Hugh and Tiga's felony charges dropped! 4 misdemeanors remain

http://www.mostlyeverything.net/

FELONY CHARGES DROPPED! Misdemeanors still pending...

Great news! Hugh and Tiga's felony racketeering charges have been dropped!
We got word this morning that, based on arguments made by their lawyers at
their last court appearance, the Felony Racketeering charge they were each
facing has been deemed not legitimate. (If you're curious... the basis for
this ruling is that, under Indiana RICO law, conspiracy charges cannot
stem from misdemeanor charges.)

While this is definitely a reason to celebrate and a huge step, we're not
quite out of the water yet. Tiga and Hugh are still each facing four
misdemeanors, carrying a maximum sentence of four years. Also, they are
both still confined to the state of Indiana, based on bail agreements made
shortly after their arrests. Hopefully this will change in the near
future, but we can't promise anything yet.

Furthermore, we're not sure what this means for the pre-trial date
scheduled for this Monday, the 29th. We're going to assume it's still
happening until we find out otherwise, but keep your ears to the ground
for updates. If it's still happening, let's plan on trying to fill the
courtroom again!

Gigantic thank you's to everyone who's offered solidarity in any form thus
far... things are looking up...

International Campaign in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners

From: mahmudahmad72@gmail.com
Date: Mon, 22 Mar 2010

Please Forward:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 18, 2010
info@freepalestinianprisoners.com 

International Campaign in Support of Palestinian Political Prisoners
The Free Palestine Alliance and Addameer are calling for days of action during the
week of April 11 – 17 in support of Palestinian Political Prisoners. 
 April 17, 2010 marks the 34th anniversary of Palestinian Political Prisoners Day.
As this historic and important day approaches, several Palestinian organizations
and solidarity partners feel it is a critical time, now more than ever, to shed
light on the unsung and sometimes forgotten heroes of the ongoing struggle to
liberate Palestine.  There are a total of 7,300 Arab prisoners.  Among them are 33
women and 300 children.  400 are from Jerusalem and the 1948 occupied Palestinian
areas, 745 from Gaza Strip, and 6,155 from the West Bank.

Commemorate Palestinian Political Prisoners Day
April 17, 2010

We encourage all to organize local events to spread awareness on this critical issue
by holding workshops, teach-ins, film screenings and various activities throughout
the week.

On Saturday April 17, 2010, bring together community and allies to fly kites in
support of the thousands of Palestinian political prisoners.

For more information visit:
www.freepalestinianprisoners.com

Lisa Fithian: FBI Informant Brandon Darby : Sexism, Egos, and Lies

Rag Blog March 23, 2010

Brandon. Darby. Still from a video / videochannels.com.
Sexism, egos, and lies:
Sometimes you wake up and it is not different

By Lisa Fithian / The Rag Blog / March 22, 2010

Community organizer and nonviolent activist/trainer Lisa Fithian will be Thorne Dreyer's guest on Rag Radio, Tuesday, March 23, 2-3 p.m. (CST) on KOOP 91.7 FM in Austin. For those outside the listening area, go here to stream the show.

[The Rag Blog has reported extensively on FBI informant Brandon Darby and the Texas 2. We have also dealt with the larger issues related to governmental use of espionage and informants. Please see links to all of our previous material at the end of this article.]

On December 31, 2008, the Austin Informant Working Group released a statement titled: “Sometimes You Wake Up and It's Different: Statement on Brandon Darby, the 'Unnamed' Informant/Provocateur in the 'Texas 2.'” It’s been over a year since then and here is my long-overdue version of that story.

It was on December 18, 2008, that I learned unquestionably that Brandon Michael Darby, an Austin activist, was an FBI informant leading up to the 2008 Republican National Convention protests in St. Paul, MN. He was the key witness in the case of two young men from Midland, TX, Bradley Crowder (23) and David McKay (22) who, thanks to Brandon’s involvement, have been convicted of manufacturing Molotov cocktails.

They are now serving two and four years, respectively, in federal prison. In 2010, Brandon will be a key witness in another important case to the Government -- the case of the RNC 8, Minneapolis organizers who are facing state conspiracy charges.

The case of the “Texas 2” gained national media attention as a result of Brandon’s unique blend of egomania, the media’s attraction to charismatic and controversial men, and the persistence of the U.S. government to criminalize and crush a growing anti-authoritarian movement. I found myself strangely entwined in the story -- past, present and future.

I knew Brandon, and I was given a set of the FBI documents because, as it became apparent from reading them, I was one of the primary people he was reporting on to the FBI. (I, like many others engaged in political protest, am suspect because of my politics not my actions.) Now all of us who knew Brandon and worked closely with him, have been coming to terms with what he did, how he was able to do it, how we were used and abused in the process, and what we might do differently next time.

The Texas 2: David McKay and Bradley Crowder.

Waking up

Some of us were more surprised than others when Brandon revealed himself as an informant. My first reaction was deep sadness. I then went through a range of emotions: disbelief, shock, anger, outrage, and at times vindication. I am still hurt and angry, not just with Brandon, but with the whole system that supports and enables him.

I am still struggling with forgiveness for choices made in activist communities and by some of my friends. I understand how difficult it was; Brandon, at times, was also my friend. In the end we must examine the behavior we experienced, reflect on the array of choices we had, and explore what we could do differently to insure this does not happen again.

Brandon’s behavior was problematic long before 2008. Whether or not he was actually working for the state, he was doing their job for them by breeding discord within our politically active communities. I raised my concerns about Brandon’s behavior in New Orleans, in Austin, and also in Minneapolis.

The news story broke on Thursday, December 29, when Brandon published an open letter to the community admitting he worked with the FBI. He knew we were about to blow the whistle, so he successfully preempted our headline. His initial words, however, were lies.

When asked why he got involved with the FBI, Darby said it was because he discovered that people he knew were planning violence. "Somebody had asked me to do something that would've resulted in hurting people, and I said no," he said. "So they started asking other people. At that point, that's when I went forward and contacted somebody in law enforcement."

Darby had been involved with a group of young people from Texas who traveled together to the RNC. Their journey has become part of the fodder in the legal and media frenzy since September 2008. The trip proved to be a disaster. David and Brad ended up in jail, and the rest of the group was served Grand Jury subpoenas. The subpoenas were eventually dropped. While preparing for their trials, David and Brad both said Brandon was an informant and the community refused to heed their warnings. They felt like they knew Brandon, he’d been around for years.

