police state

RNC 8 Charged with "Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism"

coyote — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 17:50:20 -0700

In what appears to be the first use of criminal charges under the 2002 Minnesota version of the Federal Patriot Act, Ramsey County Prosecutors have formally charged 8 alleged leaders of the RNC Welcoming Committee with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism. Monica Bicking, Eryn Trimmer, Luce Guillen Givins, Erik Oseland, Nathanael Secor, Robert Czernik, Garrett Fitzgerald, and Max Spector, face up to 7 1/2 years in prison under the terrorism enhancement charge which allows for a 50% increase in the maximum penalty.

Affidavits released by law enforcement which were filed in support of the search warrants used in raids over the weekend, and used to support probable cause for the arrest warrants, are based on paid, confidential informants who infiltrated the RNCWC on behalf of law enforcement. They allege that members of the group sought to kidnap delegates to the RNC, assault police officers with firebombs and explosives, and sabotage airports in St. Paul. Evidence released to date does not corroborate these allegations with physical evidence or provide any other evidence for these allegations than the claims of the informants. Based on past abuses of such informants by law enforcement, the National Lawyers Guild is concerned that such police informants have incentives to lie and exaggerate threats of violence and to also act as provacateurs in raising and urging support for acts of violence.

Twin Cities repression before Republican congame

coyote — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:15:53 -0700

Submitted by Twin Cities Indymedia on Sat, 08/30/2008

UPDATE 8:52 AM: 3500 Harriet Avenue MPLS has just been raided by police according to a reliable source.

We are receiving credible reports (just confirmed again) that a house helping with food (Food Not Bombs) has been raided by the police, and possibly another house as well. NLG attorneys are on the way to these houses, and we have heard that the police are using the same search warrants as they did last night.

There will be a press conference @ Harriet Island at 10 A.M. by the flagpole. We have received a report that anti-police brutality activists had their garage broken into:
Last night, CUAPB president Michelle Gross and CUABP vice president Darryl Robinson were among many people detained during the convergence space raid. Upon returning home after the raid, they found their garage and Darryl's car had been broken into. Nothing of value was taken but boxes of documents were clearly opened and gone through and many items were moved around. The activists believe strongly this invasion of their privacy is a direct result of their work and that it was probable that it occurred while they were at the convergence space.

Despite this action and their detention at the convergence space, both activists remain committed to continuing their work through Communities United Against Police Brutality, including copwatch at events throughout the RNC.

We have also heard that the convergence space raid was carried out by the Ramsey County Sheriff's office, not the St. Paul police, and local City Council member Dave Thune was on the scene. Reportedly Thune said that the county had no authority to try to shut down the convergence center on the basis of a fire code violation.

Fresh video from the streets: Submedia Video has put together a new video - 7 minutes:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iSljIwGsFJI

Prison and Drug Economy Expert Catherine Austin Fitts on UhuruRadio.com

Sat, 19 Jul 2008 11:01:46 -0700

Listen live this Sunday, July 20th at 4pm EST on http://www.uhururadio.com

This week on Solidarity Not Charity Penny Hess will interview Catherine Austin Fitts, former Wall Street investment banker and Assistant Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under the administration of George Herbert Walker Bush.

Ms. Fitts talks about the enormous profits made by Wall Street and government officials through the multi-billion dollar prison and illegal drug economies at the expense of the African community. She exposes how mandatory minimum and three strikes laws used to lock up young black men boost stock prices for Wall Street firms invested in the prison and drug economy, and how these same Wall Street banks are currently being bailed out by the U.S. government after fleecing black people in the sub-prime scam.

http://www.uhurunews.com/radio

POORER AMERICANS NEED WORLD'S COURT HELP !

Mon, 16 Jun 2008 18:36:21 -0700

POORER AMERICANS NEED WORLD'S COURT HELP !

by Douglas Field | 06.16.2008

WHEN THE WORLD'S INTERNATIUONAL COMMUNITY LEARNED THE TRUTH !

I hate to say it, but I do believe that this injustice that our US judicial system has been inflicting on the tens of thousands of our Middle Class and Working Poor Amercans (who are the least educated US prison inmates) with prolonged incarceration, is a very realistic human rights violation if not a crime against humanity issue.

