Posted on 09/10/2004 10:54:56 AM PDT by presidio9
Mayor Bloomberg says the city "acted appropriately" while arresting and holding thousands of people during the Republican convention. I beg to differ. I wasn't even a demonstrator - I was going for a drink with a friend when I was arrested - and my experience tells a different story. It was Tuesday, Aug. 31, about 8:30 p.m. when my friend and I saw a lot of cops running on 26th St., then up Park Ave. South.
I saw a man being handcuffed who said he had done nothing. The cop was using a lot of force, and I asked him not to hurt the man. As I tried to call a friend to take photos of this injustice, a cop ordered my arrest. I was cuffed and thrown on the sidewalk with several other people. After about 20 minutes, I heard an officer say they needed five women. There were many men next to me, but only four other females. I made five. Quota for that streetcorner, I suppose.
We were loaded onto a bus and driven to Pier 57. There was a long line of buses ahead of us, and as we waited one man became very sick. He had Crohn's disease, and his colostomy bag had burst. He was throwing up all over the back of the bus. We all begged the cops to get him medical attention. They ignored us. We asked that he be let off the bus first. Again, they ignored us.
A group of us were locked in one of the many barbed-wire-enclosed cells. Women had to sit or lie on the filthy black pavement, only to be covered in soot. Some broke out in rashes. There were no mats or blankets, and fans were blowing directly on us. We asked that they to be turned off because we were freezing. The police refused.
Around noon on Wednesday, I was put aboard a bus for the Centre St. jail. A young woman was screaming that her wrists hurt and yelling at an officer to stop touching her. She was trying to loosen her cuffs because of her hypoglycemic condition. Instead, her cuffs were tightened, and she was locked in the bus' solitary confinement section. We all pleaded with the officer to loosen her cuffs because her wrists were turning blue. We were ignored.
The Centre St. holding area was another experience. At one point, we counted to see how many of us were in the 20-by-25-foot cell: 105 of us! We could barely move. Good luck trying to cross the room to use the toilet - which, by the way, had no door so you had to urinate in front of 105 strangers. I asked for some Tylenol for a migraine headache. I was told they did not give meds.
I didn't stay in that cell, though. We were moved constantly and randomly. There was much confusion on the part of the officers, who did not seem to know what was going on themselves. There seemed no rhyme or reason for what was called "being processed."
Early Thursday morning - about my 36th hour - our fingerprints were taken, but only after an officer sprayed our hands with Windex and then scrubbed them to take off the pier dirt.
Back to the cell. Although we told the police that several women, including myself, suffered from asthma, they sprayed the poorly ventilated cell with Lysol. I made yet another plea for painkillers. It fell on deaf ears.
A few hours later, we had mug shots taken. Afterward, an officer asked how I was. I said I had a severe migraine and back pain and needed painkillers. He handed me two Tylenols. Outrageous, after being told there were none in the building.
About 5 p.m., I was put in a cell next to the court. I asked for a lawyer but was advised to take the ACD (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal) that was being offered. I was down for parading without a permit and two counts of disorderly conduct - little 5-feet-3 me, who had just tried to do the right thing and help a guy out.
If I chose to plead not guilty, I was told, there was no knowing when I would get out of jail. The judge clearly wanted everyone out and not clogging the system with "not guilty" pleas.
At 7:30 p.m., 47 hours after my arrest, a judge told me that as long as I am "good" for the next six months my case will be sealed and dismissed. I guess that means don't walk down the streets of New York. And do not try to help strangers.
Sorry, Mr. Mayor, but what happened to me, and what I saw happening to others, was not "appropriate." And if it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone.
---A few hours later, we had mug shots taken. Afterward, an officer asked how I was. I said I had a severe migraine and back pain and needed painkillers. He handed me two Tylenols. Outrageous, after being told there were none in the building.---
What a dirtbag! This scumbo should be rearrested and locked up just out of consideration for the rest of us. What a crybaby!
The cheese groweth hard.The DS was told the NRC convention was on. If he wasn't a delegate, he should have watched it on CSPAN.
Now what's a nice Italian girl doing with a bunch of street maggots like these?
Crowded conditions in a jail. No kidding?
read later bump
Just damn. I reckon you ought not of interfered with the cops trying to do their job, huh?
Wendy, do you have a quarter? If so, go call someone who gives a $#!t, 'cause we don't!
"I was just going out for a drink when I inserted myself in the protest of the arrest of a demonstrator and asked my friend to photograph the event (for later propagation/prosecution)".
Does not pass the smell test.
To Wendy: (in best Travis Tritt voice) Here's a quarter.....call someone who caaaaaares....."
To Wendy: (in best Travis Tritt voice) Here's a quarter.....call someone who caaaaaares....."
Don't try to remove the cuffs and they won't be tightened to prevent their removal.
We had a couple of "school teachers" "arrested" at the Cedar Rapids Iowa rally too. They also came off sounding like Ghandi(sp).
Fingers excrete oils and enzymes, dirt is not the only concern being removed when taking fingerprints. A clean print is needed to prove a match later.
there are some innocent people who did get caught up in this - its true. and they will win settlements from the City, Ron Kuby has one of the clients - the normal pay out is $1500 per each hour you were wrongly held.
one of the people who was held was actually a republican volunteer for the convention, held for 30 hours. Kuby is his lawyer.
So the hero of our story was just innocently interfering with a LEO. And imagine, NO TYLENOL!! Oh the Horror!
I'm deeply saddened. NOT!!
"I was told they did not give meds.""I made yet another plea for painkillers. It fell on deaf ears."
"Afterward, an officer asked how I was. I said I had a severe migraine and back pain and needed painkillers. He handed me two Tylenols. Outrageous, after being told there were none in the building."
Well which is it, they told you that they did not dispense painkillers or that they did not have any? Dispensing drugs (even over the counter pills) without a medical license can bite you on the butt (whether it is drug law or liabilty issues).
The percentage of innocent bystanders, who were minding their own business, and just happened to detour through a protest only to be falsely arrested by the NYPD goon-squad is mind-boggling.
There were at least 3 protestors on the floor of the GOP convention (2 during President Bush's speech).
I suspect that some of them got in there as "Republican" volunteers.
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