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Brad Will

Bradley Roland Will(June 14, 1970 – October 27, 2006) was an American activist,videographerand journalist. He was affiliated withIndymedia.On October 27, 2006, during alabor disputein the Mexican city ofOaxaca,[1][2]Will was shot twice, possibly by government-aligned paramilitaries, resulting in his death.

Brad Will
Brad Will performing atDreamtime Villagein the 1990s.
Born
Bradley Roland Will

(1970-06-14)June 14, 1970
Evanston, Illinois,U.S.
DiedOctober 27, 2006(2006-10-27)(aged 36)
Oaxaca, Oax.,Mexico
EducationAllegheny College(B.A.in English)
Occupation(s)Activist, videographer, journalist
Notable creditIndymedia

Early life

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Brad Will (far right) at theDreamtime Village,about 1993

Will was born inEvanston, Illinois,and raised inKenilworth.[3]He graduated fromNew Trier High Schoolin 1988, then attendedAllegheny CollegeinMeadville, Pennsylvania,where he earned aB.A.inEnglish.[3]Beginning in the summer of 1991, he was a regular attendee at theJack Kerouac School of Disembodied Poetics,the summer writing program ofNaropa Universityand was a teaching assistant toPeter Lamborn Wilson(a.k.a. Hakim Bey). In 1995, after spending time atDreamtime Villagein southwestWisconsin,he moved toManhattanwhere hesquattedon theLower East Sidebefore moving toWilliamsburg, Brooklyn.

Activism

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U.S.

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At Naropa, Will participated in a satiricalperformance artpiece designed to mock the Coloradosocially conservative Christiancommunity and protest a proposed amendment to the Colorado constitution which sought to limitgay rights.Will pretended to marry another man in a ceremony conducted byPeter Lamborn Wilson,aUniversal Life Church-ordained minister. The mock ceremony included a procession of their wedding party indrag,parading in front of aPromise Keepersevent inBoulder, Colorado.

While in New York City, Will became involved in the squatters movement of theLower East Side,and also became involved in what has become known asfreeganism,an effort to live outside the mainstream economic grid by means that includes collecting and eating food discarded by stores and food manufacturers. He fought the removal ofcommunity gardens,including theChico Mendez Mural Gardenon the Lower East Side, named after Brazilian activistChico Mendes.Will was an active participant in protests across the country, usually for varioussocial justiceandhuman rightscauses, and was involved withenvironmentalmovements such asEarth First!and theFall CreekTree Villagein theWillamette National ForestoutsideEugene, Oregon.

Will gained some notoriety for his efforts to prevent New York City from demolishing a squat on Fifth Street in the Lower East Side. When construction crews arrived at the building to begin taking it down, he stood atop the roof waving his arms. His efforts stalled the demolition, but the city eventually leveled the building, which housed a café, a meeting place and a performance space. Will later talked about the building in a program produced byPaper Tiger Televisioncalled "ABC Survives, Fifth Street Buried Alive".

We were making a home out of a crumbling building. The interior of the building needed help, and we brought that building back to life. It was standing strong. And the only reason it was standing was because people were living in it. If we had let it go the way the city wanted it to go– they tore out the stairwell, they punched holes in the roof. The water– the rain was rotting that building from the inside out. We replaced the joists. We rebuilt the floors. We sheet rocked the walls and made the building alive. What did they do? They killed it. That building is over a hundred years old. It was standing strong.[4]

Will was a proponent of anti-corporate media and he hosted his own program onSteal This Radio,a Lower East Side-basedpirate radiostation.

In 1998, he and partner Hazel spoke at the Ecosaloon, a weekly activism forum held on Tuesday evenings at the Wetlands Preserve nightclub. Their presentation connected the struggle to defend the forests of the Pacific Northwest with the fight against the gentrification of Manhattan's Lower East Side. After helping to organizeBuy Nothing Dayand aReclaim the Streetsprotest inTimes Square,Will traveled toSeattlefor the1999 WTO protests,and was a longtime participant inDirect Action Network(DAN) and theIndependent Media Center(IMC) ofNew York City.In August 2001 he joined participants for a roving exploration of usable food found inTribecadumpsters; they were accompanied by a TV crew fromPBS'sLife 360.In his latter years, Will began recording documentary videos, releasing them on the internet through theIndymedianetwork of websites. During the summer of 2006, Will continued videotaping demonstrations, including a June 15 protest at the Mexican Consulate in response to a police incursion into a teacher's plantón (encampment). On June 29 he video-recorded and helped organize a protest againstVictoria's Secretat theManhattan Mallin response to the resources used to print the high volume of mail-order catalogs which the company mails out. He also filmed a street theater performance by the group A for Anarchy, organized in response to the release of the filmV for Vendetta.At the time of his death, he was working on a documentary aboutfolk punkmusic.

International

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In 2000, while visiting theCzech RepublicWill attended a protest inPragueagainst theInternational Monetary FundSummit. He later traveled throughSouth Americawhile participating inanti-globalization.He reachedEcuador,Argentina,ChiapasandBrazilin that trip.

Death

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Traveling under a touristvisa,Will arrived in Oaxaca in early October 2006 in order to document and film the teachers' strike.[5]On October 27, he was videotaping near a barricade erected by pro-strike protesters when he was shot twice. In the last few minutes of the video Will filmed before being shot, voices speaking in Spanish are heard demanding that filming be stopped and cameras be turned off. In the final seconds of the video a voice in Spanish reprimands Will for not having turned off the camera. In the middle of this statement a gunshot is heard, there is a scream, the camera pans down to the ground and the video ends.

