CONVICTED! The March 26, 2017 arrests of socialist marchers finally came to trial last Friday. We were all found GUILTY! OF MARCHING! YES! Because that’s a crime in Colorado Springs. It's disguised as a misdemeanor offense called “Obstruction.” On the other hand, all four defendants were acquitted of the more serious charge of Failure to Desist or Disperse, of which we were equally culpable, if you consider the police dispersal order lawful. While a complete not-guilty verdict would have been more comforting, and of course just, the silver lining is that we can now appeal this decision to a higher court. Appeal Next time round, the judge’s prejudice, the prosecution's dishonesty, the police misconduct, and the impropriety of applying an obstruction ordinance to curb protest, can be reviewed by adjudicators with more authority, whose decision can set legal precedence. Though appealing to higher wisdom in Trump's America has become a crapshoot. The kangaroo aspect of municipal courts does get tiresome. Our railroading was well oiled so our court scheduled only one day of trial. Six to ten officer testimonies, plus ours, plus the various surveillance and body-cam videos, seemed sure to expend more than a day. We played along, hoping to spare the charade no more time than it deserved. We were also confident a jury could not fail to see through the preponderance of bullshit. Ours seemed a sympathetic jury with smiles and eye contact. They rolled their eyes at the police overreach. We sympathized with their having to upend their schedules to listen to the bullshit and so we wanted to hurry it along for their sake. We abbreviated our testimonies and our cross-examinations of the idiotic cops to spare the jury excess misery. At the same time we feared a contempt charge from the judge if our testimonies strayed into subjects the judge had forbidden us to mention to the jury. Like the Outrageous Governmental Misconduct. Censored topics The verdict should not have been a surprise. Earlier in the week the judge forbid defense attorneys from instructing the jury about the First Amendment. And so Friday’s jury had only to decide, were they out on the street or not? None of us disputed being in the street, which the prosecutors defined as obstructing traffic, therefore we were found guilty. Judge Kristen Hoffecker’s rationale for eliminating the standard First Amendment jury instruction, and prohibiting defense lawyers uttering the phrase “First Amendment Rights” was because prosecutors argued the charge of obstruction had nothing to do with free speech. But what charge does? If a law overtly infringes on free speech, it would be held unconstitutional. As a result, police and city prosecutors use tangential offenses to criminalize protesting. Obstruction is a local favorite. If police officers don't understand the First Amendment enough not to violate it, and city lawyers don't respect it enough to persist with prosecutions, and judges don't know enough to throw out abusive charges, are we really to expect common citizens sitting in the jury box to know where they're supposed to
Tag: Protest
Today kids are learning a valuabe civics lesson. Government won’t do anything for people, without a gun to its head.
OH THE IRONY. But Poe's Law probably governs in high schools too. For the same reason irony doesn't compute on social media: adolescent frontal lobes. I don't have much use for guns myself, but it's obvious to me that when the corporate media gets behind a public issue like gun control, it can't be in the people's interest. AT ALL. Since when have even Big Dems supported anything righteous? The news usually blacks out calls for social reform. Unless it's the common people you're asking to disempower, not corporate hegemony. Today the press is platforming the protests with live feeds and biographical highlights of the youthful petitioners. This is MANUFACTURED DISSENT. Nickelodeon suspended its television programming to accommodate, in essence, a protracted commercial break. A young person's choice to "walk out" from school today is not rebellion, it's conformity. To the astroturf. Get a load of the profiling of the Florida students, portrayed as movement organizers! Their role more resembles contestants for America's Got Talent: the Protest Edition. The #March14 school walkouts across the country only confirm the mendacious education our children are getting. Gee kids, when you graduate, to no job, no health care, no environmental protections, no economic rights, maybe even no home, AND a leveled playing field of NO PRIVILEGE for any of you, you kids are going to need guns.
Covertly spawned, color revolutionary, Arab Springy pro-democracy protests can do for Iran what we did to Syria.
When Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu express their support, you can be certain it's not for the good. Foreign military intervention in Iran aims to repeat the western demolition of Syria. While authentic public protest in Iran should be tolerated, western intelligence operatives should get no quarter. Terminate all covert actions in Iran, especially US-funded "democracy" agents. And NO WAR WITH IRAN.
D’ya think ANTIFA might be a trap?
