S.F. cops arrest hundreds in gestapo-style crackdown

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Over 1500 demonstrators—mostly students and mostly white— converged on the Calif. State Bldg. in S.F. on the day following the Rodney King verdict Socialist Action A monthly newspaper with a working class perspective on world events • Introductory offer: $3 for 6 months If you want to receive your subscription in a sealed envelope you must have it mailed first-class ($18) 12 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1992 SAN FRANCISCO-Citing the danger of "mob violence" following the Rodney King verdict, Mayor Frank Jordan imposed virtual martial law upon this city's Black and Latino neighborhoods. Curfews were in effect for two consecutive nights. Some 1600 people-including many shoppers and residents going to or from their homeswere arrested in the police clampdown.

On Friday evening, May I, a group called Roots Against War called a peaceful "speak-oui" at 24th and Mission Streets, in the heari of this city's Latino neighborhood. But the meeting was not permitted to proceed. Although it was not yet curfew time, the police, in riot gear, surrounded the crowd of nearly 400 and arrested everyone.

Several newspaper reporters and photographers, including the editor of Business Week magazine, were also thrown into the paddy wagons despite their frantic attempts to show their press credentials. Other bystanders only escaped by ducking into shops that still had their doors open.

The following first-hand report was given to Socialist Action by Jerry Caldwell, a student at City College of San Francisco.

My mother and I were going to a demonstration that we had heard was supposed to take place at 24th and Mission. As we were getting out of our car, I saw some other students from City College that I recognized. They told me that the cops had already broken up the demonstration-l think they were already arresting people. It was only about 7 p.m. on Friday-still daylight and well before the 9 p.m. curfew.

The students told me that they were going to regroup in the Castro district. As we were walking down 18th Street toward Castro, we saw a row of cops lined up across the street. We had to turn into a small street-Hartford St. Then the cops blocked us from both ends so we couldn't escape. They arrested everybody.

One guy tried to run away. They caught him, and I think they roughed him up a bit. There was a handicapped woman there, too. The cops took her cane away from her because it was a "weapon." They made everyone sit down in the center of the street. We asked the other people there were about 100 of them-why they were there. Only about three-quarters of them had come to demonstrate. A quarter of the people were just bystanders.

The cops started cuffing us. I asked them, what are the charges? Have I broken any laws? They just told me to be quiet. Some students from S.F. State University began to chant: "We never got an order to disperse!" Everyone joined in.

Then they separated the females from the males, so I was separated from my mother. We were put on a bus and joined with people who had been arrested at the initial demonstration at 24th and Mission. We were driven to a big warehouse, on Pier 28, on the waterfront.

I could see hundreds of people already there, who were enclosed in pens made out of police barricades. There were about 150 people in each one. As we arrived, they cheered us, and we cheered back. I saw other people that I knew from City College. Again, no one could give us an answer about what laws we might have broken.

Finally—it was maybe about three in the morning-they started to take us out of the pens. We asked the sheriff's deputies where they were taking us. They refused to answer. We were expecting to simply be fingerprinted and let go. Instead, they took us on buses over the Bay Bridge to Santa Rita prison.

At Santa Rita, they put us in a big pen surrounded by a 25-feet-high fence with razor barbs on the top. We arrived about 4 a.m. It was real cold, and a lot of people only had T-shirts and jeans. Some people had to stay outside like that all night.

Then they threw us in a holding tank with only a cement floor, one bench, and one exposed toilet. About 25 of us were packed on top of each other there like sardines. I might have slept 15 minutes—that's all. On Saturday afternoon, they gave us a lunch of an orange and some kind of pimento-baloney-type sandwich. That was all the food I received in my 27-hour's custody. Subscribe to Name Address City Phone Ryan/Soclallst Actom After they frisked us one more time, we were put into the regular prison housing unit, called a "pod." The cells there had two bunks each.

Finally, I could sleep—but not for long. The sun was still high when I awoke to my name being called on the intercom. 1 sprang out of bed, and was taken by a guard back to the holding tank.

I had been lucky. My mother had been able to reach her boyfriend by telephone, who then bailed us both out. They brought us back to police headquarters on Bryant Street and processed us. It was about 10 p.m. on Saturday night, when I got out. Many people had to stay in jail much longer.

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Army St., San Francisco, Repression deepens LOS ANGELES On May 1, George Bush came to town. While touring the area of the rebellions in his 35-car motorcade, Bush remarked, "This is just wanton lawlessness." He vowed, however, that the devastated areas will be rebuilt.

Joseph Duff, president of the Los Angeles NAACP pointed out that although most people think Bush is doing something, "he's offering nothing more than the customary stuff that's offered by the federal government when there's a disaster."

"Bush is missing the point," Duff explained, "if he is going to come here and talk to us about hoodlums and thugs, give us small business loans, and leave. We're looking for substance. We're not going to accept Band-Aid solutions."

Similar statements greeted Bush at several protest demonstrations during his Los Angeles visit.

Over 500 people marched through exclusive Beverly Hills on May 7, to join in the protests against racial discrimination and police violence that have been seen throughout Los Angeles Country. Chanting, "Free the 14,000l Indict the Guilty Cops!" and "No Justice, No Peacel" the demonstrators attracted friendly support form most of the residents whose homes they passed and from many of the employees at the expensive shops and boutiques.

In addition, a protest demonstration was held at MacArthur Park, the center of the Pico-Union area, which had been ravaged the previous week by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and LAPD raids.

The L.A. police broke into countless apartments on the pretext of looking for "looters." Then, contrary to city and state laws, the police turned over to the INS hundreds of people who lack documentation of legal residency.

Over 350 people have already been deported to Mexico. At least 200 more are incarcerated at the INS Detention Center, awaiting deportation to Central America. Not one of the deportees has been charged with criminal activity or possession of "looted" goods.

Of the 14,000 people currently in police custody, over 2000 are described by the LAPD as "illegal aliens." The INS has arranged "detainers" for more than 700 of these people, which means that the police will turn them over for immediate deportation as soon as they are released from county jails.

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