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13 de Noviembre, 2007
Bloody Kisses on la Frontera
Categorized under Chinga la Chota , Frontera , Migra , Política Estados Unidos | Tags: ALIENZ, borders, Environment, Format, hope, migra, resistance, The Haunted Land
I HAVE TO SAY, the cross-border Kissing Booth just about cracked me up. Though I am not often capable of such things, meeting antagonism and violence and hostility with a sense of humor and love is probably the most satisfying way to engage negativity and destructive energy. Though la migra don't see it that way, of course. (And we already know what kind of trouble you can get into when peacefully assembling...for the wrong reasons.)
The concluding action of the No Borders Camp was a rally on both sides of the border right at the Mexicali/Calexico port of entry. The rally included the installation of a cross-border kissing booth, which involved making a hole in the border fence approximately four inches in diameter. With the arrival of the Dept. of Homeland Security Border Patrol in large numbers, the peaceful demonstration was interrupted by police escalation. Border Patrol formed a line between protesters and the wall and then advanced on the crowd without warning, without a dispersal order, and without provocation. Several people were knocked down, one protester was hit repeatedly in the knee caps by several Border Patrol before being detained, and paint-ball guns loaded with pepper spray pellets were used to disperse the crowd. One protester was beaten severely and detained and may or may not be receiving medical attention. Fleeing protesters were then surrounded and detained, before being allowed to disperse in fives. Three protesters have been detained. The No Border Camp IMC is currently in the process of releasing video of the police brutality online, which has been extensively filmed. A disturbing example is here.Audio interviews with first hand experiences will also be posted and will be linked to here.
It is critically important to situate this recent violence within the larger context of border enforcement, for which the violence perpetrated to enforce the border is not exceptional but daily. For the over four hundred migrants buried in Holtville cemetery (since 1994) who died trying evade the very forces we confronted today, this violence is not exceptional but a fact of life and a fact of death. The brutal, uncoordinated, random violence you can watch on the event footage is both symptomatic and systematic. The Border Patrol is not law enforcement, and can only be understood as an occupation force whose mission is to control a contested space. Like all occupation forces, they end up trying to control the conflict they create, and displace the consequences of that control onto the population. The result is a sustained level of violence which tears apart communities, families, neighborhoods, and peoples lives. The occupation of the borderlands is a projection of state values in which peoples lives are acceptable casualties of economic objectives.
—Seth Porcello Breaking News: Cross Border Kissing Booth Inspires La Migra to Violence, indybay.org
Mr. Porcello says it well. The harmful and unnatural quality of borders, how they contradict nature and the flow of movement, and are largely about power, possession, and profit—not people.
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Comentarios (3)
azgoddess dijo:
the border patrol are not strangers to us, here in arizona...
this is a well written commentary of the atrocities happening in the name of - now what is it? - oh yea, democracy and freedom...
Palabras por azgoddess spat forth on el 13 de Noviembre, 2007 at 12:53 PM
Richard dijo:
What's happened to those guys? They used to have at least a sense of humor (The "kissing booth" reminded me of a video I once ran across of a "crazy" border crossing...http://mexfiles.wordpress.com/2007/06/15/border-crosser-caught-on-video/) and showed common sense -- and compassion.
The "new kid" I have working with me is a retired Border Patrol "Detention Officer" (i.e., he drove the bus taking deportees to the border) who claims he got so chubby because he kept extra meals around for his "passengers," and didn't want them to eat alone! The retired BP guys I know all talk about carrying an extra lunch and water with them when they were on patrol... and spending a small fortune buying detainees a meal or slipping them a few bucks, before turning them over to be sent back.
I have to deal with the BP and have friends who are agents for them. What bothers me is that they are being indocrinated into a war mentality... they're finding "the enemy" -- or searching for "terrorists". The newer guys (aren't always "fronterazos" and it's almost as if we're under occupation by outsiders... are WE the enemy?
One amusing note -- because the BP requires agents to speak Spanish, they do tend to hire "Hispanics" -- maybe they'll have to start hiring Mexican immigrants to do the job we don't have enough big, intimidating Cuban-American, Puerto Rican, Tejanos, etc. to do :-)
Palabras por Richard spat forth on el 13 de Noviembre, 2007 at 11:05 PM
goodbye kitty dijo:
Just wait until Blackwater gets involved. It is going to get really ugly really fast.
Palabras por goodbye kitty spat forth on el 15 de Noviembre, 2007 at 10:24 AM