By all means shout down the fascists. Shout down white supremicists. Bash the alt-right. Do it in black bloc, if you must (and yes we must). March on, against, and over, capitalism. Declare yourself anti-fascist. Express solidarity with ANTIFA protests and counterprotests across the country. I would rethink, however, opening an Antifa franchise without knowing who elsewhere can now act IN YOUR NAME. No one owns the ANTIFA brand. Like "black bloc", it's a tactic, not a movement. Except as this moment's zeitgeist, the brand has indeed become a movement. The imperative to repudiate emboldened Nazis lacks for neither urgency nor legitimacy. Antifa is horizontal like Occupy, no leaders. Its membership is fully self-nominated. Except where Occupy Wall Street offshoots offered local casts of characters, Antifa participants remain undercover. The problem becomes whose undercovers. I fully support confronting fascists. I might quibble about picking fights with inarticulate Nazi cosplayers. Our corporations, the media, and the police who protect both are the full grown, authoritarian fascists. I likewise support black bloc as an essential strategy for effective protest actions. I encourage picking fights with dogmatic nonviolence passivists who continuously thwart the potential of public demonstrations. I support Antifa as I do Earth First, as I do ELF, or ALF the Animal Liberation Front, or Hezbollah, Hamas, and the Intifada if you're begining to catch my drift. I stand with them without wearing a mask because my expression of support is my political right. I do not act as them, wearing a mask. Antifa may be serving the establishment just fine by diverting youthful rebellion from directing its energy at STATE fascism. It may be suiting populist urges just fine too by allowing discontents to vent our disgust against punchable twits instead of the impregnable powers that be. Ideally those inclined to resist fascism will catch on to who really needs the pounding. When that begins to happen however, some Antifa chapter (the media will call it a "cell") in Reseda or Des Moines or Stuyvesant is going to commit an outrage of domestic terrorism and the Antifa brand will be blown. It may be government black ops conducting a false flag, or three percenters shy of a full load hoping to ignite a race war, or misguided revolutionaries jumping the gun. It won't matter. "Antifa" will be declared a terrorist organization. Pardon the pun, that will be trump. And while we know Antifa is not an organization, intelligence records will have mapped out who were the ringleaders and daredevils of concern to national security. Authorities may or may not round up suspected co-conspirators and charge them with racketeering. That's not even my worry. Once discredited and forced underground, Antifa enthousiasts will recede into the woodwork. All the organizing, educating and networking will have come to naught. I anticipate that my thoughts here are not going to find favor with my many friends currently marching behind the Antifa banner. But I know a number of idiots among them too, and worse, suspected moles bent on disrupting productive
Police body cameras reveal Colorado Springs law enforcement used arrests to infiltrate a student socialist group.
COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO- Police body worn camera footage accidentally discovered to defendants in the March 26, 2017, protest cases, has revealed a mysterious side story at the Colorado Springs Socialists’ “March Against Imperialism”. At that march, six participants were cited for marching in the street. Meanwhile, a curious seventh was detained, driven off, but not cited. CSPD Officer Krueger’s body-cam recorded what happened and more. What happened at the March 26 rally, beside the police dispersing a fully legal assembly? This video documents that the CSPD tried to give deeper cover to a team of El Paso County Sheriff’s plainclothes operatives, by giving one of them the credibility of an arrest. In truth, it worked for three weeks and several socialist actions, until the undercover team spooked everyone with their excessively sketchy zeal. As the March 26 evidence was released to defendants, the contradictory police reports began to accrue. Then a file labeled KRUEGER BODY-CAM emerged. 1. Krueger-cam The first thing you see is the twenty or so protesters, clad in black, waving red flags, rallying on the steps of Colorado Springs City Hall. Speakers are railing against capitalism and imperialism. CSPD Officer Krueger comes upon this scene, among the reinforcements called, because fourteen of the protesters, mostly masked, were observed to have marched on the street. (Marchers had followed Nevada to Bijou to Tejon to Colorado back to Nevada, trailed by the cruisers of CSPD Officers Mark Keller and Roberto Williamson. Returning to City Hall, participants were told by CSPD Sergeant Clayton Blackwell that they could protest on the sidewalk but would be ticketed if they stepped back into the street.) As the rally goes on, the officers hear that orders have changed and everyone is going to be ticketed. On camera, Officer Keller relates a possible motive: "LT wants everyone identified." (Most of the protesters are masked. Arrests will give police the pretext to register everyone's identity, whether the person walked in the street or not. By "LT", Keller may be refering to Lieutenant Webber, who dispatched officers to the scene, or Lieutenant Mark Comte, in charge of CSPD intelligence.) As officers discuss whether to rush the group or detain two or three protesters at a time, CSPD Sergeant Blackwell discloses to his men: “There’s two UCs in there, and they’ll just take a ticket like everybody else." Blackwell adds, jokingly: "So hopefully we don’t have to start spraying ‘cause I don’t know which ones they are.” Officer Keller tells Krueger and Canaan he thinks one of the protesters is concealing a knife. He fingers a masked protester wearing a Carhartt jacket. Though Krueger and his partner, CSPD Officer Dustin Canaan, were informed about undercovers, they don't know that they are being tasked with arresting one. Officers Krueger and Canaan are formally instructed that when the move is made to issue citations to the protesters, they are to apprehend "Carhartt". In fact, the first planned arrestee of March 26 is “Carhartt”. Aka the sheriff’s undercover. Officers encircle the rally as Sergeants Ingram and Blackwell
“On Saturday, your state will march for truth” says the invite. Hahaha SO true.
