SlowpokeBlog

Commentary by Slowpoke cartoonist Jen Sorensen

Friday, September 03, 2004

This is Not America

Several dozen of those detained said that they had not taken part in protests. Police apparently swept up the CEO of a puppet theater as he and a friend walked out of the subway to celebrate his birthday. Two middle-age women who had been shopping at the Gap were handcuffed, and a young woman was arrested as she returned from her job at a New York publishing house...

"I was held for 44 hours without being able to call my family or talk to a lawyer," said Griffin Epstein, 20, one of 14 college students who was arrested while standing with antiwar picket signs at 34th Street and Sixth Avenue. "We were taken to a big metal cage, and the ground was covered with a black, cakey motor oil. We were given one apple each after nine hours."

...Detainees said that after being arrested, they were crowded into makeshift holding cells at a bus cleaning station on the Hudson River piers, where many spent the night awaiting transfer to jail... Many protesters spoke of seeing signs at the piers warning of hazardous chemicals...

[emphasis mine] Medics said the New York City Department of Health had asked them to gather samples of the detainees' clothing to test for exposure to toxic chemicals from the holding cell. Medics found numerous cases of rashes and skin infections, apparently as a result of cuts from overly tight handcuffs that were exposed to chemicals.

What on earth is going on here? This is an absolutely terrifying vision of a police state, not a free society.

As the spookily authoritarian signs said at the Republican convention, "Let Freedom Reign." Not "ring" -- reign.

—posted by Jen, 1:41 PM - link | trackbacks

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