Police Chief's Heavy-Handed Tactics And Slick Talk No Surprise, Say Chicago Activists

Washington DC Metro police chief Charles Ramsey developed -- and refined -- his approach to suppressing political dissent four years ago, at the 1996 Chicago Democratic Convention, according to Chicago opponents of police brutality. And they charge that it’s predictable that the DC police engaged in some of the same kind of heavy-handed and illegal activity during last weekend's demonstrations against the IMF and World Bank.

"The paramilitary-styled police strikes against organizing centers and demonstrators in Washington DC are the same sort of attack strategy Ramsey used four years ago to shut down public protest at the DNC," says Chicago activist Dick Reilly of Neighbors Against Police Brutality. "We consistently saw this kind of crap from him when he was deputy commander of the Chicago police department -- and predictably, we saw it again during the anti-World Bank/IMF demonstrations."

Reilly, who worked as a medical volunteer in Washington last weekend, reports that medics treated scores of people seriously injured by police, including one press photographer who sustained head injuries in a beating and another Agence France reporter who was pepper sprayed. Medics also report that dozens of demonstrators were sprayed, beaten and abused in unprovoked police attacks on the streets.

"Disruption, attacks on gathering spaces, harassment, preemptive arrests, street closures, beatings, the illegal abridgement of constitutional rights -- this is classic police policy for Ramsey," says Reilly. "And predictably, we saw plenty of heavy-handed police activity – including the use of disabling chemical agents and maximum force – during the demonstrations Sunday and Monday, as well. The problem Ramsey and his masters had this weekend is that those strategies just don't work against dissent staged by autonomous, solidly organized affinity groups."

Ramsey was a key architect of the 1996 'protest pit' strategy in Chicago, which relied on deploying cops in riot gear, police horses, heavy equipment and barricades to block all access points to the DNC convention center. The strategy included confining demonstrators to several fenced-in parking lots six blocks from the site -- effectively shutting out alternative voices during the convention. In addition, Ramsey shaped DNC police strategy on the streets, which included police spying, illegal raids on gathering sites, routine harassment and arrest of suspected protesters in public spaces, destruction of activists' video and film, and a consistent refusal to grant march permits -- forcing protesters to the courts to fight for the right to peacefully assemble.

At the time,Ramsey and the Chicago police justified the strategy by arguing it ensured 'public safety' -- and would help prevent a repeat of the debacle 28 years earlier, when police rioted during the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The strategy earned Ramsey accolades from both the Clinton administration and local media. But while the Chicago police won praise from the mainstream press for their 'restraint' in 1996, the courts have consistently ruled that they illegally abridged activists' right to protest -- months after police had successfully shut down marches and demonstrations.

In addition, Ramsey drew fire in Chicago for his involvement in CAPS -- the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy –- a program he promoted widely and eloquently as a method to 'unite' police and civilians in strategies to fight crime. But the program had already begun to draw fire from police accountability activists before Ramsey left Chicago to assume his current post as DC Metro police chief.

"CAPS is a joke -- and Ramsey served as its number one comedian," says Gwen Hogan of Family of Victims, a Chicago community group that helps families whose loved ones have been murdered by police.

"After CAPS was created, police murders went up, not down," charges Hogan. "And when you went to a CAPS meeting, the cops either ignored you, disrespected you, or tried to recruit you as an informer. Groups like the Chicago Alliance for Neighborhood Safety -- which worked with the cops to create CAPS -- have been very critical of the program. It's been a total failure."

Chicago activists also believe that Ramsey's recruitment of Terry Gainer, a former director of the Illinois State Police whose family has close ties to the Chicago police, suggests that he's committed to importing Chicago's long history of police repression to Washington. Gainer currently serves as Ramsey’s deputy police chief, and he was a highly visible counterpart to Ramsey on the barricades and at press events in the last week.

But concerns about Gainer seemed to be realized this Monday, when WTOP-AM reported that he had told Black officers at the police barricades that protesters could try to ‘provoke’ them by invoking the “N-word” against them – a highly dubious assertion given the explicitly anti-racist platform of the protesters. Activists have suggested that Gainer, who is white, was employing classic race-baiting tactics with his own officers.

That’s not surprising, say Chicago observers, given that the Illinois State Police has been plagued with charges of racial profiling and targeting of minorities over the years, including under Gainer’s leadership. Last year the courts rebuffed ACLU charges of racial profiling against the state police, but lawyers have vowed to continue to document the problem and press the judiciary for redress.