What's wrong with protests being mobilized to demand transparency and full investigations into government misconduct? At face value, this weekend's March For Truth seems like a perfectly earnest response, much like the March For Science sought to highlight public disdain for policies that deny scientific knowledge. Except the "truth" these organizers are trying to galvanize presumes to demonize Russia as perennial adversary and reboot the Cold War. This "truth" aims to differentiate itself from the "fake news" as the pot innoculates itself from Kettle Black. This is pro-war propaganda trying to pass as grassroots consensus, to out-truth the Truthers. The problem with Democrats steering grassroots protests is that they are the corporate war machine. The 2016 election transplanted the machine's figurehead with that of a DOOFUS. But Trump is too much dilettante berzerker for practical purposes. Now warmonger propagandists have to work extra hard to manufacture public consent. Weekend marches are being mobilized in every state, as they say, but indeed on Saturday the STATE is marching to trademark TRUTH, to march Americans off to war with Putin to continue to destabilize the Middle East. Real truth would lead a populace to peace, not war. This is a Democratic Party march for propaganda.
Colo. Springs police disperse March 26 anti-imperialism rally because it was easier than listening to socialists
COLORADO SPRINGS, CO- Local socialists assembled at City Hall on Sunday to "March Against Imperialism". After a brief march and an half-hour rally while encircled by CSPD, the socialists were informed they were "free to carry on with their assembly" but whoever lingered would be issued a citation for having been in the street. Making no distinction for who had and who hadn't, the police began handcuffing participants and the couple dozen others quickly dispersed. Five socialists were issued citations for "pedestrian in the highway" and "failure to disperse" while another was arrested and detained for failing to show an ID while filming the police. That person was taken to the downtown police station and held until officers finally informed her of the charges for which she was being cited, after which she identified herself. Throughout her detainment, multiple officers kept up a harassment of questions, refusing her requests that she contact her lawyer. CSPD never issued an order to disperse, a fact that is borne out by witness video. But in effect that is what the officers accomplished. They threatened the legal assembly with citations, for failure to disperse! It made a funny scene. Around thirty self-declared socialists, blockaded by eight sometimes more CSPD cruisers, in a standoff that lasted until the police lost their patience. Socialists spoke against imperialism, the police officers being their main audience that quiet Sunday downtown. Immediately as the march had ended the police had announced that anyone stepping back into the street would be arrested, and so no one did. But a half-hour of speeches proved too much for the officers to bear and so they interjected again, this time to discuss the problem they had with what had happened earlier. We told those officers they were of course free to discuss such matters individually with whoever they considered a person of interest, BUT AFTERWARD, because they were otherwise interrupting our legal assembly. But the officers persisted in their interruption, deciding after the fact what charges to bring, regardless that they'd forgotten to provide the evidence to back them up. "See you in court" they laughed! We've heard that before. On a serious note. What happened Sunday could have a chilling effect on the nascent kick-ass Colorado Springs Socialists. Unwarranted police attention is an unhappy tradition for socialist organizers, from anarchists to trade unions. Sunday’s denouement confirms all their parents’ worst worries, the folly of declaring yourself to be a socialist in a regressive backwater like Colorado Springs. People were arrested? Handcuffed?! Now you're on a police watch list! I remember my father's alarm when he learned his college sophmore had a subscription to Mother Jones Magazine. Fun as it was, Sunday's event was essentially uneventful: no altercations, no property damage, not even rhetoric to threaten infrastructure. Minus any media attention, or much of an audience at all on a sleepy Sunday evening, these socialists were determined to parade their dissent where and how those around could see, and reaped more law enforcement than the
Unpermitted signs at Denver Internat’l Airport. Kids get away with everything.
DIA, COLORADO- While we shuffled around the International Arrivals reception area trying to abide by the sign restrictions placed on our airport free speech permit, these children brazenly unfurled totally unvetted posters they'd prepared to welcome their daddy's return from Mexico.
Dear Trump: the arc of moral history does not bend toward your man-cave
Donald Trump's inauguration presents a timely opportunity to hammer at his crass misogyny. Slogan-wise, THE ARC OF HISTORY BENDS TOWARD EQUALITY gets my vote for spot-on feminist rejoinder. I also like HELL HATH NO FURY, YOU SORRY ILLITERATE! The latter has a better chance of becoming true. The women's march planned on Day One of Trump's presidency already confirms Shakespeare's adage. So what about MLK's truism, about the arc of the moral universe being long but bending towards justice? That's the consolation that keeps liberals from despairing as they encounter endless setbacks. Is it true? The inevitability of progress is inexcusibly Western-centric. If you measure your arc with indigenous cultures at the baseline, the moral universe trips at monotheism and never recovers. Measured from the customary Dawn of Civ, Trump's election as mankind's exemplar ideal, now leader of the free world, is surely the most abrupt signpost to the contrary. We're tracing the arc of a handbasket.
March on DC with your own protest message, not one dictated by NGOs. Yes, you’ll need a banner and poles.
