Teas N\' Line Communications Plan Key Issues:

Teas n' Line Communications Plan

Key Issues: The Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Conferences have a history of citizen unrest, protests, and violence. Seattle's was heavily criticized, for instance, during the 1999 conference, and now the conference for 2003 is set in Miami; already a contentious area due to several racially-based riots. The Miami Dade Police Force learned from the past and formulated a new strategic plan that emphasized the offensive instead of the defensive, mobility rather than static rather than tactics, proactive and intelligence driven, and anticipating issues through planning and discipline. In addition, County officials were concerned about accusations of police violence and unwanted international attention. They believed that the situation called for undercover agents who used weapons only to save lives. Thus, a difference in strategy and tactics formed a political and operational conundrum for law enforcement and government.

Root Causation: The FTAA was a proposed agreement that would help reduce trade barriers amongst all countries in the Americas, with the exception of Cuba. With ministers from 34 countries meeting in Miami, the tension was high because the proposed agreement was an extension of NAFTA (The North American Free Trade Agreement). NAFTA is the most significant attempt at regional economic integration. An agreement between the United States and Canada to enter into a free trade agreement took place January 1, 1989 with the goal of eliminating all tariffs between the two countries by 1998. One of the main criticisms of NAFTA is that it has a poorly designed policy that benefits larger, multinational concerns as opposed to U.S., and some Canadian, workers. Establishing an organization under NAFTA is primarily resource seeking, whether that is human or hard goods, since there is no overall agreement on wage/benefit standards. Too, because the countries often fail to act in tandem with one another in their political and global economic pursuits, there is a far less cohesive climate than in the United States. Most protests against NAFTA and the FTAA surround the issue of the impact that globalization has on the poor and disenfranchised in the developing world. Thus, like in Seattle, the tension is high and the diametrically opposed issues are volatile (NAFTA Facts, 2009;

Solutions/Resolutions: Because there are so many unknowns, solution and strategic planning for such events are difficult at best. Protests tend to take a like upon themselves, and in this case, there were 10,000 protestors on the Thursday of the event. The crowd was violent and tried to get law enforcement to react against them, but the Miami/Dade officers acted as professionally as possible. However, besides the protestors, anarchists and other violent groups entered the picture. The overall solution to the event was far different than in Seattle, which the protestors were expecting Miami to emulate. Instead, Miami/Dade Law Enforcement was disciplined, coordinated and aggressive in putting down violent actions, acting in an offensive way to prevent the crowd from becoming unruly, and acting calmly in the face of verbal and minor threats, saving their actions for serious and life-threatening or property-threatening issues.

Ramifications: It was expected that there would be Citizen and Governmental Review panels after the event. However, even though there were numerous civil law suits the majority of the issues between the County and Law Enforcement were handled professionally and without too much animosity. On a positive note, the coordination of 25 local law enforcement agencies, 7 State and 7 Federal agencies working together was an unprecedented success. Submitting to a single source of command and strategy had never been done before, yet it was perhaps some of the lessons learned from the 9/11 issues about communication and cooperation that helped the various stakeholders come together in a positive and cooperative manner. Certainly, there were a few unfortunate indicants, but far less than in Seattle; and those that made the news (and legal suits) were mistakes made using non-lethal weapons. Additionally ramifications were positive for law enforcement and government planning responses to events such as the 2003 Miami Conference. Since the psychological aspects of protestors are uncontrollable, and there is little way of knowing who will show up and with what agendas (anarchists, etc.), law enforcement must be prepared to accept all types of diverse and potentially dangerous situations in order to protect public safety and property, and to allow for a city to host conferences that, while controversial, are a necessary part of the global economy of the 21st century.