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...
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…
