For immediate release: Feb. 2, 2006
Contact: 336-272-2155
The Greensboro chapter of the
World Can’t Wait ( Drive Out the Bush Regime calls on all people of conscience
and those concerned with the escalating attacks on civil liberties to condemn
the police spying carried out by a secret investigations unit of the Greensboro
Police Department, the arrests of the seven demonstrators following Tuesday
night’s peaceful ‘Bush Step Down’ march, and the violent behavior of the GPD
toward the demonstrators which put several people’s lives at risk.. We also ask
people to join with our demand that all charges against the demonstrators be
dropped.
The World Can’t Wait has
talked to dozens of people who witnessed the events of that evening. A group of
demonstrators who had taken part in Tuesday night’s rally and march on Elm St. noticed an unidentified man in civilian clothes
videotaping the license plates of cars parked near the venue where a rally by
the group, which drew over 200 people, had been held an hour earlier. The man
refused to identify himself, despite repeated requests. A couple of the
demonstrators then placed their bodies between the man and the cars to block
his unexplained videotaping of the cars’ plates. The man, at this point still
unidentified, began shoving the demonstrators who were questioning him, then
grabbed one of the demonstrators and punched him in the face. He then pulled
out a gun. At this point, the people who had been questioning him fled from the
unidentified armed man.
Nearby police ran in from a
half-block away to give chase, as an unmarked police cruiser roared at high
speed up Elm St. toward the thick of the crowd of about a hundred demonstrators
who were still in the middle of the street, narrowly missing several people.
Several of the demonstrators report that a female uniformed officer drew her
gun and waved it around before putting the barrel of the gun to a
demonstrator’s neck. One woman who attempted to ask why people were being
arrested was maced in the eyes at point-blank range. Only after the seven were
arrested was the armed man in civilian clothes identified as Detective Ernest
Cuthbertson of an undercover spy unit. The World Can’t Wait is investigating any
ties Cuthbertson may have to the illegal spying ring formerly run by ousted
Greensboro Police Chief David Wray.
We want to be very clear that
the World Can’t Wait Greensboro chapter applauds the actions of the seven
arrested demonstrators in acting to protect the privacy and the safety of
others in the face of threats and violence at the hands of the armed
plainclothesman. Not everyone would do what they did, and we are inspired by
their willingness to confront a clear threat to our right to privacy and
dissent with non-violent action. We would hope others will follow their
example.
At a time of illegal wiretaps
approved by the Bush administration, indefinite detentions without charges, and
the PATRIOT Act, we are concerned that the behavior of the GPD on Tuesday night
represents a violent escalation of the attack on our legal right to dissent. We
call on others to join us in reversing this dangerous trend in these dangerous
times, and get involved in the movement to drive Bush and his immoral, criminal
regime from power through mass, independent political action. As our Call to
Action states, ‘That which you will not resist, you will learn(or be forced(to
accept.’