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Uncle Sam, the Real Terrorist - RTC Racial Justice Rally at the Federal Building
Mesha Irizarry of the Idriss Stelley Foundation (left) and Allen Feaster, whose son was killed in January in the California Youth Authority, stand in solidarity with Samina Faheem of American Muslim Voice. All spoke passionately at the Racial Justice Rally Monday.
Uncle Sam, the real terrorist
The people rally for racial justice locally and globally
by Tiny - POOR Magazine, PNN
"See those men in ugly blue polyester over there? They all have one thought: ‘Obey, obey, obey.’” As I listened to Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights address the police who stood at attention in massive presence around our small crowd gathered at the Racial Justice Rally held in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco Monday, I nodded my head in agreement but didn't realize how much of a prophecy his words were to become.
As the rally progressed, many amazing speakers, poets, organizers and folk lifted their voices in commitment to the movement for racial and economic justice locally and globally.
“I am here to speak on behalf of Iraqi people who don't have any voice right now," said Samina Faheem of American Muslim Voice, speaking softly to the crowd. "I was part of the anti-war rally on Saturday. This was the first rally organized after the torture of Iraqi prisoners unfolded. To my surprise there were 10,000 people. I was hoping that there would be tens of thousands of people."
At this point, Samina broke into tears and couldn't continue speaking. The crowd stood in mourning with her. After several minutes, she continued, "I needed to see thousands of Americans screaming about the torture of Iraqis.
"George Bush said at a recent celebration, 'The children are doing such a wonderful job collecting school supplies for Iraqi children.' Does anyone know that the Iraqi children don't have schools, they don't have fresh water or teachers or food. What are they going to do with Bush's school supplies?"
Racial Justice Day was organized by Books Not Bars in collaboration with Reclaim the Commons, a movement to teach and demonstrate sustainable, life-affirming alternatives to corporate power. The organizers have presented a series of events starting June 6 to protest the conference of the G-8 – a group of the eight largest economies in the world - being held in Georgia and the pharmaceutical industries’ biotech conference being held simultaneously in San Francisco.
"We are here to recognize the intense parallel between global oppression and local oppression. Do not forget that the torturers in Iraq were trained in the prison system here,” said Mesha Irizarray of the Idriss Stelly Foundation, describing the day’s purpose.
After Samina spoke, the mic was given up to a young rapper, LINX, who critiqued mainstream rappers’ commercial interests. "They put us in institutions, they separate our families, they spend money incarcerating and destroying us and then they kill us,” he rapped.
Next we heard from a truly inspirational elder, Allen Feaster, who lost his son to the racist, classist California Youth Authority earlier this year on Jan. 19. "I cannot touch my son ever again,” he said, “but I can touch the minds of America."
And then Mr. Feaster became my personal hero when he said: "America, you need to wake up, stop putting your money into prisons. Put it into education, put it into child care so mothers don't have to work 24 hours a day just to support their kids."
As the speakers one by one continued to tell the truth, I became increasingly aware of the growing police presence that surrounded us, and when the rally ended it was decided that the group would walk to police headquarters at 850 Bryant in solidarity with a woman named Laurie who, as one of the organizers of the event, was arrested by the cops for some ancient traffic violations.
As the group walked peacefully towards the police station, we were escorted by several hundred cops - on bikes, on foot, in cars. When I reported this to Dee, co-editor of PNN, she called the Mayor’s office. To her question, “Why are there all these cops on the streets?” one of Mayor Newsom’s assistants replied, "Because the community wanted it."
"Whose community?" Dee asked. And then the woman hung up on her.
This interchange reminded me of Van's inspiring closing words at the rally: "We’re gonna fight together and love together and liberate these blue polyester fools too."
For more information on Reclaim the Commons, go to http://www.reclaimthecommons.net. To support the work of Samina Faheem, visit http://www.amuslimvoice.org. Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at http://www.poormagazine.org
The people rally for racial justice locally and globally
by Tiny - POOR Magazine, PNN
"See those men in ugly blue polyester over there? They all have one thought: ‘Obey, obey, obey.’” As I listened to Van Jones of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights address the police who stood at attention in massive presence around our small crowd gathered at the Racial Justice Rally held in front of the Federal Building in San Francisco Monday, I nodded my head in agreement but didn't realize how much of a prophecy his words were to become.
As the rally progressed, many amazing speakers, poets, organizers and folk lifted their voices in commitment to the movement for racial and economic justice locally and globally.
“I am here to speak on behalf of Iraqi people who don't have any voice right now," said Samina Faheem of American Muslim Voice, speaking softly to the crowd. "I was part of the anti-war rally on Saturday. This was the first rally organized after the torture of Iraqi prisoners unfolded. To my surprise there were 10,000 people. I was hoping that there would be tens of thousands of people."
At this point, Samina broke into tears and couldn't continue speaking. The crowd stood in mourning with her. After several minutes, she continued, "I needed to see thousands of Americans screaming about the torture of Iraqis.
"George Bush said at a recent celebration, 'The children are doing such a wonderful job collecting school supplies for Iraqi children.' Does anyone know that the Iraqi children don't have schools, they don't have fresh water or teachers or food. What are they going to do with Bush's school supplies?"
