Patricia,
While I support your opinion and your experience. As one of the folks who was involved yesterday in the arrestable action at Grove and Van Ness, I have to say.. what you are describe has NOT been my experience in San Francisco.

On the ground, the police were more than cordial. Nearly 200 people were arrested -- all charged with an infraction and a misdemeanor, all traffic violations. While I don't know and can't comment on the status of their upcoming legal cases, we are actively working with pro-bono attorney's to get representation for the protesters.

Your article makes it seem like people are locked up and the key is thrown away. People were processed for the most part in the street (on site), brought to the hall of justice, cited, and released in time to be back out at 5:00pm to attend the large rally and march to Yerba Buena Gardens. There was no lengthy jail time. There was no talk of "domestic terrorists." The Police were absolutely cordial, took their time, were gentle (and we heard not a single instance of harassment by police, and many protesters were thanked by police).

I still believe civil disobedience is a useful and appropriate action to resist tyrannical actions by the state. If done correctly. If done in a timely fashion (for instance if protests and civil disobedience had continued, if there had been riots, who knows what else)... yes, the situation could have easily changed.

I cannot speak about what it is like for people organizing on other issues, on other days, in other movements. I'm sure there are plenty of examples of police brutality, violence, intimidation, long term incarceration and countless other injustices perpetrated upon protesters. But other people have engaged in arrestable civil disobedient actions in this city, been cited, released, and charges dismissed.

I think that fear mongering and scaring people away from Civil Disobedience only further marginalizes such actions from being ONE OF MANY tools in our toolbox. It is an important tool. It sends and important, immediate, and vital message. When people see civil disobedience they think one of two things "Wow that's stupid." or "Wow, that's brave." Everyone in this country fears arrest --and those getting arrested willingly deserve to be thanked and applauded for standing up for our rights and saying "Business will not continue as usual." For those people who say "Wow, that's brave." we may have at least opened their eyes that yes, this is an important issue for many of us, important enough to get arrested for.

So please. Don't jump the gun and start to talk about something that you haven't heard reports about. Everyone was out of county by 6:00pm. All reported being treated with respect. And I will post in the future on the outcomes of their cases.

~Danielle

The right keeps talking about the slippery slope when facing changes. Now they are the creators of the slippery slope towards tyranny. Personally I see it in the Church where financial concerns are twisting the Church further and further to the cause of Pharisaism and selective literalism all covered over in the fake piety of "We're only following the Bible."
Politically I was ecstatic in Obama's election and the Democratic landslide. I'd hoped the chief executive and members of the Legislature would see this uprising of the people as a call for major change in how government was going to be handled. I was convinced that our President was truly different, but my hopes are slowly fading away.
--asking for auto workers to make concessions while requiring no such demands for the financial entities that brought our nation to its knees financially,
--selling out to "pork barrel" spending to get a budget passed instead of exposing the purveyors of pork to national scrutiny,
--by silence, siding with the forces of right wing fear tactics while letting basic equal rights go unchampioned,
--by actively condoning efforts to hide from public scrutiny our breaking with the globally agreed upon rights of prisoners,
--by continuing the acts of terrorism visited on the Iraqi people by a war most of the rest of the world decries.
The most telling event effecting me personally was who was invited to the table to discuss health care reform: the pharmaceutical industry, the health care provider industry, labor unions. BUT NOT A SINGLE PERSON WHO DEALS WITH THE HIGH COST TRAVESTY WE CALL HEALTH CARE, NO ONE WHO IS WITHOUT HEALTH INSURANCE, NO ONE WHO HAS TREATMMENT DENIED OR DELAYED BY MANAGED HEALTH CARE, NO DOCTORS, NO NURSES(WHO ARE THE FRONT LINE OF HEALTH CARE). The only ones invited to discuss this issue were those who have a profit at stake. The only semblance of grassroots representation was labor unions.
My shoulders are preparing for a shrug of defeat grudgingly acknowledging that it's business as usual with our government.
Have I had my hopes raised only to be duped once more?

Wow, very sobering article Patricia.

My Dear Friend:

You know how much I admire you Patricia and I can likely count on one hand the issues we might disagree on. This may be one of them--at least as you have framed it. I was at San Francisco City Hall during these protests and had a number of conversations with the organizers in the days and weeks leading up to the actions. I too, expressed concern and reservations. First, I worried as you do, that the protesters would be unprepared for the consequences. But you may be relieved to know--as I was--that there was extensive training, explaining not only the "how" of true civil disobedience, but also the "what" to expect when arrested. Lawyers were lined up in advance and the full ramifications explained. Happily, because we are not in the sixties anymore, many of the cops were gay themselves and actually supportive. Most, if not all of the lawyers they retained will not be needed. Second, I was worried about public reation. But truly, the protests were and have been so dignified and yet also determined, that the coverage I have seen has been universally respectful in turn. Finally, while yes, it is more risky to protest now given draconian new measures, it seems to me that is hardly a reason to stop protesting--otherwise they win. We should not allow their heavy-handed tactics to leave us cowering, or staying home. Yes, we have to fully appreciate the price we may pay--but I actually hope there are some willing to pay that price.

With Great Respect,

kate

Thank you for this article. I don't think that Prop 8 might be the issue that one is willing to 'lay down ones' life for'.

But consider this:
The governor's budget aims to dismantle ALL HIV services (testing, prevention, surveillance, education) and to shut down the State Office of AIDS. It will eviscerate ADAP - the payer of last resort for HIV medication. This in addition to the destruction of Healthy Families, CalWorks and other last-resort health programs.

When ACT UP was most active, people were dying every single day. There were very few medical interventions. And people - people who had nothing to lose - took to the streets. Their alternatives were: Fight in the streets or die in the streets.

The constitution ensures that prisoners receive necessary medication. No one else has that constitutional guarantee. Sure, CA prisons are under federal receivership because they have not been providing appropriate medical care - but how many people who AREN'T incarcerated don't get appropriate medical care? And for the millions (and this isn't an exaggeration) of people in CA who are about to lose their last-resort health care - what do we do? I include myself in this category. I work in HIV services and when I lose my job - as many tens of thousands of non-profit workers up and down the state will do - I won't be able to afford COBRA. and my health care is expensive. I have a chronic disease (a preexisting condition). Health is something to consider when risking arrest, certainly.

What do you do when the entire safety net has been cut? When there are LITERALLY (not figuratively) no resources?

If people decide to engage in CD because they have nothing to lose, we as a community need to support them. We need to support people who don't make that decision as well. We need to rouse people - by whatever means necessary - to get them aware of what is happening. And we don't have time. This budget will probably be signed by the Governor by the 2nd week of June. And it doesn't go to the floor - it goes from Committee to the desk. We don't have time.

So, it may be all "Toto, we aren't in the 60s anymore" when it comes to Prop 8, especially because we have DP protections - though if we didn't this would be as critical an issue to me as the budget, because of health care. But when it comes down to making a decision about living or dying and how one want to do that, well, it may not be the 60s, but it's about to be the 80s again. By that I mean that for many HIV+ people, when ADAP is cut the likeliness of multi-drug resistance becomes real. All of a sudden, one doesn't only have an availability issue, one has to face the issue that there are no more treatment options - available or not. HIV drugs are notoriously cross-resistant. so we go back to the days when 1500mg of AZT was what people dreamed of. What I mean is that it won't take long before many, many more HIV+ people have nothing to lose. Remember when people died within 6 months of their diagnosis? Do we want to go full circle on that?

I am in full support of people - again, I include myself - being willing to risk arrest (and whatever happens after that) because I lived through my 20s and 30s with friends dying every single week. Every single day in some weeks. And we built not only a movement, but institutions which actually keep people alive. Then we built communities which improved quality of life. We expanded access to medication. We stopped seeing people die (as much). When I realized that an entire year had passed between HIV-related deaths of my friends ... I felt like I'd gone to the other side of the rainbow. And how can I stand by and watch all of that taken away so that people don't have to pay higher taxes? So corporations don't have to pay taxes? I can't.

So again, thank you for the article (and your fantastic books). People need to know what CD means, and what they're getting into before they made a decision about whether they want to get into it. You can't make an educated decision without information. And it's our responsibility as people who have this information to get it out. But we have to support our fellow community members in whatever choices they make to save their lives, to live their lives with dignity, and to take risks to help other people live.

Well thought out. It reminded me of those days when my friends were dying daily-->weekly-->bi-monthly-->monthly-->every couple of months--> every few months-->every 6 months-->yearly, and now even less so! We musn't harken back to those days. Really, I still have "stuff" from my dead friends in boxes--at one point I had a whole closet just for them, but as the meds and my friends got better so shrank the closet--we can't go back into the closet!!! Let's meet soon for our next, and I hope more, "disobedient", "civil disobedience". And I do understand that while not all can go to jail--moral, emotional, mental, legal, and financial support carries as much weight as we FIGHT FOR EQUANIMITY, and as we ONCE AGAIN FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES! AGAIN AND AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!

Respectfully,
Tony Espinosa
Former member Queer Nation and ACTUP Los Angeles