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News :: Protest Activity |
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UCIMC Members Report on Their Arrest, Captivity in New York City |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sarah Kanouse, Zoe Ginsburg, Colleen Cook, Arun Bhalla
Email: sarahk (nospam) readysubjects.org (unverified!)
Phone: 773045905351, 217-344-3450, 217- |
04 Sep 2004
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First hand account of UCIMC members detention during the RNC protests this week in New York City.
At 4 PM on Tuesday, August 31, five members of the Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center were arrested in a mass round-up of peaceful demonstrators just one block from the site of the former World Trade Center in New York City. The arrest led to a two and a half day ordeal for the demonstrators and their loved ones as the New York Police Department and the Department of Corrections attempted to clear the streets of demonstrators during the Republican National Convention (RNC).
The march, organized by the War Resisters League and the School of the America’s Watch, had assembled at the World Trade Center to march to Madison Square Garden in an effort to bring the sober legacy of September 11 home to the RNC, which was widely reviled in New York City for capitalizing on the attacks for political gain. An estimated 400 people were arrested shortly after police had announced that the march, which did not have a permit to close the street, must remain on the sidewalk and obey New York State traffic laws. The demonstrators were moving along the sidewalk, leaving about 2 1/2 feet of space for other pedestrian traffic and attempting to organize themselves to walk two abreast, when the police suddenly blew a whistle and announced that everyone was under arrest. The police gave no order to disperse prior to surrounding the march with net and beginning the process of handcuffing everyone on the block, including a German tourist, a New Yorker who wanted to watch the demonstration, and a 17 year old woman from Delaware visiting New York for the first time. |
Zoe Ginsburg, a 16 year old Urbana resident and student at University High School, was held for 37 hours before being released at 5:30 AM on Thursday morning. When she asked an officer what she was being charged with, the officer replied that she did not know. Zoe and other UCIMC members Zach Miller of Urbana, Colleen Cook of Champaign, Arun Bhalla of Champaign, and Sarah Kanouse of Chicago were never formally informed of their arrest charges but were assured by their arresting officers, Officer Hector Jordan and Detective Nicholas Stanich, that they’d be released before the next morning. None of the group was set free before Wednesday afternoon, and Sarah Kanouse, the last of the group to be released, left the New York Criminal Court at 6:45 pm on Thursday, after being in custody for over 50 hours.
The demonstrators were initially taken by the busload to Pier 57, a makeshift holding pen in a warehouse quickly dubbed “Guantanamo on the Hudson” by prisoners and the media alike. As many as 90 prisoners at a time were held in 20 by 40 foot pens made with 15 foot chain-link fencing capped with razor wire. The three benches in the pens were far too small to seat all the prisoners, who were forced to sit or sleep on the bare, oily, residue- and chemical-covered floor. Two port-a-potties serviced each cell, which filled quickly during the lengthy holding period, which for many prisoners exceeded 18 hours. Most of the pens were not supplied with trash disposal, and the cells filled quickly with stale, half-eaten sandwiches, crushed paper cups and empty milk cartons.
When the media received word of the conditions at Pier 57 and arranged a photo opportunity after the prisoners were transferred, the police department attempted to conceal the conditions by thoroughly mopping the floor and laying new carpet. While a few demonstrators received plastic sheeting to lie down, the vast majority were offered nothing and emerged from Pier 57 covered in fine, black grit. A large number of arrestees received rashes and blisters, and still more reported severe headaches, sore throats and hacking coughs in the hours and days following their transfer. Medics who treated demonstrators upon their release recommended that they first take cold showers to avoid absorbing the substances from the Pier 57 floor and were taking clothing samples to analyze the composition of the greasy grit.
