There was a great action in Milwaukee on Monday 3/24 that almost
spontaneously came together. A few affinity groups got together and started
planning for a Critical Mass against the war. Before we knew it, around 300
people showed up to block the main intersection in the downtown. There were
people on bike as well as on foot, which kind of slowed the momentum down a
bit. Unfortunately my bike was on hiatus so I was one of the walkers. At
the beginning of the protest there was one cop there, who after seeing us
take the intersection freaked out and called tons of backup. By the time we
left the intersection about a dozen cops had already arrived. As we headed
south down Water street I began to notice what seemed like rain but when it
started to smell a little sweet and then a little choking I turned around
to see a Milwaukee police dept van cruising behind us with a mace cannon,
spraying it at the crowd. The best part about it was that they didn't seem
to know how to use it! It was like they got a new toy and couldn't quite
figure it out!
We looped back to make another pass through the intersection but the cops
were ready for us this time. We were toting around this 50 ft. long (very
phallic looking) 'missile' that we had styled after a chinese dragon and
the cops started attacking it. At first they weren't even going for the
people, just swinging their batons at the sides of this thing. After that
is when it turned violent though. Cops started swinging extension batons
and pepper spraying people who were standing on the sidewalk. They also
began grabbing anyone they could get their hands on and arresting them. A
lot of people locked up and actually successfully diverted arrest. Other
people were running around un-arresting people as they were thrown on the
sidewalks. One of my friends actually un-arrested herself with a pair of
pliers she had in her back pocket. Unfortunately about 12 people did end up
getting carted away by police. They were pretty brutalized, cops were
swinging at them on the ground and spraying pepper spray into their mouths
when they yelled in pain.
Eventually we re-grouped and started snaking through the city to avoid the
wagons that were reported to be hidden just around the corners of
surrounding blocks. We ended up at the city jail making as much noise as
possible. We were probably there for about 5-6 hours waiting for our
friends to be released. At the end of the night all but two were released,
one had outstanding warrants and the other was from out of state.
Not a bad action for our small town.
