Multiple arrests after SOA Watch blocks Independence Ave

On the 16th of April, a number of activists organized by School of the Americas Watch, including father Roy Bourgois himself, were arrested for blocking Independence Ave in front of the Cannon House Office Building

Video of the civil disobediance

Police hugged the protest very closely in a futile attempt to prevent the civil disobediance. Many times their lines surrounding the protests got out of sync, and they had to let protesters cross streets in the crosswalks. One of these, the crosswalk across Independance Ave, turned into the street blockade. There was exactly no way the police could have prevented it except to illegally kettle or detain the entire march to a single block, which would probably have caused matters to escalate and led to the neighboring street being closed anyway.

This protest was in solidarity with people throughout Latin America who have been victimized by terrorists trained at WINSEC, also known as the School of the Americas at Ft Benning, Ga. These terrorists specialize in torture and murder to protect regimes friendly to US and other multinational corporate interests.

While protesters were on one counter-terrrorism mission outside with the civil disobediance, another counter-terrorist team was inside the House Office Buildings, lobbying “Representatives” to co-sponsor HR 3368, a bill to shut the SOA down and open an investigation of its crimes.