Scott Crow (left) and Brandon Darby were photographed together on Nov. 3, 2007, at a party in Austin hosted by KUT Radio. Photo from bestofneworleans.com.
In November an article appeared in the St. Paul Press asserting that Brandon Darby was an informant. This, unfortunately, was based on false evidence. Scott Crow, a friend of mine, and Brandon’s main ally in the activist community, defended Brandon calling the accusation a “COINTELPRO lie.” Little did Scott know how right he was - this whole damn thing is COINTELPRO shit.

The documents we got in December 2009 were clear -- Brandon began working for the FBI in November 2007. In November 2007 Brandon had no relationship with David or Brad and could not have known their plans for the St. Paul Republican Conventions. Their plans didn’t develop until after Brandon had become an informant and after he established himself as their ally and mentor.

Furthermore, Brandon has never been squeamish about violence. He owned guns and cultivated his reputation as a hotheaded, militant revolutionary. At least a half a dozen people were prepared to testify, under oath and with some risk to them, that Brandon had approached them with proposals to commit robbery or arson. Ultimately Brandon admitted that he turned informant for the money.

Brad, David, and their families’ lives have been changed forever because these two young men were seduced and influenced by a paid FBI informant. In his early memos to the FBI, Brandon referred to them as “collateral damage.” Now these two men are spending several years of their young lives in Federal Prison.

There are many people in the activist community who have crossed Brandon’s path and have been hurt, demoralized, alienated, frightened, or run off by him. Those of us who were lied to or lied about, spied on, bullied, must deal with the trauma of his abusive behavior. We must also come to terms with the behavior of those who supported and enabled Brandon. And, as a community, we must deal with those parts of ourselves that were seduced, manipulated, and marginalized by Brandon so that we can defend each other, our political work, and ourselves.

Background

I met Brandon through his relationship with another organizer, after I moved to Austin in February 2002. Over time I learned that it was a tumultuous and abusive relationship. When it ended in 2004 Brandon moved to New Orleans for about six months. Years later Brandon told me that he had turned himself in to the New Orleans Office of the FBI when he lived there during that time. He apparently told them that he knew they were looking for him, so here he was.

It was early 2003 around the U.S. invasion of Iraq, that Brandon inserted himself in the anti-war community and gained a reputation as a paranoid guy who got himself into unusual situations with police.

During the protests on the first day of the war, Brandon was supposedly arrested for photographing undercover cops. After that action he was, mysteriously, the only person who did not want legal support. The arrest apparently does not show up in any legal records. For more on this, go here.

During this time, Brandon began showing up regularly at anti-war rallies, trainings, and other events. The anti-war community had started to use civil disobedience as a protest tactic. In the first training I did following Brandon’s supposed arrest, Brandon insisted that one of the participants was an undercover cop and demanded that I ask that person to leave. High drama around other people being undercover is behavior I’ve learned to associate with informants as a way to divert attention from them. It also breeds distrust and is destabilizing of collective efforts.

In another intense protest when UT students attempted to block an intersection with a tripod, the police unfortunately were waiting near the intersection and quickly pulled out the legs of a tri-pod, and dropped the person about 15 feet onto the pavement. Brandon who had helped bring props to the site became erratic and started yelling at the police resulting in even more people being arrested, including people who were not intending to risk arrest. Several students left the anti-war movement as a result of this action.

At this time, it became very clear that a key local organizer was being intensely targeted. Her home was broken into repeatedly. She found her vehicle tampered with, was fired from her job, and her cat was poisoned. Coincidentally, also at this time, Brandon began to court her as a mentor, asking her to teach him what she knew about organizing.

The first time she recalled meeting Brandon was the day he was arrested, when he ran up to her yelling that there were undercover cops in the crowd. Following his arrest, Brandon consistently called her, wanting to talk about his arrest and aftermath but rejecting the legal support she was helping organize. Recently, when the Austin Informant Working Group did an open records request on this organizer, the FBI found 600 documents with her name in them (they have not been relinquished by the FBI to date).

Brandon also participated in a protest at the Halliburton shareolders' meeting in Houston. He unexpectedly joined the group intending to commit nonviolent civil disobedience. The group was on edge the night before, and now I understand why. In the planning session the night before the action, Brandon argued strongly that provoking and fighting the police was a tactic to open the eyes of the masses to police brutality, and bring more people into our cause.

He held his ground even when the group strongly disagreed and told him that under no circumstances would the group agree to him provoking or fighting the police. Brandon was a loose cannon and a bully. Even when he said he would agree to nonviolence in the action, it was clear that in his mind his agreement was contingent on the police not “provoking” him. Going into the action the next day was like sitting on a tinderbox waiting to explode.

At some actions, Brandon would show up, all masked up, with a video camera and take a lot of footage. He has continued to do this over the years, including in Minneapolis. I don’t believe he has ever posted or published any of it.

Brandon also befriended a local Palestinian activist, a man named Riad Hamad. In the spring of 2008 his house was raided by the FBI. In April Riad was found bound, gagged, and drowned in Town Lake. The death was ruled a suicide and the FBI is not releasing any information, but it was made clear in David McKay’s trial that Brandon was also involved as an FBI informant on that case.

It was in the fall of 2005 that my path became more intertwined with Brandon's.



New Orleans and Common Ground Relief

After Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans was a post-apocalyptic state. The whole social order had collapsed. A military occupation was underway and vigilantes were literally shooting Black men in the streets. It was in the midst of this chaos that Common Ground Relief was born. The organization grew from a driveway operation into a massive grassroots response to the Katrina disaster. With ex-Black Panther Malik Rahim at the helm, it was outside of government or charity organizations, and based in direct action, mutual aid, and solidarity.

Within the first year Common Ground Relief hosted over 12,000 volunteers and established an effective grassroots relief network in New Orleans following Katrina: CG moved millions of dollars in goods and resources; set up a free medical clinic; cleaned and gutted over 1,500 homes, churches and schools; organized a free legal services, media and computer centers; revived community gardens, planted thousands of acres of wetlands and did numerous bioremediation projects.

This work was done by an incredible group of long-term organizers who committed their lives for months if not years to the work. Brandon, was part of this team of volunteers but he held a great deal of power because of efforts he and Scott Crow made in the early days of the storm to rescue a friend, Robert King Wilkerson, and to defend Malik’s home in Algiers from the white vigilantes. It was during their second trip to New Orleans that Common Ground was born.

Despite all the good accomplished by Common Ground, there was discord with other local groups and organizers who were struggling to come home. Much of the discord involved Brandon. Brandon had strong authoritarian tendencies but his lack of organizing skills and experience and his resistance to working horizontally or collectively created discord and challenges.

