[act-ma] EMERGENCY RESPONSE TO POLICE BRUTALITY PROVOKED BY INSOMNIA COOKIES INC

[Geoff Carens]

Dear All,

Last night the Cambridge Police attacked a legal picket of Insomnia Cookies
in Cambridge, where workers have struck and initiated an IWW union drive.
The police assault was apparently based on a false report by Insomnia that
picketers were blocking the sidewalk in front of the store. The cops
demanded we shut down our PA, which we did, then tried to force us off the
sidewalk, and subsequently punched IWW member Jason Freedman in the face,
threw him on the trunk of a car and then on the ground, pinning him
partially under a parked car and on the curb as they piled on top of him.
Jason's face was covered in blood and he sustained injuries to his back and
arm. You can see pictures of the attack
here<http://iwwboston.org/2013/11/15/insomnia-cookies-brings-police-assault-down-on-legal-picket/>.
Predictably, Jason has been charged with multiple offenses including
assault on a police officer. At the company's bidding, Cambridge Police had
previously failed to shut down our legal
pickets<http://iwwboston.org/2013/10/11/cops-fail-to-stop-successful-october-10-picket-of-insomnia-cookies/>but
last night they unfortunately succeeded. This incident has to be seen
in the context of increasing criminalization of dissent and official
efforts to tear away our remnants of civil liberties, labor rights and any
protections against brutality by the police.

Please join IWW's and allies in an emergency rally and march, tonight at
5:30 pm in Harvard Square Cambridge. Demonstrators will gather at "the
Pit," next to the main entrance of the MBTA in Harvard Square and next to
Out of Town News. Feel free to register your protests over the police
attack with Cambridge Mayor Henrietta Davis at mayor at cambridgema.gov or by
calling 617-349-4321. Please consider a donation to the Insomnia Cookies
Workers' Strike Fund <https://www.wepay.com/donations/1952435343>. To reach
Insomnia Cookies' CEO Seth Berkowitz, and let him know how you feel about
his company's apparent complicity in police violence and attacks on free
speech, please call 877 632-6654. <%28877%29%20632-6654>

In Solidarity,

Geoff for the Industrial Workers of the World / IWW <http://www.iww.org/>