On August 31, over 1000 people were swept up in massive arrests, handcuffed, fingerprinted, photographed, and held in custody. Most of them were charged with very minor violations that are usually handled by writing a Field Appearance Ticket, which orders the violator to be arraigned in court at a later date. The hundreds of prisoners, most of whom had never been arrested before, overwhelmed a system that usually handles 200-300 arrests per day. While the police claim that the hold-up was a result of simply having too many people in the system, prisoners claim that the system itself, not to mention the unnecessary arrest of hundreds of peaceful demonstrators and bystanders, was responsible for the delays. Very few prisoners were moved from Pier 57 during the night following their arrest, creating a huge backlog for the police, corrections and the courts in the following days. Arrestees who were taken to the hospital for treatment of medical conditions, including the administration of their routine prescription medication, had their papers taken out of the system at the point until they returned, backlogging the system for everyone. Early in the week, only one arrestee was arraigned at a time even though many had the same charges. Delays due to overcrowding and poor planning were not inevitable; under pressure from protesters outside the jail, family of the arrestees, the National Lawyer’s Guild, and an eventual court order that fined the NYPD $1000 for every person held longer than 24 hours, the arraignment process accelerated dramatically, with three demonstrators facing a judge at once.
The excruciating delays wore down the prisoners’ health and energy and kept many demonstrators off the street for more than two days. Lawyers and protesters believe that the delays were designed to prevent people from exercising their free speech rights during the convention and voicing their opposition during Bush’s acceptance speech on Thursday. Norman Siegel of the National Lawyer’s Guild, which represented thousands of arrestees, alleged, “The city of New York attempted to 'lose' the people currently held in central booking until after Bush gave his speech tonight, after which they would miraculously be 'found.'” Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union issued a statement regarding police tactics. “The pre-emptive arrests; preventive detentions and dangerous conditions at Pier 57 and massive surveillance of lawful protest activity undermined the right to dissent. The department’s practices were inconsistent and its standards were unclear from day-to-day. As a result, perfectly lawful actions could result in an arrest on any given day and time. That stifles dissent and political debate.”
Whatever the source of the delays, prisoners and, to a lesser extent, rank and file officers experienced the brunt of the difficulties they caused. Few prisoners were offered a phone call until well over 24 hours into their detention, if at all. Zoe Ginsburg was unable to call her parents for over 30 hours to confirm that she was in jail and that, due to a New York law that allows 16 year old to sign their own legal papers, they didn’t need to fly to New York to get her released. Medical conditions were regularly ignored for hours and then required transfer to a hospital for treatment. Even at the jail, conditions were overcrowded and uncomfortable. Sarah Kanouse spent 10 hours overnight in an eight by nine foot cell with seven prisoners huddled on the concrete floor to warm each other enough to sleep. But most disorienting and demoralizing were the long waits, with hopes for release rising with every transfer to a new cell and then dashed again by inaccurate and conflicting information from the police and guards, who themselves were often more confused than malicious in dealing with their unusual prisoners. Protesters experienced moments of solidarity with the police, who have been working without a contract for over two years and who clearly received inadequate training for a week of 15 hour shifts. Sarah witnessed a guard open the windows wider during a prisoner chant so the sound could travel better, and some allowed prisoners to make multiple phone calls on their office phones. But other officers were hostile to arrestees, created arbitrary rules, fastened handcuffs too tight, threatened unnecessary searches, bullied and yelled, and psychologically destabilized prisoners with lies and constantly changing estimates of the time remaining until their release.
A common refrain of both the police and the New York media was that if someone attends a demonstration, s/he should expect to get arrested. One of the corrections officers who expressed sympathy with the protesters’ cause added, “Of course if you’re going to protest, you’ve got to expect that this will happen.” But to the demonstrators, this seems like a backwards way to look at the detention. If free speech and free assembly are among our most important constitutionally guaranteed rights, people should not be expected to spend two days behind bars as a price exacted for voicing their conscience.
Also contact Colleen Cook (colleencook7 (at) hotmail.com); Zoe Ginsburg (zoe (at) riseup.net); Arun Bhalla (bhalla (at) uiuc.edu) |
Related stories on this site:
Full story of one reporter's arrest, jail time, and release
City held in contempt of court
Final UCIMC reporter has just been released from jail
Another reporters story of arrest, jail, and release
Local IMC members tell us what it was like to be imprisoned for assembling at the Republican National Convention.
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This work is in the public domain. |
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Re: UCIMC Members Report on Their Arrest, Captivity in New York City |
by Zach Miller
zach (nospam) chambana.net (unverified) |
Current rating: 0
06 Sep 2004
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My arresting officer was named Meehan. |
