Police Chief Heather Fong Supervises from the Street

Thank you Heather Fong! The SFPD has done a fine job of clearing the rabble from the street. Maybe it takes a new police chief - and a new mayor - to make it clear to the little shits that this public asshole-ism will no longer be tolerated. You want to exercise your first amendment rights - fine, make a sign and stand on the sidewalk. What is killing your movement is that the young thugs calling themselves black bloc and/or anarchists have destroyed any credibility these events ever had. Now, they are just an excuse for disruption, vandalism, and pointless confrontations. Party's over. Perhaps some of the few serious people still involved with these displays should have a little heart to heart with the Direct Action crowd. Stand back a bit and look at what their involvement has done to your movement. They have destroyed it.

Shut the fuck up you dumb ass. Get off the internet and go back to the suburbs.

I post what I damn well please. If you don't like it then don't read it. Buzz off.

Posted by sfres on the LA indymedia site:

Illegals



Got that one right. It's not "undocumented". Repeat after me: ILLEGAL ALIENS. Suppose the tide were reversed and there were hundreds of thousands of Americans entering Mexico illegally and taking their jobs. What rights would you have (perhaps you could get a hint by looking at how Mexico handles illegals from Guatemala on the southern border). I love the drivers' license scam. Anyone from Mexico can drive here with a Mexican license while VISITING. Sorry, but PC World is over. Calling yourselves undocumented over and over does not change to truth, and we all know it. If you want to come here, then go home, seek out a US consulate, take a number and WAIT YOUR GODDAM TURN.

Author: sfres
Link: http://la.indymedia.org/news/2004/02/104095_comment.php
Posted: Friday March 05, 2004 03:09 AM

no, the police did not do a good job.

the cops provoked the peaceful protestors who were just dancing and chalking and drumming. the cops rushed at the people with riot gear and struck them with their batons. when i was trying to untangle myself from yarn to get on the sidewalk, one cop shoved me roughly and tipped me over, all the time hollaring in my ear, "GET OFF THE STREET OR YOU WILL BE ARRESTED."

how am i supposed to get off the streets when you fucking push me to the ground? what am i supposed to do, crawl???

then why tell someone to STFU? bad form dude.

GERM WARFARE
South End to biodefense lab: Bug off
BY KRISTEN LOMBARDI
http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/this_just_


Yet another group has formed this week to rally against a Boston University proposal to build a $1.6 billion "biosafety laboratory" at Boston University Medical Center, in the heart of the South End. And the Boston University Germ Biodefense Lab Opposition Committee, or BUGBLOC, as it’s called, is gearing up for a loud and visible fight.

"Not enough is being done to stop this proposal," says Rasheed Khalid, a biology professor at Bunker Hill Community College and a Medford resident. He and a dozen of his BUGBLOC colleagues will host a forum on the proposed biodefense lab this Thursday. "If we can stir up some dust," he explains, "maybe we can delay this project."

BUGBLOC is the latest in a long list of people and organizations opposing the university’s proposal — a list that includes Boston city councilors-at-large Chuck Turner, Felix Arroyo, and Maura Hennigan, as well as the Cambridge-based Council for Responsible Genetics. Currently, BU Medical Center is seeking a grant from the federal National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) to build a high-level biosafety laboratory, at which scientists would study treatments and vaccines for a host of lethal agents — from smallpox and anthrax to the plague. Under the plan, the university would construct the facility in an area known as "Biosquare," adjacent to the medical center, where the South End and Roxbury neighborhoods intersect.

To opponents, such a facility brings with it too many health and safety risks. According to Penn Loh, of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE), a Roxbury-based environmental-justice group working with BUGBLOC, community activists and residents alike worry about the "very deadly bioweapons agents" that BU scientists would handle at the lab — particularly in light of the densely populated surroundings. Indeed, ACE estimates that 25,000 people live within one mile of BU Medical Center, while another one million live within 10 miles. At the same time, opponents doubt that the project would offer Roxbury and South End residents much in the way of economic benefits, since many don’t have the advanced science degrees necessary to find employment in a high-end lab.

Above all, however, opponents complain that BU has been less than forthcoming about its NIAID grant application. The more that activists have pressed university officials for answers, the more reticent those officials have become. As Loh puts it, "There has been this whole air of secrecy about what BU is doing."

But Ellen Berlin, head of communications at BU Medical Center, defended the university’s efforts at community outreach. Since BU applied to the NIAID in January, she says, it has held 13 meetings with various South End groups to outline its lab proposal. Berlin adds, "We have tried very hard to reach out to the community."

