ANSWER Coalition [mailto:info@answercoalition.org]
Thursday, May 9, 2019 9:48 PM
Support the Embassy Protection Collective: All out on Saturday at 1 PM.
Thursday, May 9, 2019 9:48 PM
Support the Embassy Protection Collective: All out on Saturday at 1 PM.
Last night, the Potomac Electric Power Company
(PEPCO), assisted by the U.S. Secret Service, cut off electricity to the
activists lawfully residing inside the Venezuelan Embassy in Washington,
D.C., creating a dangerous emergency situation. The embassy protectors are calling for
an urgent mass mobilization of support on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. to demand
an immediate end to this crisis and all efforts to illegally seize the
Embassy on behalf of the right-wing coup leaders.
The Secret Service was undoubtedly carrying
out an order from Trump's State Department. This was done despite utility
bills being fully paid by the owners of the building, which is the
legitimate government of Venezuela, and despite the fact that the activists
inside are invited guests of the Venezuelan government.
Activists have been residing inside the
Venezuelan Embassy since mid-April to protect it from takeover by
opposition forces as part of the U.S. orchestrated coup. Organized by
CODEPINK, ANSWER Coalition, and Popular Resistance, they formed the Embassy
Protection Collective. They are demanding that the electricity and water be
turned back on, and that food and medicines be allowed inside.
The Partnership for Civil Justice Fund is
providing legal assistance to the embassy protectors. Below is a letter
sent today by PCJF Executive Director Mara Verheyden-Hilliard to D.C.
police regarding the apparent green light given by authorities to the
pro-coup mob outside the embassy to engage in lawless behavior.
Dear Mr. Ryan and Chief Newsham,
We have received your response today to our letter sent over
a week ago on May 1.
It is not credible to disclaim knowledge of the extensive
instances of misconduct over the past week at the Venezuelan Embassy.
Repeatedly, the MPD has allowed physical assaults, threats and menacing by
right-wing violent thugs against peaceful persons, has allowed them to
incommode and block passage on the public sidewalks, has allowed their use
of eye-damaging high beam lights and strobes to be shined into peace
activists' eyes at close proximity, and their use of high volume blast
sirens and horns placed directly against the ears of peace activists. We
presume that the MPD has properly activated body worn cameras and that
there has been no spoliation of evidence of these assaults in your
possession.
In some instances these actions have been accompanied by
appalling racist, misogynist, homophobic and transphobic slurs and threats
as well, rendering these criminal actions additionally unlawful as bias
crimes. Nor has the MPD taken action to arrest persons who have stolen and
damaged food and other property of peace activists even while such criminal
actions have occurred directly in front of them.
Indeed, just an hour ago, MPD officers allowed and
facilitated a mob surge against, and breaking up of, a lawful, peaceful
First Amendment-protected press conference being held by peace activists on
public space under MPD jurisdiction near the Embassy. The MPD officers
present took no action to stop persons from assaulting, menacing and
disrupting the lawful event, to separate them, or to arrest them.
In the immediate, and specifically we request you please
advise today:
1) will the MPD stop allowing the physical blockage of
passage on the sidewalk in front of the embassy including that blocking which
is politically targeted against peace activists who seek to peaceably walk
along the public sidewalk, who seek to access public space for First
Amendment expression, and/or who seek the right of public passage on public
space for the provision of food to persons lawfully present inside the
building?
If not, we understand that the MPD is explicitly authorizing
the use of this type of blockade and incommoding of any public sidewalk in
front of all embassies or other buildings in the District of Columbia, and
going forward will not arrest persons who engage in such similar blockage
regardless of the target of the blockade.
2) will the MPD stop allowing and facilitating the use of
high-beam lights, scuba lights, and strobes applied and directed into
persons eyes which can cause physical damage?
If not, we understand that the MPD is explicitly authorizing
the use of these non lethal weapons as lawful in the District of Columbia
to target the eyes and retinas of persons, including officers, officials or
any person present in D.C., and that as practice and policy no one will be
arrested for such use regardless of who the target is. In the case of
targeted strobe lighting, of course, the weapons may have lethal effect,
causing seizure.
3) will the MPD stop allowing and facilitating the use of
hearing-damaging high decibel sirens and horns placed against and directed
into eardrums of peace activists?
If not, we understand that the MPD is explicitly authorizing
the use of these non lethal weapons as lawful in the District of Columbia
to target the ears and hearing of persons, including police officers,
officials or any person present in D.C., and that as practice and policy no
one will be arrested for such use regardless of who the target is.
Finally, we are cc'ing Michael Tobin on this email to learn
whether the Office of Police Complaints has sent observers during the many
nights and days that these assaults have been taking place over the past
ten days. We are not aware of any, and if not, we request that it does so.
We appreciate your prompt response,
Mara Verheyden-Hilliard
Executive Director Partnership for Civil Justice Fund
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