Like Ed Pearl said, when he sent this, “I wonder if the U.S. psyche is still capable of being shocked.” (Note: I gave the wrong address for Ed Pearl in a previous post, where I suggested you get o­n his list. These days the founder of the legendary Ash Grove, in Los Angeles, is sending out more things that touch me than anyone else: epearl@abcglobal.net.)

Here's an apropos comment to accompany pieces by Drew Poe and Erin Starr that follow. It's from a brilliant speech Arundhati Roy recently made, Public Power in the Age of Empire. The subject line, when my friend Clyde Montgomery sent it out, was “ARUNDHATI THE GREAT,” and this is how it arrived as a forward from a friend of his:

From: Lanny Cotler [lcotler@saber.net]
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Subject: ARUNDHATI

SHE IS going to become o­ne of the world's most famous women. I'm speaking about Arundhati Roy. I heard her yesterday in a speech she recently gave in S.F. It was broadcast o­n Democracy Now! — audio o­n Pacifica stations and affiliates, video o­n FreeSpeechTV or WorldLinkTV. She was amazing, incredible, miraculous!

She was so trenchant, wise, graceful, direct. Her speech was rich, fresh, deep, and comprehensive. You can either see, hear, or read it. (It is sooooo much finer to watch her or listen to her.) But absolutely you must experience it: http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/23/1239219. Here is the link to read a short bio o­n her: http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0823-05.htm

BTW, I told my wife that Arundhati is the o­nly woman I would leave her for. My wife looked at me and said that Arundhati is the o­nly woman in the world she would leave me for. Since Arundhati doesn't seem interested in either of us, Karina and I will stay together and work/fight/pray for justice (peace will follow).

Here's the quote I lifted from that speech to comment o­n what follows:

In this restive, despairing time, if governments do not do all they can to honor nonviolent resistance, then by default they privilege those who turn to violence. No government's condemnation of terrorism is credible if it cannot show itself to be open to change by to nonviolent dissent.

But instead nonviolent resistance movements are being crushed. Any kind of mass political mobilization or organization is being bought off, or broken, or simply ignored.

Meanwhile, governments and the corporate media, and let's not forget the film industry, lavish their time, attention, technology, research, and admiration o­n war and terrorism. Violence has been deified.

The message this sends is disturbing and dangerous: If you seek to air a public grievance, violence is more effective than nonviolence.

And here are the pieces that are the subject of this post:

By Drew Poe [noprofits4lies@yahoo.com]

The implications of the Republican National Committee leasing the pier, and arranging for the NYPD to then use the pier as a detention facility for people protesting the RNC, are quite startling. The ramifications for both the Republican Party and for the City of New York (for entering into a partnership with an organization essentially operating a private jail facility), both legally and politically, could be serious indeed.

More important, perhaps, are the possible ramifications for U.S. citizens when the political party in power is leas ing out property for the state to use for detaining political rivals. Further, the fact that the pier had signs posted in plain view which declared the facility to be hazardous and warning that protective gear must be used when entering, could also complicate matters for the Republicans.

Several questions become obvious. First, did the city know what the Republican National Committee intended to do with Pier 57, when the certificates were initially issued? Second, what legal arrangement was made between the NYPD and the Republican Party for the use of the pier? Third, are there any laws governing additional permits etc that must be obtained for any organization to legally operate a private jail facility? Fourth, can such facilities use NYPD personnel, who are employees of the city? Finally, to what degree if any did the Republican Party maintain oversight or control of operations, conditions, etc at Pier 57?

By Erin Starr [erin@mysticway.com]

My 21-year old daughter disappeared from NYC last Tuesday afternoon when walking with friends through a park where no protest was being held — and was held prisoner — without being charged — by the NYPD for three days.

The first day and night she spent in an unsafe and inhumane facility at Pier 57 (“Little Guantanamo”) provided by the Republican Party. Yes, it was managed by the Republican National Committe. It was leased by the RNC to hold political dissenters who disagreed with the Bush administration. The second two days, my daughter was in a city jail in Manhattan, where her treatment improved.

She practices Buddhist precepts of compassion (she told the NYPD officers that she knew they must be tired and overworked also, and she did not resist arrest). She is a graduate student in Poli Sci at the University of Hawaii and is a MortarBoard honor society/service club member. The notorious Pier 57 (owned by the HudsonRiver Trust–a city/state consortium) was dubbed “Little Guantanamo” by reporters who also got caught up in police sweeps and who said it looked like the Guantanamo Bay prison built by the USA to hold the Al Qaeda terrorist political prisoners in Cuba.

Pier 57 was leased by the RNC before their convention.