Berlin contends that opponents have little to fear from the BU lab. The NIAID, which will select a grant winner in September, operates five biosafety laboratories throughout the country, most of which are located in cities such as Atlanta, San Antonio, and Bethesda, Maryland. The facilities have existed for a total of 72 years and not one has ever experienced an environmental leak or other type of safety hazard. "So the track record is quite good," she says.

As for the economic benefits, Berlin notes that the lab, if it were built, would create 1300 construction jobs, half of which are slated for Boston residents. In addition, it would yield 660 permanent positions, some of which would go to administrative assistants, lab technicians, security guards — in other words, jobs that don’t require advanced degrees. "While I know folks think the jobs need such degrees," Berlin says, "it’s just not the case."

But opponents remain unconvinced. Khalid, Loh, and other neighborhood activists have already written to the NIAID, urging it to reject BU’s application. They have held forums to generate opposition. They are even pushing the Boston City Council to pass an ordinance that would ban the construction of biosafety laboratories within the city limits; the ordinance, sponsored by Councilor Turner, will be the topic of a council hearing in September.

Now that BUGBLOC has arrived on the scene, opponents aim to become even more visible. "My main goal is to jump-start a dialogue," Khalid explains. "This is serious business, and we only have a short time to act."

Posted: Thu Feb 26, 2004 5:12 pm Post subject: Opposition grows to BU's biodefense lab plan

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opposition grows to BU's biodefense lab plan

Facility could house pathogens

By Katherine Lutz, Globe Correspondent

Community opposition is mounting to Boston University Medical Center's proposed $1.6 billion biodefense laboratory, a facility designed to house the deadliest agents known to man, including Ebola and smallpox, in the South End.

Fifty Boston residents from Dorchester to Jamaica Plain protested in front of the Medical Center recently, concerned with the safety risks to adjacent neighborhoods and what they said was BU's lack of community outreach. Over the last month, local politicians, including Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner and state Representative Gloria Fox, have come out against the research lab, joining a growing list of community groups and leaders.

"We have at least 500 to 800 signatures from folks around the city who don't want to see this built in the heart of the city," said Klare X. Allen, a member of The Safety Net, a Roxbury neighborhood group that organized the protest. Allen is particularly concerned with the transport of hazardous materials though Boston neighborhoods.

Community leaders say BU has not done enough to inform neighbors about the project, failing to properly advertise meetings about a lab that would play a key role in the defense against terrorism.

"I think what they're doing is minimal, barely meeting the requirement of community outreach," said Lucky Devlin, a South Boston community activist. She said a meeting BU held with the Andrew Square Civic Association was relatively unknown to South Boston residents since it was not advertised in community papers.

BU officials say they held 13 community meetings attended by 300 people at the Medical Center and in the South End, Dudley, and South Boston. "We will continue to work with the community to discuss why this project is important and beneficial," said Ellen Berlin, spokeswoman for Boston University Medical Center, who added that the protest "says to me we need to keep communicating."

BU announced last February its application to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases to build a Biosafety Level 4 laboratory in BU's BioSquare complex in the South End. Staff at the facility would be first responders to a bioterrorist attack, and they would work in high-security labs capable of housing pathogens deemed highly transmissible and deadly.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino supports the proposed lab, saying that it "does not pose any risk to the community and does have the potential for significant community benefit, including prominence for the city," said Michael Kelley, spokesman for the mayor's office.

"The mayor has always said that BU should be available to respond to questions and he thinks that they're doing that," said Kelley. "Many of the folks who are saying they are not having their issues responded to have been at community meetings. There's kind of a contradiction there."

Boston University is one of six known institutions across the country vying for the lucrative biodefense lab, although federal officials will not disclose all candidates. The NIAID expects to make a final decision on who gets the lab in September.

Currently, the United States has three working Biosafety Level 4 facilities, the only labs secure enough to hold the world's deadliest pathogens, according to NIAID's website. The NIAID and other government agencies believe there is a "serious shortage of high-level biocontainment facilities," a shortage that could hinder development of new treatments and vaccines.

In June, a dozen community groups and local politicians led by Alternatives for Community & Environment sent a letter to NIAID, concerned with the public health threat posed by the facility.

As part of its application, BU must demonstrate "community acceptance" of the project before construction begins, according to NIAID's request for applications.

But some South End neighborhood groups, whose residents live closest to the proposed the facility, say BU never contacted them.

Dan Loughlin, vice president of the South End Neighborhood Coalition and coordinator for the Union Park Street Neighborhood Association, said BU contacted neither group about the lab.

But Loughlin supports the new facility, which he hopes will infuse the neighborhood with needed capital and jobs. "I think people really need to shift their focus and stop this knee-jerk reaction," said Loughlin, who believes "the best scientists in the world" will work at the new lab. "This is not some rinky dink proposal."