Organizers of the post-inaugural WOMEN'S MARCH in Washington DC this weekend are telling participants not to bring poles for signs or flags, or even knapsacks. Ha ha ha. As you travel across the country to march, remember who's making the real sacrifice. The march coordinators are paid. You are spending the time and expense because you have something to express. Bring it. The only reason organizers want you unequipped is so your [rogue] message won't stray from theirs. Does that sound democratic? They also have a different goal than you. Their mission is to pull off a smooth event. Yours is to make history. As a veteran of countless protest marches, national, regional and international, I encourage newcomers to stick to their nonconformist inclinations. Independent critical thinking is what led you to take action in the first place. To begin, THIS IS YOUR MARCH. Washington DC belongs to you. Inauguration Day and its aftermath belong to you. Just because someone squats a Facebook event on a day conducive to public gathering doesn't give them dibs to call the shots. A stand-alone call to arms, such as MLK's Million Man March or CodePink's A Billion Rising, is another matter. Spontaneous uprisings against historic events are no one organization's to control or temper. Especially if they begin with capitulations to the state. Here's the usual pattern. After a FB event goes viral, nonprofit activist groups jump in to offer their expertise, resources and manpower. The nonprofits thus dominate the details and the event originators have little ground to object. Thrilled to see "their" event succeed, these new-to-the-spotlight activists don't know that street protest is anathema to nonprofits whose existential foundation is not to disrupt politics as usual. Falling into the trap of coordinating ineffective demonstrations is often blamed on newbie error, but in Washington DC, newbies making the newbie mistakes are employees of nonprofits seeded to pretend the event had a grassroots origin. What the NGOs are really doing is setting a prescribed burn, or backfire. Backfire: a fire set intentionally to arrest the progress of an approaching fire by creating a burned area in its path, thus depriving the fire of fuel. Bastards! Fortunately backfire has a further meaning, probably not unrelated to the sketchy forestry strategem. Backfire: rebound adversely on the originator; have the opposite effect to what was intended. Just as DC lobbyists monopolize your representatives, professional activists have staked out the capitol and squatted on what is the public's only access to speak to power. Accept their invitation to come to DC. Thank them for their legal support, their logistics and water bottles, but you'll handle your messaging thank you. NOTES FOR NEXT TIME (If you'd prefer not to dwell on criticism, please skip to the section on RULES. For me, these counterproductive "mistakes" set us back every time we give them a pass.) 1. Telling participants they can't bring stuff like food or chairs! The event's duration is being throttled to what can be endured between meals, without a pause for rest. Do you go to
North Dakota police are using grenades against Standing Rock DAPL protesters
STANDING ROCK, ND- Morton County sheriff deputies have admitted using STING GRENADES against the Standing Rock water protectors on Nov 22, which are suspected to have caused the serious injury which may result in 21-year-old activist Sophia Wilansky losing her arm. Protesters were fired on with rubber bullets, stun grenades, tear gas, pepper spray, and high pressure water cannons filled with chemical agents. Protesters were falling on the icy grass when deputies fired a sting-ball grenade into the group. Ms. Wilansky's elbow was struck which severed her artery and all nerves in her left arm. After denying responsibility for the many injuries they caused and accusing the protesters of attempting to detonate a propane cannister, the sheriffs department admitted to using “Stinger Bombs”, more exactly, the Sting-Ball grenade, described in police manuals as “an explosive anti-riot device which hurtles a large number of small "stinging" rubber balls at rioters when ignited. May or may not contain riot control agents. Also known as stingball or stinger grenade.” Rubber bullets can be aimed away from eyes and faces, though an explosive which propels rubber pellets cannot. Any pretense that deputies are avoiding injuring the public is betrayed by the fact that they are aiming their bullets at the faces, groins and kneecaps of protesters. Though media reports state that police are "throwing" these projectiles, witnesses claim all of these are in fact being FIRED on them with launch weapons. Witnesses also report that the stun grenades being against them have their ventilation holes covered with duct-tape. It's presumed that the tape causes the grenades to explode with greater pressure.
Enbridge Dakota Access Pipeline and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers stopped by who else but Standing Rock Sioux
Native American activists have been converging in North Dakota to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline which is encroaching without permission on tribal lands. They've delayed construction though the industry already secured an injunction against them. Their main complaint is that it threatens their water. Fittingly the first step authorities took against the growing protest was to take their water. Purportedly because some campers were allegedly endangering corporate surveillance planes with laser pointers.
Where to protest the 2016 Philly DNC
PHILADELPHIA, PA- Depending on what you’re here to accomplish at the 2016 Democratic National Convention, pro-Bernie, anti-war, reformist, or disruption, here’s our shortlist of the event sites according to theme. 1. WELLS FARGO CENTER- Main site of DNC, for delegates only, surrounded by four miles of 8ft tall modular steel crowd control barriers. 2. CITY HALL- Most rallies and demonstrations are scheduled to converge here before a 4-mile march to DNC site. 3. INDEPENDENCE HALL- Sunday’s “Clean Energy” march ended here. Its lawn of is the backdrop for MSNBC live convention coverage and was the 2011 site of Occupy Philly. 4. CLINTONVILLE- Located 8 miles due North of DNC at America & Somerset, “Clintonville” is an urban campsite for the people’s movement, economic justice issues, and Green Party candidate Jill Stein. 5. MARCONI PLAZA- Less than a half mile from the DNC, Marconi Plaza is an ideal launching point to rally demonstrators against the DNC. Shade is sparse but this plaza appears to be the daily epicenter for Bernie Sanders supporters. 6. F.D.R. PARK- This park is immediately adjacent to the DNC and at the last minute was made available for overnight protest camping. There is ample shade but the many trees will prevent large centralized assemblies. It’s the place to be Monday afternoon and evening.
