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May 1 Minneapolis Letters to the Editor |
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Arrest Looked Like Abduction According your May 2 account of the May Day demonstration, "law enforcement officials walked on the sidelines monitoring the crowd." Not all of them behaved in such a manner. A friend and I, part of the demonstration, stood in the street near the sidewalk at 6th and Hennepin watching a young woman happily dancing in the street near us, doing absolutely nothing illegal that was visible to us. Minneapolis police stood in a line across Hennepin watching the crowd. Suddenly two policemen grabbed the young woman. There was no request or warning of any kind issued by the police. The woman, obviously frightened, pleaded for help from the crowd and a tussle ensued, with the police, of course, the victors, roughly jerking her from the crowd and walking her to the 5th Street Station. My friend and I followed them to the station and asked if she was being arrested and if so what was the offense. None of the officers would answer us. One officer threatened us with arrest if we persisted in asking questions. If this was an arrest, the police should have issued a warning and if they were not satisfied with her response they should have announced they were arresting her. If it was not an arrest, it was an abduction. Since my friend and I do not know the name of the woman, we have no idea what happened to her. The last we saw of her she was being handcuffed and led down a hall at the police station. -- Polly Mann, St. Paul OUTRAGED I am outraged at the police brutality on May Day. The news showed police officers vigorously attacking peaceful citizens with batons, throwing people on the ground and dragging a handcuffed young woman, with bare shoulders, across the pavement. My son was knocked down into a pool of gasoline and hit with a baton. He was merely standing there talking to a friend. No one has even implied that the protesters were anything but peaceful. The police simply explain that since the protesters did not have a permit they would not allow them to protest on certain streets and since the protesters were unwilling to divert, vicious brutality was required. Did we learn nothing from the '70s? Since when do protesters need a "parade" permit? Are not citizen protests on May Day our heritage, right and civic duty? May Day is the people's day, not the corporations' day. Why weren't the city and the businesses prepared for inconvenience? -- Stacey Peacock, Minneapolis. May Day in Minneapolis The May 2 Star Tribune headline called the activity on May Day in downtown Minneapolis a "protest." The rallies and march involving many hundreds of participants were not like the old familiar "protest march," but exemplified a new model of public demonstration -- a celebration and a reclaiming of public space. Protest was certainly there. The noisy and jubilant rally at the Hilton Hotel in solidarity with Hotel Employees and Restaurant Employees Local 17 in their demands for a living wage contract had some of the flavor of union rallies of the past century. During the march that followed, many people carried signs protesting capitalism, the global economy and oppressive social and political institutions. However, the predominant mood was one of celebration -- of spring, of the Haymarket Martyrs of more than 100 years ago whose sacrifice helped secure the eight-hour workday, of creativity and art and humor and the irrepressible spirit of "the people." In a world more and more defined by the heartless, value-free institutions and practices of a profit-oriented economic system, people took to the streets on May Day to demonstrate that people, communities and the Earth are more important than money and property, and that the public spaces of society, including the streets paid for by everyone's taxes, belong to everyone. The message of the people marching on Monday wasn't a protest as much as a declaration: Life in all its color, texture, noise, diversity, movement and liveliness is present here and unwilling to be ignored. -- Betsy Barnum, Minneapolis |
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Interested in sharing comments or reflections about the day for posting? Please send them to editor@circlevision.org |
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