Here's some breaking news that's now being seriously investigated
by detainees and their legal reps. I wonder if the U.S. psyche is
still capable of being shocked.
Iam Legion <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
The now-famous Pier 57 in New York, used as the jail
facility for holding protestors arrested during the
Republican National Convention, was leased by the
Republican National Committee, according to the
Certificate of Occupancy and the Fire Safety
Inspection Certificate for the pier.
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?
Drew Poe
***
Oops, sorry folks, I thought I included Erin Starr's
email letter and the Maui News article in my first
post about all this. Here they are:
-------------------------------------------------
From: Erin Starr - Makawao, Maui, Hawai'i
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.
-- Erin Starr, Makawao, Maui, Hawaii
===================================================================================================================
Maui student caught up in mass arrests at convention
By MELISSA TANJI
Staff Writer
Maui News
HONOLULU - A 21-year-old Olinda woman says she was
unjustly arrested and held in inhumane conditions last
week in New York City while she and other Hawaii
students were involved in protests at the Republican
National Convention.
Summer Starr, a graduate student in political science
at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, was among 1,821
people arrested during the convention last week.
According to reports, New York police allegedly
corralled people who were walking down the street so
they could not move, then arrested all of them, often
without first ordering them to disperse and giving
then a chance to do so.
The New York Civil Liberties Union is compiling
stories from protesters who say they were arrested for
no reason, detained for unnecessarily long periods or
held in unsafe conditions. The group is also
considering suing the city over police conduct.
"I went up to New York initially to protest the
Republican National Convention. Actually at the time
of the arrest, I wasn't physically engaged in
protest," Starr said in a telephone call from Manoa on
Monday.
She said a group of people were cornered by officers
near Bryant Park in Manhattan and were arrested on
Aug. 31. They has been at the New York Public Library
protesting when police made them scatter toward Bryant
Park, Starr said.
"They didn't inform us why we were being arrested,"
she said. "At least I didn't hear it."
Starr said the arrest "was not justified in anyway. We
weren't violent. We were absolutely peaceful."
If police were under the impression that the
protesters were doing something wrong, Starr said they
should have been arrested at the site of the protest,
should have been told what they were being arrested
for and not "shuffled down the street."
Following her arrest, Starr said all of the people
with her were placed in plastic cuffs and were bused
to Pier 57, a large, dirty building with concrete
floors. The holding area was a former bus terminal.
"It was absolutely inhumane and not a proper place to
be holding people," Starr said.
One of the individuals being held was a girl dressed
up in a black dress. Starr said the girl had been
stepping out of her apartment to go out when she was
swept up with a group and arrested.
Starr said about five others from Hawaii were among
the people arrested.
In news reports last week, [billionaire] Mayor Michael
Bloomberg speaking on his radio show, seemed to imply
that the arrests of innocent people were inevitable.
"You can't arrest 1,800 people without having somebody
in the middle who shouldn't have been arrested. That's
what the courts are there to find out afterwards," he
said.
Starr, who was born and raised in Olinda and attended
Makawao School, Seabury Hall, the Maui Ocean Academy
and Maui Community College, said she just thought
about her home on Maui while in jail.
At home on Maui, Starr's mother, Erin, got a call from
one of Summer's friends on Oahu that Summer was
arrested and taken to Pier 57. Erin Starr said Pier 57
was nicknamed "Little Guantanamo," referring to the
holding facilities set up at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba,
where detainees from Afghanistan are being held
without charges.
"I looked it up on the Internet and fear crept into
me," said Erin Starr. "I called my daughter's cell
phone over and over, saying 'It's mom, where are you?
Call me.'"
Summer Starr's personal belongings were taken away
from her when she was arrested.
She said that she and others were kept at Pier 57 for
about a day.
"Every single one of us were covered in black grease,"
she said about being held at the former bus terminal.
Starr said did not eat because she is a vegetarian and
the only food provided was a meat sandwich.
"I wasn't expecting to be treated like a queen, (but)
I wasn't expecting to be treated like a political
prisoner," she said.
