- OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) - Police
open fired Monday morning with non-lethal bullets at an anti-war protest
at the Port of Oakland, injuring several longshoremen standing nearby.
-
- A protestor, who refused to give her name, bears the
wounds after she says was hit by Oakland police weapon during a anti-war
protest in Oakland, Calif., Monday, April 7, 2003 outside the port area.
(AP Photo/Paul Sakuma)
-
- What Do You Think?
-
- Tell Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown:
- officeofthemayor@oaklandnet.com
-
-
-
- Berkeley resident Clay Hinson (R), who was shot once
in the chest and twice in the back during an anti-war protest, shows his
wounds to an Oakland Police sergeant (L) who takes his statement at the
West Oakland train station, April 7, 2003. Oakland police fired rubber
bullets and wooden pellets on Monday to disperse hundreds of anti-war protesters
in what was believed to be their first such use against U.S. protesters
since the American-led war on Iraq began. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne
- Police were trying to clear protesters from an entrance
to the docks when they opened fire and the longshoremen apparently were
caught in the line of fire.
-
 Six longshoremen were treated
by paramedics and at least one was expected to be taken to a hospital.
It was unclear if any of the protesters was injured.
-
- "I was standing as far back as I could," saidlongshoreman
Kevin Wilson. "It was very scary. All of that force wasn't necessary."
-
- Last week, a San Francisco-based peace group, <http://www.actagainstwar.org/>Direct
Action to Stop the War, had announced that it would stage a series of protests
Monday involving new acts of civil disobedience.
-
- The Port of Oakland was among the targets, organizers
had said, because at least one shipping company is handling war supplies.
-
- Trent Willis, a business agent for the International
Longshore and Warehouse Union, said angrily that dockworkers were leaving
the docks after the incident.
-
- "They shot my guys. We're not going to work today,"
Willis said. "The cops had no reason to open up on them."
-
- Police used non-lethal bullets, sandbags and concussion
grenades to try to break up about 500 protesters, who split into groups
in front of different terminals.
-
- Oakland Police officer James Carroll said police set
up a "skirmish line" and ordered the protesters to disperse.
-
-
-
-
- "It escalated pretty quick," he said. "Usually
you go to these protests and you wait around for three to four hours. Today,
all of a sudden, people were being taken into custody." He could not
confirm that anyone was hit by the bullets.
-
- Protests also took place at the federal building in San
Francisco and at the Concord Naval Weapons Station. Seven people were arrested
when they temporarily blocked an exit ramp off Interstate 280.
-
- An Oakland Police officer fires a shotgun towards a group
of anti-war protesters near the Port of Oakland, April 7, 2003. Oakland
police fired rubber bullets and wooden pellets on Monday to disperse hundreds
of anti-war protesters in what was believed to be the first such use against
U.S. protesters since the American-led war on Iraq began. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne
- © 2003 The Associated Press
-
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-
-
- Comment
-
- From Lucille
- Spacek@ameritech.net
- 4-9-3
-
- Friends,
- Thoughts have come into my head, since I first heard
about the protesters, in Oakland, who were shot with rubber bullets, wooden
dowls and etc. Who are these policeman who can so wontonly carry out these
assaults and attempted murders? Rubber bullets do kill, a dowl in the eyesocket
could enter a brain, and kill. Where were these cyborg stormtroopers programmed
and recruited from? Are many of them Gulf War vets? What of the marines
and soldiers, whom everyone wishes to come home 'safely', arn't 'safe'
anymore, in civilian populations? What of those who have been allowed to
slaughter civilians at checkpoints in Iraq, don't have an 'off' switch,
when they come 'home', to the good old USA, to their wives (remember Fort
Bragg&Afghan vets), families, neighbors and friends? What if the programming
to 'shoot anything that moves' is permanent in some of these killer elite
cyborgs?
- Are these the next new recruits for civilian police forces?
The home front concentration camp 'guards'? The new 'Homeland Security'
apparatus? If so, we don't stand a chance, just like the slaughtered, in
Iraq. That's one reason, I feel we will suffer the same fate as Iraqi's,
here, in the U.S.
- Didn't Tim McVeigh say he was microchipped and programmed
from his time in the Gulf War? Maybe it wasn't so farfetched, what he claimed.
Are a bunch of Manchurian candidates about to come home to all those yellow
ribbons? Heroes to an insane government who cheers on the savage acts of
troops out of control with bloodlust. No consequences to the heroes who
did their job and followed orders to destroy, steal and slaughter. Even
when they come home and start beating, raping and shooting those who might
oppose what they did over there, over here. Will they be able to resist
the urge to destroy anyone who naysays them, says no, disagrees with their
behavior, or points out their evil hypocrisy and bloodlust, in the homes,
neighborhoods and bars they will visit when they come 'home'? How 'bout
roadrage? Will they forget they arn't driving a tank and can't shoot pedestrians
or other drivers who piss them off in traffic? Oh, people the possibilities
are endless how the returnee's might 'adopt' back to civilian life.
