This is disappointing (I know, a weasel phrase). On Sunday (Easter Sunday) I saw a Tibetan group protesting on the west side of Manhattan near the World Yacht restaurant boat pier on the Hudson River. This is the exact opposite side of Manhattan from the U.N.. My guess is that this was some sort of designated "free speech zone." It's more than ironic that these "free speech" little prisons are forced into areas where the expressions of objection have little to no relationship to the matters being objected to. But then that's the point when the "free speech" is to be made meaningless.

There was a group of about two hundred people in a small area enclosed in police barricades. They were there for hours chanting slogans against the actions of the Chinese government against the people of Tibet. But the chants were basically directed at the cars going by on West Street, a six lane wide roadway. Meaningless, other than perhaps to the cyclists going by on the path along there, of which I was one. The U.N. building is almost two miles east.

I'm no fan of the NYC police. Their actions during the 2004 Republican convention would make any police state proud. People were jailed in makeshift prisons for days without charge. People were "arrested" while walking down streets, literally being "netted" in plastic construction fencing. Police perjured themselves in court proceedings against protesters. Etc. Etc. Yada. Yada. If only criminal actions by police were met with criminal prosecution. But that's too much to expect, even in a department with historic associations with criminal behavior. During the sixties people living in the black ghettos referred to the police as an occupying army. There was no relationship to the neighborhoods they policed. I think the police have become more professional since those days, but perhaps more professional in criminal behavior also. I'm surprised the person doing the filming wasn't arrested and his camera destroyed. But then the actions in the video didn't quite reach the level of a police riot.

My impression is that protests in the vicinity of the U.N. probably weren't allowed. Usually protests are permitted on a block with an open area that's about two blocks north of the U.N. building and slightly west (47th St between 1st and 2nd Aves). I don't know if that was allowed for the Tibetan protesters. The video seems to be of 42nd St approaching 1st Ave and then 1st Ave at the U.N.. It was apparently the police department's job to prevent protesters from approaching the U.N..

Gothamist (vido at link)

There have been several Free Tibet protests happening around town this month; one of them even featured city council member Tony Avella. While Tibetan protesters are routinely beaten, imprisoned and even killed by police in China, police brutality is something you might be surprised to see in New York City, unless of course you've attended demonstrations over the years and experienced it first hand. During a Free Tibet protest near the UN on March 14th, some NYPD officers were documented threatening, arresting and clubbing activists seemingly without provocation. In the below video it appears the protesters do nothing more than carry flags, walk on the sidewalk and chant. Yet officers identified as Leroy, Delgado and Serano, and others are depicted clubbing them even when they're down.

The cameraman stridently narrates while filming, saying, "Look at these cops, clubbing people in front of the UN, unbelievable, protesting to free Tibet, cops clubbing people in their legs on the sidewalk, in front of the UN in America, unbelievable, this is not China." He also notes that Officer Serano had threatened to kill two protesters, something the officer later admits to on tape. Don't cops learn about YouTube at the Police Academy these days?

When we contacted the NYPD, asking if they had a statement about the beatings caught on tape that day, we were told that they "wouldn't call what happened a beating." We're currently waiting for an emailed statement which we'll update this post with when received.

__________________________________________
See the new Agonist Topic Section on Tibet

proof that the US has become a police state.
They have to pander to China because they are their biggest supplier of goods. Just as they are the biggest stealer of American jobs.
Don't you just love Bush's economic policies?

_{repressive governments mix administrative clumsiness & inefficiency with authoritarian tendencies.}

where is john q. public? where is walter cronkite? where is sanity?

the facade of normalcy is itself criminal.