RNC in charge of "Guantanamo on the Hudson" at Pier 57?!

[KamaAina]

That's what we're hearing out here, in an email from Not In Our Name-Hawai'i (thus, no link):

We have just learned that five NION supporters from Hawaii are being processed and released after being held in a detention center becoming known as Guantanamo on the Hudson. After being trapped in a police pen during a police sweep, and then arrested without being given any warning or opportunity to disperse, they have been held in appalling conditions.

The detention center is a former bus garage on Pier 57. The holding pens are made of chain link fence with razor wire on top. Each pen has only two portable toilets and few benches. Most people have to sleep on the floor. There are large areas where oil from the buses have been spilled. Arrestees have gone for many hours without access to food, water, phones or lawyers. There is a question about whether the building has an operable fire-suppression system.

When a Hawaii supporter called the NYPD to inquire about the adequacy of the fire-suppression system, she was given the official number of the RNC and was told that the Republican National Convention had control over the detention center. She then called the RNC. An official with the RNC informed her that he didn't know whether the building had such a system, and told her that the detention center wasn't the Hilton, and that those arrested were criminals anyway. This official attitude toward non-violent protesters attempting to exercise free speech is outrageous and yet another example of the very thing the protesters are speaking out against! And since when does a convention provide its own detention center?

Since the fascists staged their little coup d'etat in 2000, I guess. :grr:

"Wasn't the Hilton", indeed! :grr: I'd have had half a mind to ask that smarmy little brownshirt if perhaps it was the Marriott or the Hyatt, instead.

Leave it to Bloomberg, known to a rather centrist friend as the "Tiny Fascist", to outsource this detention. And, why do I have the sinking feeling that just because the RNC is (apparently) in charge of this snake pit doesn't mean that the RNC will be paying for it?!

:grr:

[aquart]

1. Circulate this. There is NO WAY the RNC should be doing this.

This has to be officially answered.

[iconoclastic cat]

4. I just put it up at Kos.

This is pretty freakin' scary.

[Trajan]

2. Since when is the RNC a law enforcement body ??

This is an OUTRAGE ....

[pretzel4gore]

3. darn! canada shoulda did it!

The USA was so easy to conquer it's a damn shame canada didn't attempt it (maybe teamed up with mexico!)
we coulda dressed our armies up like kakakaers (lotsa white sheets and confed navy jack flags) to ensure that US police/military hurried to please them and round up potential resisters (yep, them damn liberals!)
:)