Activists have also raised concerns about police intelligence work and disinformation tactics during the World Bank/IMF protests – including the wholesale denial that any incidents of police abuse occurred. Chicago observers note that during Ramsey’s tenure in Chicago, ‘counter-intelligence’ styled police tactics – known as COINTELPRO programs in federal law enforcement parlance – thrived in the city. Strategies employed by the police included political spying, extensive disinformation campaigns – often in collaboration with sympathetic local reporters – and the use of informants and police agents to act as agent provocateurs in targeted groups.

"Chicago police illegally spied on – and sometimes used agent provocateurs against -- thousands of political activists beginning in the 1960's, particularly non-Anglo groups like the Black Panther Party and the Young Lords," says Emile Schepers of the Chicago Committee to Defend the Bill of Rights. "But they also spied on housewives, clergy -- anyone identified as a political dissident. The Chicago Red Squad, as the project was called, was one of the largest local law enforcement counter-intelligence programs of its kind in the country – and police tactics were so abusive that ultimately the courts forced the city to sign a consent decree barring politically motivated police spying. Recent court cases suggest that these illegal practices have continued, but Ramsey eagerly joined other command level officers in lobbying to destroy the Red Squad Consent Decree that the courts used to outlaw these actions. That suggests that Ramsey has little respect for laws that protect constitutional rights – and based on Mr. Gainer’s provocative remarks to Black officers, it appears that he shares Mr. Ramsey’s basic philosophies."

Gwen Hogan is more blunt. "Ramsey's great at soundbites and loves the cameras," says Hogan. "But his root philosophy -- use maximum force and deny everything, including basic rights -- is rotten to the core. I feel sorry for DC residents. They got a raw deal when he was hired to run their police department."

Hi All,

Apologies if this sounds incoherent, I've had barely any sleep for the past couple days...

What a kick-ass two days! Taking part in the RACB was one of the proudest moments of my life as an anarchist.

On Sunday, we marched around the perimiter of the police occupied zone backing up the protesters who were trying to secure intersections by confronting cops and sometimes holding intersections until reinforcements arrived. Everywhere we went people fucking cheered.

The arrestables among us flattened police car and bus tires and spraypainted and stickered them, they yanked out fencing from construction sites and cut loose newspaper boxes and barricaded the streets with them. (On monday [today] I heard that anarchists picked up parked cars and used them as barricades!) The Black Bloc backed down the police MANY times over the past two days. All of this was done with incredible stealth and organization.

The Black Bloc was composed of a large number of women, the arrestables had about a 50/50 male to female ratio. The ethnic makeup was *way* more diverse than the mobilization as a whole.

The overall reaction to the Bloc by other protesters was very positive. There were a few hippies who were yelling at us about "non-violence", but the overwhelming majority of the protesters were overjoyed to see us. One intersection chanted "we love the anarchists!"

The Bloc saved many peoples asses over the past two days and most of the other protesters are very conscious of that. At one of the last protests today, a group of non-violent protesters did a symbolic crossing of the police line and had a press conference, during which they publicly stated that they supported the actions of the Black Bloc and expressed their solidarity with us.

We quite simply fucking rocked!

OK now the bad news. At least 20 of our comrades have been arrested. We don't know if they'll be charged with felonies. Hopefully, someone will have more information about that by tomorrow. If they are charged with felonies, we need to give them all the support we can.

I'm am so proud of everyone and so proud to have been a part of the Black Bloc. Our communications people did a fabulous job, our spraypaintin', tire flattenin', cop chasin' arrestables did a fabulous job, congratulations to everyone.

Report from A16 and Revolutionary Anti-Capitalist Bloc

We did it! Anarchists from all over North America descended on Washington, DC today to help with the April 16th and 17th days of action against the World Bank and IMF. We were strong today and did an excellent job working with other demonstrators in disrupting the IMF/World Bank meetings. We did this despite a week of police harassment and a day of batons, tear gas, motorcycles, tanks and police horses.

If the black bloc entered a marathon, I think we would win it. The RACB marched around downtown D.C. today for over 9 hours.

The RACB got started around 6:30 am, at the same time other demonstrators were locking down at numerous intersections. In the early hours the RACB was in fact several unconnected blocs, owing to late arrivals. But eventually most of us hooked up. Eventually the RACB grew to over 1000 people.

