Myth of SF Police

"an injury to one is an injury to all"
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After F15, there was discussion around doing more actions. Some folks felt that UFP&Jcould have acted in support of a more stepped-up campaign to endorse and call for local actions to continue after F15.

What had happened in San Francisco during and after F15 was cited as an inspiration: thousands of activists and non-regular activists essentially responded with passion, in waves of civil disobediance. Many folks felt that this model could not translate to other localities as the cops in SF are known to be particularly respectful of street-dissent, whereas cops in other localities have little 'sophistication' with such scenarios often brutalizing anyone who steps out of the routine of officially sanctioned protests. Well, it looks like this idea of cops in San Fran was romantic. Yesterday they brutalized folks who it seems shared one or two attributes: broke off from the official march and dressed in ways which signify to the mainstream-mind the 'horrors of Seattle' or something (the dress code of black and masks is enough to bring this up), or were simply near someone who dressed as such.

It would be great if UFP&J would step forward in the area of truly standing tall in the name of the actions of dissent and freedom of assembly in the usa at this time. That they work with National Lawyers Guild to push forward with really activating heavy-duty awareness of the police state going on. Like in today, right now, a press conference which expresses outrage at the unprovoked violence in San Francisco. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem likely given UFP&J's arms length position when it comes to any type of protest that is not sanctioned.

Given that such a statement and strong position from UFP& J is unlikely, we ought to think outside the box here.

Perhaps we ought to call for tons and tons of folks to specifically wear bandanas and black clothing at the RNC!! Sounds wacky but here me out. Such a thing would be a part of an action -> a staged sit-down peace action, such that thousands upon thousands sit in the street for one minute, or something like that, in solidarity with folks who get 'picked off' by cops and brutalized cause of their dress code, or cause they were standing next to someone who has this kind of dress code.

The idea here is that if thousands upon thousands of people, young AND old, were dressed in this style (what is now for the mainstream-police state mind, associated with licentious vandalism, essentially -- but goes beyond this really to producing something like madness for some cops) and congregated to do such an action -- with it being declared widely and publicly ahead of time -- it would bring the issue of police targeting and the repression of freedom to protest & assemble to the forefront of public conciousness.

If folks are getting picked off for break-away marches in sweet n' safe San Fran, then it is certainly time to think about how to address this pick-off/brutalize 'freedom' that some police seem to think is theirs.

In Solidarity,

nyc jean