Police State Appreciation Day protested for obvious reasons #BlueLivesMurder
DENVER, COLORADO- The July 17 Law Enforcement Appreciation Day festivities could barely be heard above the din of bullhorns blasting Denver police for being the second most murderous in the nation. TV reporters hoped to record Occupy Denver's enthousiasm for that morning's killing of three police officers in Baton Rouge by disturbed Marine Corps veteran Gavin Long. Law enforcement claimed to be investigating what drew the Micah Johnson second act to Baton Rouge, though their public execution of African American Alton Sterling might be the place to start. Denver attendees didn't have a clue why ordinary citizens would want to be so disrespectful of their relatives in blue. Blue lives matter, they shouted. Yeah? Blue Lives Murder was the response.
Trump not welcome in Denver July 1st
The Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse Plaza protest timeline (July 2015 – present)
UPDATED: This is a timeline of the legal battle which began in July 2015 over activists's right to protest in the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse Plaza. It explains why activists with Occupy Denver did not believe they were being given lawful orders when commanded to stop and why activists still believe the DPD were wrong to make their arrests. The city's charges of "encumbrance" and "obstruction" appeared calculated to circumvent a federal injunction protecting the public's First Amendment rights. July 27, 2015 Mark Iannicelli and Eric Brandt distribute jury nullification literature at Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse (LFC) plaza. Mark Iannicelli is arrested and jailed for two days, charged with seven felony counts of jury tampering. #15CR03981 (charges dismissed 12/16 by Judge Plotz). Aug 7 Warrant is issued for arrest of Eric Brandt for same incident, same charges. Eric Brandt is arrested and jailed #15CR04212 (charges dismissed 12/16). Aug 14 Colorado 2nd Judicial District Chief Judge Michael A. Martinez issues order CJO-1 barring protest, including structures, in LFC plaza. (The Chief Judge later explained that his motivation was to preempt racial unrest on occasion of potential death sentence being given to African American Dexter Lewis, so soon after Aurora Theater Shooter James Holmes, who is white, had been spared the death penalty.) Aug 17 Through attorney David Lane of Kilmer, Lane & Newman, plaintiffs Eric Verlo, Janet Matzen & Fully Informed Jury Association file complaint for federal injunction protection against continued arrest of jury nullification pamphleteers in LFC plaza Aug 19 Having become apprized of CJO-1 posted at courthouse, Verlo et al file amended complaint to include a challenge of the “plaza order”. US District Court Judge William J. Martinez grants an injunction hearing for August 21. Aug 21 1. An AMENDED CJO-1 is posted to courthouse entrance. Colorado Chief Judge Martinez amends PLAZA ORDER prohibitions to apply only to “highlighted area”, not entire plaza. 2. US Judge Martinez hears oral arguments on federal injunction. LFC plaza is stipulated to be not just a “designated” free speech zone but a “traditional” free speech zone. Aug 25 US District Judge William Martinez grants preliminary injunction, strikes first paragraph from amended plaza order. He rules the prohibitions in the highlighted area cannot limit non-amplified speech, the accosting of passersby, or the distribution of literature. Aug 26 FOUR ARRESTS 8am: New REDACTED amended CJO-1 [Plaza Order] is posted on glass door of Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse. Occupy Denver activists initiate an all-day protest to distribute FIJA fliers. 10am: Protesters erect a popup canopy which is immediately confiscated by DPD citing activist lack of permit. Other materials confiscated include table, chairs, drums, banners, signs and jury nullification brochures. However there are no arrests or citations. 1pm: City Attorney Wendy Shea agrees to have DPD return confiscated property. DPD equivocates (for two days), citing lack of a specific person to whom property should be released. 3pm: Plaintiffs Verlo et al file motion to hold DPD in contempt of federal injunction for the confiscations. (DPD was later found not to be
Denver charges against plaza occupier so bogus even court recorder objected.
