Photos from July 15, 1999
Early in the rally (about 5:45 pm) police marched in and took a ladder (in photo above) - no explanation. The ladder was not an extension ladder. When a small crowd followed asking why they had seized the ladder no answers were given, many more police gathered and people were shoved and hit and the police (with ladder) retreated around the corner at University and MLKJr Way with chants of "No Violence" and many witnesses.
About an hour later another ladder appeared, an extension ladder and a group of approx. 7 demonstrators scaled it to climb onto the balcony to be arrested. The series of photos below shows this sequence. The police grabbed handfuls of hair of one man and pried fingers from the edge of the balcony. Supporters below chanted "No Violence" and pointed upwards.
On Page Part 2 Ladder photos: - A little later the ladder went up again. One woman made it to the balcony, a second woman (Noelle Hanrahan, producer of the Mumia Abu-Jamal interview tape series) went up the ladder and as she put her hands on the balcony ledge to begin to climb over one, then two, Berkeley police began beating on her hands with their batons. She was still on the ladder and trying to climb over the edge. They continued to beat her with their night sticks and many below feared she would fall from the ladder. There was no doubt that she was coming up on the balcony to be arrested and yet they struck her while she was climbing over put her at high risk of a bad fall. Once she got over the edge the beating continued and she gripped the edge of the wall (a photo shows her grimacing with 2 batons clearly up in the air over her head). People on the ground were outraged - cries of "Shame! Shame! No Violence!" were shouted over and over. Many witnesses turned in their names and numbers for this clear police over-reaction.
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
 |
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| above are all photos from first ladder ascent |
||
| - Next page are Part 2
of photos of 2nd ladder ascent and Noelle's arrest |
||
Back to July 15 Photos Starting Page
(photos taken by Susan Druding with Nikon Coolpix900 digital
camera)
This page updated last at : 12/02/00 09:31 PM
PST
URL of this page: http://www.fsm-a.org/kpfa/KPFAphotos71599ladder.html