The Greensboro chapter of the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime calls on all people of conscience and those concerned with the escalating attacks on civil liberties to condemn the police spying carried out by a secret investigations unit of the Greensboro Police Department, the arrests of the seven demonstrators following Tuesday night’s peaceful “Bush Step Down” march, and the violent behavior of the GPD toward the demonstrators which put several people’s lives at risk.. We also ask people to join with our demand that all charges against the demonstrators be dropped.
The World Can’t Wait has talked to dozens of people who witnessed the events of that evening. A group of demonstrators who had taken part in Tuesday night’s rally and march on Elm St. noticed an unidentified man in civilian clothes videotaping the license plates of cars parked near the venue where a rally by the group, which drew over 200 people, had been held an hour earlier. The man refused to identify himself, despite repeated requests. A couple of the demonstrators then placed their bodies between the man and the cars to block his unexplained videotaping of the cars’ plates. The man, at this point still unidentified, began shoving the demonstrators who were questioning him, then grabbed one of the demonstrators and punched him in the face. He then pulled out a gun. At this point, the people who had been questioning him fled from the unidentified armed man.
Nearby police ran in from a half-block away to give chase, as an unmarked police cruiser roared at high speed up Elm St. toward the thick of the crowd of about a hundred demonstrators who were still in the middle of the street, narrowly missing several people. Several of the demonstrators report that a female uniformed officer drew her gun and waved it around before putting the barrel of the gun to a demonstrator’s neck. One woman who attempted to ask why people were being arrested was maced in the eyes at point-blank range. Only after the seven were arrested was the armed man in civilian clothes identified as Detective Ernest Cuthbertson of an undercover spy and “anti-terrorist” unit. Are the husbands, wives, sons and daughters who attended the event to stand against torture, war and unlawful domestic spying now considered terrorists here? At a time of an ongoing Greensboro police spying scandal that ousted former chief David Wray, will people accept police spying and the criminalization of dissent?
We want to be very clear that the World Can’t Wait Greensboro chapter applauds the actions of the seven arrested demonstrators in acting to protect the privacy and the safety of others in the face of threats and violence at the hands of the armed plainclothesman. Not everyone would do what they did, and we are inspired by their willingness to confront a clear threat to our right to privacy and dissent with non-violent action. We would hope others will follow their example.
At a time of illegal wiretaps approved by the Bush administration, indefinite detentions without charges, and the PATRIOT Act, we are concerned that the behavior of the GPD on Tuesday night represents a violent escalation of the attack on our legal right to dissent. We call on others to join us in reversing this dangerous trend in these dangerous times, and get involved in the movement to drive Bush and his immoral, criminal regime from power through mass, independent political action. As our Call to Action states, “That which you will not resist, you will learn—or be forced—to accept.”
Link to Audio of one of the arrestees:
http://server2.whiterosesociety.org/content/kincaid/KennethHarrisGreensboroSeven.mp3They can be contacted at greensboro7@gmail.com
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