He insisted on being the person in charge. He demanded a chain of command with him at the top. At one point he tried to create a central committee to insure that only a select few would be in any position of power. This style put him out front whether it was the media or a group of volunteers who would be doing the heavy lifting while he talked.

For example, in the Bywater area, Brandon insisted on being the liaison to the activist community. But he treated them with such disrespect and patronization that Common Ground lost an important ally base in the local community. In another example, a local organizer was talking about putting together a women’s space and clinic. Instead of supporting that process, Brandon just moved ahead and set up a space separate from that effort, further alienating local activists.

Brandon actively agitated against any relationship between Common Ground and the People’s Hurricane Relief Fund (PHRF). He and Scott Crow, one of the co-founders of Common Ground, took a particularly hard-line position against certain members of leadership within the PHRF.

In December 2005 Brandon goaded Scott Crow to write a public letter accusing PHRF of corruption. The letter was very destructive. I had never before or since seen Malik so angry. He understood the danger of this letter and the negative impact it could have on Common Ground and the community, and he moved quickly to limit the damage.

With Common Ground Relief as his platform Brandon attempted to extend his influence internationally. He pushed for a trip to Venezuela, which made little sense and raised even more questions about Brandon, especially for those who traveled with him. In the summer of 2006 Brandon tried to initiate another emergency response and relief effort only this time in Lebanon. It was called Critical Response and was going to save the people of Lebanon from the Israeli attacks in the war with Hezebollah. Fortunately this effort never happened.

Sexism, egos and…

Brandon was a master of manipulation, and worked both women and men. He would draw them into his sometimes-twisted perspective by cultivating them through coffee, cigarettes, alcohol, revolutionary rhetoric, emotional neediness, or his physical presence -- either seductive or intimidating.

Young women are often attracted to Brandon. At Common Ground, his unrestrained sexual engagement with volunteers was a problem. His “love for sex” became part of the organizational culture. His leadership role set a tone that led to systemic problems of sexual harassment and abuse at Common Ground.

When a group of the women in leadership challenged his behavior and asked that he stop sleeping with volunteers, he said “I like to fuck women, so what.” Our concerns were disregarded. The abuse became so rampant that Common Ground had to issue a public statement in May of 2006 acknowledging problems of sexual harassment in the organization.

Brandon left for a while but returned in November 2006 when he was asked to become the Interim Director of CG. His first focus was to dismantle the primarily women and queer leadership team at the St. Mary’s volunteer site. He then started recruiting men for the security team, trained them in martial arts, and asked if they were willing to carry guns, despite the fact that Common Ground had an explicit policy against weapons at our sites.

Offices of Common Ground Relief in New Orleans. Photo from BigGovernment.com.
Brandon picked fights in the community, increasingly drawing police into the area and to Common Ground. He initiated action to kick down the door of the Women’s Center at two in the morning, to get rid of a man who was staying there. Brandon also kicked in the door of a trailer and pointed weapons at a group of volunteers who were hanging out with someone whom Brandon had asked to leave CG. As the Interim Director, Brandon felt he could do what he wanted without the consent of or accountability to the volunteers, the communities CG served, or other leadership.

In another incident, Brandon was arrested in a car chase. He was so angry about being arrested that Brandon once again trumped other work being done by deciding that he was going to personally clean up the New Orleans Police Department. He printed up hundreds of yard signs and put them around New Orleans, with a phone number saying that if you had a problem with NOPD, call Brandon Darby, Interim Director of Common Ground.

Brandon’s ego was getting more and more inflated making him even more dangerous. He covered his megalomania with a practiced humility and drawl. He became increasingly reckless and kept everybody in defensive and reactive postures.

Sexism, like racism, affects all of us. Brandon was allowed to assume leadership and authority at Common Ground because he was a strong, good-looking, charismatic, straight white male who was willing to take risks, even if reckless. As Malik’s favored son he did pretty much whatever he wanted. Yet, the work of activists who were women or queer or busy doing relief remained relatively invisible. Those activists were only given power where it didn’t challenge Brandon’s and he made sure of it.

During the first year of Common Ground, Brandon decided that I was an obstacle to his authority, and he worked to undermine me. He successfully diverted attention from my challenges to his sexist, abusive, unethical, and unaccountable behavior by framing them as a “power struggle”. Where he wasn’t able to convince others in the organization, he silenced them with fear of his retribution.

Brandon attacked me in public and spread disinformation about my work. He built a small group of dedicated followers that were willing to do his dirty work. They would tape record people, including myself and report back to him. He snitch-jacketed me -- accused me of being an FBI agent. When I reached out to others, particularly men in New Orleans to intervene, I received little support. None of them were willing or able to challenge Brandon’s clearly destructive behavior. Those who backed his authority contributed to the organizational divisions that allowed his continued abuse of power.

In January 2007 I drove to New Orleans to pick up a friend who was kicked out of Common Ground by Brandon because she was a friend of mine. She was one of the coordinators at the St. Mary’s site. Other relief work coordinators were leaving the organization and because of this Brandon accused me of coming to town to wage a coup against him.

Early the next morning one of his “assistants” called me, threatening me with lawsuits. Then I get a call telling me that Brandon told them that King told him that Scott and I were conspiring against him. Crazy shit, crazy COINTELPRO shit. At the same time Brandon began a purge of three long-time coordinators by demanding they turn in the keys and leave the premises. But this time even Brandon went too far. Malik intervened and stopped the purge.

Lies

Brandon lies. He lied at Common Ground. He lied to the FBI. He lied in his open letter. He lied to his friends. He lied to the media. He lied to the judge and jury.

The government and the FBI lie, too. There is a long history of government infiltration and violence to disrupt social movements, a history that they have lied about in the past and they continue lie about today. It is documented that the government infiltrated and disrupted protests at the Republican National Conventions (2000 in Philly and 2004 in New York City). But in St. Paul they took it to a whole new level and they were more than willing to use Brandon to do it.

The government’s efforts to break the grassroots direct action anti-capitalist movement led to one of the most fascist operations I have experienced in the U.S. During the RNC -- between knocking down doors, confiscating organizing materials, raiding homes, snatching people on the streets, impounding the skills training bus, and even surrounding my car with guns, they also arrested hundreds of innocent people and are continuing to prosecute the RNC 8, who are facing state conspiracy charges.

