Aug. 20, 2005
- Police
crack down on protesters once again:
Citations
issued to drummers; at least 3 passing motorists ticketed for honking
their
car horns
Last week was a
little too much for
management. Maybe it was the sight of 247 people having a better time
protesting than consuming. Maybe it was the fact that the live street
music caused Wet Willies’ patrons to miss a drink or two on their way
to a staggering stupor. Maybe…no, probably…the sight of an empowered
citizenry scares Them (as in, capital-“T”-“Them”) so much that
violating the Constitution seems like a small price to pay when
compared with the alternative. And that alternative is real democracy,
as opposed to the camera-ready kind which plays well against a backdrop
of flags and puppet governments (including our own).
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Whatever
the reason, the call from “the
authorities” came in on Friday…no drums, no noisemakers, no musical
instruments in front of Baywalk…selectively enforced, of course, as I
expect state-sanctioned, consumer-oriented events such as First Friday
and New Year’s Eve will remain blissfully free from police harassment. |
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Not so during this evening’s activities.
Protesters were
greeted with flyers, courtesy of the St. Pete police department (which
apparently is still allowed to pass out leaflets wherever it wants to -
unlike anti-war demonstrators) informing participants that, should they
brandish so much as a kazoo, they would be subject to a $30.00 fine.
With each subsequent warning, fines would increase to a maximum of
$500.00. After that, there would be arrests.
Interestingly enough, the police omitted the
quasi-arrest procedure part from their flyer. That would be the
procedure where anyone spotted with a pair of rhythm sticks would be
surrounded by no less than five of St. Pete’s finest, escorted to a
cruiser and detained prior to receiving his or her ticket. They also
neglected to warn people who drove by and honked their horn in support,
about the $75.00 fine they would receive in exchange for their First
Amendment rights.
We are not making this up.
There really are motorists who were stopped and
fined for honking in support of Saturday night’s anti-war
demonstration. There really are at least three people who were stopped,
searched and fined for tapping rhythm sticks together. And this really
isn’t 1984, or some feudal fiefdom deep in the heart of post-plague
Europe. It’s 2005 on a warm summer day in St. Petersburg, Florida where
on any given Saturday, your average taxpaying citizen can observe the
many ways in which law enforcement can be utilized to defend them
against stuff like…oh, say, the Constitution, for example.
Undeterred, protesters used their hands, their
bull horns, and their voices to simulate musical instruments.
Dancing and chanting punctuated the three incidences of police
intimidation. The First Amendment Chorus serenaded Baywalk patrons,
cops and media alike with parodies of “Jingle Bells”(How was I to know;
Free speech is a crime Everywhere we go; Now I’m doing time; When I’m
outta here; I’ll be free to talk Unless I’m somewhere near; St. Pete or
Baywalk) and “This Land is Your Land” (We’re fine in this spot; Just
not in that spot; Or was it that spot? Uh, no I think not. I’d ask
directions, but they won’t tell me; Which space belongs to you and me).
The Radical Cheerleaders kept the crowd energized
throughout the night while several errant soap bubbles provided by the
mysterious Revolutionary Bubble Brigade, strayed deep onto Baywalk
property, apparently ignoring attempts to confine them behind the
barricades. At one point, during the third rhythm-stick related
detention, the police shut down vehicular access to Baywalk. We are
pretty sure the economic impact to small businesses that resulted from
this totally capricious action by the authorities won’t be mentioned by
the press or acknowledged by Baywalk’s landlord, Sembler Co. Perhaps
the police assumed that Baywalk patrons would find the flashing blue
lights and metals bars lining the sidewalk more attractive for
consumers. Perhaps they thought that the sight of a uniformed authority
figure patting down people in the middle of the road would add to the
upscale Baywalk ambience.
Then again, perhaps they were just confused by
the bubbles.
It is important to understand how completely
arbitrary
the laws in this country are. Those who live in poverty have always
known this. It is hypocritically applied to those who don’t support the
existing power structure and blatantly disregarded when it stands in
the way of the CEO feeding trough. And it is the little things
that
we’ve dismissed as “not our problem” that lead to corruption,
oppression, war and imperialism.
Every time we have seen the law
exercised, instead of justice, and not opposed it, every time we have
seen one group of people marginalized at the expense of another and not
spoken up, every time we have been tempted to overlook an act of petty
tyranny in our own streets, we have allowed the power machine to crank
up a notch. And the failure to respond to these issues (issues that
affect others, but not us) is what puts us in the position we’re in
today…typically that position is spread-eagled against a police cruiser
being searched for drumsticks of mass destruction, while meanwhile, on
the other side of the world, thousand of innocent civilians are
struggling to decide if they should risk being shot to death at a
military checkpoint in order to merely feed their family. There
are no
Baywalks in Baghdad, and shopping in Iraq is now an exercise that may
cost you your life.
So the fight for free speech will continue at
Baywalk
on Saturday nights. And this one stretch of public sidewalk will
continue to be utilized to express opposition to U.S. wars and
imperialism. We must remain energized, focused and committed to send a
clear message to those who would put profits before people, and that
message sounds something like the old popular protest chant, “The
People, united, will never be defeated.”
Please add your voice to ours next Saturday.
(And unlike the state, we welcome all dissent)
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More Photos |
E-mail: info@stpeteforpeace.org
