[Marxism] Hogtied and Abused at Fort Benning

["James Daly" <james.irldaly@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hogtied and Abused at Fort Benning

By Kathy Kelly

November 27, 2003 by CommonDreams.org

http://www.commondreams.org/views03/1127-01.htm

On Sunday, November 23, I took part in a nonviolent civil disobedience
action at Fort Benning, GA, to protest the U.S. Army?´s School of the
Americas (SOA, now called the Western Hemisphere Institute for
Security Cooperation -- WHISC)

Shortly after more than two dozen of us entered Fort Benning and were
arrested, US Military Police took us to a warehouse on the base for
"processing." I was directed to a station for an initial search, where
a woman soldier began shouting at me to look straight ahead and spread
my legs. I turned to ask her why she was shouting at me and was
ordered to keep my mouth shut, look straight ahead, and spread my legs
wider. She then began an aggressive body search. When ordered to raise
one leg a second time, I temporarily lost my balance while still being
roughly searched and, in my view, ‘womanhandled.’ I decided that I
shouldn’t go along with this dehumanizing action any longer. When I
lowered my arms and said, quietly, "I’m sorry, but I can’t any longer
cooperate with this," I was instantly pushed to the floor. Five
soldiers squatted around me, one of them referring to me with an
expletive (this f_ _ _ er) and began to cuff my wrists and ankles and
then bind my wrists and ankles together. Then one soldier leaned on
me, with his or her knee in my back. Unable to get a full breath, I
gasped and moaned, "I can’t breathe." I repeated this many times and
then began begging for help. When I said, "Please, I’ve had four lung
collapses before," the pressure on my back eased. Four soldiers then
carried me, hogtied, to the next processing station for interrogation
and propped me in a kneeling position. The soldier standing to my
left, who had been assigned to "escort" me, gently told me that soon
the ankle and wrist cuffs, which were very tight, would be cut off. He
politely let me know that he would have to move my hair, which was
hanging in front of my face, so that my picture could be taken. I told
him I’d appreciate that.

I was then carried to the next station. There, one of the soldiers who
’d been part of pushing me to the floor knelt in front of me, and,
with his nose about two inches from mine, told me that because I was
combative I should know that if I didn’t do exactly as instructed when
they uncuffed one hand, he would pepper spray me. I asked him to
describe how I’d been combative, but he didn’t answer.

After the processing, I was unbound, shackled with wrist and ankle
chains, and led to the section where other peaceful activists, also
shackled, awaited transport to the Muskogee County jail.

At our bond hearing on Monday, Nov. 24, a military prosecutor told the
federal judge that the military was considering an additional charge
against me for resisting arrest. I explained my side of the story to
the judge, grateful that there are at least sevreal witnesses upon
whom I could call.

The federal judge determined that most of us were "flight risks" and
increased by 100% the cash bond required before we could be released,
from last year?´s $500. to $1000.

Today I have a black eye and the soreness that comes with severe
muscle strain. Mostly, I’m burdened with a serious question, "What are
these soldiers training for?" The soldiers conducting that search must
have been ordered not to tolerate the slightest dissent. They were
practicing intimidation tactics far beyond what would be needed to
control an avowedly nonviolent group of protesters who had never, in
thirteen years of previous actions, caused any disruption during the
process of arrest. Bewildered, most of us in the "tank" inside the
Muskogee County jail acknowledged that during the rough processing we
wondered, "What country do we live in?" We now live in a country where
Homeland Security funds pay for exercises which train military and
police units to control and intimidate crowds, detainees, and
arrestees using threat and force.

This morning’s aches and pains, along with the memory of being
hogtied, give me a glimpse into the abuses we protest by coming to
Fort Benning, GA. As we explore the further invention of nonviolence
in our increasingly volatile time, it’s important that we jointly
overcome efforts to deter our determination to stand together against
what Martin Luther King once called, "the violence of desperate
men," -- and women.

[Kathy Kelly is the founder of Voices in the Wilderness, a human
rights group based in Chicago that worked to lift the economic
sanctions against Iraq. For more information, contact info@xxxxxxxx,
call (773) 784-8065, or visit www.iraqpeaceteam.org or www.vitw.org.]

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