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Detained in D.C.

New reports of peaceful protesters beaten by police and U.S. Marshals, denied food and water and stripped of their basic constitutional rights give the lie to early accounts of police restraint during massive protests against the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Detainees have been denied food, water, toilets, medical attention, and access to lawyers. One instance was reported of an interrogator posing as a member of the Midnight Special Legal Collective, the volunteer lawyers representing the activists.

One non-violent protester had 3 ribs broken while he was arrested. Another protester was beaten in the face and then loaded into a patrol wagon, leaving a pool of blood in the street. A police official told the drivers not to off-load him at the jail but to drive him around for several hours, and then drop him off near a hospital.

At midnight on Monday, many activists still reported being denied food and water. Some were arrested at 4 AM, 20 hours earlier. Rachel Weber, a recent Harvard graduate from Boston, watched as one woman in her cell, who has hypoglycemia, began to throw up stomach fluid from lack of food. Police denied repeated requests for food or medical assistance.

One group of men was taken into a basement, put into a cage, and told by a U.S. Marshall: "There are no cameras here. We can do whatever we want." Anyone who looked up while the Marshall was speaking was punched in the face. Another activist saw a U.S. Marshall slam people's faces into a wall.

Jennifer Kirby, a housing advocate from Washington D.C., was part of a group of activists who took over an abandoned home to protest unfair evictions and social service cuts in the District of Columbia. "The police came in and dragged us out of the house. As the police dragged the last person out of the house, one officer was kicking him and saying 'stop attacking my foot' and then all the police slammed him against a wall, saying 'stop attacking the wall.' They dragged him into a six-inch deep puddle and left him in it for five minutes while they kicked him," said Kirby.

Black Echo, a spectator at the arraignment of several hundred activists, heard the presiding commissioner Ringelle imply that if activists did not cooperate, he would place them with the general jail population, where they would be raped. "He told us 'for a day or a week or a month [jail] is not a pleasant place. People get sodomized. The inmates run the D.C. prison ... In the prison, the weak are preyed upon.'" Another group of activists was also threatened with incarceration with the general population, and told "they love to kill white boys over there, you pussy-faggot protesters."

Detainees are taken into solitary confinement and lied to, told that they are the last ones in jail, that they won't be released before their court date in July, that they have no rights.

The Midnight Special Law Collective is asking all concerned to call the following numbers to help them in their efforts to gain justice for the remaining 200 IMF/WB detainees. Giving no names, express concern that detainees are being abused, and demand their immediate release.

Call the U.S. Attorney's Office for DC. The contact person is the Chief of the Transnational Major Crime Section, Bill Blier, at 202-514-6950 or Steve Pellick of the same sub-division of the U.S. Attorney's Office at 202-514-7304. They will ask for detailed individual accounts of violations in order to investigate. Remember to give no names, but demand an investigation.

Also, try the following numbers: D.C. Mayor's Office at 202-727-2980, D.C. Dept. of Correction at 202-673-7316, D.C. Chief Judge at 202-879-2770, Superior Court Chief Judge Eugene Hamilton at 202-879-1600, and Cell Blocks B & C at 202-727-2392.

Gary Morton, via e-mail

Reach Out And...

Here are the private cell phone numbers of many cops on the D.C. police force, including Chief Ramsey. I am sure that the chief would be interested in your comments regarding the protests and the police brutality.

Read below to find out how the numbers were obtained.

Ramsey 202-437-2600, Gainer 202-437-2540, Broadbent 202-437-2239, Jordan 202-437-2281, Monroe 202-437-2282, McManus 202-437-2284, Fitzgerald 202-437-2285, Jackson 202-439-1433, Radzilowsky 202-437-1913, Beach 202-439-1413, Dubeau 202-439-1424, Williams 202-439-1426, Hubbard 202-439-1427, Acasta 202-437-4219, Cmd. Monroe 202-439-1603, Cmd. Parks 202-437-1866, Cmd. Musgr 202-437-1861. [List trimmed for space reasons--Eds.]

