The People's Strike - Sept 2002 - Personal Accounts
Father and Son Resistance
by Bats Murphy and Gerald Murphy
Bats Murphy
I got up pretty early that morning, around 3 or 4am, to talk to the people I was supposed to go with. We were to bike into the city from Arlington and join The Bike Strike. My friends all bailed on me and went to sleep, but I had already gotten my Dad to get me excused from school, so I figured I'd go anyways. After watching the FOX morning news coverage of what was going to go down, I biked to the metro, only to find out that bikes were banned from the trains that weekend. So instead of going to the bike strike, I called some friends up and asked if I could join them for The Snake March.
After arriving at Franklin Park, we ate some great food, provided by Food Not Bombs, and danced to some of the great drumming. Around 8:30 or 8:45 we started marching on K Street from 14th in the direction of 15th. At Vermont and K we turned into Vermont. The cops blocked off the end of the block that we were walking towards; they really came out of nowhere. Then a bunch of people started walking back to K Street and the march did a U-turn sort of thing. A bunch of cops, out of nowhere again, blocked off that intersection. We were trapped in that block, except there weren't very many police at all, and I saw a bunch of people just leave, but after a little bit, perhaps 15 minutes the cops wouldn't let anyone leave.
After this, someone threw something through a closed Citibank's window (300 points). That was very lame since we were already trapped and they just needed a reason to arrest us. So all 200 or so of us were backed up against the window that was broken, I saw lots of shards of glass come down. Hopefully no one was cut, but I think a few people were. We were very tightly packed together and it was very uncomfortable. I saw the police hit one girl in the face, lots of people thrown very violently to the ground, and the police took people in the general vicinity and put them with everyone else.
The first arrests to be made were legal observers, medics, and media persons. After this, the police would tell us that we could leave if we all put our hands up. A bunch of people would, 4 or 5 people got out, and then while everyone’s defenses were down the police made very fast and massive arrests. They pulled this trick on us 3 or 4 times. While grouped up, we chanted "The whole world is watching," and sang some songs, one of which was Baby, I'm an Anarchist, which was cut short when people were thrown violently out of the group, one after one. I was the last person to be arrested at Vermont and K.
I was put in VERY tight handcuffs that cut off my circulation (this was not an uncommon occurrence of the day), and then put in the police wagon. The driver told us we were going to Blue Plains. On the way, we stopped at an intersection- and who else but The Bike Strike rolled past in front of us! We stomped the floor and cheered, and they in turn cheered in solidarity. After arriving at Blue Plains, a police training facility, I let an officer know I was a juvenile and then I was taken to where all the other arrested juveniles were. I asked one cop if I could get my cuffs loosened, he said, "Jesus kid, those are tight." I said, "Yah, I know."
All of us juveniles, or "guppies" as one cop called us, were put on a bus and taken to juvie. On the bus one kid used a sneaked in cell phone to call the DC Justice and Solidarity Collective, who said they would send some people over to both Blue Plains and where we were going. The boys and girls were put in separate cells. I told one lady there my father’s number. After a while they let me know that they called him and he was there. My father was pretty upset, but to my surprise- at the cops! He started asking all sorts of questions like why I couldn't have a court date if he took me out of juvie right then. It wasn't until now, after being arrested, transported to Blue Plains, and then to juvie, that I was told the charge I was arrested on: Failure to Obey. After a bunch of paperwork and some fingerprinting my Dad and I left. I then learned that he had been excused from work, and then joined the Bike Strike and then the demonstration at Freedom Plaza. I was the first kid out of juvie, which means I was the first of any of the arrestees to be released. My dad dropped me off at the free Majority Rule show for which he picked up a flyer and I talked to a bunch of people about what happened. By then, it was only 1 o'clock pm. Afterwards I went to my dad’s house and slept the rest of the day away.
Not once during the entire day were my Miranda rights read to me, was I told if I could leave or why I had to be detained at Vermont and K, and I was not told on what charge I was arrested until AFTER I got out of juvie. All day long I was in complete disbelief at what had happened. People got FBI files, police records, and bruised ribs for nothing more than expressing their constitutionally guaranteed right to free peaceful assembly. A few people have tried to argue that by saying it wasn't peaceful assembly, that everyone was arrested because of the broken Citibank window; however, we were trapped before that even happened. The entire event was an eerily well-put-together expose of the police state in our own country.
Peace, Love, and In Solidarity, Bats Murphy
Gerald Murphy
I was proud that my son wanted to stand up for a good cause, and I remain proud of that action. As a federal employee, however, I was embarrassed to see my tax dollars used to bring in thousands of police officers to intimidate well-meaning people under the pretense of protecting the nation from terrorists who would use these demonstrations as a masking device to attack our government and its leaders. The only reason so much money was spent was to protect the participants at the World Bank meetings so they would not be distracted from the propaganda U.S. officials were spoon feeding them at the meetings and the lavish banquets.
I went to work early on the first day of the weekend of demonstrations, after telling my son it was okay if he took time off from school to come downtown for the people’s strike. I was going ride down as well and pass out information about the World Bank for a bankwatch group I work with. The plan was we would hook up by cell phone, but I was not able to connect with my son in the morning. Eventually I received a phone call from a police officer, asking me to come to a local precinct station to pick up my son.
When they brought him out to me, they asked me to sign a paper notifying me that he would be "diverted" from the criminal justice system to an alternative community-based program for young offenders. The curriculum for the program said that the program would help teach him the responsibilities of being a "young black man or woman," (we are white). As I was reading the paper I was asked to sign, the police officer who gave it to me kept telling me to just sign it. I asked if she minded if I read what I was signing, then I asked a few other questions.
"What are the charges?" (Disobeying an order.)
"What was the order?" (No response.)
"Is there an arrest report?" (No.)
"Who was the arresting officer?" (No response.)
"What happens if I don't sign the paper?" (You can leave him here for the weekend if you want)
"What if we want to deny the charges and go to court" - - That is when the truth finally came out. My son had not actually been arrested; he had been detained, and they were acting like they were doing us a favor by letting him out!
Anyway, I thought it would have been fun to ride around on our bicycles that day, but that never happened. One reason was the city transit system banned bicycles from the subway system, only because of concerns over protesters. I told my son that the tactics used by the police were pretty smart, and that if it wasn't on video and on the media, it didn't happen. I think it might be helpful for observers and participants to carry videocams to document some of the police actions against lawful protestors who are not trying to damage property or infringe on anyone else’s rights.
There will always be people in government that want to repress the exercise of constitutional liberties. That is the reason for the constitution and the bill of rights. The only question is how can we exercise those rights, and what do we do when those rights are repressed?
One little side note - - As I was going to work that morning, I saw someone throw a bag or roofing nails onto the road leading to the U.S. House of Representatives office buildings. Crude, and certainly illegal, but simple and possibly effective.
Sincerely, Gerald Murphy
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