To this day it is my firm belief that the government set up both Brad and David, and another young man named Matt DePalma, in order to legitimize their acts of repression and to taint the environment in the case of the RNC 8. There were only two instances of Molotov cocktails in St. Paul and both of them had an FBI informant involved. In the case of Matt, the informant brought him to the library to learn how to make them, brought him to a store to buy the stuff and then made and tested them together!

In the case of David and Brad, Brandon had been goading them into a destructive mindset from the very first meeting and he continued to goad them throughout. Brandon created the environment in which they made some very bad decisions. I do not believe that those Molotov cocktails would have been made if Brandon had not been a part of that group.

One year later

At the time of this writing, Brad and David are both serving time in federal prison. Brad plea-bargained and was sentenced to two years. David went to trial and the first jury could not reach a verdict. Awaiting his second trial, prosecutors threatened to bring additional charges against Brad and to call Brad as a witness to testify against David.

Rather than force his friend to choose between self-interest and defending him, David made a decision to plea out. Instead of leniency, the judge doubled David’s sentence to four years without parole as punishment for the first trial.

Kate Kibby, who was previously arrested dressed as a zombie in a demonstration in Minneapolis.
Then in November 2009 the FBI unsuccessfully prosecuted a young woman, named Kate Kibby, for allegedly threatening Brandon in an email. Fortunately, the jury delivered a unanimous not guilty verdict. One of the many interesting things we learned in that case is that Brandon had actually drafted his open letter near the end of October and posted it against the FBI’s wishes.

We also learned that one of the FBI’s motivations in pursuing this case was the hope of finding a new informant. In their interrogation of this woman, they asked if she was working with me or Scott Crow. They told her she could be facing 20 years, but more likely 2-4. If she wanted to become an informant in the Austin and New York City anarchist scenes, they could work something out.

Fortunately, this woman had integrity and principles, and refused to be threatened or bullied. Because of this, she had to endure an FBI invasion into her life, and a terrifying trial. As her father said afterwards, “I knew if we could get 12 adults to sit down and look at this, they would see how absurd it is…”

I wish that this trial could be the end of any damage that Brandon might do, but we know that Brandon is likely to be a main witness in the trial against the RNC 8, organizers from Minneapolis who are facing conspiracy charges. Who knows how many other people he will concoct stories or fabricate lies about? Or how his brain twists the facts.

After Kate’s trial he sent an email to Scott, saying that Scott and I were responsible for David being in jail. He said:

I feel that you and Lisa bear some moral (not legal) responsibility for two of the years that David McKay is serving. Y'all let your dogma and your personal resentments guide you in the advice and encouragement you gave him. He did wrong and he would be free soon had he just been honest.

Y'all somehow convinced him that he had to "fight the man" and that his being honest was somehow unfair to the oppressed peoples of the world. Thankfully, Mrs. Kibby did not take y'alls guidance or drink your koolaid- and she's free.

A few years ago, I began to feel that you guys were similiar to radical Imams in that y'all spout hatred (not all hatred, good things too) and young activists get in trouble all around y'all, but never y'all. I feel that y'all did that with my youthful anger as well.

Though I'm sure you don't appreciate receiving an email from me, I think you can deduce some of my motivations from its words.

I am sorry; I have worked with thousands of young people over the years and none of them are in the situation that people find themselves in after working around Brandon. I have no time for his twisted logic, vague threats and destructive behavior. Instead, let us vanquish him and learn from this to insure that he, or people like him, can never do this again. To that end…

Behaviors of Brandon’s or others that enabled this kind of damage to be done.

1. Deferring or listening to men, as opposed to women and/or attacking women in leadership positions. Our patriarchal society has taught us this and we need to deconstruct it.
2. Charisma and confidence enabled him to assume leadership and control -- people deferred even though he had little experience. He cultivated a handful of women and men to become personal assistants who did a lot of his work for him.
3. Assuming credibility by his associations -- Brandon tried to associate himself with other high profile organizers in the activist community.
4. Preying on and exploiting people’s vulnerabilities and insecurities, particularly using alcohol or other addictions. He liked to “play with people's minds."
5. Bullying. All bullies abuse their power and people let them do what they want because they are afraid of what will happen if they do not go along. They use their physical prowess to intimidate both women and men.
6. Disrupting group process in meetings, derailing agendas, questioning process, challenging others, or not coming to meetings at all to avoid accountability. Or using secrecy and sub-groups to divide the whole.
7. Pointing fingers at and ‘snitch-jacketing’ other people, accusing them of being cops, FBI agents, etc. This kept everyone on guard, and created an environment of suspicion and distrust.
8. Seducing people using power or sex, leaving a lot of pain and destabilized situations in his wake or provoking people to do acts they would not do on their own.
9. Being persistent and pursuing people, by calling them repeatedly or showing up at their homes, inviting them for coffee, he would wear you down, or find other ways back into important relationships.
10. Being an emotional/physical wreck, becoming very needy and seducing people into taking care of him. Then people would defend him because of his emotional vulnerabilities or physical needs.
11. Time and energy suck. Talk endlessly, consuming hours of time and energy -- confusing, exhausting, and indoctrinating.
12. Being helpful or useful -- showing up when you most needed support. Brandon would arrive with tools, money, or whatever was needed at just the right time.
13. Documenting through videotaping or photographing actions but never using it or working on communications systems which he attempted at the RNC.

Brandon Darby at work. Image from New Orleans Indymedia.

Some day I hope to wake up and find things different

Brandon’s behavior over the years makes it clear that he is a misogynist, an egomaniac, and a liar. Unfortunately, many in our broader community bought into the illusion that he was a great radical self-described "revolutionary." They defended him again and again. He repaid their support with betrayal. He continues to make a mockery of our work and supports the FBI in their efforts to crush our struggle for justice.

Some day I hope to wake up and find things different. I hope to see our communities deepen our understanding and commitment to uprooting all the “isms.” I would like to see a community where we create agreements and structures of accountability that will not allow behaviors like those highlighted above to continue, and if they do continue, that men will listen to women, and stand up to each other when someone is clearly abusing their power and authority.

In the end, I do not know what other choices I could have made short of leaving Common Ground earlier. I actually believe I tried to interrupt, make visible, warn and mitigate the damage of Brandon, but it was the people around me that continued to support Brandon despite the obvious problems.

Some of the lessons I have learned are that if someone is continually engaging in a pattern of disruptive behavior, like those mentioned above, that people must make clear agreements about what kind of behavior is OK and not OK and then collectively hold each other to those agreements.

