[Ppnews] Heavily armed police officers violently raided a Palestinian political prisoners event

Political Prisoner News PPnews at freedomarchives.org
Thu Apr 20 18:16:26 EDT 2006


Date: Thu, 20 Apr 2006 18:09:10 -0400
From: "Montreal ABCF" <montrealabcf at gmail.com>


hey,

thanks to everyone who helped support our sumoud event for child 
political prisoners in palestine last night. we had a large turnout, 
great speakers, moving poets, and amazing solidarity statements from 
north american PPs. as those of you who attended will know, the event 
was raided by police. media coverage of the incident has been 
extremely inaccurate, so i am passing along the following statements...

yours in solidarity,
sara falconer



Over 20 police cars and heavily armed police officers violently 
raided a Palestinian political prisoners event last night in 
Montreal. The event featured a series of speakers and performances, 
and was the opening night of a Canada wide speaking tour on 
Palestinian child political prisoners. Five people
were arrested but eventually released with no charges.

Police raided the venue during a musical performance on the pre-text 
of an incident that occurred outside of the building. Within a matter 
of minutes, a large number of police officers arrived without any 
warrants and demanded that one of the organizers leave the hall for 
questioning.

All attempts to reason with the police failed. The police called in 
several more officers for back up and proceeded with their 
unreasonable and unjustified
interventions which included arresting 5 people.  Many of the 
attendants in the venue were violently attacked and at one point the 
police locked a number of people inside the venue with no regards for 
safety and fire regulations.  At no point did any of the officers 
explain to the organizers what the cause of this
massive raid had been.

This event fits into a greater pattern of racist abuses by the 
Montreal police. It is also the latest incident in a long line of 
arbitrary political arrests carried out by the Montreal police force 
over the last 5 years. These abuses have recently been condemned by 
the U.N. human rights commission. Ongoing surveillance and harassment 
of Palestinian solidarity activists has escalated since the election 
of the Harper government.

It accompanies the Canadian government's unqualified support for the 
policies of the Israeli apartheid state.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Jaggi Singh
Date: Apr 20, 2006 4:53 PM
Subject: Statement about the evening of April 19


Several journalists have been in touch about the ruckus at El Salon on
St-Laurent last night (April 19). I really don't have much time to be able
to respond to all of you, due to several other organizing and work
commitments. So, I'm putting out this statement to be able to respond to
you all once.

Last night, I was one of the organizers, with many others, of an event
called "Break the Chains", an evening of speakers, spoken word, poetry and
music on the theme of child political prisoners in Palestine, as well as
political prisoners in general.

The evening included a film called "Stolen Youth", followed by talks by
Ayed Abu Eqtaish (of Defence of Children International in Palestine), Adam
Haniyeh (of the Sumoud political prisoner support group in Toronto) as
well as Kahntinehta Horn (a Mohawk journalist and elder). The film and
talks were proceeded by poetry and spoken word (Ehab Lotayef and Rafeef
Ziadah read and performed) as well as recorded and written statements from
political prisoners in the United States. The last part of the evening was
a show by local hip hop artist Narcicyst of Euphrates, to be followed by
DJ Leila P.

The event was very moving, with powerful speeches, statements and poems.
Over 150 people attended to listen to the speakers, poets and musicians,
as well as to get information from the tables of the organizing groups:
Books to Prisoners-Montreal, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM),
No One Is Illegal-Montreal, the Indigenous Peoples Solidarity Movement
(IPSM), Montreal Anarchist Black Cross Federation, Solidarity for
Palestinian Human Rights at McGill and Concordia, The Twelve Months
Political Prisoner Calendar Project, the Coalition Against the Deportation
of Palestinian Refugees, as well as Sumoud and Defence of Children
International-Palestine. (Please note: this event was organized by several
groups.)

It was during the last music portion that the police intervention
occurred. Outside the venue (El Salon at 4388 St-Laurent), I had a
conversation with a man who was wearing an earpiece (in one ear). I was
asking him why he was wearing the earpiece, and told him that several
participants at the event were bothered by how he was staring at them with
his earpiece. At one point the man, who was much larger, pushed me, as
well as another older participant at the event. There was no fight. The
man pushed me, and the other person, and we held our ground. We continued
talking with the man after the pushing, and eventually, I left to return
to the event.

Someone, maybe a bystander, phoned the police. A few officers arrived
outside, and then entered the venue, with the man who had the earpiece
directing them towards me. One officer asked me to go outside. I asked if
I was under arrest. The officer said no, but that I had to go outside. I
refused, stating that if he wanted to talk, we could talk inside, in a
corner, or he could phone me later (I even gave him my number). My
position was quite clear: I did not have to do anything the police were
asking of me, unless I was under arrest. I wanted to spend the rest of the
evening at the event, and I didn't have to cooperate with police unless I
was under arrest.

Very quickly, many police officers entered the venue, and many of the
people attending the event, objected to their presence, and asked for a
clear reason why they had to remove me. None was ever provided by the
police, beyond the basic sentiment, expressed in various ways: "You have
to do what we say."

I myself counted, as I was dragged out and waited in a police car, at
least twenty police cars. Others said later that there were thirty police
cars on site. A friend says there must have been 30-40 police who entered
the venue. It was a completely disproportionate and excessive response by
the police. Moreover, if they had provided a clear reason why I had to
leave the event (such as being under arrest), then I would have left. The
police do not have the right to expect people attending a
political/cultural event to do exactly what they want without any
questions, and without providing a legitimate response. It was the police
who escalated this matter. The police response was totally
disproportionate and unnecessary.

It is not true that any chairs or tables were thrown at the police (I did
not see any from where I was, which was in the middle of police officers
who were dragging me out of the venue). In the end, five people -- 3 women
and 2 men, including me -- were briefly arrested by police. None of us was
jailed, or even taken into a police station. To the best of my knowledge,
me and another woman were given a "promise to appear" on the charge of
"obstruction" two others were given tickets for .obstruction. and the
fifth person was just let go.

(I also want to mention that while I objected to the man with the earpiece
staring at folks, I do not know for sure who he was -- that's exactly one
of the questions I asked him. In retrospect, he probably was not involved
with the police, and was likely private security for someone in the area;
but, the police certainly let him give them direction at the beginning of
their intervention).

This was a minor incident (an interaction outside with a man who pushed me
and another person during an argument) that was turned into a major
incident by an overzealous and unnecessary police response. In the end,
the police couldn.t even justify holding anyone longer than the time it
took them to write a few tickets and citations (to which all of us, I.m
sure, will plead "not-guilty"). I was able to look at the police computer
while handcuffed in the backseat of the police car. When my file came up,
aside from personal information (including information about my political
affiliations), the file mentioned that I had no criminal record.

Again, I write this to respond to the various media requests I'm getting,
and to be able to get back to my other more pressing commitments. I'm sure
too there are more important things for the media to report, including the
recent attack by police on the territory of the indigenous peoples of Six
Nations.

-- Jaggi Singh, April 20, 2006


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