They arranged for the NYPD to put up the chain link holding pens ***with razor wire o­n top in the old Pier 57 warehouse that had oil, gas and asbestos dust o­n the floor*** from a previous fire.

My heart was in my throat when I got a call from o­ne of my daughter's friends o­n Oahu who told me she had been arrested and taken to Little Guantanamo. I looked it up o­n the internet and fear crept into me.

I called my daughter's cell phone over and over (“it's mom, where ARE you, call me”). She didn't answer. o­nly hours before, she had been calling us with joy, telling us of the peaceful protests and beautiful march. But now, nothing. I had nightmarish visions of a fire sweeping over the combustible floor with hundreds — nearly a thousand — trapped in the chainlink pens, razor wire o­n the top of the pens making escape impossible.

My husband called the NYPD to ask who had issued a Certificate of Occupancy or Fire Safety Inspection Certificate and who wasmanaging Pier 57. He was given the number for the Republican National Committee. Yes. My husband and I looked at each other in silent, cold horror. In America?

The Republicans have set up a private detention camp for their political prisoners that can hold 1000 under inhumane and unsafe conditions!? My husband slowly dialed that number, got the RNC, and the Republican rep who answered the phone said, in answer to my husbands' inquiries about safety: “those protesters don't deserve a Holiday Inn, and they're all criminals anyway!”

….Say what?! My daughter, who doesn't smoke or drink or do drugs and is a practicing Buddhist Vegan? A criminal?

***Warning signs that reporters saw posted around Pier 57 said not to enterwithout protective clothing and mask.***

My exhausted daughter, with hundreds of others, tried to sleep that first night …on the chemical-covered oily, cold cement floor of these pens, without food or water, without being read her rights, without being offered a chance to post bail, without seeing a judge although the National Lawyers Guild offered to represent them pro bono, without being charged or told why she was arrested and handcuffed and taken there, without being allowed to make a call to a lawyer or friend or parent or anyone — all cell phones were confiscated as “terrorist weapons.” Her purse was taken. She had nothing but the clothes o­n her back. Meanwhile…ordinary criminals arrested that same day in NYC for burglary, rape and heinous crimes were processed by the courts in less than 10 hours. My daughter, who had committed no crime, was incarcerated for three days incommunicado. People suffered chemical burns, bug bites, overcrowding and medical problems because their medicine was confiscated.

A pregnant woman sat crying o­n the floor in the oil. It wasn't until my daughter was taken out of the Republican-managed “Little Guantanamo” and placed in a cell in a Manhattan city jail that a guard kindly brought her Vegan food and gave her a blanket to lay her grime-smeared body o­n at night in her crowded cell. I never thought I'd be grateful to get a call from a friend saying that my daughter was in a Manhattan city jail cell, but the knowledge that she was out of that Little Guantanamo actually gave me relief.

I called Hawaii's Republican Party Headquarters, and asked them to report it to Hawaii's Governor Linda Lingle, who was at the convention in NYC and could intervene for my daughter and other UH students incarcerated illegally by her party.

The Republican rep woman who answered the phone told me “Linda knows, and you're blowing it all out of proportion.” Say What!! That's MY daughter, not YOURS, sitting in that instant-conflagration-fire-trap at Pier 57! Well, thanks a BUNCH, Linda Lingle. The UH students mean that LITTLE to you??? The Republicans wanted to “teach those protesters a lesson.” They wanted to terrorize my daughter.

But the lesson that the hundreds and hundreds of prisoners were taught… was not the o­ne that the Republican Party intended, I would wager.

Anyone caught in the NYPD orange fence netting was told to sit o­n the ground, handcuffed, and pushed into large NYC busses. Our sweet daughter, born and brought up in a small rainforest in Hawaii, was placed in detention at Pier 57, the notorious “Little Guantanomo.”

I recall that when the Democrats held their convention to nominate Senator John Kerry as their candidate for President, there were o­nly 6 people arrested, if I remember correctly. At the Republican National Convention to elect Bush as their candidate, there were thousands arrested. I suspect that Republicans might say this was a good thing. Being tough. This group-roundup tactic is called by the Republican party “preventative detention” (like the “pre-emptive war” in Iraq). This group-roundup tactic is called by the Republican party “preventative detention” (like the “pre-emptive war” in Iraq). It is used to terrorize those who might protest Bush's agenda when he is in town. America, wake up. Hitler told the German people that they would have to “give up a few of your rights …temporarily…so that we can fight the enemy.” That's what Ashcroft said, about the misnamed PATRIOT ACT. Wake up, America. The American flag that proudly waves by MY front gate and is o­n the back window of MY car…doesn't seem to be the same American flag that the Republican Party is waving.

Follow