Cindy Sheehan spoke to about 150 people in Union Square today — but her talk was cut short when a NYPD goon squad charged into the crowd, yanked her off the stage, and pulled the plug on the rally. Whole story here. It isn’t clear if she was arrested or not: this story says she was.
Remember how the last major antiwar march in NYC had such a hard time getting a permit? The little commissars over at the New York Sun were agitating to delay granting the march a permit as long as possible:
“Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly are doing the people of New York and the people of Iraq a great service by delaying and obstructing the anti-war protest planned for February 15. The longer they delay in granting the protesters a permit, the less time the organizers have to get their turnout organized, and the smaller the crowd is likely to be.”
The neocons know they can’t win the argument over this war, so they’re turning to the State to minimize and even crush the antiwar opposition.
With all the serious crimes [.pdf file] being committed in New York City’s 13th Precinct, you would think the cops would have better things to do.
Don’t let them get away with it. Call the 13th Precinct and tell them this is still America, bud, and you can’t do that!
PRECINCT (212) 477-7411
COMMUNITY AFFAIRS (212) 477-7427
COMMUNITY POLICING (212) 477-7446
CRIME PREVENTION (212) 477-7427
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE (212) 477-3863
YOUTH OFFICER (212) 477-7411
AUXILIARY COORDINATOR (212) 477-7446
DETECTIVE SQUAD (212) 477-7444
UPDATE: It turns out that Cindy Sheehan wasn’t arrested, but she was roughed up in the police-provoked melee:
“‘I was speaking and someone grabbed my backpack and pulled me back pretty roughly,’ Sheehan said, describing the scene at Manhattan’s Union Square on Monday. ‘I was shoved around. ‘I think their use of force was pretty excessive for someone that didn’t have a permit.'”
Paul Zulkowitz, the rally organizer, was arrested and taken into custody. The charge: conducting a rally without a sound permit. When this happened in Ukraine, the U.S. sent millions of dollars in covert aid to the opposition, and denounced the authorities as aspiring dictators.