Police abuse of peace demonstrators…
Granma International On line
Havana, Cuba. Year 8
Friday, March 28, 2003.
U.S. ‘democracy´ in action (*)
Dear friends and family,
Last night my partner Diana and I took part with other
doctors in a march in Times Square, New York, at 5:30 p.m.
(Saturday, March 22).
After our respective clinics in the Bronx we arrived at the
protest to take part with the Doctors and Nurses Against the
War group.
Some young people took to the streets and the anti-riot
police arrived. It quickly became a scene of chaos. Around
six police officers were savagely hitting a defenseless
young man, two of them pulling him by the arm and almost
dislocating it, while he was screaming. Diana, a family
doctor, went over to the young man, shouting at the police
to stop.
What ensued was even more horrific. Some five police
officers threw themselves at her, one hitting her about the
head with a closed fist, and I threw myself on top of her.
And they knocked us down with truncheons, kicks and punches.
They held us face down and at that point my glasses broke on
the sidewalk. They threw me into a corner, cuffed with
plastic handcuffs, face down and bleeding through the nose.
While I was there, a police officer came and threw pepper
spray in my eyes and mouth. It burned me, I could see
nothing, I was breathless and felt an asthma attack coming
on.
Diana was thrown beside me, likewise handcuffed.
From there they loaded me into a police truck, and during
the operation I fell and a gringo sergeant struck me and
told me to get up. A black police officer intervened and
said: “That’s enough,” and sat me in the truck. Meanwhile,
they shoved Diana up against a police car and then threw her
in it.
We were wearing our white coats and stethoscopes. On the way
a young cop threw water into my eyes. They took us to the
18th precinct and called an ambulance to attend to us. I was
still blinded by the chemical they had thrown in my eyes.
They took us in cuffs to Bellevue Public Hospital. Diana’s
right arm was all out of shape; we thought she might have a
radial fracture, although in the end it was severe bruising.
They attended to us there and washed out my eyes.
We were in the police station all night until 7:00 a.m. when
we were released. We managed to call some friends during all
this, who together with my family in Chicago mobilized to
get us out.
They told us that many people called the precinct all
through the night, some of them were lied to and told we had
been released, and they told others that we had been
transferred. In any case, we knew nothing until the next
day.
Lawyers called and they never told us either. Friends came
to the station and the hospital and were not allowed in.
Diana was cuffed to a metal bar and I was placed in a cell.
We were there until seven in the morning.
During that time one of the police asked Diana if she was a
citizen and when she said no, that she was Colombian, he
asked her why she didn’t go back to her own country.
We left feeling sore and tired. We left in anger and feeling
impotent. On Friday, more than 3,000 bombs fell on Baghdad.
How many thousands of innocent women, children and men will
die? How many sacred lives will be lost? The first U.S.
soldier to die was one guarding an oil well. In the port of
Qasar, the U.S. navy ran up the American flag - the
empire? - and then had to take it down. They didn’t want to
reveal to the world their real intentions. Bush continued
with his Orwellian rhetoric, trying to convince us that
peace is war and that Saddam Hussein brought this war on
himself.
The whole world continued protesting, and there were deaths
and thousands of injuries in massive protests of a magnitude
never before witnessed in history. Humanity is winning out
against the empire and corporate interests. Dina and I still
feel a bit damaged, we didn’t feel the acute pain until
later, when our muscles relaxed.
We talked to two Latino dailies in New York: Hoy and El
Diario and Univisión (41) interviewed us. Diana went to see
patients and I went to find some lawyer friends. Tomorrow we
will be going to another mass mobilization in New York, with
or without police.
We send thanks to everyone who called the precinct and those
who thought of us.
We will not remain silent until this inhumane war is over.
“No to war!” “No to police brutality!” “Yes to health and
human dignity!”
Marcelo MD - Diana MD
New York
(*) An email sent to a large number of addresses, including
the Granma daily newspaper office.
