(Clarification: Esther has just been thrown to the ground. Eric is not on the ground by choice, and Elizabeth is about to be pulled away.)
In the aftermath of our dashed efforts at the St Patrick’s Day parade and the abrupt violence which shocked everyone, the seven arrestees took a conciliatory tact to reflect on the actions and reactions of that day before leveling recriminations. The issue after all was about promoting peace, not fighting back. Where did being gracious get us?
The police seized the opportunity to announce they’ve received no complaints about their manner, going so far even to solicit bystander videos as if to suggest that the documentation will support their conduct.
Though we’d given plenty of interviews, our quiet tone gave the local newspapers leeway to print untruths about what happened that day. The Gazette has now suggested the marchers acted to disrupt the festivities, to obstruct the parade, in a fashion intended to provoke arrests.
The Independent has been able to hide behind offering only the Police Department’s account, that the peace marchers were attempting to participate “without a permit,” and that to an “untrained eye” what might appear to have been a “chokehold” was actually a “pressure-compliant hold.”
Even the local internet jackasses have jumped in on the action to chide us for duplicity in obtaining our permit, giving an uncritical platform for parade organizer John O’Donnell to cry foul.
Well GOD-DAMNIT are you fascists in for a surprise! This treatment is more of exactly what we received on the parade route. And just like the policemen who thought they could set an example and brutalize us unto a side street, this disrespect is not going to stand.
Here’s where it’s going to get you.
Mr. O’Donnell and his partners in City Hall are going to face a civil lawsuit for violating the 1st Amendment rights of 46 marchers. They will face another lawsuit for conducting a public event which discriminated among the participants. You want to throw an all-white, good ol’ boy, pro-war parade these days, you better say so. You can’t of course, and O’Donnell and COS will never put green lipstick on one of these again.
I’m not saying the St Patrick’s Day Parade shouldn’t feature a Marine recruiter’s blow-up doll, or crew-cutted uniformed Pee-wee Killers for Christ, or Hooters sex-workers for gracious sakes. I’m just saying that you’ve got to allow room for another community aesthetic as well.
The Colorado Springs Police Department will face charges for violating the 4th Amendment rights of the seven arrestees, and of three more who were brutalized, with a measure of the 9th Amendment thrown in for the indignity. In the meantime we’ll explore what degree of police brutality is actually sanctioned by the city. I don’t care how much you may hate criminals, all persons have a right to be protected from physical abuse.
We may lobby for special rehab for certain of the policemen. I’d like to see that Officer Erwin “Jimmy” Paladino is not given the authority to remove a kitten from a tree before he’s had counseling.
The Gazette will be charged with slander, plain and simple. You don’t call a 65-year-old woman’s injuries “rugburn” and think you’re going to chuckle your way to market. Ms. Fineron and myself will have our day in court, we’ll demonstrate our actions were not premeditated and for discrediting our integrity we’re going after Hillbilly Gazette editor Sean Paige. Slam-dunk what an asshole.
The Independent’s slander is embarrassing. Michael de Yoanna needs to cover both sides of a story. Our permit was on the books, thank you very much. Quoting a police blotter to say we had no permit, without noting the error, is deliberately misleading. And let me say something about that “chokehold.” Two of our marchers, the very two in fact who were choked, were both corrections department veterans. Both knew precisely the illegality of how they were being handled, and calmly told their respective assailants as much.
The videotapes and pictures will bear out these facts. Perhaps this is the reason that the television media coverage was fairly balanced from the start.
Special note
The police will need the identity of this man that he can be charged with assault upon Elizabeth Fineron, leading to her fall and subsequent dragging across the pavement. As the Gazette put it, What a drag.
Complaints
Let’s say a word about complaints to the police. If you want to complain about the police conduct, you’ll find they don’t have forms for that purpose. They walk you straight in to see an internal affairs officer and he’ll sit and interrogate you without the aid of a lawyer, or a tape recording that you can keep. Best to write a letter describing your complaint and send it in.
My boyfriend’s back and yer gonna be in trouble….
I’ve still more emotions per St. Paddy’s than words can express with ease.
Maybe there is a “bright side” to everything in life as the incidents certainly did help rally my voice to loudness among associates who normally prefer not to discuss politics or social issues.
Maybe they listen because when I think about it, I’m still prone to tears. And they realize there’s something to be heard that’s more than just opinion now.
I’d like to tell Elizabeth that although we’ve never met my family now refers to her caringly, like a good friend. I’m frequently asked how is Elizabeth? I still tear per those photos the most.
I will also say that I’m cautious now to who listens and how. I refuse short opinions on this. Find them akin to a 3 minute egg talk about God. Blaphemous how some would prefer simple answers. I’m not surprised a simpleton newspaper like the Gazette would prefer to label than understand, or even better, take a genuine stand.
I’m a bit more proud, maybe even more patriotic (blech!), because of this incident. That’s an irony of reward I hope for many.
For those who deny what happened, yes, caveat emptor to all of you. More than cliche, the world is listening.
One reason is because I tell them. Mouth to mouth, in places you cannot censor, from church to schoolyard, from closet to mountain top.
I’m surprised the police have pretending concern in this incident. The police in Colorado Springs have nothing to investigate, except retirement options. I wish them well, but only the Third World will receive them peacefully now. A place to play Montezuma perhaps, but I hate to give you guys ideas.
To my friends in London… I thank you for listening my stories and histories. You wont find many of those here. Not that I’m so subversive, but simply because I have no intent of sharing that kind of warmth across those who build borders of injustice.
I’m a bit ashamed of any malice or contempt the Colorado Springs police, parade officials, and standbyers have caused. I KNOW that the U.S. has wonderful people, and citizenry is pride.
But lynchings are behind the civilized mind. And if you are behind the lynchings, I’m forced to discuss Gordian Knots. Knot my tribe.
Not my brutality. Knot my friends, not your violence. Knot this hope, damn your world.
Forgiveness is ready, but only when justice is just.
Not my tribe. With hearts and arrows. Love to the group.
If you’re referring to Newspeak, Eric, as the internet jackasses for bothering to call John O’Donnell up and ask for his side of the story after we posted dozens of pictures and links to your side of the story (not to mention the open comments underneath to which almost nobody responded), then you obviously have no regard for the entire story or the truth and missed all the other coverage on Newspeak that told your side of the story right after the events happened. Correct me if I’m wrong. Had we not already heard your side, I would’ve asked you too, but if you feel like there’s something we missed, please send it along. Comments are still open.
p.s., we have never, for one minute, questioned what appears to be obvious police negligence and misconduct.
Oh, if the man who pushed Elizabeth was a part of the parade, then John O’Donnell’s office should be able to identify him for you, or the police can ask O’Donnell to identify him.
Go Eric!
Thanks, Dark Sandal for your support, and it is uinderstandable that you wanted to hear from O’Donnell himself, too. I myself originally wanted to see the man in person until I found out his true relationship to the city and military establishment here.
Now I know that he is about as independent from the city as Halliburton is independent of the US government in Iraq. He is a long term organizer for both the US military and the City of Colorado Springs in our state, and the both of these government entities hide behind his supposedly private status and his seemingly pleasant personality that he uses in his role as public relations front guy.