Racial Justice Day was organized by Books Not Bars in collaboration with Reclaim the Commons, a movement to teach and demonstrate sustainable, life-affirming alternatives to corporate power. The organizers have presented a series of events starting June 6 to protest the conference of the G-8 – a group of the eight largest economies in the world - being held in Georgia and the pharmaceutical industries’ biotech conference being held simultaneously in San Francisco.
"We are here to recognize the intense parallel between global oppression and local oppression. Do not forget that the torturers in Iraq were trained in the prison system here,” said Mesha Irizarray of the Idriss Stelly Foundation, describing the day’s purpose.
After Samina spoke, the mic was given up to a young rapper, LINX, who critiqued mainstream rappers’ commercial interests. "They put us in institutions, they separate our families, they spend money incarcerating and destroying us and then they kill us,” he rapped.
Next we heard from a truly inspirational elder, Allen Feaster, who lost his son to the racist, classist California Youth Authority earlier this year on Jan. 19. "I cannot touch my son ever again,” he said, “but I can touch the minds of America."
And then Mr. Feaster became my personal hero when he said: "America, you need to wake up, stop putting your money into prisons. Put it into education, put it into child care so mothers don't have to work 24 hours a day just to support their kids."
As the speakers one by one continued to tell the truth, I became increasingly aware of the growing police presence that surrounded us, and when the rally ended it was decided that the group would walk to police headquarters at 850 Bryant in solidarity with a woman named Laurie who, as one of the organizers of the event, was arrested by the cops for some ancient traffic violations.
As the group walked peacefully towards the police station, we were escorted by several hundred cops - on bikes, on foot, in cars. When I reported this to Dee, co-editor of PNN, she called the Mayor’s office. To her question, “Why are there all these cops on the streets?” one of Mayor Newsom’s assistants replied, "Because the community wanted it."
"Whose community?" Dee asked. And then the woman hung up on her.
This interchange reminded me of Van's inspiring closing words at the rally: "We’re gonna fight together and love together and liberate these blue polyester fools too."
For more information on Reclaim the Commons, go to http://www.reclaimthecommons.net. To support the work of Samina Faheem, visit http://www.amuslimvoice.org. Read more about issues of poverty and race written by the people who face them daily at http://www.poormagazine.org
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It is obvious to any reasonable person viewing this picture that his side patch marks him as a Federal agent and his is obviously on Federal land.
Maybe, I didn't look through my pics that closely and didn't really want to get too close to these guys, since they had supposedly made the arrest of the women that was coordinating permits for RTC events and actions. I heard from other folks that these guys identified themselves as being associated with Homeland Security, but most police departments and sherriffs departments have their own officers involved in Homeland Security too. So in some ways it didn't really matter to me what agency's badge they hid behind while they were seeking to intimidate us with their presence on that day.
Operating units
The Department of Homeland Security is currently organized into four main divisions, incorporating many existing federal functions (original parent agencies in parentheses):
- Border and Transportation Security
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
- Legacy Border Patrol (United States Department of Justice)
- Legacy Customs Inspections (United States Department of the Treasury)
- Legacy Immigration Inspections (United States Department of Justice)
- Legacy Agriculture Inspections (United States Department of Agriculture)
- Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (United States Department of Agriculture)
- Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
- United States Customs Service (United States Department of the Treasury)
- Immigration and Naturalization Service (United States Department of Justice)
- Federal Air Marshal Service (United States Department of Transportation, Federal Aviation Administration, Civil Aviation Security)
- Federal Protective Service (General Services Administration)
- Transportation Security Administration (United States Department of Transportation)
- Secret Service (United States Department of the Treasury)
- Coast Guard (United States Department of Transportation)
- Office for Domestic Preparedness (United States Department of Justice)
- Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (United States Department of the Treasury)
- Customs and Border Protection (CBP)
- Emergency Preparedness and Response
- Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
- National Disaster Medical System (United States Department of Health and Human Services)
- Domestic Emergency Support Teams (United States Department of Justice)
- National Domestic Preparedness Office (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
- Nuclear Incident Response Team (United States Department of Energy)
- Science and Technology
- CBRN Countermeasures Programs (United States Department of Energy)
- Environmental Measurements Laboratory (United States Department of Energy)
- National Bio-Weapons Defense Analysis Center (United States Department of Defense)
- Plum Island Animal Disease Center (United States Department of Agriculture)
- Information Analysis and Infrastructure Protection
- Energy Security and Assurance Program (United States Department of Energy)
- Critical Infrastructure Assurance Office (United States Department of Commerce)
- National Infrastructure Protection Center (Federal Bureau of Investigation)
- Federal Computer Incident Response Center (General Services Administration)
- National Communications System (United States Department of Defense)
For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States...
Under the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the
Federal Protective Service (General Services Administration) is the security at federal buildings. While the OHS has some subagencies that appaear like they could spy on certain people, I think its still the FBI (not under OHS) that keeps files on and monitors activist groups. Many police departments have liasons with the OHS that are also liasons with the FBI so that probably causes some confusion.
Federal Protective Service (General Services Administration) is the security at federal buildings. While the OHS has some subagencies that appaear like they could spy on certain people, I think its still the FBI (not under OHS) that keeps files on and monitors activist groups. Many police departments have liasons with the OHS that are also liasons with the FBI so that probably causes some confusion.
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