>From Znet
Thursday, August 2 -
Report from Philadelphia
By Leslie Cagan
Well, actually, I'm no longer in
Philadelphia. Even though I left
early yesterday I have been following
developments
and can report on some of what's been
happening. I also want to
tell you about some of the other activities
I
attended over the four days I was there.
The latest news I have (as of 8 am this
morning) is that aside
from a few who have been released, the
overwhelming majority of folks arrested
during the last few days
of protests are still in jail. It was
earlier reported
that many had been taken to Holmesberg
Prison: in fact, only 25
people are being held there. Another 22 are
at the
23th District jail of the Philadelphia
police and the rest are at
the central Philadelphia jail called the
Roundhouse.
There are still very different reports on
the number of people
arrested. The police put the figure at 282,
but the legal
team for the R2K network (the umbrella
structure for all of the
protests during the Republican Convention)
have
counted 465. While I can't confirm this, I
think the police are
counting just those people arrested on the
streets
during the direct action on Tuesday. In
other words, they are
probably not including the 75 people
arrested at the
puppet space (see my report from August 1st
- part 2) or the
scores of people arrested throughout the
last few
days, including at least 50 during protest
activities on
Wednesday.
But whatever the number is, the reports
from the inside are not
good. For at least ten hours there was no
food, at
one point the guards had suspended bathroom
"privileges", the
legal team representing those arrested had
very
little access to their clients, and many of
those held were told
that their lawyers were not coming to see
them when
in fact the real story was that the
authorities were not telling
the legal team who was being held where. On
top of
this, there are reports of police and guard
violence against
people in custody, and at least one woman
was seen
being dragged naked and bleeding. Several
people have been held
in isolation, including those identified as
organizers, and are being given more
serious charges. The medical
needs of some of the arrestees are not being
met, including the withholding of asthma
inhalers and medication
for hypoglycemia.
A very slow arraignment process - with
judges in many instances
not allowing the R2K lawyers to be present
- has
resulted in bail being set anywhere from
$100 to $15,000 to
$100,000 and as high as $400,000! Some
people
have gotten out, but most are participating
in jail solidarity,
demanding that charges be dropped and
everyone be
released together. People have been
gathered outside the jail
since the arrests started and a call has
gone out for
people around the country to contact the
following people:
Mayor John Street 215-686-2181 Deputy
Commissioner Mitchell (in
charge of Demonstrations) 215-686-3364
Captain Fisher (Head of Civil Affairs)
215-685-3684 Chief Maxwell
(Head of Detectives & Criminal
Investigations)
215-686-3362.
If you do place a call, you are asked to
encourage or demand the
following:
1) All charges be dropped, including those
who are charged with
felonies and those that have
already been released.
2) No separation or isolation of any
individual.
3) Equal treatment for all individuals.
4) Full access to health care including
medicines, food and
bathroom.
5) An end to the harassment of legal
observers.
According to reports in the mainstream
media, the police have
said they will hold people until Friday,
the day after
the Republican Convention ends, so placing
calls to the
Philadelphia city officials as soon as
possible is very
important.
I had planned to include here some
reporting on other activities
over the past few days, but because action
is
required right away in support of those
still in jail I will send
along the rest in a few hours. In the
meantime, I hope
you will take a moment right now to call
the city officials in
Philadelphia.
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