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-Daryl Gale

Open To The Public
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Strike Two
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The Bell Curve
City Paper's weekly gauge of Philly's Quality of Life

April 10-16, 2003

city beat

Warpath: Cool Hand Bill

by Daniel Brook

At an April 7 rally, Oakland police opened fire with wooden dowel bullets on antiwar protesters after they refused police orders to disperse. Here in Philadelphia, antiwar protests have been peaceful and arrests have been kept to a minimum.

Once it became clear a U.S.-led invasion of Iraq was imminent, Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson issued guidelines for police assigned to protests. "It cannot be stressed enough that the Philadelphia Police Department will do its utmost in protecting the Constitutional rights of all persons," the guidelines read.

In order to build trust between the police and protesters, Captain William Fisher of the Police Department's Civil Affairs Unit says, "We try to open up a line of communication long before the protest starts with the leaders." Only the commissioner or deputy commissioner can order the use of crowd-dispersal ammunition. "Civil Affairs doesn't have any gas or rubber bullets," Fisher says. "The last time that was even discussed was at the [Republican National] Convention in 2000."

After protesters and police clashed at the RNC, "we had some court decisions which weren't real favorable to the police department," Fisher says. Since those incidents, the PPD has tried to keep confrontation with protesters to a minimum. For example, when Temple University students chained themselves to a doorway at the Army recruiting office at Broad and Cherry streets in March, police chose not to arrest them.

Fisher explains that another door at the recruiting office was unblocked, allowing for entry and exit. In addition, the military recruiters asked that the protesters not be arrested.

"If we enforced the letter of the law [and went after] everyone who threw a gum wrapper on the sidewalk or double-parked we'd have complete chaos," Fisher says. Philadelphia police would prefer to keep the complete chaos on the West Coast.

Protest Overhaul

With U.S. forces in Baghdad, the antiwar movement is retooling. "There’s going to be some assessment as to where things need to go" in the peace movement, says Bob Smith of the Brandywine Peace Community. Smith says he has been shocked and awed by the "phenomenal rise" of a large-scale antiwar movement, but believes the peace movement has to transform itself into a larger campaign against what he calls "resurgent militarism" and "Bush’s war without end." The war in Iraq "means the Bush administration policy of pre-emptive war is now in place." For the sake of world peace, Smith says, citizens must insist on U.N. control of Iraq.

"In the peace movement we're sort of gathering trying to figure out what's going on," says John Grant, president of the local Vets for Peace chapter. But Grant insists the movement is still relevant. "There's going to be a very problematic occupation here that is going to be very expensive for the American government and for the American people and the question is going to linger as to why we are so committed to occupying a major Arab state surrounded by hostile Arab countries," he says.

As part of the continuing peace movement, a contingent of Philadelphia activists will take part in a Washington, D.C., rally this Saturday. The Brandywine Peace Community will be protesting outside the 30th Street Post Office on Tax Day, April 15. The theme of the protest, says Smith, is, "You pay. Lockheed Martin profits."

A separate civil disobedience action will take place on Good Friday, April 18, at military contractor Lockheed Martin's King of Prussia facility.

Shane Comes Back

Philadelphia activist Shane Claiborne has returned home from a three-week observation trip to Iraq with the antiwar group Voices in the Wilderness. Claiborne returned home, having flown out of Amman, Jordan, on April 1. "I was there [in Baghdad] for the first 10 days of the bombing," Claiborne says. "What’s happening there is incredibly scary and very confusing for the Iraqi people, many of whom know they have an oppressive regime. What they don’t understand is how this is a liberation. Over and over in the hospital I saw a man who was hovering over his son who was riddled with missile fragments. He kept saying, "If this is liberation, we don’t want it. If this is democracy, you can keep it.’"

Claiborne uses an analogy to explain the flaws he sees in U.S. policy. "It's sort of like if you had an abusive father in a house and you want to free the children," he says, "you don't burn down the house."

In Philadelphia, Claiborne is a member of the Simple Way Collective, a Christian pacifist co-op in Kensington. Claiborne will be returning to his native Tennessee to speak to local media and church groups about his experiences in Iraq. He believes his voice is needed in the South because "that's one of the places where the call for war is so prevalent."