The International World Court and United Nations should be investigating why only wealthy Americans are able to receive federal retrials using proper legal representation and US poorer prison inmates are forced to be their own best lawyers from prison and failing in mass at their opportunities for federal retrial reviews.

Our judicial system just recently released 360 men who spent 25 to 40 years being incarcerated for rapes they never committed! Had these judicial victims been given appeal attorneys for their federal appeal reviews, just maybe they might have been given retrials and not have had to wait until DNA evidence exonerated them decades later.

Until our judicial system becomes so perfected to always accurately charge and convict the right individuals with crimes,we all have to stay focused on preserving every legal opportunity for the truly innocent to be able to rise up and out of our cold hearted prison system that treats everyone in their grasp as guilty equals.

ELITE CONGRESS HAS GED LAWYERS WHO NEVER LEAVE US PRISONS !

Thu, 12 Jun 2008 15:04:41 -0700

WHEN GOD'S FACE TURNED RED !!!

It appears that the US Supreme Court way back in 1984 knew the injustice of our federal appeal retrial review process really only being available for affluent Americans to get benefit from.

The masses of poor and mostly uneducated prison inmates who are being forced to write their own federal appeal legal cases, are being denied new trials by the federal courts in mass all across this country everyday.

Some believe this injustice stems way back in our history to pre Civil War era when the US Southern States were railroading blacks into prolonged prison sentences and knowing all along that the Federal Courts would never grant these poor black prison inmates new trials because they never could properly write their own federal appeal legal cases.

The real horror here is that this form of injustice is even in 2008 assisting in the prolonged false incarceration of over 100,000 innocent mostly uneducated American prison inmates nation-wide.

We all know the federal appeal retrial process was designed for all Americans as a fail safe device that every American should be entitled to utilize, but it is quite obvious that our government has allowed this appeal process to slip into a completely new facade in which it has become an exclusive opportunity for only rich Americans to be able to properly benefit from.

Daniel McGowan Transferred - Threat of Madison Grand Jury

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 20:23:12 -0700

PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY

It's 10 pm on the east coast and a few hours ago we finally heard from Daniel. He called from the Columbia County Jail in Portage, Wisconsin. Daniel was woken up at 4 am and on a plane en route from Oklahoma City to Chicago by 6 am. Daniel and his supporters presumed he was going to Marion, Illinois, but once he landed in Chicago, he was put in a van and driven to Madison, Wisconsin. From there he was driven to Portage. Along the way, Daniel asked if he was being transferred based on facing new charges, and the marshal flatly told him no. Daniel then asked if he was facing a Grand Jury subpoena. The marshal would not come right out and say yes, but he hinted at it and at one point said, "good guess."

If Daniel is called before a grand jury, he will not testify and is concerned about being held in civil contempt and imprisoned at the Columbia County Jail, where the time he serves will not count against his 7 year sentence.

At this point, neither Daniel nor his attorney have received a subpoena or any other paperwork to indicate that he will be appearing before a grand jury, but it's what he is preparing for and what folks would be best served to see as a possibility.

Over the past month, Daniel has been in transfer. And while the time he has served thus far has been without incident and even though he received a good team review before being yanked from FCI Sandstone, he tells us that he has been put in Segregated Housing Units ("The Hole") and treated differently for the duration of this transfer, all due to the application of the "Terrorism Enhancement."

Free the Cuban Five!

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:45:20 -0700

Attorney Leonard Weinglass:

"There are 40 pages of ideological prejudice in the
new ruling from Atlanta"

ARLEEN RODRIGUEZ DERIVET

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta upheld Wednesday the guilty verdicts of the Cuban Five, prisoners in the United States since 1998. It also vacated the sentences of three of the men, ordering a new sentencing in Miami. The sentences of Rene Gonzalez (15 years) and Gerardo Hernandez (two life terms plus 15 years) were maintained. In the case of Hernandez, the panel voted 2-1. A 16-page [minority] opinion of Judge Phyllis Kravitch states that the government did not present sufficient evidence to prove Gerardo's guilt in the charge of conspiracy to commit murder.