Loughlin wants BU to invest in his community along with the lab and hopes parks, street lights, and housing developments can stand next to security fences and guards.

But BU's promise of 1,960 new jobs, 1,300 of which will be for construction, gives little assurance to South Boston's Devlin. "Who are the jobs for? These are short-lived construction jobs," said Devlin. "Are they for the layperson? You know what? We can get jobs cleaning floors anywhere."


Scientists Warn on Bush Bioweapons Push
Associated Press

Saturday March 29, 2003 12:00 AM

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - A Bush administration program to add at least three bioweapons labs is troubling many scientists and arms control experts, who say it can't be good to train more microbiologists in the black art of bioterror.

The field is suddenly awash with billions of dollars to combat bioterrorism and much more ispromised under President Bush's Project BioShield plan. The money will fund a building boom of at least three new airtight laboratories where scientists in space suits handle the world's deadliest diseases.

At least six universities and the New York State Department of Health are competing for contracts to build one or two labs, where scientists can infect research monkeys and other animals with such lethal agents as the Ebola, Marburg and Lassa viruses. Those African hemorrhagic diseases are often fatal and always painful, marked by severe bleeding.

They'll also likely create new classes of toxins - including genetically engineered ones - as part of the process of constructing weapons they want to defeat. Developing antidotes or vaccines for those toxins might take years.

``It's perversely increasing the risk of exposure,'' said Richard Ebright, a Rutgers University chemistry professor and bioweapons expert who believes one additional lab is all that is needed.

Ebright and others believe labs managed by universities could prove less secure than government facilities, which have had their own security lapses.

Many believe the anthrax attacks that killed five people and briefly paralyzed Capitol Hill in 2001 were launched by a scientist with access to one of the government's high-security facilities - called Biosafety Level 4 labs, or BSL-4 for short.

Federal investigators searched a former apartment of one such microbiologist, Steven Hatfill, but never stated publicly that he was a suspect. Hatfill has denied involvement.

In his state of the union speech in January, President Bush called for nearly $6 billion to make vaccines and treatments against potential bioterror pathogens. The National Institutes of Health bioterrorism budget, meanwhile, has increased 500 percent this year to $1.3 billion - a large part of which will be used to build at least three labs.

Government officials and leaders of universities vying for the bioterrorism largesse are unapologetic.

NIH officials say that only two of the five U.S. facilities equipped do such work are effectively in use today, and they're overburdened. One is at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta - the only place in the United States that handles live smallpox.

The other full-scale lab is the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Maryland's Fort Detrick. The government is already going ahead with additional labs at Fort Detrick and in Hamilton, Mont.

``What we have is not adequate to meet the current biodefense efforts,'' said Rona Hirschberg of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Officials said they don't know how many scientists work in the biosafety labs, but that the number is tiny and many more trained researchers are needed.

One of the byproducts of such endeavors will be the study of emerging diseases like the West Nile virus, which has infected 4,000 people and killed 274.

``The emerging diseases that we have to deal with are intense,'' said Virginia Hinshaw, provost of the University of California-Davis, which hopes to build one of the new labs. ``The public health need is very large.''

But mistrust runs deep, especially in the California college town of Davis. Lobbied intensely by vocal residents, the city council voted to oppose the school's application to build a lab.

The Davis protests reached a crescendo in February with the escape of a lab monkey, which is still missing. Davis officials said it was disease-free and probably now dead. Still, the school's $200 million bid for a BSL-4 lab has been jeopardized.

Government officials insist that the labs will be secure and serve only defensive purposes. But the U.S. military has a history of dabbling in biological agent programs that push up against a 30-year-old international treaty banning them.

Most recently, it was revealed that researchers at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah have been developing anthrax for use in testing biological defense systems.

The $1.6 billion dollar secret; BU's plan for a bioterrorism lab in densely populated Boston
A CALL FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
http://www.gene-watch.org/bubiodefense/

Boston University is planning to build a $1.6 billion bioterrorism research facility in the heart of the city’s South End community. Much of this spending will be allocated toward medical research to develop diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics against a select list of potential biological weapons: anthrax, smallpox, plague, botulism, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers. Portions of the proposed network of laboratories will be designated as “Biosafety Level 4,” a level of security designed for research on the most dangerous and exotic category of disease-causing organisms. The public has a right to know about the potential risks that this facility could pose to its health and safety.

While the BU Medical Center claims that it “has been reaching out to community leaders, business leaders and others local residents to open communications about the project,” its behavior suggests otherwise. In a letter to the Council for Responsible Genetics, university officials said they would not disclose details of any research and construction plans despite the fact that competing bids from other universities have been made available to the public.