We started off from Washington Circle, on Pennsylvania Avenue and near George Washington University, and headed south through the university neighborhood. We visited several intersections that activists had secured. We didn't realize until tonight that this was the same neighborhood that they were trying to drive the delegate busses through. They were staging the buses from the Watergate Hotel and the Kennedy Center. The RACB wasn't bothered by police, but they were monitoring us from rooftops and a helicopter which floated above us the entire day. We found out later through a police scanner that the chopper pilot was relaying RACB reports to the cops on the ground. Our parade through these neighborhood was pretty jerky, but apparently this made it difficult to get delegate buses through the neighborhood. Eventually we swung around to an intersection to the west of the northeast corner of the Ellipse, where the cops started putting on gas masks. We hung around for a bit and then started swinging around the perimeter in a clockwise direction.

At one point, near the Foggy Bottom Metro station, we started running to get around a corner and some cops formed a line with batons. We were smart in ignoring them, because our numbers were needed on the east side of the White House. We proceeded down a deserted K Street and eventually made our way to 14th and New York. The RACB quickly built barricades using newspaper boxes and chain link fencing from a nearby construction point. These barricades stayed up in some form or another for several hours.

The RACB swung through the blocks near the Treasury Building and then headed back up 14th Street. Along the way we blocked off I street going eastbound. A bunch of folks picked up several sections of chain link fencing and headed north up 14th. Our numbers at this point were between 700 and 1000.

Then all of a sudden everybody started running forward, with the fencing up front, A squad of motorcycle cops at 14th and K were taken completely by surprise and they charged the RACB. They started hitting people with batons and chased several people into the park. At some point they launched several canisters of tear gas or aerosol pepper spray. Several people were overcome, but it wasn't too bad. A few minutes after the situation simmered into a standoff, I talked with 4 or 5 Pittsburgh anarchists who had gotten beaten by the cops. One guy had been hit in the face and a woman had been held down and beaten on the face (with gas mask on) and on her leg. She had a pretty bad bruise when I looked at it.

The black bloc moved on after about 10 minutes. After this point I lost touch with them for several hours because I stayed behind with Adam to hand out RACB statements to the media who were interviewing a spokesperson from the Mobilization. They were pretty interested in our skirmish, but the spokesperson did a great job of keeping them focused on the WB/IMF and capitalism.

I understand that the black bloc marched around the perimeter westward for several hours and may have taken gas at an intersection. After the noon hour, most of the activists started partying in the streets. Many of the delegates had gotten through, but we had held this huge perimeter fairly well, thanks to our comms team and our network of intel bike messengers. We were also pretty exhausted. The day had gone from drizzly to sunny and humid. We had been marching around downtown D.C. for 7 hours.

About mid afternoon we hooked up with the other activists for a victory march around the GWU neighborhood. We rested several times and many anarchist were involved in some pointless standoff with the cops at the intersection of 17th and Constitution.

The police presence was heavy, but we in effect owned the streets around the World Bank conference. Despite what has been reported by several media outlets, we outnumbered the cops today.

For our efforts today we got a big thumbs up from the rest of the mobilization. Many of them have acknowledged the key role the RACB played in disrupting the streets, keeping the cops distracted, and providing solidarity to other activists holding intersection.

While the RACB block included around 1000 anarchists, there 500 to 1000 anarchists involved on other perimeter actions including puppeteers in the Art and Revolution Parade, Food not Bombs and Reclaim the Street activists, Mobilization organizers, and the anarchist IWW members and Anarchist Soccer League players who held intersection in the southwest quadrant. Everybody did an excellent job!

The RACB block was fairly diverse, which should shut up many of our critics. Unfortunately, the critics can't see the people of color beneath the masks.

I did hear an uncomfirmed rumor tonight that the IWW meeting in Logan Circle was jumped by police hiding in the bushes. More info hopefully tomorrow.

Tomorrow is day 2. Expect to see a different strategies will be used. The cops have extended their perimeter, which means that we won't be able to encircle it like we effectively did today.

The reality of what we did hasn't sunken in for me yet. But I was rather psyched that several hundred of my comrades barricaded a street not two blocks from my office.

Whose streets? Our streets!

Graffiti of the day, painted on the Lafayette Square bathrooms:

The Bomb-Ass Truth: Black Bloc Rocked

I could get on here and join the flamefest over whether or not the Black Bloc's tactics are "right" -- in answer to that, I can only suggest that you all re-read the introduction to your Declaration of Independence -- but instead I'll express my feelings about them by passing along this account of what I experienced first thing that Sunday morning when I headed out for a day's shooting:

On the morning of 04.16, splitting the IMC bright and early after catching up on early-morning developments, I lock-and-loaded the Hi8 and grabbed a train downtown with the idea of leisurely moseying down towards the Ellipse and checking out the scene.