The cases of Ramon Labanino (life sentence plus 18 years), Fernando Gonzalez (19 years) and Antonio Guerrero (life sentence plus 10 years) were sent to the Florida Court for re-sentencing. It will be Judge Joan Lenard who will announce a hearing to issue the new sentencing. Lenard was the presiding judge who, in 2001, issued the harsh sentences to the Cuban Five. The 99-page ruling of the Appeals Court of Atlanta, which explicitly favors the government position, was drafted in a politically charged language unusual for legal texts. It states that the defense arguments in their appeal "are meritless."

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5th Anniversary of "Mission Accomplished" in Iraq

Fri, 02 May 2008 12:58:24 -0700
Happy 5th Anniversary, America! May 1, 2008 was the 5th anniversary of the day President George Walker Bush, televised from a U.S. Battleship, told the American people that we have completed our mission in Iraq. Five years later there is one thing we do know for sure. We are still stuck in Iraq and will be for an undetermined length of time. Since that time another almost 2,000 Americans and Iraqis have died in Iraq. Many deaths were the "innocents" whose only fault was in living too close among the terrorist fighting population. In addition, the U.S. economy has slipped and fallen into a deep foul-smelling bog, which seemingly is inescapable for most citizens. We have watched as our leaders continued to cut taxes for the wealthy and increase an astronomical war debt in the middle east. The American dollar has plummeted in value, while silver, gold and platinum have skyrocketed. During the past 8 years those wealthy individuals and corporate hierarchy close to the Bush administration have raked-in huge profits, but the financial straits of most citizens have dissolved into less earnings and ever-escalating costs of living expenses with increased debt. Home foreclosures are at a record high in the U.S. Unbelievably, the president still wants congress to turn-over BILLIONS more for the Iraq/Afghanistan wars and more BILLIONS to fight hunger around the world. What's wrong with spending BILLIONS here in American first? This is the legacy of the Bush administration. The last time Americans were that "strung-out" was 39 years ago.
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“50 Shots Equals Murder!” Sean Bell Supporters Take It to the Streets on Friday

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:47:01 -0700

Chanting “50 shots equals murder!” a crowd of about 800 demonstrators marched through several Queens neighborhoods Friday evening denouncing the acquittal of three police officers implicated in the shooting death of Sean Bell.

The march began near the Queens Criminal Court building where Judge Arthur Cooperman issued his verdict Friday morning and wound its way to the site of the Kalua Cabaret where Bell, 23, was killed and two of his friends severely wounded in a barrage of police gunfire in the early morning hours of Nov. 25, 2006. All three of the men were unarmed.

Before the march began, anti-police brutality activists and several family members of people slain by the NYPD spoke to the crowd which gathered in a grove of trees off to the side of the court building.

“Today coming over brought back all the pain of when they killed my son and my nephew,” said Margarita Rosario, who lost her son Anthony and nephew Hilton Vega in 1995 when they shot by a NYPD detective while lying face down on the floor. “I can’t imagine how the Bell family feels today—it’s like burying your son all over again.”

“I feel pain on top of pain,” said Nicholas Heyward Sr, whose 13-year-old son was killed by the NYPD in 1994. “I’ve been doing peaceful protests for 14 years and all they do is go on killing us back-to-back.”

“We have once again seen how the justice system is showing it has no respect for our communities,” said Juanita Young, whose son Malcolm Ferguson was killed by police in 2000.

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VIDEO: A19 Mumia Demo: "Life in Prison is a Slow Death Sentence"

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 22:46:41 -0700
VIDEO: A19 Philly Mumia Demo, featuring Veronica Jones
by Hans Bennett, Abu-Jamal-News.com

WATCH VIDEO

Outraged by the March 27 denial of a new guilt-phase trial for Mumia, 500-1,000 people gathered at the Federal Courthouse, circled the Liberty Bell, and marched to City Hall, where speakers included Cynthia McKinney, Julia Wright, and Harold Wilson. VIEW the PHOTOS and VIDEO, featuring an exclusive interview with Veronica Jones about her new book (also watch video of March 31 press conference).

The Journalists for Mumia newspaper (see PDF) was released on April 19, and over 2,600 copies were passed out. Donations are needed.

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