DENVER, COLORADO- Denver County Court Judge Beth Faragher says she's never seen such a thing happen. Her courtroom audio recording device STOPPED RECORDING, at mid day, but it didn't let on, and it was hours before somebody noticed. It was the defendant who noticed the machine's erratic digital readout. An emergency IT specialist was sent to the courtroom. He confirmed that none of the trial had been recorded. The options were to repeat the testimony or declare a mistrial. Eric Brandt is accused of interfering with the arrest of two fellow protesters who were being apprehended for felony menacy and assault on September 24, during the occupy encampment of the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse Plaza last year. Judge Faragher has never seen such an electronic malfunction, but she probably can't say the same for prosecutorial frame-ups. Denver's machinations are so obvious and they're not backing down from an arrest they engineered. Will the Denver goons be smart enough to pull it off? They can't even fool their own RECORDING DEVICE. Unfortunately the human components of Denver's injustice team are yet showing no embarassment for being party to this sham. Here's how the city schemers are failing so far: The trial today began with a defense motion to declare a mistrial, based on a DPD officer testifying that the plaza occupiers had a history of necessitating large police turnouts, implying protesters were violent where there was no record to support the inference. With the recording mishap, Judge Faragher has indicated she cannot but grant a mistrial if the defense motions for it. However Brandt and his attorney Sherry Deatch may not. Why? Because the prosecutors have not even finished with their first witness and he's already destroyed the city's case. Why start from scratch when the cat's already out of the bag? The city asserts that police were already on the scene, behind it actually, investigating a potential drug violation in progress on the plaza when they witnessed an altercation which necessitated their intervention. A lone visitor woke the sleeping protesters and they in turn ganged up on him. Though the police were outnumbered, they struggled to arrest two assailants and Eric "Fuck Cops" Brandt got in their way, vilating a Denver ordinance that forbids interfering with police. The trouble is, the city's first witness, arresting officer Sgt. Connover, testified to much more, and his cross-examination is not even complete. Already Connover described how officers were visiting the courthouse "control room" in the middle of the night, 2:30am, to study video evidence of illegal narcotics use. Lo and behold, a rukus errupts as campers wake to expel an intruder caught pilfering from people's bags. Officer Conniver reported that officers eavesdropped on the live audio of the plaza being monitored by the security staff. They heard the activists confront the intruder about the thefts, ask for the return of their things and insist that the intruder leave. He would not leave and several attempts were made to drag him away, or to dissuade him from staying.
Denver homeless kids are reclaiming their RIGHT to SIT on 16th Street Mall
DENVER, COLORADO- Denver street kids are standing up against DPD harrassment, SITTING DOWN. It isn't orchestrated, it's barely organized, a CBS affiliate covered the first arrests, but since last Wednesday, these homeless activists have been defying riot cops and orders to disperse, suffering several citations and arrests every day. As of Tuesday AM, two arrestees remain jailed, one of them bonded with a condition of area restriction preventing him from rejoining the protest.
Third Guy Fawkes Day case dismissed as Denver continues to arrest marchers
DENVER, COLO.- Last night Denver police mobbed a demonstration protesting the officer-involved execution of unarmed suspect Dion Avila Damon in front of his wife and child. At the end of Tuesday's march, Robin Hamm and Nathan Stickel were arrested for obstruction, failure to obey, and destruction of private property. They were still in custody when fellow activist, Joaquin dela Torre-McNeil, arrested at an identically uneventful march last November, showed up for his court date today only to hear the city motion to dismiss his case. Joaquin was charged with interference and resisting arrest, both accusations without merit. This morning the city admitted as much. This marks the third of nine arrests made November 5, 2015 which have been dismissed. Peter Lewis, 31, was snagged as an obstructee, then detained on a possessions charge until all charges were dropped November 20. Brandon Deaton, 24, was charged with obstruction. He was represented by attorney Frank Ingham and his case was dismissed March 23. Joaquin's dismissal bodes well for the remaining six cases, which are equally unfounded. Four are charged with interference and obstruction, plus the odd sundry misdemeanor: David Croisant, 29, is represented by attorney Birk Baumgardner; Selayna Bechtold, 19, is represented by Venkatesh Iyer; Mark Iannicelli, 58, is represented by Katayoun Donnelly; and Justin Berding, 25, is represented by Cheri Deatsch. Two are charged with felonies: Damian Stasek, 25, represented by attorney Lon Heymann; and Jake Pauly, 25. Both are charged with assault of a peace officer, which happens whenever physical contact is not initiated by the police, although in both cases this was a technicality. Bumping into police officers is going to happen if they get in your way, especially when they have no right to get in your way, given that your first amendment right was the reason they were supposed to stay out of your way. If there's no obstruction, there's no interference, and your collision with their obstruction of your civil liberties is not assault. The November 5th march was uneventful except for the arrests. There was neither property damaged, traffic impeded, nor lives endangered. The police acted purely to intimidate and squelch protest. They succeeded but now the courts are not supporting their actions. As charges fall, the accusations lose veracity. Certainly the crowd's anger at their demonstration being curtailed with such heavy-handedness is being shown to having been legitimate. You can't arrest people for objecting to your unlawful conduct. But DPD hasn't been taught that lesson yet. Last night's march for DPD victim Dion Avila Damon was equally harmless. Arrests were made for the usual show of force. Two activists remain in custody. The bureaucratic delay is now excused as a 24-hour processing requirement for fingerprints to clear the system. Only then will bonds be calculated and allowed to be posted. Detainees will then wait a minimum of five further hours to be released. When last night's charges are dismissed, Denver will have to account for two more wrongful imprisonment cases.
U.S. protest photo of the millennium: post 9/11 Neodemocracy in American
MEDIA BLACKOUT ON 400+ ARRESTS AT WASHINGTON DC #DEMOCRACYSPRING --You don't have to be there to support the work of these activists. You can help by making others aware of their action. Add your voice and share. They are standing up for us. It's time we stand with them and spread the word of their action.
The History of Violent Protest in Colorado Springs, in a Nutshell.