If people/women are continually raising an issue about a particular person I will pay more attention, do some research, and if questions or problems continue to arise about that person, I will work together with others to ask that person to leave. Whether they are infiltrators or not, the behaviors that they are exhibiting are counterproductive to a world rooted in justice and equality. They are also, by their very nature, putting all of us at risk of unjust government action and imprisonment by their reckless and provocative behavior.

I also hope that someday when I wake up that I will live in a world where people do not use the threat of or use of violence to get their way or impose their will. That if we have such people in our movement that we will not be intimidated but instead will work together to end those abuses of power, for they mirror the abuses the Government in their efforts to exploit and control.

I also hope more people will chose nonviolent action since such action prefigures our future, can be strategically effective, and minimizes our movement's vulnerability -- and because I do not believe we can make lasting real radical change through violent means in this country.

Some day when I wake up, I hope to find an end to the systemic oppression and repression that unjustly locks up so many innocent people, while destroying and thwarting the dreams of so many others. Perhaps if we built our communities based on just agreements and real accountability, prisons would become obsolete.

Until we wake up in that world, let us remember that no one is free until we all are free. No day will be different until we make it so. Let us begin today.

Here is a link to a story about a long-time informant in New Zealand that also made the news in December 2008. It is uncanny how many similarities there are and lots of good lessons for us…http://indymedia.org.nz/newswire/display/76563/index.php

A great deal has been written about the case of the Texas 2 and can be found at www.freethetexas2.org

Many thanks to the following for their editorial support: James Clark, Lauren Ross, Ted German, Casey Pritchett, Scott Crow, and Missy Benavidez.

[Lisa Fithian has been organizing for 35 years -- working with peace, labor, student/youth, immigrant and global, environmental and racial justice organizations and movements. Much of her work has been focused on using creative nonviolent direct action and civil disobedience in strategic campaigns. She is a member of the Alliance of Community Trainers, a small collective working to empower communities for collective transformation.

Lisa has worked with Common Ground Relief, the post-Katrina New Orleans collective; the new Students for a Democratic Society (SDS); United for Peace and Justice; and environmental groups like Save our Springs -- and she helped Cindy Sheehan coordinate activities at Camp Casey. Check out Lisa’s websites: www.organizingforpower.org and www.trainersalliance.org.]

Top: Lauren Ross, center, is comforted by her friend Lisa Fithian after they were arrested during a protest in New York Sept. 2, 2004. Photo by Bebeto Matthews / AP. Image from CommonDreams. Below: Lisa Fithian and Ken Butigan at a National Assembly of United for Peace and Justice in Chicago, 2007. Photo by Diane Greene Lent / dianelent.com.
Previous Rag Blog articles on Brandon Darby and the Texas 2:

• James Retherford : Brandon Darby, The Texas 2, and the FBI's Runaway Informants by James Retherford / The Rag Blog / May 26, 2009
• Brandon Darby in New Orleans : FBI Informant Was Egotistical Sexist by Victoria Welle / The Rag Blog / May 26, 2009
• Cop Nation : Snitch Brandon Darby, and Riot Police With the 'Kent State' Gene by Larry Ray / The Rag Blog / Jan. 8, 2009>
• Mariann Wizard on Brandon Darby : 'To Live Outside the Law You Must Be Honest' by Mariann Wizard / The Rag Blog / Jan. 7, 2008
• Brandon Darby : FBI Informant is Provocateur, Not a Hero by Austin Informant Working Group / The Rag Blog / Jan. 6, 2009

Go to the Support the Texas 2 website.

And listen to “Turncoat,” a story about Brandon Darby on Chicago Public Radio’s This American Life. [The Darby segment starts 13 minutes in.]

Also, read this remarkable piece of reporting: The Informant: Revolutionary to rat: The uneasy journey of Brandon Darby by Diana Welch / Austin Chronicle / Jan. 23, 2009

For more background on the history of informants in Texas, read The Spies of Texas by Thorne Dreyer / The Texas Observer / Nov. 17, 2006.

And see the entire "Hamilton Files" of former UT-Austin police chief Allen Hamilton that served as documentation for Dreyer's story, here.

Angola 3 - Their crime was to be black at the wrong time in the US

23/03/2010
bigissuescotland.com


As a new film charts the story of the Angola 3,
wrongly imprisoned in America’s most notorious
penitentiary for 37 years, the documentary’s
producer and Big Issue co-founder Gordon Roddick
tells of the campaign, started by his late wife Anita, to reverse the injustice

Anita was never the most predictable of people
and this time I thought she had taken leave of
her senses. She came to me five years ago to
enlist my support in the case of the Angola 3.
She insisted I join her in Louisiana to meet
Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace, who by then
had each accumulated 34 years in solitary
confinement. The third member of the three,
Robert King, had won his liberty some four years earlier.

I was more than a little nervous at the prospect
of meeting the two men and the whole
prison-visiting experience did little to alleviate that.
Visitors have to go through a full body search
and then a sniffer-dog routine, then the wait for
the bus that drops off visitors within the huge
20,000-acre sprawl that is Angola, Louisiana’s
biggest and most forbidding State penitentiary.

Herman and Albert were at that time being held
within a closed cell restriction block, which
houses the solitary cases on two tiers, with
about 13 cells per tier. The cells are no more
than nine by six feet; they are kept in there for
23 hours a day, only getting out for a shower or
exercise in the yard, where again they are alone.
Imagine for a minute being forced to live in your
bathroom for the rest of your life.

They are constantly subjected to harassment of a
petty and mean-minded nature: Herman was put on a
charge and spent three weeks in the dungeon for
having too many postage stamps in his cell. Both
of them have been subjected to torture over a prolonged period of time.

The recommended time to be spent in Camp J, the
punishment dungeon, is no more than three weeks,
as it can send strong men crazy. Herman was once
subjected to two years in Camp J. What kept him
sane was the knowledge of his innocence and a
steady flow of Angola 3 visitors and friends.

Through the cacophony of shouting and the
clanging of the steel doors, I kept thinking –
what kind of men am I on my way to meet? I had
prepared a list of questions and topics for
discussion and sat down in the little room they
have for a non-contact visit. This is a very
small room with six cubicles, prisoners are
separated by a wire mesh through which you are
visible. It is possible to talk without the aid
of a telephone. Herman was brought in first, with
both legs shackled and with hands tied to a waist
belt. They released one hand so he could
gesticulate and later on he was allowed to use
that hand to join us in eating lunch.

My list of topics and questions was forgotten as
we launched into conversation with the ease of
friends. Anita had got to know both of them very
well, through many visits and long monthly
letters. The visit of four hours seemed to fly
past very quickly. What struck me most was their
quiet, perceptive intelligence and their concern
with what was happening in the outside world.

