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Hidden with code "Submitted as Feature" |
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News :: Protest Activity |
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UCIMC Reporters Arrested in NYC |
Current rating: 0 |
by Meghan and Ellen
Email: radicallibrarian (nospam) hellokitty.com (unverified!)
Address: 218 W. Main St., Suite 110, Urbana, IL 61801 |
02 Sep 2004
Modified: 06:26:02 AM |
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Eight UCIMC reporters attended the Republican National Convention protests that began in New York last Sunday, August 29. Five of the UCIMC reporters were arrested during the War Resisters' League March on Tuesday, August 31, 2004. |
Eight UCIMC reporters attended the Republican National Convention protests that began in New York last Sunday, August 29. After attending the United for Peace and Justice march with approximately 500,000 other people, the reporters also took part in the Poor People's March for Our Lives, which was a diverse march, and other events. While the reporters certainly witnessed violent acts on the part of the police as they were splitting the march up, these marches were overwhelmingly peaceful and everything went well for our reporters.
On Tuesday, August 31, five of the UCIMC reporters went to the site of the World Trade Center to report on the War Resisters' League march and the declared day of direct action. The march was to have gone from Ground Zero to Madison Square Garden, or the closest accessible area, where there was to be a "die-in." As soon as the march stepped off, police declared it illegal and said that they would arrest anyone who disobeyed traffic signals or otherwise violated pedestrian traffic laws. Because this was an unpermitted march, organizers agreed to police demands that marchers walk one or two abreast to avoid obstructing the sidewalk, and the march proceeded in a generally orderly fashion.
As the march moved along, people got caught in the crosswalk during a light change, and the march came to a standstill.Shortly after, police surrounded an estimated 200 people--most of them legally marching on the sidewalk--with an orange plastic fence. Protesters, unsure why they had been penned in, began chanting "Let us disperse!" About 10 minutes later the crowd was informed that all those penned in on the sidewalk were under arrest. After waiting some time in the hot sun police began arresting the crowd. Four city buses and several paddywagons were used to take the protesters to Pier 57.
After approximately 16 hours in custody, one reporter managed to call in a report from Pier 57--also known as "Li'l Gitmo"--on a smuggled cell phone. Conditions were deplorable. Pier 57 is a warehouse rented by the NYPD specifically to hold detained protesters. It is made up of pens, described by one UCIMC reporter as 40 ft by 20 ft, that are surrounded on the top by razorwire. In the pen there are a few benches, but not nearly enough for all the inmates. Most people had to sit or lie on the floor, which was covered in a mysterious sludge.
Each pen had a water bottle, and detainees were given paper cups. Portable toilets were set up in an adjacent smaller pen, and permission had to be given by a guard for access to the toilet. Cells were bathed in bright lights, and inmates were moved from place to place every few hours. At one point, one UCIMC reporter was in this small space with about 90 other women. To accomodate the extra inmates, the guards opened the door to the toilets to allow for more standing room. Every meal consisted of baloney sandwiches. There was no access to lawyers, and it was very difficult to gain access to medication and other necessities like menstrual supplies. As of noon on Sept. 1, one of our reporters was still at Pier 57, though the others had been transferred to Central Booking.
Finally, after 22 hours, the first UCIMC reporter was released. Another reporter was released about an hour later. Their charges were disorderly conduct and parading without a permit. Both were released Adjourned Contemplating Dismissal (ACD), which means that if they are not arrested in New York in the next six months, the charges will be dropped as if the arrest never happened. Additionally, the records are sealed for the six months pending dismissal.
Apparently, the UCIMC reporters were fingerprinted, even though they did not commit a "fingerprintable offense," according to Central Booking's own computer system.
A third UCIMC reporter managed to call-in a report from jail hours after the first two had been released. At that point she had been detained for 28 hours, and was concerned that she and her 13 cellmates had been forgotten. She was informed of her charges 25 hours after her initial arrest. She was released after over thirty hours in detention, the first female UCIMC reporter to be released. Her final charge was also parading without a permit and 2 counts of disorderly conduct. She was also released ACD.
The three released reporters waited all night outside Central Booking with other solidarity activists, greeting the newly released arrestees and hoping to see their friends' faces. At one point, the tension outside of Central Booking began to rise between the police and the people who were gathered to greet and cheer those being released. During the hightened tension the UCIMC reporters left the area for fear of being re-arrested. The tension did eventually de-escalate with no arrests made and about half the crowd dispersing.
After 36 hours in detention the fourth UCIMC reporter was released. The other UCIMC reporters were in the courtroom where she was arraigned. Her charges were the same as the others'--2 counts of disorderly conduct and parading without a permit; she was released ACD.
At this time we are still waiting for the fifth UCIMC reporter to be released.
For the full account from individual reporters: Zach |
This work is in the public domain |