- I could go on, but feel FREE (for a bit longer) use
your own imaginations. And just pray you or yours arn't 'preyed' upon by
what returns from Iraq....
- Sincerely,
- Lucille
- PS. Below is a sample of the future, from the not distant
past, that will haunt us. These same young killer elite will come home
and think it's A-OK, to shoot down children, if they pose a 'threat' to
a soldiers precious precious body and decayed evil mind. Just what could
that kid have done to precious precious Nick Boggs, with a rocket propelled
grenade? Could he have loaded it into a launcher and shot it
at Nick Boggs, or thrown it at him? A ten year old boy? No warning shots,
just splatter the kid. Then show your officer and peers how 'tough' you
are by not letting it bother you, that you just murdered a child. Ya, that's
the important thing, Nick Boggs of Alaska, don't let your conscience trouble
you, we wouldn't want that, now would we. There should be no consequences
for murdering Iraqi children, just congratulations on a much deserved kill,
of a child. You're a demon cyborg, Nick Boggs, you've sold your soul to
the devil, to keep your precious precious body alive and your evil programmed
mind ready for the next 'little' kill. But hey, you did what you HAD to
do, right? You disgusting coward! You're not worth the powder to blow you
up.
- Killing A Child: "I Did What I Had To Do"
- 4-8-03
-
- (Reuters) -- When a young Iraqi boy stooped to pick up
a rocket propelled grenade off the body of a dead paramilitary, US Army
Private Nick Boggs made his decision.
-
- He unloaded machinegun fire and the boy, whom he puts
at about 10 years old, fell dead on a garbage-strewn stretch of waste land
at Karbala.
-
- Boggs, a softly spoken 21-year-old former hunting guide
from Alaska, says he knew when he joined the army 18 months ago he might
someday have to make a decision like that.
-
- He hoped it would never come and, although he has no
regrets about opening fire, it is clear he'd rather it wasn't a child he
killed.
-
- "I did what I had to do. I don't have a big problem
with it but anyone who shoots a little kid has to feel something,"
he said after fierce weekend fighting in this Shi'ite Muslim holy city
that left dozens of Iraqis and one American soldier dead.
-
- As US troops take the Iraq war out of the desert and
into the main cities, they are increasingly seeing children in their line
of fire.
-
- Many are innocent civilians in the wrong place at the
wrong time and military officers concede that some may have been killed
in artillery or mortar fire, or shot down by soldiers whose judgment is
impaired in the "fog of war".
-
- But others are apparently being used as fighters or more
often as scouts and weapons collectors. US officers and soldiers say that
turns them into legitimate targets.
-
- "I think they're cowards," Boggs said of the
parents or Fedayeen paramilitaries who send out children to the battlefield.
-
- "I think they thought we wouldn't shoot kids. But
we showed them we don't care. We are going to do what we have to do to
stay alive and keep ourselves safe."
-
- The boy he killed was with another child of around the
same age when they reached for the RPG and came under fire. Boggs thinks
the second boy was also hit but other soldiers think he escaped and that
he dragged his friend's dead body away.
-
- Boggs' platoon leader, Lieutenant Jason Davis, said the
young soldier struggles with what happened even if he had no choice but
to shoot.
-
- "Does it haunt him? Absolutely. It haunts me and
I didn't even pull the trigger," he said. "It blows my mind that
they can put their children into that kind of situation."
-
- Although Boggs plays down suggestions he was upset by
the incident, he also says his view of combat has changed since Saturday,
when his platoon came under intense RPG and rifle fire from the moment
they entered Karbala until way after nightfall.
-
- Before - like many young soldiers - he says he was anxious
to get his first "kill" in a war. Now, he seems more mature.
-
- "It's not about killing people. It's about accomplishing
a mission ... When we talk, we don't say how scared we were. But we found
out how you feel when an RPG hits the wall just up from you and you think
'Damn, I could have been right there'," he said.
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From lee8798@shaw.ca
- 4-9-3
-
-
- Jeff - Saw the pix on your website from Oakland. I have
to say, I'm ashamed of my own people right now, and of muslim Americans/Canadians.
These young people, these white kids in Oakland, Austin, NYC, DC, are
standing tall and getting beat down in the streets for MY PEOPLE, while
my people hide and remain silent. I'm ashamed to be an immigrant right
now, let me tell you. We don't deserve to be here if we aren't prepared
to stand and fight alongside these brave boys and girls. After all this
is over, those immigrants who didn't stand up should all be shipped home...
I mean that sincerely. If you've been attending these protests, please
try and find some way to thank these kids for me personally.
-
- I see you noticed the canisters. Well, now some Americans
know how Palestinians feel. Those canisters are littered ALL OVER the
streets of Ramallah, Jenin, East Jerusalem and Hebron's H2 by the thousands.
Some are British CS gas, some are Flashbangs, some are blunt trauma rounds.
They've been used against 10 year old rock children for 40 years.
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