As you may be aware, the city of Miami is considering adopting new
anti-demonstrator laws, drafted by police chief John Timoney of the 2000
Republican National Convention fame, specifically to squash dissent to the
FTAA, which is coming to Miami this November. If passed, this would be the
most restrictive anti-demonstrator law in the US, falling just shy of
marshal law rules.
If your organization is officially opposing, please contact
afrimax@niainteractive.com, so we can include you in media and other
correspondence.
As written, the law would be in effect from September 25 to November 27,
2003, thereby specifically targeting anti-FTAA demonstrators. The city does
not want any anti-FTAA demonstrations as they might interfere with the local
power structure’s desire to secure the permanent FTAA headquarters in Miami.
However, the law would also apply to every gathering between those dates,
including little league sports, concerts and any other “assembly.”
The proposed anti-demonstrator law defines an assembly as any combination of
three (3) people, animals or vehicles with a common purpose. That means the
police can see me (1) driving down the street in my car (2), with a dog (3)
and claim we are participating in a demonstration. Or, if two men (2) are
sitting on the corner playing dominoes and a dog (3) walks by, the police
can declare them an assembly for purposes of “law enforcement.”
The law makes it illegal to have rifles, shotguns, pistols, grenades and
other weapons at an “assembly.” However, these items are already illegal
most of the time in most places, and so, no new law is needed. However, by
defining and targeting an “assembly,” police are granted new powers to stop
people (and dogs) and hold them accountable to all kinds of other rules.
Other newly outlawed items include: any kind of glass; marbles; vinyl signs
(with your organizations name), sticks to hold up signs or placards;
baseballs; baseball bats; any other rubber ball; anything police think is
intended for use as a weapon.
On a practical level, in the previous two examples, police can pull me and
my dog over for having a demonstration, then, if they find a baseball or
even a marble in my car, can arrest me for having an illegal object. The two
men playing dominoes can get arrested for the same if the dog walks by while
they have a glass bottle of soda or beer or a glass of water from home. I
don’t even want to get into what happens if you attend a little league
baseball game inside of city limits.
Will the city go after all of these examples? No, but that is exactly the
point: they are passing this for purposes of selective prosecution, where
they can attack people in one community, but not in another. Equally as
important, even though the law expires on Thanksgiving day, it sets a
terribly dangerous precedent: will they pass this law again the next time
the police shoot an unarmed Black man in the back and we want to
demonstrate? How about the next time a boat of Haitian refugees arrives and
are jailed and we want to demonstrate? How about the next time a Cuban boy
is taken from a Little Havana home by the feds and the Cubans want to
demonstrate?
>> text composed by max rameau
