J22 Pro-Choice Photos

Why is it that from the get-go, the police are focused on "reigning in" those trouble-making pro-choicers, and yet the out of town right-to-lifers are protected by the police? Why do status quo marchers get red carpet treatment and any group that questions the status quo are vilified and treated to a "zero tolerance" enforcment policy in this city that's supposed to be a "bastion of liberalism"?

Why are free speech laws being applied so selectively here in San Francisco?

Who the hell does Heather Fong, Kathleen Harris and Gavin Newsom speak for?

After today, every left-leaning group should organize and make this city friendly to the movements and beliefs that make us who we are. One of our supervisors announcing something through a press release, but doing nothing about enforcment policies that step all over our rights is nothing but lip service and an insult to the beliefs they claim to share with us.

We need to stop letting the police coral us in to "protest zones" and we need to really take the streets when we protest. We outnumber the the 5 to 1, yet we complacently stand there when they load us on to buses.

These soft, faux protests have gotten us NOTHING these past four years. Unless we are willing to make some real sacrifices, get focused and organized and --god forbid--get aggressive in fighting for our rights or change, then we will continue to be seen as nothing but "pesky ragamuffins" who can easily be ignored or controlled when it comes down to it.

and so is this and this. I don't think I know of any place that isn't a free speech zone.

Great rally at Fisherman's wharf where the anti-choice march was completely shut down and had to go around. One pro-choice woman told me that a cop at this action grabbed her sign from her.

We were repeatedly told that the anti-choicers had a right to the street because of their permit and the pro-choicers had to stay on the sidewalk.

However, when we got to Aquatic Park, the cops then blocked the sidewalk. I asked why the anti-choice were allowed to go through and we were not. The pig told me that "the mayor had ordered it" and we were to be kept separate. So the bussed-in nitwits were allowed to continue on their jolly way and the people who actually live here were told by our non-resident cops that we had to go the long way around.

Once the pro-choice march finally got down to Marina Green where the anti choice rally was being held, the cops prevented us from walking down our own city sidewalks. A couple of women got to the other side incognito and one of them was given a sign from the anti-choicers.

One of the pigs came back to our side and made her give it back, as "it wasn't her property" and she would have to go to jail.

It's all about control. Another guy from our side got over there past the barricades and was having a peaceful dialogue with some of the students in the anti-choice group. He was told by a cop that he had to leave and get back over to "his side".

Of course the first corporate media hack report I saw praised the cops for keeping an angry crowd separated and giving us a peaceful march. Not surprising, but dizzzgusting nonetheless.

we definitely have to do a better job with keeping the crazy religious away from young people. There were hundreds of good-looking young high school and college age girls there on the anti-choice side. We tried to scream at them and spit at them, but it didn't change their minds. Next time, we should probably get more violent than we did today.

and get back to wherever they bussed you in from. There was no spitting from anyone, troll.

No way is violence the answer! We will NOT reduce ourselves to their level! That wont teach them a thing!

The officer I spoke to (Sgt Smith) said he had orders over his radio to let the permitted group through (over the hill to Marina Green) and stop us because "someone had thrown something and injured a baby." He said an ambulance was called to treat the kid. Did anyone see this incident or the ambulance?

Stopping us from walking on the public right-of-way is an infringement of our civil rights.

You are obviously either an undercover cop trying to stir things up, or a sad anti-choice troll.

Either way you can take a hike. Those young women will eventually learn to think for themselves and will come to a pro-choice position all on their own.

There's nothing like the threat of being forced to bear a child against your will to bring some sense to a young woman.

That was meant for the guy who said we have to get aggresive with the young anti-choice women.

I mean calling himself "bitches for choice" makes it kind of obvious. The only violence I saw was the cops preventing us having our free speech, while the "visitors" had carte blanche to express their anti-choice beliefs.

One of the reasons the cops relate more to the anti-choice crowd is the high number of whilte men of a certain age (40-60). The cops can relate to those guys, so they are sure to make sure any group associated with those alpha males is handled with respect.

It's time to start dragging our pro-choice dads and uncles and husbands and brothers out to these rallies. It's time for them to support us by showing up and providing cover for us while we route around the cops. We've been letting the old guys slide a little too much.

Get off the couch, Dad! Get your ass out on the street, honey! Here's a sign, Uncle Joe!

Why are the cops videotaping and photographing the _pro-choice_ people, but not the anti-choice people??? Have the pro-choice people been shooting doctors, scaring nurses, making threatening calls, and bombing medical clinics? The cops should be videotaping, photographing, audiotaping, and identifying _every_ single anti-choice marcher for potential murderers, bombers and, likewise, terrorists. That way we have sheets of mug shots, names available, and voices recorded for the next time a doctor is shot or a clinic is bombed or a telephone threat is made or a female clinic patient is harrassed. I guess that Bush's all-out "war on terror" doesn't extend to _Christian_ terrorists. Where is Heather Fong and Camala Harris on this one? Protecting the patriarchal system? You see when the police cars say "to protect & serve", it doesn't mean "to protect & serve _us_, the people"; that's our misunderstanding. The cops are telling us what they really mean and their real role: they mean, "to protect and serve The _System_!"

The cops are a little confused. They look at the two crowds and see more old white guys with the anti-choice people so they assume they are the "normal" ones.

They can be educated. Mostly via political pressure from your supervisors and mayors to their chief of police.

Stay calm, document everything. Compile and share the info. Present the data to the pols. Make good use of lawyers. It's an ongoing process.

Notice the pro-Fallujah sign at the pro-choice rally.

When Sunni guerilla fighters
briefly controlled Fallujah,
they imposed Taliban-style rule --
not friendly toward womyn and queers.

........

Expelling Bush from Iraq? -- YES!


Endorsing fascists who happen to oppose Bush? -- NO!


The enemy of your enemy
is NOT always your friend.....


........

I find those comments about documenting anti-abortion demonstrators extremely disturbing. Doing such would only give the government more power to invade our privacy. And while abortion providers have been attacked and harassed repeatedly over the years, there have been an almost equal number of attacks against anti-abortion groups, including an attack against an anti-abortion clinic in Baltimore last Saturday. If we promote the idea of the police documenting their side because of some of its members support of violent tactics, then they would be justified in going against us as well.

Kudos about Fallujah - not everyone who's the enemy of our enemy is our ally

let's try to see people in iraq as 3-dimensional, and varied, humans.
why are you assuming that the fallujah sign was an endorsement of sunni guerrillas rather than the spectrum of resistance from civil society, women, kids, and men in fallujah and across iraq? the u.s. war and occupation of iraq is affecting (and killing) civilians, not just self-identified guerrillas, and civilians are resisting it too, not just guerillas. up up the people, down the occupation!