Personal Reportback on Being Detained in Miami

Personal Reportback on Being Detained During Flyering Action
Junkyard , 11.17.2003 20:30


Coming into a new city to protest usually worries the local people who live there. In order to alleviate some of these concerns, anti-FTAA activists have made a concerted effort to distribute information to the people of Miami as much as possible. During the past week or so, people have been doing this on their own in small groups. Due to police harrasment, it became apparent that this tactic was not working, so today an organized flyering action took place.

Activists all met up at the Torch of Friendship, accompanied by legal observers. We had also invited independent and corporate media in an attempt to stop the harrasment and arrests, or at least to show people how the police in Miami are actually acting. We all met up at 11:30AM, greeted by several dozen bike cops. Everyone took literature, which included short handbills entitled "What's so wrong with the FTAA?" and a more in-depth newspaper that covered the issues surrounding the FTAA and free trade. We then broke up and spread out throughout downtown.

Our group of 5 people spent our time in several different neighborhoods - from the downtown business and hotel area to the working class neighborhoods - where we encountered people of all different races, classes, and ages. People around town were extremely receptive; almost everyone took flyers and many people thanked us. One of the most important things we felt we did was to make sure that we handed out our literature to the large group of homeless people we encountered. They were all very interested in the literature and what we had to say. This was definitely a great experience.

After flyering for about an hour, 3 people in our group were stopped and detained by several Federal Protective Service agents. At this point, we were flyering around the Miami-Dade Community College, and are still unsure what federal property we were near to have received such police attention. Two of us were actually standing and talking, not handing out flyers and not near the other people in our group. I noticed 2 Federal Protective Service agents walking towards the plaza where two people were handing out handbills. The agents were motioning at each other, and pointing out the people flyering. I started to walk over to see what was wrong, and one of the officers saw me and stopped me. He also motioned for the person who was flyering to come over, as well as the person who was standing and talking to me. At this point, the FPS agents began demanding our IDs and other information.

I volunteered my ID when the officer asked for it, because I was trying to avoid arrest. I just had my social security card with me, not a picture ID, and the cops were extremely displeased. One of them told me that it is illegal not to have ID in Georgia, and since I had probably passed through there, he was going to arrest me for that violation. The other two people did not have their IDs with them at all, which left us all open for a lecture about how we always need to carry ID.

As soon as one of the people refused to give his name, the police made him put his hands on his head and turn around, making it seem like he was about to be arrested. At this point, they separated him from the rest of us who were being detained. During his interrogation, they said that he fit the "profile" of people they were supposed to be watching for. When he inquired what that profile was, they just replied "anarchist." They also told the other detainee that while racial profiling is not OK, profiling of protestors is just fine. Although they said this, the other 2 people in our group, who looked just as much as activists as we did, were not detained. While this was positive, it shows that the profiling is completely random and you cannot really avoid it.

With the two us now separated from our friend, the cops began demanding the name of the person who did not have any ID on her. When she asked me what I thought she should do, the cop looked at me and told me "you must be some kind of leader." Along with the information he already had on me, it seemed like he wrote down that very incorrect fact as well. She ended up giving her name, because another officer came over and said to just take down our information and let us go, they weren't going to be doing anything else. This was different then what I thought, because the original cop had his cell phone out and was saying he was going to run our names to see what came up.

When we asked why we were being detained and why we had to provide personal information, they told us that since we were close to some federal property, for all they now we could be terrorists scoping out potential targets. They also demanded to know what organizations we were involved with, how we got to Florida, who we knew in Miami, where were we staying, and who were we staying with. They made a big deal out of the fact that we were from out of town, and wanted to know how we got involved with anti-FTAA work and why we came to Miami. They pretended to play dumb and ask us how we got flyers if we weren't from Miami, and also asked us if some random stranger asked us to hand out flyers, if we would do it. I told the cop that he knew as well as I did how things were working in Miami, and how people were getting together, and that I was definitely not answering any of his questions. He went on to ask us if we had been arrested before, and what actions we were planning on participating in while we were in Miami. I told him that we were planning on participating in the PERMITTED LEGAL AFL-CIO labor march on Thursday. I went on to tell him that I could not understand why I was being detained when all I was doing was exercising my free speech rights, and was in town to participate in a legal demonstration.
The cops agreed with me, but said that I should blame my fellow protestors, because there are "bad" protestors who come to these things and they are the reason I was being profiled. I essentially told the cop he was full of shit, although in a slightly nicer way.

