(First-hand account from Sunday’s protest in Burlington. – promoted by mataliandy)
There are some truly bizarre things in the police report from Sunday’s demonstration. First, none of us who were on the sidelines of the confrontation described here saw anything remotely resembling a protestor dragging an officer, as was claimed by the Burlington Police. People were shot repeatedly with heavy rubber projectiles, about 3/8 inch in diameter, not just “pepper balls”. As police and their guard dogs were successfully pushing away those blocking the buses, heavily armored officers (presumably from the State Police) lunged into the crowd shooting. In 30 years of political activism in Vermont, I’ve never seen anything remotely like this extreme overreaction on the part of police.
It was a disturbing end to what was otherwise a glorious day, which brought together an unprecedented variety of environmental and social activists from all across our region. They included representatives of the Innu people, whose territory in Eastern Quebec continues to be invaded by Hydro Quebec’s apparently insatiable desire to increase hydroelectric production, as well as powerline opponents from northern New Hampshire, and Sierra Club members and other tar sands opponents from all across New England, along with Occupiers, labor activists and so many others.
The Burlington Police like to proclaim their commitment to free speech, which was admirably displayed throughout much of Sunday. But the sight of robo-cops on hair trigger alert, charging a few dozen people and firing their weapons out on College Street was a truly shocking and unnecessary end to an otherwise exceptional day.
Mayor Weinburger met with the Convergence folks prior to the events, that I hear were well organized and attended.
Ben Dangl, editor of Toward Freedom, has great details here
You Tube has two excellent videos:
The first speaks to the violence:
The second video shows the peaceful side:
Ok, this is going to be unpopular, but it needs to be said.
Procataleptic note – rubber bullets were way, way, way out of line.
I have watched a few videos of the events and while I can’t claim anywhere near a complete understanding of the situation, a number of questions come to mind. First, a couple of tactical questions.
Were any protesters actually pushing back against the police line? That’s not in the non-violent civil disobedience playbook. It’s also incredibly stupid and provocative. If not, ok, the cops lied, call them on it.
When things started getting up close and personal, why were any protesters still standing up and moving around? In the videos I saw people darting back and forth, running, waving their arms around, and screaming. Some screaming obscenities and insults. Not brilliant. Disorganized and out of control. Sit down. Lie down. Face away from the cops. Be quiet.
In one of the videos I heard the protestors scatting the musical cue from Star Wars that signifies Darth Vader and the Imperial Storm Troopers. I got a chuckle out of that, sure. Bet the cops didn’t. After I had a laugh I thought, “So if the Burlington police and State Police are fascist storm troopers, that makes Miro Weinberger and Peter Shumlin, the Burlington City Council, and the VT Legislature, what?”
“The whole world is watching!” Can we retire this? Every cop in the U.S. now understands that half the smartphones aimed at them are real-time uploading their every move to the internet. Irrelevant to my point, but really. Plus “Shame!” and statements about a fascist police state shouted over a bullhorn. Who are you talking to and to what purpose?
Three basic points.
One, go into a situation like this with a mission and a strategy/organization that serve that mission. How much was the mission of stopping the pipeline advanced by blocking a bus in back of a hotel in Burlington, and how much was it set back, and how predictable was that outcome? It is absolutely predictable that a confused melee of people screaming is going to be the predominant image in the corporate media. Not “pipeline bad, join us.”
Two, training, training, training. Organization. Keep people who can’t stay calm in a crunch out of the crunch.
Three, how do you want your law enforcement? Flexible or rule based? If it was rule based then protocols for the use of force would have been followed to the letter and there would (probably) have been no pepper balls or rubber bullets. But then, if it was rule based the arrests would have happened hours earlier in the day, when the protesters blocked the street.
So you want flexible policing, where the cops suspend enforcement of the law in your favor. It’s wonderful if they do, but don’t rely on it. Remember, civil disobedience means that you are breaking the law, and the non-violent kind means that you are accepting arrest. A number of people in that crowd didn’t act as if they understood that. And flexible policing is a two trick pony – Officer Friendly and Officer Nasty. We’d like the cops to be O.F. while we are blocking traffic and then turn into Data from Star Trek when things get tense. It isn’t going to happen.
No, I don’t think the cops should have shot that stuff at people. I also think that the situation was seriously bungled, tactically and strategically, by the people doing the protest.