Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

United States Police Pepper Spray Children In 'clash' with Anarchists

Anarchists Unite | 17.01.2010 13:26 | Anti-racism | Globalisation | Social Struggles | World

The use of inverted comma's to describe 'clash' is useful to those of us that know the police often start or incite these 'clashes' to begin with.
In Phoenix Police sprayed kids as they 'clashed' with anarchists.

Please visit here for video of child who was pepper sprayed:

 http://blogs.phoenixnewtimes.com/bastard/2010/01/scuffles_between_anarcchists_a.php

Before the police attack
Before the police attack



THIS TEXT WAS RIPPED FROM A MEDIA SOURCE ONLINE IN THE STATES, SO IT's INTEGRITY IS QUESTIONABLE, AS ARE ITS 'FACTS', but nonetheless, you should get the idea of what took place:

An otherwise festive protest march against the immigration methods of Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpio turned ugly Saturday afternoon when a small group brawled with police and hit a mounted officer and her horse with sticks.

Police used pepper spray to disperse the crowd and arrested five people.

Sarah Grace Daniels, 23, Jeremiah M. Henry, 18, and Issa A. Emadi, 26, were booked aggravated assault on a police officer charges, Phoenix police said.


Garyn Klasek, 30, is facing aggravated assault on a police officer and disorderly conduct charges. Claire E. Brock, 23, was booked for resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

The group was dressed entirely in black with bandanas over their faces and signs read "Assassinate Arpaio" and other anarchist messages.

They had been jawing with police for most of the afternoon, chanting profanities at officers and throwing bottles at them near the beginning of the march. Officers on bikes and horses and more in patrol cars escorted the group the rest of the way until they reached 35th Avenue and Durango, blocks from the jail.

Salvador Reza, one of the organizers of the protest, described the people who created the disturbance as an outside faction.

"There was provocation by some groups who came here for their own purpose to disrupt a peaceful march," Reza said.

The marchers began to cut off a utility cart that had been riding alongside the demonstration and police brought in a mounted officer to separate the protestors from the officer. The crowd surrounded the horse and a few protestors hit the animal with sticks that had black flags on them.

Two other police officers were assaulted by the suspects who threw water bottles, possibly containing rocks, police said. The bottles missed.

Some protestors not affiliated with the outside group were sprayed, some of them were children.

Alexandra Alvarez said her six-year-old son and 11-year-old daughter were hit with the spray. Her son has asthma and was quickly using his prescription inhaler. Both were crying from the sting of the spray.

"We were walking when all of a sudden there was a strong smell that started to sting," Alvarez said.

The march began peacefully, with protesters gathering at Falcon Park in west Phoenix. It had something of a festival feel as people spread blankets, listened to music and speakers and bought ice cream and popcorn from vendors.

By 11:45 a.m., the group took to the streets for the more than 4-mile march that took them south on 35th Avenue toward Tent City, which is south of Buckeye Road. Several marchers started chanting in Spanish, urging Arpaio to stop his tactics. Many others hoisted signs that read "We Are Human."

There was no opposition to the marchers throughout the day as they proceeded to head towards Tent City. Protest participants started arriving at Falcon Park before 9 a.m., joining fellow immigrants-rights advocates in urging the Obama administration to end an agreement that lets the Sheriff's Office check the immigration status of people booked into its jails.

Organizers believe some Valley police officers are engaging in racial profiling by arresting Latinos for minor crimes in order to check their immigration status. In 2009, the Department of Homeland Security took away Sheriff Joe Arpaio's power to arrest illegal immigrants under a revised agreement that still lets jail officials enforce immigration laws.

As she mingled among others at the protest, Sarahi Uribe, a representative from the National Day Labor Organizing Network, said the hope was to stir the Obama administration into action, specifically Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.

"We want to tell her to stop the deportation and abuses of civil rights," Uribe said. "We're very inspired by the civil-rights struggle in this country, and we see this as a continued fight."

The Rev. Liana Rowe of Shadow Rock United Church of Christ in Phoenix said she came to the protest as a show of solidarity.

"Babies are being separated from their mamas, and families are being split up in the process, all in the name of anti-immigration," Rowe said.

Several elementary and high school teachers were among the marchers.

Tim Broyles, a social-justice teacher at Brophy College Preparatory in Phoenix, said a few students from the school came out to support their peers.

"There are kids in this group who deal with this (immigration) on a daily basis," Broyles said. "Their buddies are here because they know what's going on."

Ruben Rivas, 29, a fourth-grade teacher in Mesa, also came to show his support.

"I don't know who is documented or undocumented in my classroom," he said, "but a lot of my kids talk a lot about not being able to visit grandparents. It's an injustice."

After the morning rally at Falcon Park, the group marched to Tent City, the outdoor jail facility run by the Sheriff's Office on Durango Street. Singer Linda Ronstadt walked the march and was to perform later in the day, but was not able to because she was tired from the march.

By 2:45 p.m., some marchers left.

Reza said the march was overall successful in sending out a message against the tactics of Arpaio and the policies of immigration that divide families and communities.

A group of at least 10 meat packers from San Francisco made the 12-hour drive overnight in order protest what one described as policies that threaten laborers all over the country.

"If we weren't here it'd be 3,000 (protestors) minus 10," Geravo Sanez said. "We wanted to make sure it was 3,000 plus 10."

Anarchists Unite

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech