Events
Podcast
Columns
Library
Contact
Apr 24, 18
Filed under: Action, Featured, Immigration, Police, Southwest
Following the not guilty verdict of a Border Patrol agent who shot and killed a 16 year old, José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, people in so-called Tucson took to the streets and blocked freeway on ramps.
On Monday, May 23rd, protesters disrupted downtown Tucson for over six hours after a jury in town delivered a not guilty verdict to a charge of second degree murder faced by Border Patrol agent Lonnie Swartz for the 2012 killing of 16 year old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez. Details about the case can be found here.
After a brief rally on the sidewalks in front of the federal courthouse, the demonstration began with an hour long occupation of the busy downtown intersection adjacent to the courthouse, effectively halting all traffic.
After the police cleared the deadlocked streets of vehicles, protesters reconvened and marched through downtown streets during rush hour, occasionally stopping briefly in major intersections throughout the city.
As the march arrived back at the courthouse, there seemed to be some possibility that the crowd would disperse, but after several minutes of open mic chants, speeches, and reflections, the march continued out of downtown to block the highway on and off ramps of I-10.
Protesters successfully maintained the soft blockade of the highway for several hours, refusing to be intimidated by what proved to be baseless threats of arrest from the police. In the hour or so after the march arrived at the ramps, the highway became so blocked up that motorists turned their cars around and drove the wrong way back up the freeway.
After hours of chanting, singing, sharing poetry, resting, eating pizza, arguing with one loudmouth, persistent, reactionary jackass, and dancing to music played by a contingent of the Tucson radical marching band, demonstrators left the highway on their own terms to return to the courthouse for a dispersal with no arrests.
A few reflections:
This is quite an escalation for Tucson! There hasn’t been an attempt to block highway traffic here since 2014, and protesters then were prevented from reaching the ramps by police. In recent years there has even been some difficulty in getting protests off the sidewalk without facing arrests. The disruptions on Monday it seems were made possible in part by a nice interplay throughout the day between organizers with specific plans for how to be disruptive and the spontaneous energy and initiative of all the participants. The initial intersection occupation appears to have been a planned action with the expectation that specific, predetermined activists would offer themselves up for arrest. Then, when no arrests were forthcoming, the crowd at large felt more emboldened throughout the afternoon to take risks, culminating in the blockage of I-10.
The police were pretty hands-off throughout the day, perhaps as a result of previous bad press from attacking protesters. Often, this policing strategy of non-interference can be very effective. Law enforcement is present, but presenting themselves as reasonable and interested only in public safety and ensuring everyone’s right to free speech; then, the more moderate elements in the crowd self-police the demonstration and make sure that nothing gets out of hand. On Monday, however, protesters called the police’s bluff, seeking to make the demonstration ever more disruptive when it became clear the police didn’t want to intervene, and doubting the cops’ resolve when threats of arrest finally came.
Finally, the occupation of the highway on and off ramps survived the use of a key divide-and-conquer tactic by the police during a tense moment. Just as it was becoming clear that blocking the ramps had caused the complete closure of southbound I-10, police officers effectively pressured a vocal organizer to announce over his megaphone that all those who did not want to offer themselves up for arrest should move to the sidewalk. In the past, when police have compelled recognizable activists with megaphones to deliver their messages for them, it has tended to be far more effective than direct threats from law enforcement at pacifying protests that may otherwise be out of their control.
Perhaps half the crowd, however, elected to remain in the street, and ultimately it seems there were too many people who understood that they could reject the false dichotomy offered to them by the cops of either a) moving to the sidewalk, or b) accepting a symbolic arrest, for the classic dividing tactic to successfully end the protest. Shortly after, as lines of cops began to prepare in several directions with zipties and pepperball guns, police again pressured the same organizer to ask the crowd whether we were putting too many people at risk by blocking the highway. “Lets have a consensus meeting about it out here in the intersection!,” shouted a demonstrator, to general amusement.
After an exceedingly long time preparing and maneuvering lines of police, the same PR cop moved to approach the organizer with the megaphone a third time, only to be met with jeers and chants from the crowd, “TPD, quit your jobs!” After this meeting, all those who had moved to the sidewalk spilled back into the intersection, and the general sense was that the cops would only communicate in empty threats. The bravery shown by the crowd was inspiring, and the widespread perceptiveness in uncovering the cops’ tricks and calling bullshit gives a sense of what might be possible here with a confident, passionate crowd of folks in the future.
With immense love for the family of José Antonio, the families of the dozens of others shot by Border Patrol agents, the families of the thousands more who’ve died or disappeared in the desert in the US-Mexico borderlands as a direct result of Border Patrol policy and action, and the countless brave people struggling and taking risks for a better world on both sides of the border.
With deep rage for the fucking racist murderer Lonnie Swartz, as well as the rest of Border Patrol, ICE, the police, the judges at Operation Streamline, the border, and, why not, the rest of this white supremacist, colonial nightmare we call the United States.
-Tucson anarchists
¡José Antonio Elena Rodríguez presente!
