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. 52940
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 carries to high schools, for the same reason irony doesn't compute on social media: adolescent frontal lobes. 52834
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. 50587
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. 50392
“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
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! 49720
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. 48712
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. 48485
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. 47844
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. 45772
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: 47068
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. 46505
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. 45841
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. 45809
December 19 the Billion People March
http://www.billionpeoplemarch.org/ 45117
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: 44875
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. 44996