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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Kidnapped in Ottawa at N17 (G20/IMF/WB) |
Current rating: 0 |
by -d.
(No verified email address) |
24 Nov 2001
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LeBreton Flats: On Saturday, November 17, an armoured riot squad from the Ottawa police and dozens of paramilitary soldiers from the RCMP ambushed a G20 protest march just minutes after it began. Here are the details of my kidnapping and unlawful confinement. |
LeBreton Flats, Ottawa Ontario Canada
By now it is widely known that the March from LeBreton Flats was violently assaulted by police. RCMP 'snatch squads' picked off protestors one by one and two by two all morning. Dubbed 'Fashion Police', these heavily armed agents targeted individuals wearing dark colours and/or masks.
When my section of the march encountered the police at around 10:45 a.m., a thick row of officers already lined both sides of the roadway. Marchers trickled through a loose wall of riot police staggered across the street. Several jumpy looking officers carried the all-too-familiar plastic bullet guns. Police along the sides of the road closed in tightly as the black-clad portion of the march approached. I saw police dogs lunge dangerously close to several protestors (I later learned that dozens of people were bitten over the course of the day - some dogs pierced right to the bone).
As the police aggression escalated, a brave group of Pagan women sought to protect masked protestors from unlawful abduction by placing their bodies between us and the police. Numerous police charged into the crowd waving clubs - not more than ten minutes after the procession left the rallying point.
I was the second person to be successfully 'snatched'. It unfolded in just a few seconds. A cop jabbed me with his shield - bouncing me away from the Pagans. I stumbled. When I regained my footing, I heard the shout of a protestor who had been marching beside me moments ago. I looked up just in time to see four well-padded RCMP gang tackle him. As this unfortunate protestor hit the ground, four police piling on top of him, I distinctly heard an RCMP agent call out "get him, too" in a relaxed tone of voice. A second later I was blind-sided by Darth Vader and Robocop.
I backpedalled a few steps and crumpled to the pavement ten feet away. The elbow of my sweatshirt disintegrated as I skidded against ashphalt. One officer knelt on my spine, another sat on my legs. I screamed as calmly as I could that I wasn't resisting. They wrenched my arms behind my back and bound my wrists with plastic cuffs. Other protestors heckled the police as an officer brought a growling German Shepard to within five feet of my face - a gratuitous act of intimidation.
I was lifted to my feet by my elbows and pushed to a police cruiser, where I was held down across the trunk and frisked. An RCMP agent told me I was being charged with obstruction - a criminal offence. An RCMP officer spit questions at me as he emptied my pockets (he found two organic granola bars and some quarters). I didn't respond. After two minutes they sat me down on a curb. A riot cop with a rubber bullet gun propped carelessly under his arm tore off my balaclava: "Show your face, you pussy!" Officers took turns searching my bag over and over again (it contained a skirt, a t-shirt and stickers that read: 'Queer is beautiful', 'Capitalism Kills Kids', and 'Millenary Power not Military Power!'). With the sophistication of a schoolyard bully, one belligerent policeman deliberately ripped the bottom out of my bag. Another officer, also casually clutching a plastic bullet gun, crouched beside me and gave a long hard yank on my cuffs, making them painfully tight (I still haven't regained feeling in one thumb and I have small scabs circling my right wrist).
The protestor who I saw being assaulted before me was still pressed to the ground where he fell - at least one officer sat on him the whole time. The police used a red marker to write identifying numbers on our foreheads before loading us into the back of a truck. Within about an hour, another 14 people were being held in the truck (about 11 men and three women in all). The van was filled beyond capacity. One of the guards taunted us, saying we'd have to make room for another ten prisoners. Our wrists and hands ached from the tight cuffs (some of us had been bound for an hour and a half). I saw that at least two people's fingers had turned blue by the end of the ride.
At the courthouse we were searched then locked in a single cell monitored by two video cameras. The only food served was bologna or cheese sandwiches and milk. As most of us were vegetarians, only one or two people chose to eat the meat sandwiches. Guards refused to provide food for the three vegans among us. One guard said: "You should eat the meat. It'll help you take down the police next time".
Those of us who saw lawyers were permitted to speak with duty counsel, but were denied the right to contact the legal collective. Three of us needed medication. In my case duty counsel was advised of my need, but didn't seem to do anything about it. In a display of solidarity, everyone in the cell rattled the bars - demanding that our health concerns be addressed. Eventually, the guard told me he would "see what he could do" about getting my pills. However, a cell mate was told to "fuck off" when, in between hacking up copious amounts of phlegm, he asked to have access to much needed antibiotics. A detainee across the hall was refused penicillin for an obviously uncomfortable ear infection. No one was ever given access to his medicine. A person with Multiple Sclerosis down the hall was also not allowed access to medicinal pot when his small dose ran out.
Late in the evening, we were divided up three to a cell. With a metal cot and toilet filling most of the tiny room, the single-occupancy cells necessitated that we take turns sitting on the smelly concrete floor. Many of the protestors in another hall kept the guards awake with loud and comical chants of resistance. Periodically an investigator would walk back and forth in front of our cells sucking on a cigarette. Twice he removed one of the young offenders from an adjacent cell to question him in a separate room. Several people were told to "shut the fuck up" when they asked to see a lawyer, or, in the case of some of the younger prisoners - to call their parents or grandparents.
We were all released between about 3am and 4:30 am. I got out around 3:45am. As I left, I was told by the investigator that if he saw me again I wouldn't be getting out of jail any time soon. All of us were released unconditionally and without charges. At least one woman I spoke to reported sexual harrassment from a male guard. At least two of my cell mates reported being 'tazered' during their arrest.
Last week-end, I saw people I love and care being thrown against pavement by armoured soldiers. I saw a young man with bruises on both sides of his neck from a policeman's grip. I have some minor scrapes on my body, but I saw some people with grapefruit-sized welts on their legs and back. Black bruises. Facial lacerations. Dog bites. Plastic bullet wounds. Swollen fingers and ankles... A lot of good people were badly hurt in Ottawa.
But solidarity is growing.
Teamsters love turtles and Pagans support the anarchists.
-d.
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See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=94750&group=webcast
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