[mobglob-discuss] [Fwd: OCAP Supports Miami Prisoners]

[Graeme Bacque]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	OCAP Supports Miami Prisoners
Date: 	Wed, 26 Nov 2003 15:54:59 -0500 (EST)
From: 	OCAP <ocap at tao.ca>
Reply-To: 	ocap at tao.ca
To: 	ocap at lists.tao.ca


OCAP has signed on to the international campaign calling for an
investigation into the brutal mis-treatment of prisoners arrested during
recent demonstrations against the Free Trade Area of the Americas in
Miami.  We urge all groups and individuals in Canada to send letters to
the US Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci by fax at: 1 (613) 688 3082


To: U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci
Consular Section U.S. Embassy
490 Sussex Drive
Ottawa, Ontario
Tel.: 1 (613) 688 5335
Fax: 1 (613) 688 3082

     Mr. Cellucci we are delivering this letter of condemnation for the
brutality that U.S. security forces unleashed on people protesting the
Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) ministerial in Miami last week.

We are backing the demands to:

-     Drop all charges.
-     Release all political prisoners.
-     Meet basic human needs: no more brutality, provide appropriate food,
      access to medicine and medical attention, warm clothing.
-     Provide access to attorneys and visitation rights.
-     Provide equitable treatment to all prisoners regardless of race,
      ethnicity, nationality, gender, sexual orientation, etc.
-     Not share information collected with the immigration branch of
      'Homeland Security'
-     Dismiss Chief Timoney and hold all Officers responsible for their
      actions.
-     A Congressional investigation into the Miami police department's
      systematic repression should immediately be launched.

     Our most urgent concern is the safety and treatment of jailed
protesters. There are multiple confirmed reports of what can only be
described as torture and human rights abuses of the most serious nature.
Specifically we are referring to activists of color and transgender
activists being separated and singled out for brutality, activists being
beaten in prison, sexual assault by law enforcement officers, prisoners
being stripped then hosed down with water and thrown into jail cells with
the air-conditioning on full blast for up to 36 hours at a time, prisoners
being pepper-sprayed while handcuffed.

     We are also condemning the rampant police violence that occurred on
the streets of Miami. The indiscriminate use of rubber bullets, 'beanbag'
and 'stinger' shotgun rounds, electrocution by Tasers, tear gas,
pepper-spray, and 3-foot long riot batons by police is unacceptable
According to reports we have read there are no less than five protesters
hospitalized with severe head injuries caused by police violence,
including one man whose brain hemorrhaged and another who had to have a
metal plate inserted into his fractured skull. It is nothing short of a
miracle that nobody was murdered by the police. We are and will continue
to be part of a movement to ensure that the US government will be held to
account for these criminal acts against humanity.

Signed,

Ontario Coalition Against Poverty

			       **
		   Ontario Coalition Against Poverty
  	NEW ADDRESS!: 10 Britain St.  Toronto, Ontario  M5A 1R6
	     416-925-6939   ocap at tao.ca   www.ocap.ca
			       **




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