G8 Protests - People's Summit Barbecue SHUT DOWN by Police

Submitted by Reverend Chuck0:

G8 Protests-People's Summit Barbecue SHUT DOWN by Police

by Karma Bennett

Email: KARMIKA13 (nospam) hotmail.com

10 Jun 2004

Atlanta Indymedia

Glynn County, Brunswick GA 6/9/04


At 10pm, Wednesday evening the People’s Summit Barbecue ended with a whimper when pressure from the police led to an early end to the evenings activities. The event began at 5 with barbecue, gospel and jazz. Dozens of local residents and visiting protesters had gathered to celebrate and relax after a long day of events.

The People’s Summit was a housing experience that combined protesters from all over the world camping out on property volunteered by the pastor Isabelle Myles. The goal was to provide a safe space for protesters as well as a chance to dialogue with Brunswick residents. The barbecue was the culmination of the week, featuring issues and speakers that are important to the Pastor’s family.

The program for the evening was far from radical, with an American flag hanging in the background and a strikingly beautiful performance of the Star-Spangled Banner. Pastor Isabelle Myles asked the crowd to say the Pledge Of Allegiance – for the America they wanted ours to be, not the one it is. One of the campers sang protest songs while a blues band improvised the music. Children ran and played near the fishing pond.

It was therefore surprising when Elaine Brown, former president of the Black Panther Party walked up on the stage. She spoke of our need to find a common ground in the struggle that day-to-day working class African-Americans can identify with. She then welcomed her colleague Khalil Osiris from the National Alliance for Radical Prison Reform, who gave a rousing speech on Jesus as a radical.

By this time, the police had been driving by regularly and had already stopped in once. Many of the neighbors came onto the edge of the property to watch but declined invitation to join. Some of the campers who have been sleeping on the property for the past week went to talk to the neighbors about the politics of the G8.

Around eight p.m. the police gave a citation to the owner of the house, Randy Browne and they continued to drive by the property. An hour or two after this, there was an altercation between a neighbor and someone from the Summit. The rumor is that the neighbor threatened to, “kill the reveler with [his] kitchen knife if [they] took another photograph.”

There were several other artists scheduled to perform, but at this point the assembly was shut down. The neighbor-scare, the intimidation by the police surveillance, (including a SWAT van and a paddy-wagon) combined with the citation for supposedly breaking a noise ordinance had become too great a strain on the event’s organizers.

See also:
http://www.elainebrown.info


http://atlanta.indymedia.org/newswire/display/30088/index.php