BAIL MONEY NEEDED URGENTLY

Police Spokesman Bill Schwartz said "everything we're doing is falling into place like a well-oiled machine. I believe we have been having success so far, which means minimal violence, because of the show of force." Police Chief Timoney said "I thought the officers showed remarkable restraint. These are outsiders coming in to terrorize and vandalize our city."

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j w, 11.22.2003 10:58
Subject: [riseup] Very i
I am sending this out to everyone that I know....

Things here in Miami are very bad. For those of you that do not know, I
have been in Miami for the last two weeks organizing for the Free Trade
Area of the Americas (FTAA) meetings. I have been working at the
welcome center for all the anti-FTAA activists, and the police here have
been excruciatingly brutal. I myself was beaten and suffered a head injury
on Thursday without reason, but others are much worse.

There are many people in jail that have been beaten and pepper sprayed at
close range. The people of color from our mobilization have been
specifically targeted and attacked. The people of color have been put in
cells without bathroom facilities and had their shoes and other clothes
that would keep them warm taken away, and they are hosed down with cold
water every two hours with high powered water hoses. During the night one
Hispanic male and an African American male were taken from the group and
the Hispanic was beaten and pepper sprayed withing inches of his face for
two hours then returned to the cell. He was beaten so badly that his skin
split open. Another person of color had a head injury from the police
before being taken to jail and was refused care and they beat him again
and he is hemorrhaging from the brain and in intensive care now. This is
only a slight case of what is going on with the police and the jails here
in Miami.

Two trans-gendered people have been sexually assaulted in jail, as well as
reports of one woman being forced to give oral sex to an officer. Female
protesters were separated and held by four officers who then cut off their
clothes when taken to jail. Again this is only a slight bit of what is
going on here. For more information on what has been going on check out
WWW.FTAAIMC.ORG

I am appealing to ALL OF YOU to call Miami, call your representatives,
send money for bail and anything else that you can think of doing to help
out. Check out the www.StopFTAA.org website for where to send money and
who to contact. The police state here in Miami is terrible and I am on the
brink of breaking down. PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD about what is going on here
in Miami. This is TYPICAL of the police and jail here. We need help and
support. I am sending this out because I do not know what else to do. The
message is not getting out in the corporate press, so please write letters
to your local papers and other news agencies to DEMAND coverage and
accountablity. I am not in jail so I am going to be working here until my
flight back home on Monday, but if anyone has the means to get here, help
and reinforcements would be greatly appreciated.

This is not supposed to happen in this country, and if I was not
already ashamed to be american, this would make me so. Please help out in
the name of humanity...