Radical media, politics and culture.

DO NOT GO INTO THE METAL PENS!

Their goal is to intimidate and to eliminate dissent...

Ours is to remain free!

ON MARCH 20TH IN NYC…

DO NOT GO INTO THE METAL PENS!

According to a recent report, (NYT  3/12/04), the
NYPD plans "to use containment pens to handle protest on March 20." The pens are used to disempower and discourage protest. Police head Ray Kelly has "denied a request" from legal and advocacy groups to refrain from using the interlocking metal structures which are the object of a currently pending NYCLU legal challenge stemming from last years' February 15th peace demo.

“Containment pens" are tantamount to portable detention facilities. The use of these “pens” stems in part from police "protest management" techniques derived from military sources, specifically from US Army Field Manual 19-15, Civil Disturbances (1985). The manual advises that "when employed to disperse, contain or block a crowd, they are particularly effective in urban areas because they enable the control force to split a crowd into smaller segments." They have also been used as battering rams, used to herd people from one area to another, or to encircle folks in preparation for mass arrests.

This overt violation of our collective right to dissent must
stop! It is time we stood up and affirmed our human dignity, our right to protest and not to be enslaved, endangered and imprisoned in these "pens”. Their use is unprecedented, arbitrary and selective. No other municipal police force in the entire nation uses them. In fact, no where in the world are protesters herded into metal cages! It is time that we stand up to uphold our right to free speech, the right to have our grievances heard!
Therefore, because we will no longer be dehumanized, degraded and dominated into meek subservience, we will not enter into these pens!

Our right to free speech is fundamentally tied to our right to assemble. And although the First Amendment guarantees our right to "peaceful assembly", the powers that be recognize that ultimately the battle for "hearts and minds" will be played out in the streets, the contested terrain of protest. We must not allow these counterinsurgency techniques to undermine our ability to have our voices heard, to undercut our collective power and emotional solidarity. Join the march, protest, make your voice heard, yes, but do not go into the pens!

OUR RIGHT TO FREE SPEECH AND ASSEMBLY "SHALL NOT BE ABRIDGED"