Herman and Albert are very well read, there is no
subject in terms of current affairs or legal
issues in which they are not well versed. They
have created a life for themselves that makes the
most of their appalling situation.

Herman and Albert were adamant that while this
was about the serial injustice they had suffered,
it was, more importantly, about the thousands of
black men and women still locked up following the
wholesale racist climate of the late ‘60s and
early ‘70s. It is their determination to lead
this fight when they get out. They are outraged
by the flagrant disregard for the American
constitution, that says all citizens are entitled
to be tried by a jury of their peers. On these
grounds alone, there should be at least a
judicial review of all those unsafe convictions.

The visit was peppered with laughter and good
humour and I left Angola feeling uplifted by the
few hours in their company, but shaken by the
thoughts of what Herman and Albert have to deal
with on a daily basis. I read most of the legal
documents pertaining to their case; the more I
read the more I was convinced of their innocence
and the more I was determined to help Anita in
her quest to set them free. These visits have
since become an important part of my life and I
have formed a deep and lasting friendship with Herman, Albert and Robert.

Congressman John Conyers, chairman of the
Congressional Judiciary Committee, made a visit
to see the two men. He was both moved and
impressed with the positive attitude they
displayed and he came back to Washington DC and
gave a speech in support of them. He resolved not
to rest until they have been set free. Five days
after his visit, Herman and Albert were moved to
a high security dormitory with 14 other prisoners
and for a few months had respite from the
confines of solitary. After about six months they
were transferred back to solitary. The reason
given was “budget cuts”. Their torture continues,
with constant harassment focusing on accusations
of minor infringements of petty rules.

We suspect there is a move to provoke them as our
legal efforts are showing success. We must keep
the spotlight on their cases. The best way of
helping is by writing to them offering moral
support. Also, write to the Attorney General,
Buddy Caldwell, expressing disgust at their
inhuman treatment, and to Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal. In the meantime, we await verdicts
from the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and
Herman’s case has moved to the federal courts with a new habeas corpus writ.

A documentary about the Angola 3, narrated by
Samuel L Jackson, In The Land Of The Free…
premieres at Human Rights Watch Film Festival, March 24, in New York.

It goes on UK release from March 26.

For more information:
http://www.inthelandofthefreefilm.comwww.inthelandofthefreefilm.com

The Case of the Holy Land Five

http://www.counterpunch.org/ March 23, 2010

My Father's Unjust Incarceration

The Case of the Holy Land Five

By NOOR ELASHI

A decade before my father received a 65-year
prison sentence, he handed me an unusual book,
one that ultimately shifted the way I perceive
the world. It was titled Magic Eye, and it
contained pages of what seemed like simple
multicolored patterns. But each page had a hidden
gift, a sensational truth. By diverging your
eyes, my father told me, you’ll see an unexpected
image. It seemed to challenge everything I’d ever
known. I stared at the flat, distorted artwork
until it transformed into a faded silhouette and
then a three-dimensional shape like a group of
dolphins or a rose-filled heart. Years later, as
I flip through the pages of my family’s
narrative, I see images that are far less whimsical, and indeed, painful.

Last week, U.S. attorney Jim Jacks filed a motion
asking the federal judge of the Holy Land
Foundation case to transfer my father­Ghassan
Elashi, the charity’s co-founder­and his
colleagues to a prison that closely monitors its
inmates. If transferred to either of these
so-called “Communication Management Units” in
Terre Haute, Indiana or Marion, Illinois, my
father’s phone calls would be more limited than
they are now, in Seagoville, Texas. His letters
would be monitored, his visitation time would be
reduced to four hours a month and his
conversations would be restricted to English, which is his second language.

Perhaps this may seem like an illustration of an
effective justice system at work. But if one
diverges his or her eyes, the camouflaged truth
will slowly unfold, until it comes into focus. I,
for one, see a hazel-eyed girl with pale skin and
soft dark curls losing her home uponIsrael’s
creation in 1948. The young woman, now my
paternal grandmother, often tells me about her
banishment from Jaffa, a once vibrant Palestinian
city known for its orange groves and turquoise
beach. I also see a man who was expelled from his
native Gaza City in 1967 and was not allowed to
return. I grew up hearing stories from this man,
my father, about the plight of Palestinians, whom
he called “a voiceless population” suffering from
occupation, starvation, demolished homes,
uprooted trees, constrained movement and a devastated economy.

As I look deeper, I see the Holy Land Foundation
rise to stardom in the eyes of human rights
activists worldwide who had witnessed this
charitable organization alleviate poverty in
Occupied Palestine through bags of rice, boxes of
medicine, conventional humanitarian aid. I see my
family scrutinized throughout the 1990s due to
agenda-driven reports linking my father to
terrorism­reports written by individuals who saw
the HLF’s strength as a threat, for they wanted
Palestinians to remain weak and desolate. I see
President Bush shutting down the Holy Land
Foundation three months after Sept. 11, 2001,
calling the action “another important step in the
financial fight against terror.”

I see my father and his colleagues tried in 2007
and almost vindicated. I see him tried a second
time and convicted in 2008, thereby receiving a
life-long sentence. In both trials, prosecutors
argued that the HLF gave money to Palestinian
zakat (charity) committees that they claimed were
controlled by Hamas, which the U.S. designated a
terrorist organization in 1995. To prove this,
prosecutors called to the stand an Israeli
intelligence agent testifying under the pseudonym
of Avi who claimed he could “smell Hamas.” The
prosecutors intimidated the jury by showing them
scenes of suicide bombings completely
unaffiliated with the HLF, and they used guilt by
association by linking my father and the other
defendants to relatives who are members of Hamas.
The defense attorneys’ argument was simple: The
Holy Land Five gave charity to the same zakat
committees to which the American government
agency USAID (United States Agency for
International Development) gave money.
Furthermore, none of the zakat committees
included in the HLF indictment were named on any
of the U.S. Treasury Department’s lists of designated terrorist organizations.

Nationally respected human rights law professors
such as David Cole have associated the Holy Land
case with McCarthyism, and other experts have
called it a miscarriage of justice. The book that
my father gave me had this subtitle: A New Way of
Looking at the World. If one looks at our world
with a fresh pair of eyes, he or she will see
that Jim Jacks’ request for harsher prison
conditions is unnecessarily cruel, and that
supporting the appeal process is the only way to
achieve justice. He or she will also see that the
Holy Land Five are political prisoners, and that
we live in a twisted time, a time when
humanitarians are pursued relentlessly for political purposes.