I'm sure you fit into one of three categories: 1) you received the D.C. treatment personally and want to thank them, 2) you had a loved one or comrade who did and you need to vent, or 3) you heard about it and need to complain. Well, guess what? We here at The Sleep Institute received an e-mail from one such complainer and knew we had to do something about it. So we called on an acquaintance who hooked us up with this little list. Instead of bragging to your friends about that nice new head wound, call the people who gave it to you and thank them personally for the sweet treatment.

This list was provided by an undercover cop who was good enough to attempt to incite a riot, calling on protesters to punch cops, then suddenly became a police officer himself. We thank him for his slimeball tactics, and the phone he was kind enough to leave with us. A lot of these phone numbers are pretty similar, so we think that they're probably in the same force/department/pigpen, but we're not sure. Just remember kids: Direct Action Gets the Goods!

Your friends at The Sleep Institute, via e-mail

Power to the Paralegals

My name is Paul Wylie, and I am writing to you on behalf of a good friend of mine who is an independent paralegal. There is now before the supreme court of Washington state, a general rule under consideration that will outlaw independent paralegals in this state. This measure is being undertaken strictly by the attorneys of this state who feel threatened by the extremely lower prices charged by independents to fill out the same exact paperwork.

For example: to prepare the paperwork for a non contested divorce, an attorney will charge up to $750. An independent paralegal, on the other hand, will do the same exact preparation for no more than $150. It comes as no surprise then, does it, that the lawyers are doing their best to get rid of the independents?

This measure is up for consideration on April 30th. It is basically a shoe-in decision that the American public knows nothing about, and has not had a chance to even examine. It has been done in such a hush-hush fashion that one could easily make a case for a slight conspiracy. It's the good old boy system working at it's very best. When this measure goes through, it will put all the independent paralegals out of business, depriving them of their very livelihoods.

This friend of mine, whose name is David Scoville, has helped many people who would not otherwise have had access to our legal system. Any help you can give to bring this upcoming miscarrarige of justice to light would be greatly appreciated.

To contact David himself, please call 360-236-9810.

Paul Wylie, via e-mail

Screwed by Starbucks

Judy and Bill Hooper own Judy's Bakery located on Main St. here in Evanston, Illinois. Until a Wednesday in May 1999, their 35 employees produced 42,000 lemon knot and 14,000 carmelita cookies for Starbucks shops nationwide. On that Wednesday in May they received a call from Starbucks saying that Starbucks would no longer buy their cookies, canceling a Starbucks order for the following Monday. No warning, no notice, not even a thanks for doing such a great job. Just dumped Judy and Bill and their lemon knots and carmelitas.

Judy and Bill had bought a warehouse to fulfill Starbucks orders; anyone who had one of their cookies loved them (they were the anti-chocolate cookie, as Mary Schmich of the Chicago Tribune noted in her column on 4/14/00). Judy and Bill had bought a small home in Evanston based on their work for Starbucks and have now lost everything except the bakery: their house, their warehouse--and they had to let go 20 people. Having an account jerked from you suddenly can leave you without any dough.

These hardworking people give cookies to neighborhood kids who show them school papers with As on them and even have a bucket of water outside their bakery for thirsty dogs. They believed that if they worked hard and did a great job for Starbucks, this company would honor their commitment to them. Instead, Starbucks cut them off without warning and jeopardized their very existence.

Now that Starbucks has 2200 stores--you can't turn around without seeing Starbucks everywhere--their arrogance has gotten in the way of good business. Entrepreneurs who did a good job for them get dumped by some stupid and callous corporate types.

I urge you to boycott Starbucks coffee. They have become the Big Brother of the 21st century and we, the consumer, have to remind them that treating employees and contractors fairly is good business. Besides who wants a cup of Starbucks coffee without a lemon knot or carmelita to go with it? The coffee just isn't that good.

Sue Roupp, Evanston, IL