On the day after the arrest, Starr said she was taken
to a Manhattan jail where she and others were
regularly moved from cell to cell. She said they were
told they were going to be released soon and that the
fingerprinting process was slow.
She said she was released around 10 p.m. on Thursday,
about two days after she was arrested.
It was on that day that Judge John Cataldo of the
State Supreme Court in Manhattan ordered the city to
release more than 550 protesters who had been
detained, in some cases, for as long as 60 hours.
Starr said as the New York detainees were being
released, there was a person handing out tickets to
those arrested. She said she was cited for disorderly
conduct and has a summons to appear in a New York City
court on Oct. 6.
She had asked that she not be required to return to
New York for court proceedings because she lives in
Hawaii, noting that some others arrested did not have
to return. But she was told she would have to appear.
Erin Starr said the family has retained an attorney in
New York who is trying to dismiss the summons.
Summer Starr said she was denied a lawyer during
proceedings in New York, but "didn't want to make a
big fuss." She said she was frightened by the
treatment.
"I didn't want them to put me back in," she said.
"We were scared out of our minds to get arrested
again," she said. "It was a horrible, horrible
experience."
Back on Oahu on Monday, Starr was trying to get back
to normalcy, working on a 10-page paper, and battling
what seemed to be a cold.
Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services contributed
to this report.
Melissa Tanji can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.rense.com/general57/vitmo.htm
***
Topanga might be out of the way for some of you, but you can come early and hike in
the SM Mountains park, or enjoy an early, relatively cheap meal at Froggy's (forget
the Inn of 7th Ray unless you have a lot time and want to spend more), or ... whatever.
Anyhow, come one, come all and take this opportunity to commune with nature during
the day and then energize y/ourselves politically with this terrific event organized
by the TOPANGA PEACE ALLIANCE. [We are alive and well and active here in Topanga -
have had two huge buses going to the peace marches.]
JOIN US
Sherna
Get the Un-embedded Story: Two Films-In-Progress
Presented by Local Grassroots Organizations*
GUEST SPEAKER:
Tim Goodrich
NATIONAL GUARDSMAN
Recently returned from Operation Iraqi Freedom
WHEN:
6:30 pm - Sun, Sept 12th
Refreshments served prior to screenings.
WHERE:
Topanga Community House
1440 Topanga Cyn Blvd
SUGGESTED DONATION:
$10.00 at the door
(No one turned away for lack of funds.)
"The Ground Truth: The Human Cost of War" 10 Minutes.
By activist Patricia Foulkrod. Conversations with wounded soldiers
returning from Afghanistan and Iraq, filmed at Walter Reed Army Hospital.
"Reality Iraq" 30 Minute Pilot.
By Deep Dish TV. A new weekly TV show follows the current situation in
Iraq and explores the life of the people living under U.S. military control.
*SPONSORED BY:
'Topanga Peace Alliance (TPA)' 'Veterans for Peace'
'Mothers for an Aware America (MAA)'
'Environmental Health Advocacy League (ENHALE)'
'The Venice Mootney Theatre Company'
'GLOBAL EXCHANGE SUPPORTERS OF VENTURA COUNTY'
'Topanga Democratic Club'
'Topanga Greens' 'Palisadians for Peace (P4P)'
& 'Topanga Association for a Scenic Community (TASC).'
RSVP to: Tonia Young TPA 310-455-2688 or [EMAIL PROTECTED]
***
Tuesday, September 14th 2004 7pm
Los Angeles, California
Trent Willis, National Co-chair of the Million Worker March, Lois Bradford,
UTLA-NEA Vice-President and others will speak.
Location:
United Teachers Los Angeles 3303 Wilshire Ave -- Free parking next door on
Berendo Los Angeles California 90010
Contact:
Marc Rich
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
626-568-1147
Among the Demands of the MWM:
The Right to a Job at a Living Wage
Amnesty for Undocumented Workers
Full Funding for Universal Healthcare and Education
An End to the War in Iraq and on Workers at Home
Repeal of the Patriot Act
Full Listing of Demands at http://www.millionworkermarch.org/article.php?id=28#dem
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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