Will died while being carried from the area in search of medical help. Two others, Esteban Zurita López and teacher Emilio Alonso Fabián, were also killed. Several others were injured. 26 protesters were ultimately murdered during this mobilization.[6]Atruth commissionlater classified his death as an "extrajudicialexecution".[7]

During a news conference on October 29, 2006, OaxacamayorManuel Martínez said that four men, all local public officials, were being detained in connection with the shooting.[8]

Reaction

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Federal Police mobilized

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Later on the day of the shooting, the Oaxaca airport was closed to commercial flights as the Federal Police arrived to reestablish government control of the city. The army was also mobilized to provide intelligence support to the police, but not to engage directly with protesters. APPO representatives declared their intention to resist the government's armed response to the crisis. At the beginning of November, violent clashes continued between protesters and police.[9]The government claimed that the Federal Police that entered Oaxaca were unarmed.

Demonstrations at Mexican consulates

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On October 30, more than 200 protesters convened outside the Mexicanconsulatein New York City to deplore the killing of Will and others and to demand an end to the violence. The protest was organized by the grassroots group named in his honor, The Friends of Brad Will.[10][11]

Committee to Protect Journalists

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TheCommittee to Protect Journalistssent an open letter on October 30 to the Mexicanattorney generalcalling on theMexican governmentto launch an investigation into Will's death. The statement said thatDavid Vega Vera,special independent prosecutor, had begun gathering information related to the case.[12]

Commemoration and memorial

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Poster of Will at the 2006 New York City Halloween Parade

On November 11 and 12, 2006, Friends of Brad Will organized a gathering in New York City to commemorate Will's life. The event included a memorial service atSt Mark's Church in-the-Boweryattended by 250 people, as well as speeches and concerts.[13]Outside the church was an array offreeganfood as well as a pile of Will's personal possessions, from which attendees were urged to take.[13]It was followed by a procession through theEast Villagedescribed byThe Villageras "jubilant and rowdy" and culminated in marchers breaking into the formerCharas/El Bohio,inside which they briefly cavorted, scrawledgraffiti,twirled firebolasand cycled.[13]

Brad

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David Rovicswrote a song about his life and death, titled 'Brad'.

See also

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References

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  1. ^"NYC Indymedia volunteer Brad Will killed in an attack by paramilitaries in Oaxaca".Indymedia.October 28, 2006. Archived fromthe originalon April 29, 2018.RetrievedOctober 28,2006.
  2. ^The Will Family (October 31, 2006)."Family's Response".Indymedia, New York City. Archived fromthe originalon March 3, 2016.RetrievedNovember 2,2006.
  3. ^abSharlet, Jeff (January 24, 2008)."Anarchist Superstar: The Revolutionary Who Filmed His Own Murder".Rolling Stone.No. 1044.Archivedfrom the original on July 15, 2018.RetrievedJanuary 19,2008.
  4. ^"Brad Will In His Own Words".Democracy Now!.October 30, 2006.Archivedfrom the original on March 6, 2008.RetrievedMarch 4,2008.
  5. ^"Mexico Police Occupy Oaxaca City Center, Aguilar Says (Update3)".Bloomberg. October 30, 2006.Archivedfrom the original on September 30, 2007.RetrievedMarch 5,2017.
  6. ^"CCIODH: 26, not 23, have died in the social conflict in Oaxaca".La Jornada. March 25, 2007.Archivedfrom the original on October 10, 2013.RetrievedJune 27,2014.
  7. ^AFP (June 20, 2016)."Miles de maestros marchan tras 'masacre' en Oaxaca".El Economista.Archivedfrom the original on July 22, 2018.RetrievedJuly 22,2018.Una de las víctimas fue el camarógrafo estadounidense Brad Will, ultimado cuando cubría una manifestación y cuyo caso fue catalogado como una "ejecución extrajudicial" por una comisión de la verdad, que denunció también actos de tortura y desapariciones forzadas a manos de autoridades y policías.
  8. ^"CPJ calls for federal probe into killing of U.S. journalist in Mexico".Committee to Protect Journalists.October 30, 2006.Archivedfrom the original on June 4, 2007.RetrievedNovember 3,2006.
  9. ^Grillo, Ioan (November 5, 2006)."Thousands Demonstrate in Mexican City".The Associated Press.Archived fromthe originalon October 13, 2006.RetrievedNovember 6,2006.
  10. ^Brunswick, Deborah (October 30, 2006)."12 arrested outside Mexican Consulate".CNN.Archivedfrom the original on March 19, 2007.RetrievedNovember 1,2006.
  11. ^Ferguson, Sarah (October 30, 2006)."Activists Shut Down Mexican Consulate".Village Voiceblog. Archived fromthe originalon November 12, 2006.
  12. ^Simon, Joel (October 30, 2006)."CPJ calls for federal probe into killing of U.S. journalist in Mexico".Committee to Protect Journalists.Archivedfrom the original on June 4, 2007.RetrievedNovember 3,2006.
  13. ^abcAnderson, Lincoln. "Brad Will gets a loving, raucous, anarchist sendoffArchived2021-11-12 at theWayback Machine",The Villager,November 15–21, 2006.

Further reading

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Wikimedia Commons has media related toBrad Will.

Video

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