WHY AREA RESIDENTS SHOULD BE CONCERNED

Labs within two miles of downtown Boston will house many of the world’s most dangerous pathogens. B.U. has argued, with little evidence, that defense facilities would help the city respond to a biological weapons attack. But the risks to security may be more substantial. Since investigators traced the September 2001 anthrax mailings to a former defense lab scientist at Fort Detrick, Maryland, the nation has learned firsthand of the potential for biological weapons research to generate home-grown terrorism. Although Biosafety Level 4 facilities have a good historical track record, Boston University needs to provide assurance of strong security measures, including background checks and high-scrutiny clearances.


Pathogens and infectious agents will constantly move through the greater Boston area in transit to and from B.U. Medical Center. Recent events have highlighted the risk of an accident resulting in disease outbreaks and infection of local residents. On March 20th, 2003, a package containing the West Nile virus exploded in a Federal Express building in Columbus, Ohio, exposing workers to the possible infection and causing offices to be evacuated.

Researchers exposed to biological agents could pose a public health risk to residents. A Biosafety Level 4 lab, by definition, handles highly infectious diseases with no known vaccines or treatments. According the federal guidelines, Level 4 pathogens pose a “high risk of exposure and infection to personnel, the community and the environment.” The deaths in 2001of two biologists exposed to meningitis bacteria at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta demonstrate the reality of these infection risks.


Boston residents and city government will not have a say in the facility. A national coalition of activists and community groups has called on Boston University to commit to full public disclosure and active community oversight over its planned biodefense laboratory (http://www.gene-watch.org/bubiodefense/). The university has not agreed to any demands for transparency. In the past, however, community pressures convinced city governments to impose restrictions and oversight on high-security research. Similar pressures recently forced the University of Texas and the University of California at Davis to make their proposals for biological weapons research available to the public.


Secrecy in biodefense research raises suspicion in the international community. The federal government carries out a substantial amount of classified research in its biological defense laboratories. Evidence suggests that B.U. may be continuing the current pattern of secrecy. The Bush Administration recently blocked the enforcement of the Biological Weapons Convention, which would have mandated inspections of U.S. biological defense facilities. B.U.’s refusal to commit to public disclosure raises questions about the peaceful intent of its research and further undermines global arms control.


WHAT YOU CAN DO


Contact local representatives: the Boston City Council has the power to regulate or prohibit research on biological weapons agents within its municipal boundaries. Let the representative from your district know your views, and organize letter writing and call-in campaigns (see contact list below).

Call for and hold public meetings: widely-publicized meetings will provide members of the Boston community the opportunity to learn more about the B.U. project and to voice their concerns. Call your local churches and community groups to set up a meeting.


Contact Boston University: B.U. Medical Center’s spokeswoman recently told the press that B.U. wants to “hear local concerns” and that "the community is a very important part of the process." Officials have yet to put those words into action. Make phone calls, send e-mails, and mail letters to the address below to make sure B.U. hears from the city of Boston.

Contact the Council for Responsible Genetics (CRG): CRG has a wealth of information on biological weapons and defense research that may be useful to you, your organization, your neighbors and community members. To join our BU Biodefense mailing list, just send us an email with "join BU biodefense" in the subject line.


City Council of Boston
Paul J. Scapicchio
District 1
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3200
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Paul.Scapicchio [at] ci.boston.ma.us
James M. Kelly
District 2
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3203
Facsimile: 617.635.3332
James.Kelly [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Maureen E. Feeney
District 3
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3455
Facsimile: 617.635.3734
Maureen.Feeney [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Charles C. Yancey
District 4
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3131
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Charles.Yancey [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Robert Consalvo
District 5
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.4210
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Rob.Consalvo [at] ci.boston.ma.us
John Tobin
District 6
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.4220
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
John.Tobin [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Chuck Turner
District 7
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3510
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Chuck.Turner [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Michael Ross
District 8
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.4225
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Michael.Ross [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Jerry P. McDermott
District 9
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3113
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Jerry.McDermott [at] ci.boston.ma.us Michael F. Flaherty
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.4205
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Michael.F.Flaherty [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Felix D. Arroyo
At-Large Member
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.3115
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
FelixD.Arroyo [at] ci.boston.ma.us Maura Hennigan
At-Large Member
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.4217
Facsimile: 617.635.3734
MauraH [at] ci.boston.ma.us
Stephen J. Murphy
At-Large Member
5th Floor
1 City Hall Plaza
Boston, MA 02201
Telephone: 617.635.4376
Facsimile: 617.635.4203
Stephen.Murphy [at] ci.boston.ma.us
http://www.gene-watch.org/bubiodefense/