Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Daniel Murphy March 22, 2012 Facing Off With Police At Union Square, NYC

A rant:



A transcription was requested by ThD at FDL who was arrested with Daniel in the notorious raid on the Chicago NATO protestors in May of 2012; the trial of the NATO 3 -- the only ones who were tried in connection with the raid -- recently concluded with "not guilty" verdicts on charges of terrorism, but guilty verdicts on charges of mob action and possession of materials to commit arson, convictions which carry maximum 30 year penalties.

My balky transcription of Daniel's address to the NYPD heard in the video above follows:

[Daniel Murphy, to the NYPD, in progress] You'll probably beat us...
Ain't that right? Were you guys here last night? So was I. It was great.... 
Then you assholes came back at 9:30. I had just gotten to sleep. It would have been great if you'd a waited a little longer, but you chose not to. 
I'm here because I wanted to ask you guys a question: How many times do you ask yourselves, "Why the fuck am I here?"
Do any of you ever stop to think "Maybe what I'm doing is not actually great? Maybe what I'm doing is actually quite possibly immoral?"
 Do you ever think... [unintelligible; there is laughter and a voice over on the video saying: "This is the kid that was arrested twice in one... uh, a couple of days..."]
 [Daniel continues to the cops:] How many times do you go home and say, "Maybe I shouldn't have hit that guy over the head, maybe I shouldn't a pushed that woman to the ground, maybe I shouldn't have tied that guy's cuffs on so fuckin' tight so he can't feel his fingers a week later." That guy is me. I still can't feel my fingers, assholes. Thanks a lot.
And for what? What did I do? God knows. I guess we'll go to trial, maybe the charges will get dropped. [Unintelligible...].... the fuckin' videotape, ain't that wonderful. But you sure held me in jail for two days, wasn't that great, right? I loved the food in there, too, so I'm probably gonna go back tonight. You know why? Because you assholes just follow orders and never question why the fuck you do what you do.
I invite you to stop being mindless zombies, and quite possibly, once in a while, take off your uniforms and engage in conversation. I think if you thought of us as human beings and not as objects, you would stop beating us, but instead, you're trained to dehumanize and to think of us as criminals, when really what we're doing is not wrong at all. Legality does not equal morality. Just because something is the law does not make it right. Just because we break a law does not make us wrong.
You should go fuck yourselves and stop following orders -- only zombies and robots do that.
You are human beings. You are just like us. Except when you put on your uniforms, you turn into pieces of shit. I don't understand why.
I wear a "uniform." It's the only set of clothing I have. You guys are free to take it from me and everything else I have, cause you try to every day. But I kinda still have the last shred of dignity.
You know why? Because I can stand up here and talk to you, not because I think I have more power than you. You have guns, and if we lived in a different country, you would have killed me long ago. But we're in America.  There's still a little bit of protection. I don't think that's gonna last too much longer. I think, pretty soon, as we continue to break the law, you will have to shoot us, cause we'll get tired of you beating us. When we get tired of you beating us, we're prolly gonna fight back.
Wouldn't that be an amazing sight?
 I hope we wait until you beat us so badly that the public joins us, cause you're prolly so stupid that you'll wait that long.
I think you should change your minds. I think you should join us. There is no one else here who will fight for your pensions or your wages or any other measly benefit you get for having such shitty jobs.... [Daniel continues unintelligible...]
 [Fades....]
 Sorry if I missed anything...

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NOTE: I originally posted about Daniel Murphy and the very public torture he was subjected to on the streets of New York back in March of 2012, during the demonstrations against police brutality -- which featured heaping helpings of police brutality, not only to Daniel Murphy but to Cecily McMillan and many, many others.

I didn't know that Daniel Murphy had gone to Chicago in May of 2012, to attend the NATO conference protests, or that he had been arrested with TarheelDem and the others initially referred to as the NATO 9 (two of whom were undercover cops, two of whom were Polish nationals who were promptly deported, two of whom were TarheelDem and Daniel Murphy, and three of whom were later tried for terrorism and other offenses, and who were recently convicted of those 'other offenses' only) until I happened to Google Daniel's name and ran across a Pacifica Radio interview with him recorded shortly after his release from custody. I don't know where he is now or what has become of him, but I imagine he's found an ashram somewhere -- do they still have ashrams? -- and is doing good works building his community.

That's what I would imagine, anyway...

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