Noor Elashi is a Palestinian-American and writer based in New York City.

Turkish court sentences trade unionist Seher Tümer to seven years in prison

19 March 2010 www.world-psi.org

International solidarity needed to press for expedited appeal

Lawyers have filed an appeal seeking to overturn the conviction of trade union activist Seher Tümer. Late in the day of 18 March, the Ankara High Criminal Court in Turkey declared Tümer guilty of belonging to an illegal Kurdish organization, and “making propaganda” through participation in public demonstrations, and sentenced her to more than seven years in prison. Tümer has already spent close to one year in prison. Her lawyers maintain there is no evidence to back these charges.

The global union federation Public Services International (PSI) contends that Tümer has been targeted for her activities in the labour and women’s movements in Turkey. Tümer is branch secretary of Saglik ve Sosyal Hizmet Emekçileri Sendikasi (SES),the trade union representing public employees in health and social services.

“We are deeply concerned by what appears to be a travesty of justice in Tümer’s case, and numerous recent cases like it,” says PSI general secretary Peter Waldorff.

“We are seeing a pattern of political persecution of trade union activists in Turkey. We believe national ‘security’ laws are being used as a pretext to silence union leaders. This abuse of human rights must stop.”

Carola Fischbach-Pyttel, general secretary of the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU) adds, “Our affiliate members in Turkey have asked us to call on trade unionists world-wide to continue to raise their voices on Tümer’s behalf.

“Please write letters to Turkey’s prime minister, president, and justice minister demanding open examination of Tümer’s case record in an expedited appeal process.”

Because of the backlog in cases, it could take longer than a year for Turkey’s Supreme Court of Appeals to consider Tümer’s appeal. Tümer’s lawyers maintain that her house was searched by police when she was not at home, in contravention of the Turkish criminal code, and charges should be dismissed on this basis alone. Texts printed from her computer were used as evidence in court, despite arguments for consideration of freedom of expression. Further, it was noted in court that demonstrations that Tümer participated in were peaceful and related to trade union and women’s rights. PSI and Turkish trade unions gathered more than 8000 signatures in a petition demanding justice for Tümer that was presented to authorities earlier this month.

Send a letter of protest on line and for more information contact communications@world-psi.org.

Latest update in English (pdf)

Latest update in Turkish (pdf)

---

9 March 2010

Turkey: Continued detention of Ms Seher Tümer
International solidarity action needed

Send a protest letter on-line

Seher Tümer appeared in court in Ankara, Turkey on 9 March. A total of 8000 signatures - 3000 of trade unionists from around the world and 5000 from Turkey - had been collected at that point and presented to the Ministry of Justice on 8th March, petitioning for her immediate release. Nearly five hundred people had gathered both inside and outside the courtroom to express their solidarity. Her trial has now been postponed until 18 March. Ms Tümer’s lawyers are optimistic that she may be released at that time. Meanwhile, keep sending letters and signing the petition. Tümer continues to need international support in her bid for freedom.

People gathered outside the courtroom before the trial on 9 March
to express their solidarity with Seher Tümer

---

26 February 2010

Union activist Seher Tümer, Branch Secretary of PSI affiliate SES (the trade union of public employees in health and social services), will spend International Women’s Day 2010 in prison.

But international solidarity action could open the door to freedom for her.

Ms Tümer has now been detained in an F-type prison for almost a year, with no clear charges being brought against her. PSI is convinced that her arrest is linked to her activities in the labour and women’s movements in that country, including participating in International Women’s Day activities last year. Tümer, who is Kurdish, was arrested and imprisoned in April 2009. Her case mirrors that of fellow union leader Meryem Özsögüt, who faced similar charges of belonging to a terrorist organisation. (Özsöğüt was released after eight months in prison following a major international protest campaign led by PSI.)

PSI has been closely following this case. Ms Tümer’s next court appearance is planned for
9 March, PSI and EPSU have sent a joint letter of protest to the Turkish Prime Minister demanding that all charges be dropped and that she be immediately released.

PSI urgently calls on trade unions and concerned organisations to write similar letters of protest. Join the Labourstart Campaign and send a letter of protest now. For more information please contact rights@world-psi.org

Ms Tümer has the support of fellow trade unionists.
Photo taken during the recent nationwide demonstrations on
February 21 in Turkey - courtesy of SES

Related Files

Download the model protest letter (Word Document)
View PSI/EPSU Joint letter of protest (PDF File)
Turkish court sentences trade unionist Seher Tümer to seven years in prison (PDF File)
Türkiye’de mahkeme, sendikacı Seher Tümer’i 7 yıl hapse mahkum etti (in Turkish) (PDF File)

short film Actions vs. repressions from Russia

Actions vs. repressions

Produced, directed and filmed by Anarcho-art group "Children of Bakunin" and
Anarchist Black Cross of Moscow

14 minutes

Russia, 2009

English and German subtitres attached

Short film Actions vs. repressions gives a voice to Russian anti-authoritarian
activists from Autonomous Action of St. Petersburg and Ufa, Anarchist Black
Cross of Moscow and St. Petersburg and Vsevolod Ostapov, who got brutalised
by Police in April of 2007 and whose case became a rallying cry for a
significiant campaign against police brutality in Moscow during last two
years.

Movie was originally produced for European tour of Russian hardcore band What
We Feel in autumn of 2009. In beginning of February 2010, band announced that
it will soon disband itself, due to having reached everything it could
artistically and due to increasing repression against band by the government
authorities. You may read a message from the band here:



http://blogs.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendId=101027467&blogId=528136101

Torrent (OGV format):
http://onebigtorrent.org/torrents/8645/Actions-vs-Repressions

Permanent link (MPEG4, Quicktime and OGV formats):

http://www.archive.org/details/ActionsVsRepressions_738

(source: http://www.avtonom.org/en/node/9607)

A letter from Andrey Mergenyov and other prisoner updates from Russia

Andrei Mergenyov is imprisoned in Saratov after a fight with a Nazi in June 
2007. Recently we received a following letter from him, and we translated it
just to remind you about one of the less known Russian anti-fascist
prisoners.

