Civil Disobedience/Passive Resistance? Are You Willing To Get Arrested?

DistressedAmerican

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Thu Jun-16-05 07:57 AM
Original message

Civil Disobedience/Passive Resistance? Are You Willing To Get Arrested?

Edited on Thu Jun-16-05 08:45 AM by DistressedAmerican

I posted this once back in March. But, I thought it could stand to be revisited.

It is crucial that moves be made to wake the American people up to the war and other injustices being committed in our names. We need some rethinking of what we are willing to do to end the war. I posted yesterday suggesting it might take a draft to wake us up.

An alternative suggestion for today. Martin Luther King style "Civil Disobedience" or "Passive Resistance."

It is time to make the old new again people!

If you are at a rally and the police begin making arrests. Make them take ALL OF YOU. Not just a few people at a protest, as we saw in Jersey (see below) and other cases.

ALL of ya (or at least those healthy enough, without young kids, etc).

It worked great for the Civil Rights Movement. Worked effectively against the Vietnam War (Now, those folks could throw a sit in!) and of course there is the British occupation of India. Organized civil disobedience combined with NON-VIOLENT passive resistance has proven effective time and time again.

We must hang together when the police try to disperse anti-Bush rallies. Surely, if we do not have each others backs out there, none of us feel secure!

THE ORIGINAL POST SLIGHTLY EDITED:

As many of you know I have spent much of the past several days pulling together photos, video, and written accounts of police actions during the recent POTUS (President Of The United States) visit to New Jersey.
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The full information can be found at:
http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distresseamerican/westfield.htm

There is video of the NJ arrests posted as well at:
http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/westfieldvideo/WestfieldArrest.avi

http://www.seedsofdoubt.com/distressedamerican/westfieldvideo/WestfieldPoliceState.avi
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SUGGESTED TACTICS FOR FUTURE PROTESTERS AT BUSH EVENTS: LESSONS LEARNED IN WESTFIELD, NJ 3/4/05

Several intimidation tactics are being employed at these events. It is best to be prepared in advance for what you might see out there.

The tactics they are employing are fairly simple and should also be fairly simple to defeat.

So far we have seen that as the New Jersey event was letting out, the police decided to disperse the crowd of (perfectly legal) protesters. They began by grabbing and arresting several people from the crowd, none of whom had in any way broken the law. These arrests were them used to threaten the others that if they did not disperse they would also be arrested. In the New Jersey case the tactic worked fairly well. They arrested 9 and dispersed the protesters in minutes.

Here's what I suggest. First, take a video camera. Shoot throughout. From multiple vantage points if you can organize it. It is a lot easier to defend people who are charged with video than just a story. Do not rely on photos. They are largely useless in court.

Second, if arrests begin, it is important for the crowd NOT TO DISPERSE. I think it would be far more effective for everyone to just sit right down there and if need be get arrested. It is a lot harder for the main stream media to ignore the arrests of 150 protesters than it is to ignore 9.

Also, it is important pre-establish outside contacts who know where to look for you. Try to set aside possible bail money in advance. Keep a cell phone handy for calling the media, and your personal contacts if arrests begin. Am I forgetting anything?

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(Please Note: This should not be in anyway considered legal advice, Just My Thoughts On The Issue.)

Good Sources For Legal Info Include:
The National Lawyers Guild - http://www.nlg.org/
See Their Links Page For Many Good resources -
http://www.nlg.org/resources/links.htm

The American Civil Liberties Union - http://www.aclu.org/
See Their Section Called Right To Protest For Similar Ongoing Cases And Resources - http://www.aclu.org/FreeSpeech/FreeSpeechlist.cfm?c=86

For those interested in the case discussed above the latest information is that Emily Colvin continues to fight the disorderly conduct charges against her. The case is still pending as her lawyer moved for a change of venue. The original judge, her family and the prosecutor were all in attendance at the event in question!

Fortunately for her, her family is behind her 100 percent and she has a lawyer.

Most went before the republican judge (who had clear conflicts and should have offered to recuse herself) 8 of the 9 people discussed above have already been convicted and fined.

Emily is still fighting...