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Indybay Feature

Protest "Urban Shield"

facingurbanshield.pdf_600_.jpg
Date:
Friday, October 25, 2013
Time:
9:00 AM - 7:00 PM
Event Type:
Protest
Organizer/Author:
Facing Urban Shield Action Network
Location Details:
Marriott Hotel, 11th & Broadway, Oakland

"Urban Shield" is a war game and weapons show that will take place from October 25th-28th and bring together more than 150 local, state, federal, international and private sector partners. Urban Shield takes place throughout the Bay Area and includes human rights violating police departments from BART's to Bahrain's, together with private security corporations and weapons manufacturers.

Join the Facing Urban Shield Action Network on October 25 to confront the weapons manufacturers and the local officials who are working with them as their exhibition kicks off in downtown Oakland, and let them know that Urban Shield is not welcome here. The last thing Oakland needs is a further militarization of the police in our neighborhoods. A real shield for our city would provide jobs, healthcare, affordable housing, and good schools!

What/when:
* Community witness/walking picket 9am to 5pm
* Rally 5pm

Where:
* Marriott Hotel, 11th & Broadway, Oakland

Who we are:
* The Facing Urban Shield Action Network consists of 30 Bay Area community organizations.

Why you should join us in taking action against Urban Shield:
* Urban Shield deepens the militarization of police in our neighborhoods, which results in harassment and violence, disproportionately against African-American, Latino and Arab/Muslim communities.
* Urban Shield provides training and information sharing among SWAT teams and international police forces, many of which are guilty of major human rights violations – including teams from Israel, Bahrain and Qatar among others.
* Urban Shield normalizes the use of 'non-lethal' chemical weapons, surveillance drones, armored cars and other military weapons against Muslims, people of color and peaceful protestors.
* Urban Shield spends up to $7.5 million of public monies - to fund big "defense" contractors that turn disaster and deadly conflict into profit. We see this trend in attempts to purchase tanks and drones by police forces and sheriffs across the Bay Area.
* Urban Shield targets people expressing their right of freedom of assembly and protest through scenarios presenting activists as a danger to public safety. By promoting fear of 'terrorism', Urban Shield justifies Islamophobia, stop and frisk, and other intrusions into our constitutional rights.

What you can do:
* Come out on October 25 and show your opposition to further militarization of the police.
* Join the Facing Urban Shield Action Network and help us make sure this is the last time Urban Shield comes to Oakland. Email us at beitconvivencia [at] gmail.com or facingteargas [at] warresisters.org
Added to the calendar on Wed, Oct 2, 2013 6:50AM

Comments (Hide Comments)
by -
Urban Shield 2013 no different from Urban Warrior 2000 has nothing to do with terrorism and natural disasters. Every justification for the militarization of American police is just a cover story to get the general public to sign away their constitutional rights. Just like the War in Iraq had nothing to do with Weapons of Mass Destruction and the Patriot Act had nothing to do with keeping Americans safe. It's all about consolidating power and conditioning cops and troops to point their guns at protesters and rioters. The end game is more control of the human population. They already have astronomical wealth at your expense via capitalist exploitation, taxation and bailouts. They don't need money. They have the power of the printing press and are ready to use it when they have to. Now they've come for your mind and who knows, maybe your soul.

Every nation in the world knows what the U.S. government is up to and how it spies on everybody including its own allies. No one trusts the United States. Everyone fears it and the American people fear them too. Fear of losing their jobs. Fear of losing their homes. Fear of going to jail and losing EVERYTHING for speaking out against the militarization of the police and the crookedness of the financial system. There is no freedom. There is only the illusion of freedom. The only courage America has is to get up in the morning and go to work which does nothing to question the system or confront it and does nothing to address the issue of low wages. The last thing everyone in America wants to do is rock the boat in fear of losing what ever they have left to survive. That is why no one comes together to fight for better wages. and have been programmed into thinking fighting for a better wage is something that should not be fought for but earned by a boss. And they call it freedom.

People are so afraid of the police and so brainwashed by state and corporate owned television that they will attack anyone trying to resist police repression or confront the empire at its front doors i.e. Bank of America and all the other usual suspects in organized crime of capitalism.

These police and military exercises should be called for what they really are. "Martial Law Drills against Americans: to one day suspend the Constitution and give all power to the police and or the military under the President which makes him dictator. What ever the government does is "for your own good and safety". We're not falling for that anymore.

The community may be silent 99% of the time but it is not by choice. The community is silent because they have been conned, black mailed and or threatened with jail time if they disobey unconstitutional orders by their government. Go to jail and you lose everything in America. your job, your home, your family. Americans got their hands tied until all the jobs are gone and EBT runs out. Revolution to end corruption, greed and police abuse will never happen until everyone is starving and can't take care of their family. More people die every year at the hands of the police than they do from so called terrorists and natural disasters and when protest kicks off, who are the ones armed to the teeth and trained with guns drawn at your direction? POLICE!

People are still doing time or serving probation for Occupy related activity some of which are felony charges and have been threatened not to return to OGP or else maximum punishment. This is oppression. That oppression is not felt yet by the general public but they see it happening. They will not feel it until it comes in the form of a raid on their home with what ever justification given like all the other justifications for abuse of power in this country.

We are living in very dangerous times where the government is ready to use any excuse and pretext it can to send us to war or suspend the bill of rights and put everybody in harms way. There is much to live for while the general population is hopeful in change that has been promised to them by their president. "Change They Can Believe In." But as the days go by with little to no improvements, faith begins to ware off and patience can only last so long. HOW LONG??

The American people are strong enough to put up with a rising police state in their country so long as they get their pay check or EBT. FUCK THAT UP... and all the decades of pinned up frustration toward the system will POP, and then it's all over. Over for who? Depends on which side wins. Depends on how many people are willing to fight for freedom.
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