AMY GOODMAN: You are listening to Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, broadcasting live from Philadelphia. We are on community radio stations around the country. We are on public access cable stations around the country. We are broadcasting on the Free Speech channel, 9415, of the Dish Network, working with Free Speech TV and Deep Dish. It is an unprecedented community media collaboration, for the first time in the history of this country and public media that this kind of broadcast is going out. As well, we are videocasting and live audio streaming on the web. Just go to our newly unveiled website, Breaking with Convention: Power, Protest and the Presidency, at www.democracynow.org.

We go now to jail here in Philadelphia, where many people have been brought after yesterday’s major protest of thousands of people. The protesters are saying more than 400 people were arrested. The police have it at something like 285 people.

We’re joined on the telephone by two of the young women who are in jail, Sleepy and Plum.

Welcome to Democracy Now! Can you hear us? Can you hear us? Sleepy? Plum?

SLEEPY: Yes.

AMY GOODMAN: You don’t want to use your real names?

SLEEPY: This is our nicknames.

AMY GOODMAN: OK. Can you tell us what’s happening there? Can you tell us what’s happening? Can you hear us, Sleepy?

SLEEPY: Yes, we can barely hear you. OK, now we can hear you.

AMY GOODMAN: Go ahead and tell us what’s happening in the jail.

SLEEPY: OK, right now we’re located in the Roundhouse. We’re with about 31 people. We’re in the women’s detention. They have not read us any formal charges. Our lawyers have not been able to come into the premises. And we have seen, through this large window shield that we’re able to look through, that nonviolent, passive resisters are being violently tied from right hand to left foot. And we saw one of them bleeding and one of their fingers turning blue, the same person, because they had the cuffs too tight. They’re using plastic cuffs, hogtying passive resisters. And we also had naked resisters.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Where were you arrested, and at what time last night? And how have you been treated?

SLEEPY: We were arrested. We were detained. We were told that we were being detained at 2 p.m. at the puppet center. We were sitting down in a circle, and they decided to raid. They said that they were getting a search warrant and that we will be taken out and we will be able to wait and be detained in front of the building while they searched. They hauled us all onto buses, where they kept us for at least eight hours, with at least 100 degrees temperature, and they refused to give us water, until we rocked the bus. We had overwhelming community support. We had many people outside chanting for us. And it was just a really strong, solid movement. And we feel that we’ve been trying to reflect that same solidarity within this space.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you describe again what is the condition of the person that you saw, whose — what did you say? One hand tied to one of his feet?

SLEEPY: Yes, right. We had one person — we had two people that we’ve seen that have been hogtied, which is where they’ve had their right hand tied to their left foot, and sometimes through their boxers or while they were naked. And we saw one person bleed and yelp out for help. And after he was dragged, we couldn’t see how far he had been dragged before he was released. But he was dragged, and when we saw, he was bleeding.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, at this point now, you’ve been in police custody about 24 hours, and no one has told you what you’re charged with.

SLEEPY: Basically.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: And you’ve not been able to talk to a lawyer.

SLEEPY: No, we have not been able to have our lawyers in our presence.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: About how many people — I was out there yesterday at that puppet center outside. There were about — that was at 41st and Lancaster. About how many —

SLEEPY: Haverford.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: Haverford, I’m sorry. How many people were arrested there?

SLEEPY: We had about 70 people there.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: About 70.

AMY GOODMAN: And are you —

SLEEPY: Yeah, the place is packed. They have no more room for inmates in this circle, in this Roundhouse prison. They took us. They took us to another place. They took us out of Philadelphia for a moment. They’ve been using scare tactics, and they haven’t been treating us humanely.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us why you did this? Why did you engage in civil disobedience that led you to jail?

SLEEPY: I am speaking — I speak for myself. I believe that we, myself included, we are standing up against criminal injustice, and we’re standing up for life. We believe that life is being insulted, is being cut off by the type of criminal injustice system that we have currently. And we’re also protesting during the Republican National Convention, because we believe that there is only one party. The Democrats and the Republicans are for corporate power and corporate money, and that takes precedence over people. And we are an example of corporate power taking precedence over people.

AMY GOODMAN: Is there anyone else standing next to you who would like to make a comment?

SLEEPY: Yes, we do.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re talking to people from the jail in Philadelphia, where many of the protesters were brought. It’s called — what is the jail again?

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: It’s the Roundhouse. Yeah, the Roundhouse is the police Headquarter here in Philadelphia.

JANE DOE: The Roundhouse.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: It’s where all the brass are, and the commissioner.

AMY GOODMAN: Hi. Can you tell us why you engaged in civil disobedience and what you’re experiencing now? Why don’t you identify yourself?

JANE DOE: I’m Jane Doe.

AMY GOODMAN: And, Jane, why won’t you identify yourself?

JANE DOE: What?

AMY GOODMAN: Why don’t you say your real name?

JANE DOE: Because I’m in solidarity with all the other inmates here at the Roundhouse. And I will not give my name or my identity until all of us are released.

