Date: Wed, 15 Dec 1999 15:16:25 -0500 From: Chuck0 <chuck-AT-tao.ca> Subject: Tim Ream letter to Eugene paper Euegene Register Guard http://www.registerguard.com/news/19991215/ed.letters.wednesday.1215.html The system is violent Larry Swisher's Dec. 12 column ignores the facts of the Nov. 30 anti-World Trade Organization protest. From his view on the East Coast, Seattle police were told to "stand by and do nothing on the first day. But masked 'anarchists' broke storefront windows. ... That prompted (Mayor Paul) Schell to ... (turn) loose his police force with all too predictable results." It is a safe and often told story, but it is wrong. Video evidence, corporate media from the streets that morning and tens of thousands of witnesses all testify that the police use of pepper spray, tear gas, batons and rubber bullets all transpired before the window smashing began. This would be little surprise to those residing in Eugene during a similar police performance on June 1, 1997. The thousands on the streets in Seattle were the biggest threat to profit and property this nation has faced in decades. The role of police is, and has always been, to protect profit and property. Their means are a continuum of force and a demand for absolute authority. When that authority is challenged, they increase the use of force to the state-sanctioned maximum. In Seattle that included broken bones and chemical weapons paired with a suspension of constitutional rights. In a nation where the middle class enjoys such prosperity, the reality of the police state is too shocking to be easily believed. Even harder is understanding that such prosperity requires the world's most powerful police and military force to maintain it. It is the nature of the state and is opposed by anarchists. The rest of the nation may be fooled into believing the apologist argument that Nov. 30 was an anomaly or a mistake. In Eugene we have seen enough to know that it is, in fact, the system. TIM REAM Eugene -- Chuck0 Mid-Atlantic Infoshop http://www.infoshop.org/ Leonard Peltier Freedom Month Executive Clemency For Peltier! http://www.freepeltier.org/lpfreedommonth.html Free Mumia Abu-Jamal Now! http://www.infoshop.org/gulag/mumia_idx.html "A society is a healthy society only to the degree that it exhibits anarchistic traits." - Jens Bjørneboe
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