At around 8, 8:30ish, I'd no sooner come up the escalator at McPherson Square when I found myself smack in the middle of an intersection conquest in progress, at 14th St. and New York Avenue NW, featuring the big three-headed cobra puppet. And no sooner had I shot a couple of relaxed pans of the street scene than a cheer went up and, upon turning to see what the fuss was about, found myself rolling camera in the middle of the street with a most impressive Black Bloc I'd ever seen, coming around the corner in a great, rippling wave of black surging towards the intersection, at least a hundred anarchists flowing gently around me (much of my footage of this scene is truly schweet).

There was just a slightest moment's hesitation in me emotionally, because of the newness of it, instantly replaced by an unexplainable joy and elation as the black tide moved around me, many masked, some not, some throwing forearms across their faces as my camera swung through the scene. Some, glimpsing my Indymedia card on my vest, saluted with clenched fists, their masks scarcely hiding their smiles. I smiled back, raising a fist with my free hand in salute to all of them -- and just kept on smiling, bigger and bigger, and I don't know why. The Black Bloc surrounded me, and I just started smiling like a ninny. And, as they surged towards the intersection and a few scattered motorcycle cops straggled to the scene, I amazed myself by taking my cue from the Black Bloc'ers, and slipped on my goggles and mask to the "ready" position, checked available exits and remembered that "I am strong" without the slightest hint of panic, just as outlined in the street medical manual. Had anyone but the Black Bloc been there, I think I would've been more prone to fear. Had the intersection been taken by a bunch of middle-class liberals in turtle suits with a Sleeping Dragon, I'd have been a bit skankier, but having the Bloc around just sort of sucked all the fear out of me. I don't know how to describe it. It's like the Bloc had strength and courage to spare, and let me have some.

As the last of the Bloc came around the corner and the entire group had filled the intersection, the ones towards the back grabbed a length of the ten-foot-high jointed wire fence from the construction site by the side of the street and dragged it across the entire width of the street, effectively controlling 14th and New York with one simple and elegant move. I can't begin to describe the awe and amazement I felt as I observed the quickness and efficiency of this manuver. Never had I seen any contingent in any demonstration act with the kind of strength, confidence and unity that I saw in the Black Bloc as I watched them take over 14th and New York. I saw many other beautiful and inspiring sights that day, but nothing really matched that first great thing I saw, bright and early in the morning. I never felt more peaceful, powerful or alive that day than I did when surrounded by the marching Black Bloc.

My friend Adam, shares my admiration for the Black Bloc, commenting that "we need more of them" and calling them "...the Marines of the Movement". God-damned straight, man. For a long time, as I've watched Capital and the State become more and more hostile to the citizens of this country -- especially when they attempt to express themselves publicly -- I've thought that the dissident movements needed their own counterpart to the Marines, the Green Berets, the Special Forces.

Well, now the movements for freedom and justice on this planet _do_ have their own Special Forces, and they're called the Black Bloc.

www.sinkers.org

Reclaiming Mobilization Radio

Shortly before 4PM, a crowd of about three hundred demonstrators arrived on the scene, a deviation from their march to a jail solidarity action in support of those arrested during World Bank related demonstrations. At that point the police donned riot gear and formed a line in front of the building. What happened next was probably unprecedented in the history of microradio: the police, FBI, FCC and assorted other intelligence left the scene. The crowd immediately took the street in celebration, but almost as quickly gave the street back up to traffic, an indication of their unwillingness to create friction between themselves and the local community. For about a half-hour they allowed themselves to bask in the glow of a decisive victory before continuing back on their path toward jail solidarity. Thruout the course of the entire event there was no violence on the part of either demonstrators or police. In fact, when the police first made a move back to their cars the chant was Let them through! Let them through!

During the course of the weeks convergence on the capitol, Mobilization Radio, a low-powered, unlicensed radio station that was set up specifically for this weeks events, has been a valuable means of communication for protesters in the street. They had been dispensing information about what kinds of actions were taking place and where help was needed. With the arrival of the law enforcement agencies the station was shut down. After the police left the station was disassembled and carried out as the participants left the building and regained anonymity as members of the crowd.

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