AMY GOODMAN: Can you tell us about why you got arrested?

JANE DOE: I was in the puppet space. I’m a puppetista. I was creating puppets to demonstrate in the streets with in a peaceful manner. And we were detained there. The cops surrounded us. They were up on the roof. We were not allowed to leave. We were not allowed to go down to the assembly. And from there, it was horrible. We were on the bus for over eight hours with no water. People were passing out. A man named Slim passed out cold. We asked the officers again, repeatedly, repeatedly screaming for help, for assistance, for emergency. They ignored us. They would not come and check on him. They would not give us water. Finally, his eyes rolled backwards. His tongue was out. It took 15 minutes for the officer to open the door and look at the situation. Finally, when they did, they assessed the situation, that it was severe, as we were saying. They began to drag him out, even though his hands were still clipped and tied very tightly behind his back. It was cutting off his circulation very badly. They were dragging him through the center aisle. His arms were getting caught on the seats. It was horrible. We were screaming for them to clip his hands, to clip his hands and move him in a peaceful manner. Then, one of our friends on the bus was trying to assist Slim in a peaceful manner so his head wouldn’t hit all the chairs, and one of the police officers pushed her and made her reel backwards.

AMY GOODMAN: I want to thank you both for being with us. What last message would you like to leave with our listeners from the jail?

JANE DOE: I would like for anybody, everybody, to get here to the Roundhouse and support us. Demand our release as one, that we are in solidarity, and we want to be released with no charges. And if everybody comes down, this can happen.

AMY GOODMAN: Do you plan to go to the Democratic convention, as well, in Los Angeles if you get out of jail?

JANE DOE: I can’t — I can’t answer that question.

AMY GOODMAN: Well, I thank you both for being with us, Sleepy and Plum, or Jane Doe, joining us from the Roundhouse, from the jail in Philadelphia, as we go now live to the streets of Philadelphia yesterday, where thousands of protesters tried to block business as usual, business these days being what is being hailed as democracy around the world, the Republican National Convention.

JANE DOE: Thank you.

PROTESTERS: Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets? Our streets! Whose streets?

PROTESTER 1: A couple of us just ran down there, and there was a lot of cops leaning on people.

PROTESTERS: Stay with us! We need help! Stay with us! We need help!

PROTESTER 2: People are here protesting, supporting the movement towards justice.

PROTESTERS: Free Mumia! Free Mumia!

REV. JESSE JACKSON: Mumia Abu-Jamal has taken on worldwide implications. We do not want police shot. Now, we don’t want anybody shot. We all should not want reasonable doubt to be ignored, either.

PROTESTER 3: So, we’re asking, especially mothers and our youth, that you join in and help us stop this police brutality. Stop this government from criminalizing our youth.

PROTESTERS: We want democracy! Stop the GOP! We want democracy! Stop the GOP!

COLIN POWELL: Two million Americans behind bars.

AMY GOODMAN: Colin Powell.

COLIN POWELL: We need to get back to the task of building our children the way we know how, or we’re going to keep building jails in America. And it’s time to stop building jails in America and get back to the task of building our children!

PROTESTER 4: He doesn’t represent the Black community. He doesn’t represent the lower-class Black community, the Blacks that are being beaten by cops, that are being killed by cops. So, for him being a Black man as a Republican, he’s not representing the Black community. He’s representing the rich, the system of this country, Republican system.

CLOWN: Well, I’m a clown today, as are all of the Republicans. And I was out here being a clown, and the police pulled up right outside the building. And then they proceeded to run around the outside of the building, blocking all the doors. They lined up, two lines of cops, about at least a hundred cops outside of the building, and with no provocation whatsoever.

REPORTER: So, the clowns are being held hostage? Is that correct?

CLOWN: There are clowns held hostage. There are also puppets held hostage inside of the building, and very large puppets, I might add, that are being held hostage against their will.

PROTESTERS: Let the puppets go! Let the puppets go! Hi-ho, the derry-o! Let the puppets go! Let the puppets go!

REPORTER: Excuse me. Can you tell me what’s happening here?

POLICE OFFICIAL: I don’t know yet. I’m just arriving.

REPORTER: OK. We understand that there’s clowns being held inside against their will.

POLICE OFFICIAL: I have no comment.

REPORTER: No comment?

PROTESTERS: We are the people! We are the people! The mighty, mighty people! The mighty, mighty people!

AMY GOODMAN: Sounds of the streets of Philadelphia yesterday on the second day of the Republican National Convention. When we return from our break, we’ll be joined by a protester, not unusual for Democracy Now!, and his father, who is a Republican delegate to the Republican National Convention. You are listening to Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, working in collaboration with Deep Dish Television, Free Speech TV and the Independent Media Center. Many of those sounds gathered by the independent video activists who have gathered here in downtown Philadelphia so that you can hear the sounds of the street, not through a corporate microphone or a corporate lens, but through the streets, through the microphones and video cameras, the pens and pencils of the grassroots people who have come here to convey those voices. Stay with us.