GET THIS. I heard a reverend-person yesterday lecturing newish activists about their need for nonviolence training, which she was volunteering to lead. She was also offering rubber wristbands for her graduates to wear at demonstrations, so that police could differentiate between protesters. She told us she'd ask officers to scrutinize those not wearing bands as being the potential troublemakers. This, she assured everyone, would make it more difficult for outside groups to waylay the action. I kid you not. And she's a church leader praised locally as something of an activist! HA! That's a RAT! I recognized the Springs "outsider" buggaboo so I thought I'd relate where it came from in a little piece I'll call The History of Violent Protest in Colorado Springs. Ready? It won't take long. So what violence have I seen in my fairly full-time participation over a dozen years, multiple wars and as many elections? ZERO. That's right. I've seen a lot of brutal handling by police, but by the hands of protesters? Nothing. Yep. The History of Violent Protest in Colorado Springs. The End. For as much as local church leaders harp on nonviolence training, which includes, by the way, nonviolence bounderies that forbid even confrontational speech, you'd think they'd seen a need for it. They haven't. For EVERY preacher and or disciple regurgitating nonviolence edicts, I've never seen ONE counterpart advocate for, nor commit, violence. It's almost a laugh, if the practice wasn't so damaging to public demonstrations. Colorado Springs street protests have been defanged to nothing, police needn't bother to show up and they don't. As a result, neither do protesters. And it isn't just that nonviolence dogma declaws the public beast. Religifying activism alienates intellectuals and atheists who woud prefer not to suffer the foolish god-justified claptrap. Monotheism is the engine which has always perpetuated privilege, enslavement, colonization and capitalism. Wtf. Not satisfied to deputize citizens with the equivalent of TSA pre-boarding approval, clergy want to deprive their charges of the element of surprise. The Springs antiwar community keeps direct contact with law enforcement. I'm guessing protestations, if any, are now simply phoned in. I JUST WANT TO PUNCH these nonviolence religion freaks for mutilating the impetus of budding activists. A newcomer's anger is what drew them to protest in the first place. Of course as ministers that is their function. Social injustice is job security to church employees. They are about as likely to remedy inequity as the Pope. Sermons aim to temper their sheep's natural anger at injustice. But enough about those assholes. No matter the issue, antiwar, the environment, racism, homelessness, in Colorado Springs I've seen absolutely no public demonstration escalate to violence. Why then the ready queue of spiritual nuts so eager to innoculate every next wave of concerned citizen before they can even take to the street? It goes back to something that happened at an antiwar demonstration in 2003, although the lesson being drawn is not based on what really happened. That's the bugaboo. Palmer Park, 2003 In 2003 George W. Bush was about
Monk Brown set up a tent on the plaza. It took a SWAT team to take it down. Now a Denver jury took them down.
DENVER, COLORADO- Homeless Adrian "Monk" Brown was accused of "obstruction" for sitting in a protest tent last August 26th on the plaza of the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse. Monk was also charged with "interference" with the riot police sent to evict him. A subsequent charge of "failure to obey" was added by prosecutors pressuring Monk to take a plea. After a two day trial which ended Wednesday, a Denver County jury found Monk Brown NOT GUILTY of either obstruction or failure to obey. Owing maybe to a crime scene video that highlighted the brutal irreverance shown by protesters toward DPD officers, the jury did convict Monk of interference. Except now it wasn't a crime scene. Monk's attorney Melissa Trollinger Annis is challenging the inconsistent verdict because it's unlikely interference will stick without the police having a cause for arrest. Monk wasn't obstructing. This verdict marks the second time Monk has beaten the obstruction charge. The first was November 17 when Monk was acquitted of erecting a tent in the plaza on August 28, two days after the recent case. Monk put up that tent the moment he got out of jail for his August 26 arrest. He was fully acquitted in that case. Monk's subsequent arrests in the plaza on September 18 and September 24 were dismissed and dropped, respectively. Monk's arrests numbered among the 19 arrests and two citations issued against the plaza demonstrators during a full time Occupy Denver protest which ran from August 26 to October 21, 2015, when DPD effected a final eviction and activist resources became terminally waterlogged. Just as the activists have now become tied up in court, Denver police headquarters are now overburdened with a hoard of tents, tarps, chairs, umbrellas, banners, and drums which must be kept in evidence. The plaza protest was launched after the arrest of Mark Iannicelli and Eric Brandt for distributing jury nullification fliers at the Lindsey Flanigan Courthouse. Activists with Occupy Denver won a federal court injunction to prevent such further arrests. With an ongoing legal battle stipulating the plaza as not just a traditional free speech zone, but a designated free speech zone, the city's backdoor methods of restricting First Amendment Rights could be isolated and exposed. For too long, the city of Denver has been able to curb free speech through backdoor charges: Obstruction, disturbing the peace, jaywalking, and TRESPASS. Activists are even charged with resisting arrest, when subjects are actively objecting to their unlawful arrest. The days of halting political demonstrations by having riot cops enforce city ordinances such as obstruction may be drawing to a close.
December 19 the Billion People March
http://www.billionpeoplemarch.org/ Denver https://www.facebook.com/events/1630747410519445/ New York FB http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2765?affiliate=1000019 LA Macarthur Park http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2775 Minneapois http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2767 Vancouver FB http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2768 Buenos Ayres http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2773 Oslo FB http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2781 Istanbul, Taksim Square FB http://unify.org/peacemap/web/events/2771
Motion hearing for 4/29 protest arrest brings out affinity of cops and judges.
