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Protesting Woman Gets Leg Destroyed By Police

post #1 of 27
8/15/07 at 6:57pm
Thread Starter 
This occurred in a neighboring suburb of the city in which I live.

Quote:
On Saturday, August at 11, 12pm EST, the Providence I.W.W. organized a march on Jackie's Galaxy, which is a restaurant chain that is being supplied by HWH in New York City, a supplier who is notorious for its slave labor conditions of up to 110 hours per week without basic labor rights (minimum wage and overtime).
Roughly 30-40 wobblies and supporters (including Providence and Boston SDSers) were marching towards Jackie's Galaxy in North Providence when the police began following them en mass. They told the marches to move to the sidewalk, while this was initially ignored, the marchers listened to the police and began slowly moving to the sidewalk.
The police then surrounded the marchers in their squad cars and began getting out. With the police in full force, they began attacking the marchers, one fellow worker, Alex Svoboda, was pinned down by the police during her arrest and suffered a broken and dislocated leg and ruptured blood vessel in the knee. These injuries will require at least two surgeries and extensive rehab and even then may not completely repair the damage. Jason, another wob, was arrested in during the police' attack. Ashley, a supporter from Boston, was also severely maced during the attack, suffered chemical burns and required medical treatment.


Click here for more disturbing images.

I know this girl and though she's not a close friend we have chatted a few times at shows and stuff and she's super nice and peaceful, and so are all the other protesters that were there, other people I know from around town. This is sort of a big issue in my city right now. This may not be huge news on a large scale, but I thought you guys might find it interesting / possible fuel for really bad puns. There's certain points in this debate on which side I'm not sure I fall, but nevertheless I find the whole thing to be pretty enraging.
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post #2 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:06pm
Thread Starter 
Here's a link to the IWW's article. If you're interested in what they do I believe they have some links on there to explain that.
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post #3 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:15pm
I just think it's funny that a guy using the name stump posted an article about a destroyed leg.
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post #4 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:17pm
Cops - 1
Hippies - 0

Sorry for the easy joke, and honestly that kind of injury really sucks. It also sucks that a few cops felt the need to go all gung-ho on a couple of hippies who went to the sidewalk to slow. I mean is that honestly a big enough offense to warrant breaking the girls leg (probably an accident but still) and macing any who got close to them afterward?

Sometimes police seem to get that "not on my streets" mentality and that's never a good idea.
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post #5 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:21pm
How in the world did they take her down to cause such a break?
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post #6 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:22pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris O.
I just think it's funny that a guy using the name stump posted an article about a destroyed leg.
I noticed that, AND I misread the title as "Woman gets destroyed by Leg Police", which sounds like the plot for my new favorite movie.
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post #7 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:25pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by gravedigger
How in the world did they take her down to cause such a break?
From the linked pics it looks like the cop standing tried to hip toss her while her leg was planted and his leg was against her knee. Regardless I know that shit hurt.
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post #8 of 27
8/15/07 at 7:27pm
Thread Starter 
I'm not sure how exactly it happened, but things started getting heated (she had a drumstick in her hand with which she was playing a drum during the protest) and during the escalation somehow the stick made contact with an officer. I'm thinking that he took her down hard from behind and her leg somehow got caught in an awkward position, and they just forced her down, dislocating her knee, or whatever it is that happened.

N.Providence is known locally as a kind of goombah, very-Mafia influenced backwater kind of town. People watch Sopranos with pride. Cops get hired because they know people. The general consensus is that they weren't trained to deal with this so they just went in, things didn't go the way they wanted, and they quickly reverted to muscle.
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post #9 of 27
8/15/07 at 8:02pm
Well shit, I feel safer now.
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post #10 of 27
8/15/07 at 9:50pm
Quote:
The general consensus is that they weren't trained to deal with this so they just went in, things didn't go the way they wanted, and they quickly reverted to muscle.
Ew. Sounds like something from a Clive Barker novel.
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post #11 of 27
8/15/07 at 9:54pm
I hope to fuck someone filmed this, and that the people who did it get thrown in jail.
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post #12 of 27
8/15/07 at 10:12pm
I can't imagine what it would be like to be her boyfriend, husband, or father. My rage would be white-fucking-hot.
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post #13 of 27
8/15/07 at 11:16pm
Two knees, two directions? Sounds like Providence.




That situation is actually really nasty and uncalled for.
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post #14 of 27
8/15/07 at 11:22pm
Somebody pleaaaaaase either reveal themselves to be a decent cop or give us a story about a nice cop to balance out this article. The older I get, the more I hate the police, because they only seem to go after people who aren't doing anything or are easy targets. I have a spotless criminal record and I can't tell you how many times a random police officer has threatened me or used foul language around me.

I find protesters fairly annoying and useless, but I find abuses of power terrifying.
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post #15 of 27
8/15/07 at 11:26pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Gary Sherman
Somebody pleaaaaaase either reveal themselves to be a decent cop or give us a story about a nice cop to balance out this article. The older I get, the more I hate the police, because they only seem to go after people who aren't doing anything or are easy targets. I have a spotless criminal record and I can't tell you how many times a random police officer has threatened me or used foul language around me.

I find protesters fairly annoying and useless, but I find abuses of power terrifying.
The biggest problem with police is that they are attracted to that power and that's why they are drawn to the job. The guys that go on the job with the best of intentions get so used to dealing with lowlifes(and lets be honest, there are tons of them) that they see everyone as a lowlife sooner or later. That's why Policemen have terrible divorce rates, more so than just about any other profession out there, and it's the reason a great percentage of cops have drink and drug problems.