Twice I was taken aside by two different officers who tried to explain to me why what they were doing was morally right. They attempted to explain their jobs as cops, and claim that just as I have constitutional rights, they have constitutional protections for doing what they were doing right then.
I explained several times that part of the reason I was being "uncooperative" was because they were using their power as police officers to attempt to intimidate my friends and I. I pointed to their uniforms and the gear they were carrying. This included what I thought was either a bean-bag gun or pepper ball gun, as well as zip-cuffs and riot batons, which they claimed was standard issue. I laughed at that remark, and as I was just told by another officer that I was free to go, I went and talked to the legal observer who had been watching all of this encounter.

Before they released us, one of the cops took out a small digital camera and took pictures of us. When I tried to refuse, they just told us we would go to jail and go through the whole booking process, including mugshots. They also took pictures of the visible tattoos that two of us had. They specifically asked if we had other tattoos, and made me roll up my sleeves completely. When I asked what they were going to do with the pictures, they admitted that they would be put in a database and used later if they encountered us again.

That was our entire experience, which ended up turning out positively since we were not actually arrested. Since this was my first full day in Miami, I got to experience first hand the type of repression and harrasment activists have encountered right away. While this is all scary, we all need to remember that we are the ones that are fighting for the right thing, and that we are not going to stop until we win.

See you on the streets...

-Two Members of La Resistance Affinity Group



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Great report!
portlander, 11.17.2003 09:07
thanks for the great, in-depth report. this is the sort of story i know i won't find in the corporate media.
Interesting read
J., 11.17.2003 09:18
I appreciated reading this article. Hey, at least nothing serious happend. If you haven't already, I suggest you research exactly how to act around police, to prevent any future problems with harrasement (especially learn about all the shit they were saying with being out-of-towners). Maybe you shouldn't have answered where you were from at all. You know, ask to speak to a lawyer and all that good stuff. Well, you were lucky enough to make it out fine anyway, so that's good!

Peace and Solidarity
police encounters
Love Station Alpha, 11.17.2003 10:21
Someone should print and distribute more of these in Miami.

Rights of Protesters Brochure:

http://www.aclufl.org/protestbrochure.html


Don't trust the cops
Remain silent, 11.17.2003 10:48
== One of them told me that it is illegal not to have ID in Georgia, and since I had probably passed through there, he was going to arrest me for that violation. ==

Hahaha. That would be a tough one in court. "We arrested this person because I believe s/he didn't have his/her ID on him/her in another state where that may be illegal. "

Good news is there are probably hundreds, if not thousands of people in Miami for the FTAA protests right now.

Bad news is the police are randomly harrassing small groups. A strategy of fear. "If I go, I could be harassed or arrested randomly too. I can't risk that because I got work, school, a family, obligations, etc."
know your rights!
donut, 11.17.2003 11:19
You cannot be arrested for refusing to show ID or for not possessing it (see link below). If you are in a situation where a cop asks for ID, you can legally refuse. However, you may be arrested on some trumped-up charge simply because cops don't like insubordination (even when they're breaking the law themselves.)

http://www.aclufl.org/protestbrochure.html

People, PLEASE study legal guides and know-your-rights manuals exhaustively!!! The ACLU, the Lawyers Guild, Midnight Special Law Collective, and others have free online basic instruction in protest law.

In legal matters, obviously, you have to know everything to a T! The law is technical and nuanced; you should know it in and out and if you haven't read up on the subject in a while, refresh yourself. A police encounter may take different forms and involve different circumstances and only a thorough knowledge will allow you to protect yourself.