Be at the Greenbelt Metro Station at 10 AM on Sunday/Pepper-Sprayed for Peace

Friends,

The National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance is urging participants to be at the Greenbelt Metro Station around 10 AM on Sunday, October 9.  Once we have critical mass, we will car pool to the National Security Agency at Fort Meade, Maryland. It seems there is repair going on with the tracks on the Green Line.  Use another line to get to Fort Totten, and then take the Green Line to Greenbelt.  We will provide detailed information about the Saturday planning meeting.  Please RSVP to Max at 410-366-1637 or mobuszewski @ verizon.net.

Consider making a sign.  We do have a Close the NSA sign.  Let me know if you can drive to the Greenbelt Metro to pick up resisters coming from Freedom Square.  Thanks.

Kagiso,

Max

Saturday, October 08, 2011 7:18 PM

Pepper-Sprayed for Peace

By David Swanson
http://warisacrime.org/pepper

 

I've been coughing and vomiting, and my head aches from pepper spray.  I'll post videos and photos of why at the link above.

 

We intended to hold signs and sing inside the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, protesting its promotion of unmanned drones, missiles, and bombs, including its sponsorship by and promotion of weapons corporations.  We don't have any museums promoting health coverage or education or retirement security.

 

We had marched from the Freedom Plaza and McPherson Square occupations, taking over the streets of DC.  The museum knew we were coming.  Some of our group got in and dropped a banner.  Hundreds of us did not.  Instead, we were greeted at the door with cans of pepper spray. 

 

There were three sets of entrance doors.  I was among the first to open the third set of doors.  A guard shook a can of pepper spray in front of me and demanded that we back out.  But a dozen feet away at the second set of doors, people were staggering out and collapsing in pain, having been pepper sprayed in the face.  I started to go toward them, but began coughing and vomiting.  A lot of people were effected, directly or -- like me -- indirectly by the pepper spray.

 

It is not true that we assaulted the police.  Nobody was accused of or charged with that.  I didn't hear about it until later from the media.  A young woman named Thi Le was told she'd be charged with assaulting a police officer after she was pepper sprayed and handcuffed, but they switched the charge to disorderly conduct and released her a few hours later. 

 

It is not true that they only pepper sprayed one person.  Many people were pepper sprayed.

 

It is not true that the crowd dispersed.  The guards locked the doors and closed the museum.  We had not planned to close the museum but to demonstrate and leave.  With the museum closed and one of our own in custody, we held a rally on the steps as more people made their way over from Freedom Plaza to join us.  We were there for hours. 

 

We will be here for as long as it takes. 

 

Congress comes back to this town on Tuesday.

 

We're ready.

 

We're nonviolent.

 

We're not scared.

 

We're not discouraged.

 

We're not fooled.

 

We've got demands as clear as a blue sky:

 

Occupy Wall Street

Occupy K Street

Occupy Everything

And Never Give it Back!

 

David Swanson is the author of "War Is A Lie" 

JOIN HIM IN DC OCTOBER 6TH AT http://october2011.org