[NE-anarchists-an] Wanted! Accounts of police misconduct at Feb 15 NYC rally

[Eric Laursen]

United for Peace and Justice, sponsor of the Sat, Feb 15 rally in New York against the Iraq invasion, and the New York Civil Liberties Union are collecting accounts of police brutality and misconduct. If you have observations and/or first-hand complaints about any such behavior, PLEASE contact the NYCLU at nyclu215 at aol.com! 

Some additional info about Saturday's rally, from today's UFPJ press conference:

* Police broke at least two provisions of their agreement to provide rally space to UFPJ on Sat: 1) to provide access to First Avenue as far north as necessary to accomodate protesters, and 2) to keep side streets open between First, Second, and Third Avenues so that protesters could easily get access to the rally site. Instead, police sealed off all side streets starting that morning and closed the northern end of First Avenue.

* Mounted police appear to have trampled activists sitting in at Times Square. At least two clearly identified medics and one clearly identified legal observer were arrested. One victim may have suffered a severe spinal injury, was hospitalized, and lawyers have not been able to find this individual's location.

* Some arrestees were held in buses and some kept chained up outside police precincts for at least an hour and a half without gloves or other protection against the bitter cold. People arrested early in the day were held at precincts as long as 48 hours before being arraigned. Lawyers were not allowed access to their clients for up to 12 hours, during which police interrogated arrestees.

* Many subway lines were shut down for much of the day, and the Metro North stopped running early. Times Square subway station, the busiest in the system, was conpletely closed. Announcements about the subway closings said only that they were due to an "ongoing police investigation."

The UFPJ is calling for NYPD Chief Ray Kelly to step down. Leslie Cagan of UFPJ says a lawsuit may be contemplated against the city.

Eric
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