Activists Beaten Unconscious Sprayed In NYC

ACTIVISTS BEATEN UNCONSCIOUS, SPRAYED ARRESTED IN ACTION AGAINST POLICE RESTRICTIONS ON PROTEST

ROOTS MEDIA COLLECTIVE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Kate Cooper (917) 374-3807

ACTIVISTS ARRESTED IN ACTION AGAINST POLICE RESTRICTIONS ON PROTEST; DOZENS INJURED; PRESS CONFERENCE CALLED FOR TOMORROW

FEBRUARY 3, 2001 - Sixty activists were arrested this afternoon by New York Police while performing a "snake march" along the sidewalks of the East Village, while dozens of others were beaten and pepper-sprayed by police. Police told the People's Law Collective, an anarchist legal collective, that as many as 50 more may still be arrested.

The snake march, a direct-action protest tactic in which activists link arms and dance along streets and sidewalks in an unpredictable route as a way to reestablish public space for festivity and free expression, began at St Marks Place and Second Avenue. Marchers had reached Second Avenue between 12th and 13th Streets at about 1:30pm when fully-geared riot police, with two corrections vans, ambushed them.

The 60 arrests were accompanied by dozens of injuries, as police knocked to the ground a group of activists who were crossing the street legally but were not engaged in the march. At least one person was knocked unconscious, picked up and placed in a corrections van.

One report said that Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Chief Raymond Kelly were on the scene observing the police actions.

The march was called by the Anti-Capitalist Convergence, a New York-based collective of anti-authoritarian, anti-capitalist activists that had also participated in yesterday's anti-World Economic Forum march from 59th Street and Fifth Avenue to the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel. Members of the ACC were subjected to an unprovoked attack from police at that march; police charged the crowd of activists, beat and pepper-sprayed many, and hauled 20 out for random arrests. The 20 are being arraigned today at 100 Centre Street, after having spent 12 hours yesterday in a police van without water or communication.

"The police overreacted," Joe Keady, a member of Anti-Capitalist Convergence, said of today's incident. "There was such a buildup to the World Economic Forum protests yesterday, and they spent that whole day with nothing really to do. They were bored, and I guess they decided to make some action for themselves."

Keady suspects the marchers were "profiled" by police, who may have been tipped off that the march was going to take place. However, "there's no excuse for a vicious attack like this," Keady says.

Roots Media Collective is calling a press conference on the incident for tomorrow afternoon at the Walker Space, 56 Walker Street in Manhattan, to present more information on this incident and what legal action may be taken. Roots Media Collective is a group of independent journalists and media activists that was formed in 2000 and is based in New York City.

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Anti-WEF Welcome Center at Sixth Street Community Center: 638 East 6th St. bet. Aves. B and C.

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