Address of Andrey (note that this is a new address!):

Andrey Mergenyov

Saratovskaya oblast G. Engels,

FBU IK-13

3 otryad 413116

You may also write address in cyrillic (if your e-mail interface does not
render cyrillic letters correctly, visit https://avtonom.org/node/9627):

Мергеневу А.К.
Саратовская обл, г Энгельс, ФБУ ИК-13, 3 отряд, 413116

Hi this is Taiwan writing. I have 11 more months to do, not too much. I have
already done 2 years and 7 months, and I feel like only yesterday I was
running after Nazis with a bottle of beer in my hand. I have received plenty
of letters - from Moscow, Ufa, Petrozhavodsk, Minsk and Vladivostok, I even
got two letters from London. I am working at prisoner's club, playing bass
guitar, from time to time we perform to other prisoners. I am doing sports
and qualified for a new profession of a painter, now I am studying to become
a crane operator of bridge cranes. Friends and family are visiting me. Thanks
for writing me, I would be happy to receive another letter from you, I will
answer for sure.

Bye,

Taiwan 11th of January 2010

More on case of Andrey: http://wiki.golosa.info/en/index.php/Aleksey_Bychin

Also, Aleksey Bychin, who is doing five year sentence for a fight with a Nazi
who was a police officer off-duty, was recently moved to another subsection
in his colony. Please fix his address, as letters sent to right subsection
will make it to him faster - new address is

FBU OIK-2 IK-7 otryad No. 12

ul. Karnallitovaya d. 98

g. Solikamsk Permskiy Kray

618545 Russia

More info about case of Aleksey:

And at last, a bit of a good news - Yura Mishutkin, who killed a Nazi in self
defence in Vladivostok in November of 2008, was handed a new sentence 4th of
March, after relatives of Nazi made an appeal against his previous
probational sentence. New sentence is 1.5 years probational sentence and
around 1.5 million roubles (50 000 USD) of compensations for the relatives.
This is more harsh than the previous sentence, but still it is great news
that Yura does not have to go to jail.

ABC Moscow

abc-msk AT riseup D net

http://www.avtonom.org/abc

http://www.myspace.com/abcmsk

P.O. Box 13 109028 Moscow Russia

Kevin Olliff pleads no-contest to stalking

March 20, 2010

 Yesterday, Kevin Olliff signed a deal, pleading "no contest" to six
 felony charges (three stalking and three conspiracy to stalk
 -including conspiracy to stalk a school official).

 He was escorted to the courtroom late, and in an unusual grey uniform,
 because he is temporarily in the jail hospital fighting an infection
 in his lymph nodes. IV in arm, he signed a the plea document for three
 years and parole.

 Sentencing is scheduled for May 14th, so Kevin may have time to
 recuperate from his current condition. It will then be determined when
 and where he will be transferred to a state prison to carry out the
 rest of his time. Anyone in the Los Angeles, Orange County, or
 southern California vicinity is strongly encouraged to attend the
 sentencing to support Kevin in this decision. It will be at LA
 Superior Court (210 W. Temple St.) on the ninth floor in Department
 102.

 He has been in jail for a year, and has been receiving double-time
 retroactively after January 25th of this year. If he continues to be
 serving "good time", we can expect to have him out by mid-October.

 Write Kevin to help him pass the time before sentencing! (Please note
 he switched from D-Pod to C-Pod when addressing letters).

 Kevin Olliff #1300931
 TTCF 161 C-Pod
 450 Bauchet St.
 Los Angeles, CA 90012

 Kevin Olliff Support
***************************************
http://ccrjustice.org/ourcases/current-cases/state-california-v.-kevin-olliff

Kevin Olliff is an animal rights activist who was
arrested April 18, 2009 on three year-old protest
charges and now faces 10 felony counts. These
felonies are multiple counts of: stalking,
conspiracy, conspiracy to stalk, and threatening
of a public servant. He is currently being held
in Los Angeles County Jail awaiting trial. His
indictment accuses him of associating with the
Animal Liberation Front (ALF) which the State
labeled a "gang" in the indictment. In December
2009, CCR cooperating attorney Matthew Strugar
joined with defense counsel to file a 995 Motion
to Set Aside the Indictment, based in part on the
theory that Olliff’s conduct was all protected by
the First Amendment.. The judge has since ruled
that case will go forward; however, he also ruled
that the ALF does not meet the definition of a "gang."


Status

On January 26, 2010, at the pre-trial hearing,
the judge ruled that ALF is not a "gang."
The trial is scheduled to begin on March 3, 2010.


Description

Kevin Olliff’s prosecution is in the line of
other recent “Green Scare” cases where law
enforcement target above-ground activists in an
attempt to link them to illegal, underground
activity. Much like the SHAC-7 and AETA-4, Olliff
is indicted for incendiary speech
activity­namely, chants at home demonstrations.

Like the AETA-4, Olliff’s case arises from the
long-running campaign against primate research in
the University of California system. The campaign
has included a significant level of illegal
activity aimed at UC researchers. Unknown
individuals set a researcher’s porch on fire,
‘flooded’ another researcher’s house by putting a
garden hose through a window, firebombed multiple
cars, sent threatening anonymous emails, and left
an unlit Molotov cocktail on a researcher’s
porch. The Animal Liberation Front and other
underground animal rights organizations claimed
responsibility for most of these actions.

The indictment makes reference to many of these
illegal actions, alleging they were undertaken by
unnamed coconspirators, and alleges Olliff’s
speech activity constitutes overt acts in
furtherance of the activity. However, there is no
evidence that Olliff participated in any of the illegal activity.

The indictment also sought a gang enhancement
penalty, alleging the ALF is a criminal street
gang and Olliff is a member. However, the judge
ruled that ALF does not meet the definition of a
"gang." Oliff would have faced approximately
twenty years imprisonment if convicted on all
charges with the gang enhancements.  Since the
judge denied the applicability of the gang
enhancements, Olliff now faces only four and 1.2 years.

Two Arrested In Nashua Marijuana Protest

March 21, 2010 wmur.com

(follow link to see video)

Protesters In Nashua March To Police Station

NASHUA, N.H. -- A marijuana protest in Nashua on Saturday resulted in two
arrests. A group of about 50 people gathered on Main Street at 4:20 p.m.
for a public demonstration in support of marijuana use.

The crowd turned on police after undercover officers arrested one of the
participants for possesion.

Before police could take the suspect to the station, another protestor
placed himself in front of the car so they couldn't leave.

He was also arrested for disorderly conduct.

"It was pretty calm at first when the two undercover agents arrested this
man, it wasn't until they got out of the car and called for backup that
everyone came in," said protester, Sam Dodson.

More officers were called to the scene and upset protestors didn't stop
there. Nearly 30 marched down to the police station.

Ultimately, police said they made only two arrests.