Jan 16 Arpaio Protest Details : AZ IMC

Date:
Saturday, January 16, 2010
Time:
10:00am - 1:00pm
Location:
Falcon Park - 3420 W. Roosevelt St.

The march will encircle the jail complex (including tent city) and rally near there.

Anarchists pepper-sprayed at march... word just coming in!

First hand reports of the march in progress state that chemical agents have been used... can anyone confirm?

Please post info asap!

Near the end of the march, police did attack protesters, using one police horse, a small police vehicle, and pepper spray to break up the crowd.

While the rest of the marchers were in the entire street, police oppressed and targeted anti-authoritarians trying to suppress their messages.

Without warning, a female police officer used her horse to force her way into the crowd, spraying pepper spray at innocent people, resulting in at least two people being trampled. This sudden action pushed some protesters towards the outside police perimmeter where other officers began to spray the crowd. At least two dozen people were affected by the pepper spray including students, children, and other bystanders.

Street medics were quick to respond and the anti-authoritarin group stood their ground.

Today's actions highlight the oppressive force of the Phoenix Police Department and should not be tolerated. Legal actions will be taken against the police actions which occered today,

No matter what, the police will not silence our voices and justice will prevail.

Please check back for more updates.

I wasn't in Phoenix for this but I can reasonalby guess that this was an entirely biased account of what happened from Arizona Central - hopefully those involved can post their own account:

""Two men and two women were arrested during a march against the immigration methods of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Police said the men were arrested for striking a policewoman and her horse with a stick. They said one of the women was arrested for resisting arrest. No information was available on the charge against the other woman.

The four were said to be part of a disturbance that happened about an hour into the march, which attracted an estimated 10,000 protesters. Some walkers said they had to dodge about a dozen or so fellow marchers who were dressed in black and wearing bandanas.

Some said the small group started to cause some disruption along the sidelines of the walk. Police officers on bicycles who had been stationed to monitor the march dismounted and started walking their bikes to help control the crowd.

Later, police used pepper spray to control a segment of the crowd that had broken into a fight as participants neared the end of the walk.

Salvador Reza, one of the organizers of the protest, described the people who created the disturbance as an outside faction.

"There was provocation by some groups who came here for their own purpose to disrupt a peaceful march," Reza said."

Way to go Reza - siding with the police is real principled. But what else would you expect from a career activist? Everyone was their for their own agenda - for some like you that meant advancing their political career - for others it meant actually resisting Arpaio and attacks on illegal immigrants.

As an anarchist from Az, the word I got was that the march would be a place where we focused on messaging. This came from people who had been discussing what Dine, O'Odham & Anarchists could do together to push more critique of Arpaio and the police state.
Hanging back from the bloc now and then, I witnessed numerous marchers, many people of color, expressing their frustration with police and immigration policy as vigorously as any anti-authoritarian. Shouts of "Assesino" at sheriff's deputies as we passed the jail, people with children questioning vocally and loudly the aggressiveness of police. If these are part of an outside faction as well, I wonder who is included. Let's not forget, 500 years of oppression has affected numerous people, and even as they try to wipe out our collective memories, many will continue to understand that police forces are there to keep the people in line.
At the time of the police attack I was behind it. What I witnessed was numerous people representing the spectrum of age, race and politics running from the area. I watched as men and women carried and steered their children away from the point of attack. Numerous people, including children anywhere from age 3 to 12 had been sprayed or near the attack. Many were having trouble with breathing and eye irritation.
So people can criticize the Dine, O'Odham, Anarchist bloc all they want but the fact is that nobody in the march did anything to provoke such a violent response at that time. As many eyewitness reports will tell you(opposed to the talking head reports taking only police accounts) a Phoenix police officer rode her horse into the crowd, pushing participants into an adjacent line of police and endangering many people as she obviously did not have control of the horse. At least one persons foot was stepped on by the horse, I witnessed the swelling and bruising myself. The fact is that the police response was inhumane first with no regard for anyone. Secondly, it was unprofessional, not a surprise to me or some others, but they are hired by the city, they are sworn to protect and to serve the community. For those who find this sort of thing important Phx police obviously crossed a huge line and they should be held accountable. They carry the guns, the tazers, the chemical weapons. They used chemical weapons and threat of violent force on children. To try to confuse this story is a huge mistake. The DOA bloc posed barely a threat, if any. It was the police action and reaction which shows who is violent and unstable and poses the biggest threat to liberty of our communities.