Anti-G8 West Coast Action: Witness Info

okay. I was wondering about giving a name versus being asked for a statement, although at the time I called I probably woke the poor person up rather than getting an answering machine.

The consensus idea is interesting. For a few years, everything was consensus based, then that principle wasn't emphasized as much in comparison to tolerance of multiple choices of direction within a group.

You know I don't understand all the hype over this officer who was hurt.
When a TG/TS person is killed its just another murder, and the killers are rarely apprehended or charged, but when a cop is hurt everyone pays.
Fuck that!
Get fuckin real SFPD.

(Deep down inside I am sorry the officer was hurt, BUT......

The reality at these protests is that about half the time, the police attack peaceful protestors. This aspect, of course, is never reported by the mainstream media. When protestors get attacked they usually beaten and bloodied, regardless of how passive they may be. So, after you're beaten and bloodied, the police will make an excuse for their brutality, and charge you with "assaulting an officer," or some similar bogus trumped-up charges--even though you were simply exercising your free speech rights. It's a form of rape.

So you're basically faced with 2 choices: be passive in the face of an attacking officer, get the shit beat out of you, then get prosecuted for some cops lies. Or, you could defend yourself from an unjustified beating, possibly escape, or get charged with the same "assaulting an officer" that you were going to get charged with anyway. Either way, the police ar not there to defend your rights: they defend property, not people.

Either way, you lose. The public sees the hurt cop, identifies with him, and dislikes you. Your point in having the demo is lost on the public, who now only sees you as troublemakers and attackers of cops. You trash a poor Latino neighborhood that has nothing to do with your cause. You trash peoples' neighborhood businesses, banks, and stores, and then wonder why 50 people turn out for your "actions". Do yourself a favor - stay home. Leave others alone. Trash your own house and don't bother the people who have to live with the mess you make with your nonsense. I cannot stress enough how angry the community is with people like you. You offer nothing to us, give nothing to us. Leave us be.

You weren't there dave. Do you want to save the world? or do you want to drink your "fair-trade" coffee and think that you are helping someone?

Can we get $10,000 for each of these murder cases below to help bring the murderers to justice? Or does the city only pay the SFPD to protect their own? As for the mainstream media, the day you grow the cojones to report on victims of police violence with as much fervor as you report alleged crimes against police, you might regain a shred of credibility.

March 2002 - five officers opened fire on a 100-pound, mentally disabled man named Richard Tims, killing him. The barrage of ricocheting bullets destroyed a bus shelter, sprayed the block and felled onlooker Vilda Curry -- forever robbing the 39-year-old mother of her ovary and the use of her leg. Five cops should have been able to take Tims' knife without firing a single bullet. Instead, they shot two people. All officers were cleared in that case, too

February 2002 - Take the killing of Gregory Hooper in February 2002. Off-duty officer Steve Lee got into a fistfight with Hooper, a street vendor who had turned his life around after a stint in state prison. Eyewitnesses reported that after the fight ended, Lee shot the unarmed Hooper four times in the chest at point- blank range. At least three witnesses told The Chronicle that Lee fired not in self-defense but in anger. Lee had a record of off-duty misconduct, having been cited previously by the Office of Citizen Complaints. But the SFPD and district attorney quickly exonerated the officer.

June 12, 2001 Idriss Stelley was shot more than 20 times and killed by San Francisco Police Officers at the Sony Metreon. Young man dies, shot 20 times by 8 cops Just before midnight on June 12, 2001, Idriss Stelley was killed by 8 San Francisco police officers, shot over 25 times. Since then, Idriss's family has been stalled, lied to and disrespected by SFPD and the City of San Francisco. This website demands justice for Idriss, however long it takes. - http://www.justice4idriss.org

May 13, 1998 - Sheila Patricia Detoy, sitting in the front seat of a Ford Mustang, was shot once in the head by plainclothes police officers as the car barreled out of the driveway of the Oakwood Apartments May 13, 1998 Mother of slain girl files wrongful death claim

April 6, 1996 - Mark Garcia, a 15 year teamster, was killed by San Francisco police. Mark Garcia was robbed and partially stripped of his clothing. The San Francisco Police Department (SFPD) was called. Instead of helping Mark, the police beat him, pepper sprayed him, handcuffed him, stood on his back for more than 5 minutes, hog-tied him, and then threw him into the back of a police van. Although they took him to the hospital, Mark Garcia died as a result of this abuse.

June 4, 1995 - Aaron Williams, an African-American man suspected of a $50 pet-store burglary who died in police custody. According to witnesses and police sources, a team of police led by Officer Marc Andaya repeatedly kicked Williams in the head and emptied three canisters of pepper spray into his face. Despite the fact that Williams was having difficulty breathing, the police finally hog-tied, gagged and left him unattended in the back of a police van, where he died.

I live in the Mission neighborhood, and I am a working class Latin person. I have been talking to my neighbors, friends, and family since Friday. First of all, none of the working class people of color who live in the Mission that I have talked to have any problem with people perpetrating acts of economic sabotage towards PG&E. PG&E poisons and kills working class communities, such as Hunter's Point. Most people around here don't have a problem with a bank window getting smashed. My mom was hoping that someone got the Wells Fargo. Attacking banks, as an anti-capitalist action/message, is very traditional in radical Latin America. The working class people of color I live with aren't going to be depressed because the owner of Wells Fargo has to pay up a few more dollars for a broken window. Everyone I talked to understood that the cop who was hit was hit in self-defense, and therefore were not against it. In a community were the police terrorize us daily, most people don't mind. I know I don't, I have had loved ones shot dead by racist police. This goes out to the white liberals also. Breaking a window is not violent, and violence in self-defense is valid. The majority of Anarchist Action organizers are working class people of color, not middle class white folks. Many of the people at the protest were from the Mission. Also, there is a difference between throwing trash in the streets for the sake of it, and placing barricades in the streets so that the cops have a harder time catching up to beat protestors or prevent them from expressing their political beliefs. Dave, the working class people in the Mission have MUCH to do with the G8.
"I cannot stress enough how angry the community is with people like you." Really? I highly doubt it.

I live in the Mission, work in the Mission and support the action totally. I promise you that I shed no tears for a bank window or a cop.

First of all, it wasn't just smashing random windows--I'd love to see more than just the windows smashed of any large banking institution (take your pick-Citibank, Wells, BofA, ect.) While the successfulness of the tactics could be debated, I empathize with the feelings of frustration and the need to let off some steam.

I think we should stay out of neighborhoods where the people live and take the protest to where the enemy is.

The next action should be in the financial district downtown.

That's not where the enemy is. That's where the enemy's servants work. The enemy is in mansions in Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff.

I live on the equivalent of sea cliff for some reason and I was taking photos at g8. I think the landlord was interesting in converting me to his religion. It's kind of difficult to figure out.