Phoenix - Protesters Clash with Police at Anti-Arpaio March
We have so many threads re this so thought this could be posted on it's own since it was just posted on the net.
Video at the source link.
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Protesters Clash with Police at Anti-Arpaio March
Updated: Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 6:02 PM MST
Published : Monday, 18 Jan 2010, 6:02 PM MST
PHOENIX - Video of Saturday's immigration march in Phoenix, where protesters clashed with police, has been posted online.
Five people were arrested during the march, all of them apparently part of an anarchist group in the valley.
These are people deeply opposed to Sheriff Joe Arpaio and his policies. They also feel police intimidate and abuse their power, and they claim that's what happened on Saturday.
YouTube video shows Phoenix Police pepper-spraying some demonstrators who were wearing black and carrying an "Assassinate Arpaio" banner.
Sarah Grace Daniels, 23, Jeremiah Henry, 18, Garyn Klasek, 30, Claire Brock, 23, and Issa Emadi, 26, were booked on charges ranging from aggravated assault on a police officer to disorderly conduct. Monday, some of their fellow anarchists, from the "Black Block," spoke out on the experience.
"I saw police officers just target these people for no reason because there was all this chaos and these people were jumped on," says a woman who calls herself Angela.
The "Black Block" group claims police restricted them to a narrow strip of pavement to march on, and when they resisted, the police overreacted and unleashed pepper spray. Police give a different account .
They also claim police posed as protesters themselves.
"There were undercover police officers wearing anti-Arpaio shirts and carrying black flags, that threw their flags and got on these people and arrested them," says Angela.
FOX 10 asked Phoenix Police if they tried to infiltrate the groups of anarchists and they flatly denied it.
At Conspire Coffeehouse and Art Space near downtown Phoenix, Saturday's confrontation is a rallying cry.
"This incident should be considered a blessing because it is a display of the abuse of our human rights to free speech that we are all entitled to," says a member of the Black Block who calls herself Juana Doe.
FOX 10 tried to reach an attorney for the five people arrested, but a phone call was not returned.
www.myfoxphoenix.com