DENVER, COLORADO- A local activist flipped off a municipal court judge. Yes, it's not done, but the consequence was more severe than even the judge intended. She was attending a motions hearing of a fellow protester accused of disobeying a cop. During DPD testimony an officer was narrating a surveillance video which the audience was unabe to see. She tried to shift seats but was told to sit down. After two admonishments, she complied in silence but made a disrespectful gesture where she sat behind the flat screen monitor, where she thought the judge wouldn't see. But a clerk did see the gesture and told the judge. Judge Nicole Rodarte, no friend of political activists and facing a roomful of them, immediately had her held in contempt of court for the remainder of the hearing. Contrary to instructions, the unnamed activist was taken across to the jail to serve a sentence of ten days. We're not sure yet who was complicit with the mixup. Here's what happened: It was a hearing no Denver street activist wanted to miss. Habitual free-speech offender Jesse Benn is accused of disobeying a lawful order, being on the street, failure to disperse, etc, etc, at the April 29 march solidarity march for the people of Baltimore upset about the in-custody murder of Freddy Gray. Jesse's jury trial will follow shortly. At this motions hearing, the unpopular motorcycle cop Michael Rispoli was testifying as to the evidence against Jesse. Officer Rispoli is uniformly reviled for his tendency to ram his motorcycle into peaceful marchers. At the April 29 march, Rispoli dropped his motorcycle, feigning having been pushed by bicyclist Michael Moore. A SWAT crew piled on Moore, protesters rushed to his defense, this precipitated more arrests and prompted the police to pepperspray the crowd which included a number of small children. Justified by the attack on Officer Rispoli. Jesse Benn recorded the video which proved Rispoli's lie. All charges were dropped against Moore, but the rest of the arrestees are being prosecuted, including Benn. Rispoli by the way has been reassigned to DIA. After six years on the downtown motorcycle crew, monitoring and herding political demonstrations, he's been demoted to the airport. So at this hearing Bad Cop Rispoli was proudly testifying about the crowd-control techniques of the motorcycle unit. Very, very informative. At one point the prosecution played a police surveilance video so that Rispoli could give the play by play, point out offenders, and share his strategy. Except the audience couldn't see the video screen. The content wasn't forbidden, the judge just saw no need to make a screen available to the public. This being a public hearing. It was frustrating, and said audience member rose to move about to catch a glimpse of the video. Judge Rodarte told her to sit down. She explained the problem, the judge only repeated her warning. She returned to her seat and apparently formed a finger with her left hand, thrown down behind the large screen monitor, where
350.ORG disowns Paris sans-culottes, opts for boot-counting passivist shtick, figures to storm the Bastille shoeless.
HOLY CRAP, Bill McKibben sells out the activists again, agreeing not only to cancel planned protests at the Paris Climate Conference, but distancing 350.ORG and its collaborator NGOs from real demonstrators upset at the protest ban. After leading hundreds of thousands in New York City on the World's Largest Climate March TO NOWHERE, Bill McKibben flushes the Paris demonstrations and the climate they hoped to save with them. Nothing says silence like a streetful of shoes. Antiwar activists resorted to staging shoe die-ins at every surge of the Iraq War. The result? Crickets. We used army boots to represent mounting American war casualties. As pacifism lost popular traction, the disparing passivists cobbled larger and larger "demonstrations". Activists came to call them exercises in BOOT-COUNTING. It's a well-trod path, and as you might expect of shoes without wearers, they march nowhere. WORSE BUT AS USUAL, the permit-carrying protest groups at the Paris summit immediately disowned demonstrators who threw bottles or in any manner protested the government's edict to ban public protest in the wake of the November terrorist attacks. Activists who habitually support 350.ORG leadership were thrown under the bus as "not part of our movement". Specifically they had violated a supposed pact which self-respecting nonprofits had signed to reject anything but impotent rule-following. While the media will continue to hand Bill McKibben a microphone, it's time for street activists to raise their pitchforks against false grassroots leadership. There wouldn't have been an Earth First if environmental nonprofits had put resistance before staged activism. The climate message doesn't require their nuanced strategists. The struggle certainly doesn't benefit from participants who think they can conscript shoes to take the streets for them. AS TO A NONVIOLENCE PACT. Organizers of the Paris protests apparently swore an oath not to let protests escalate to resistance to police repression. It's the same malarky nonviolence advocates demand of their adherants. AS IF Gandhi and MLK won their laurels without resorting to active resistance. Demonstrations against US national conventions have been hamstrung by simlar nonviolence pacts. HOW ABOUT activists get a jump on the upcoming election year and propose an alternate oath for wannabe protesters, an elaboration on the St Paul Principles so to speak. At the DNC and RNC we swear to do WHATEVER IT TAKES to shut it down. Whoever can't commit to WHATEVER IT TAKES can't call themselves comrades. They have no business filling streets only to capitulate. They are the words of Malcolm X: "whatever it takes". Whatever does not exclude nonviolent methods but it excludes expulsions, or you're disowned.