Of course none of that is an excuse for what happened to that lady and her poor defenseless leg.
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post #16 of 27
8/15/07 at 11:49pm
You know, it's the same as in any profession or any group of people - you have good and you have bad.

My father has been a police officer for over 35 years, and he and my mother have been married for nearly 38 (just as an aside to the divorce comment). It pains me when I see stuff like this happen (and the resulting cop-bashing that occurs after - not against the offending jerkoffs, but how quickly it turns into more of a broad statement against all officers).

There are assholes everywhere. They're the ones you hear about.
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post #17 of 27
8/15/07 at 11:51pm
Fair enough. My great grandfather was a county sheriff, and sometimes even I forget that when I hear about these stories.
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post #18 of 27
8/16/07 at 12:04am
I could have lived my entire life without seeing that picture, and now it will never ever leave my brain. I have a phobia-like "thing" about joints snapping and what-not. I'm guessing with all the news coverage there will be people losing lots of jobs over this, yes? Better fucking be.

Edited to ask, what's a Wobblie, or an HWH? I'd read the article, but Stump said there's more pictures, and man FUCK that.
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post #19 of 27
8/16/07 at 12:32am
HAVE YOU FORGOTTEN?

THAT POLICEMEN SAVED MANY LIVES ON THAT FATEFUL DAAAAY IN SEPTEMBERR

HAVE YOU FORGOOOTTEnnnenNNn
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post #20 of 27
8/16/07 at 1:04am
Who could possibly condone such senseless brutality?

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post #21 of 27
8/16/07 at 1:28am


I love the shots of the cops about to go midevil on anyone with a camera.

Cop #1:"We had to use extra force. Those photos were Flickr bound."
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post #22 of 27
8/16/07 at 1:32am
I think I see someone with a videocamera in the glass reflection so there may be hope for footage.
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post #23 of 27
8/16/07 at 1:57am
Quote:
Originally Posted by summer smile
You know, it's the same as in any profession or any group of people - you have good and you have bad.

My father has been a police officer for over 35 years, and he and my mother have been married for nearly 38 (just as an aside to the divorce comment). It pains me when I see stuff like this happen (and the resulting cop-bashing that occurs after - not against the offending jerkoffs, but how quickly it turns into more of a broad statement against all officers).

There are assholes everywhere. They're the ones you hear about.
I understand your sentiment, I was licensed to be an officer so it's not like I'm hating on the job, but the divorce rates are what they are. That's not to say all cops are like that but the profile of your average officer across the nation is not flattering at all. And incidents like this are becoming more and more the norm.

All that aside, look at the extra pics, the cops not involved with the leg break look so PISSED to be there.
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post #24 of 27
8/16/07 at 2:37am
Thread Starter 
Nobody had video cameras. I don't think they anticipated this much action - they're pretty peaceful. There's been mention of a possibility of surveillance cameras in the area.

In the aftermath, the most disturbing thing has been the local coverage. Print and televised media has taken a pretty much neutral stance, which is ok, but kind of frustrating. Radio coverage has been extremely pro-police to the point of nausea. Two of the local IWW reps were on the popular talk radio station yesterday and they basically endured two hours of harassment and lame jokes. It just really sucks man, when you know in your heart that some people did something wrong but so many are so comfortable to stick with status quo.

Listen to segments of the "interview" with local IWW representatives. Make sure to listen to N.Providence Mayor Charlie Lombardi for a laugh. Seriously.
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post #25 of 27
8/16/07 at 9:24am
Quote:
Originally Posted by summer smile
You know, it's the same as in any profession or any group of people - you have good and you have bad.

My father has been a police officer for over 35 years, and he and my mother have been married for nearly 38 (just as an aside to the divorce comment). It pains me when I see stuff like this happen (and the resulting cop-bashing that occurs after - not against the offending jerkoffs, but how quickly it turns into more of a broad statement against all officers).

There are assholes everywhere. They're the ones you hear about.

I'm sorry, but it really is true that Police officers have a higher percentage of assholes per capita than other professions. As was said before, it's the nature of the job and those attracted to it, those being made up primarily of high school bullies looking for work after school, Napoleon complex sufferers, out and out psychos, etc. That's not saying there isn't a smattering of good, hard working, nice guys on the police force; there are, and they tend to get shit from the other guys they work with.

An ex-wife was a bartender while getting a criminal justice degree at a cop bar in a suburb of Detroit back when we were dating, so I've had a chance to meet almost every member of medium sized cities force. Two guys (one sergeant and one detective) were genuinely good guys, the other 30+ I met, fit the stereotypes of police officers perfectly. Considering the nation wide consensus of opinion on the Police, that doesn't seem likely to have been a statistical anomaly.
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post #26 of 27
8/16/07 at 3:35pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by stump
Nobody had video cameras. I don't think they anticipated this much action - they're pretty peaceful. There's been mention of a possibility of surveillance cameras in the area.
I can't believe nobody filmed this. Not even on a cellphone? The first rule of protest these days, be it peaceful or otherwise, is to FILM EVERYTHING. Cellphones and video cameras have got so small, and the cops have got so itchy for a fight, that there's really no excuse.
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post #27 of 27
8/16/07 at 3:52pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Miller
Edited to ask, what's a Wobblie, or an HWH?
I'm guessing she's the wobblie now.
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