Bin Laden and he’s still out there. As is Saddam Hussein. In the mean time, we’ve got soldiers dying every day in post war conflict while Halliburton (read: more money in the pockets of Cheney et.al.)is awarded a no bid contract worth $2 billon for the reconstruction. Tell me, how do we define success in Iraq? Patriotism is not blindly accepting what ever half truths the government puts out there. Patriotism is the people keeping the government in check, not the other way around. There are some post here that compare Bush to Hitler. If you read history, and understand it, you’ll know that Hitler created a common enemy to galvanized the nation. With enough propaganda you can get a nation of people to do and believe almost anything. Once the cold war was over, this nation was in search of a common enemy. At first it was Osa Bin Laden. Couldn’t find him so out of nowhere it became Saddam Hussien. G.W. Bush is out to finish the job for dear old dad. Tying Hussein to 9/11 is like the game that ties every actor out there to Kevin Bacon. If you use enough bridges you can make the connection.
The San Fran rioting is a sign of people frustrated with what their government etc have done and most likely insulted their own morlas and beliefs. If a gathering is non violent, then police have no right to intervene or in my eyes even be present to provoke. If they assemble, then to are the rights of teh people to assemble. Plain clothes officers can monitor and easily sway public support for stopping straglers from getting out of line. The easier answer to this is to keep the government from creating matters that tyhe people feel the need to retalitate or protest against. Now months later, we all learned of the lies and deaths of ours and theirs who never should have been attacked. In 2004, make your vote clear for Bush.. if he receives 1 human vote, it is 2 too many.
The San Fran rioting is a sign of people frustrated with what their government etc have done and most likely insulted their own morlas and beliefs. If a gathering is non violent, then police have no right to intervene or in my eyes even be present to provoke. If they assemble, then to are the rights of teh people to assemble. Plain clothes officers can monitor and easily sway public support for stopping straglers from getting out of line. The easier answer to this is to keep the government from creating matters that tyhe people feel the need to retalitate or protest against. Now months later, we all learned of the lies and deaths of ours and theirs who never should have been attacked. In 2004, make your vote clear for Bush.. if he receives 1 human vote, it is 2 too many.
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Sweet kisses for a sweet site. Loved every minute here. Big hug, Ruth
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Heimarbeit
what the fuck is goin on with these people in power who are supposed to protect the common people and represent us.But instead they want our money and dont want to give it back, well i guess the only good thing about domocracy is that we have freedom, but only to a certain extent.We speak our mind on a issue and they try to shut us up, or not listen to the people at all.but it doesnt matter what i say or the person next door says,the only thing that changes the world as we know it are the rich greedy motherfuckers in goverments and corporations. All I have to say to you Bitchs is that the greedier you are the harder you will fall.
Nice site. Informative and beautiful.
Nice site. Informative and beautiful.
The protesters deserved what they asked for. The protesters DISOBEYED laws and commands of police officers continuously. They were blocking roadways, etc. Chemical agents should have been fired upon them, maybe next time they will learn how to protest peacefully.
Protest Footage
footage of the SF protests on 20/3/2003
I see nothing wrong in that video. I only see cops doing their job. These blue collar working men didn’t ask for you to be idiots. Why don’t you look at Kent State. This was class warfare. Rich upity lilly white kids who were going to college on their parents dime decided they knew better than despite zero education. Blue collar working men had to spend theor weekends baby sitting these college pussies. I’d shoot them to for taking me away from my family. Another thing, if you haven’t been to Iraq and shed blood for this country then shut your mouth. I can’t stand pussies who talk, but don’t back it up. Pick up a gun and do something.
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hello
For the people who defended the police officers: There is a revolution coming. The hippy era of the 60’s is about to play out in 2005-2008. Stop getting your news spoon fed to you and wake up. Go out and read up on the Project for a New American Century, and then you will realize why people are standing in the streets. The United States could easily pass as a Facist Empire. Why else would all of our powerful allies refuse to help us invade Iraq. When Bush has the draft bill reinstated, I hope these pro-war and pro-bush people are the first to go. Then they will finally see the horrific things that happens in war, and maybe then they will have some sympathy for the protesters in the video.