Re: battles

[Cyborg Yoryie <yoryie@earthlink.net>]

[: hacktivism :]

Hi:

    I am sending you some of the acounts I saved.  To my knowledge they are
all out know but some face serious charges and there is a possibility of
RICO charges (conspiracy to commit interstate crime (or something likethat).
You can check the R2K homepage (sorry for not providing the URL) or check in
the Tao archives or one of the most up to date pages:
http://www.phillyimc.org


    If e-mail is 2 long I apologize in advance.

Cyborg
One man's imagined community is another man's political prison.
   Arjun Appadurai






STATEMENT FROM CAMILLE VIVEIROS JR....ARRESTED ON FELONY CHARGES DURING THE
REPBULICAN NATONAL CONVENTION IN PHILADELPHIA.




>Camilo Viveiros Jr.. a social justice activist who resides in New England,
>has been singled out and villianized by the most powerful law enforcement
>official in Philly, police commissioner Timoney.  The Philly Commissioner
>of police testified against Camilo Viveiros at his pretrial on August 9th.
>
>Camilo went to the Institute for Social Ecology for two summers and has
>made visits back to this area to keep in touch with other activists.
>
>He has worked with Vermont activists in the mid 90's going up to Cananda to
>stop the creation of a Hydro Quebec dam on Innu land.  He particpated in a
>non-violent blockade and was arrested with Vermonters defending the
>soverenty of the Innu people from ecological genocide.


>Through the years Camille has co-founded a variety of grassroots social
>justice groups ranging from Empty the Shelters in Oakland to Homes not
>Jails in Boston to community coalitions to stop incinerators, stop the
>construction of an outfall pipe on indigenous land , end the use of
>chaingangs etc. etc.
>
>The Commissioners attempt to put Camille behind bars is a clear attack on
>the continually growing momentum of large direct action demonstrations.
>Camille has been committed to the use of civil disobedience for years.
>Putting an end to the movement means that our opposition will want to scare
>people off by marginalizing people like Camilo.
>
>Camille has always believed that the power of the people lay in passionate
>activists successfully building the support of ordinary people.
>
>This situation is no different.  He recognizes that the City of Philly has
>sent a clear message to the core of long time activists who came to Philly.
>  What needs to be done now is to broaden our support.  Any community
>organization that looks into it's history, has to acknowledge that there
>was a time when authorities attempted to marginalize and infact criminalize
>their activities:  religious freedom, women's ability to vote, the
>emancipation of people of color from slavery, labors' protection of working
>people, "disabled" peoples' access to public buildings  etc. All thoe
>movements have gone through times when their activists where painted as
>villains and violent trouble makers.
>
>We need to reach out to community members and remind them of the past and
>invite their contemporary solidarity.
>
>
>Basically the commissioner is making a symbol of me.
>
>If the DA and the Philly PA get a conviction (potentialy 20-40 years, by
>their account) they would say they have evidence to smear the whole
>movement.  My trial is an attempt to put the growing movement on trial.
>
>Unfortunately there has been some divisiveness among acivivsts, some
>protesters have fallen into the trap of the police of assuming guilt and
>distancing themselves from alleged felons.  Some protesters seem to be ok
>with the DA wanting blood for accused felonies forgetting that the blood
>will certainly splatter the face of all of the protestors.
>I have had trouble getting legal representation. Most lawyers are rushing
>to cases with only misdemeanor ächarges and obvious civil rights suits.
>Other lawyers are taking on easier cases probono but asking to get paid for
>mine.
>
>The night I was arrested I was taken into an interrogation room for 13
>hours.  While I was in that room over 5 different detectives would come in
>and interrogate me.  On three occasions a detective would open the door and
>literally say "show and tell", then I heard the officer that saw me on
>display, being coached by a detective on what to say and charge,  fitting
>my physical appearance into scenarios they were making up on the spot.
>
>It is clear that since my arrest there have been many full time law
>enforcement offices orchestrating the case against me.
>
>The commissioner claims to have been on route toward Rittenhouse Sqaure to
>"protect his home", when he and his bike police entourage went to the
>intersection where I was arrested.  Rittenhouse Square is an elite park
>where George Bush senior was staying and where Clinton stays when he's in
>town.
>
>The mixture of the commissioner's portrayal of protecting this affluent
>section of town added to his "celebrated" celebrity status creates a
>dangerous and potent situation for me.
>
>The only way to stop these attempts to criminlize me and protests in
>general is to out organize the forces of the state and capital who want to
>cheer me into prison.
>
>We need donations for legal costs (explicitly for alleged felonies) These
>funds are desperately needed.
>
>Also open letters to the mayor of Philly on my behalf would be useful.
>Write about how this trail is an attempt to distract people from the issues
>of the demonstrators.  Character witness letters from any one who has ever
>met or worked with me are also useful.  These can be mailed to us so we can
>copy them and send them to city councilors etc.
>
>Send letters to the mayor at: (Please send us copies as well)
>Mayor John Street
>City Hall, Room 215
>Philadelphia, Pa 19107
>Fax 215-686-2180
>
>Legal Fee donations for Camilo can be sent to:
>Miriam Budnick, 4819 Springfield Avenue, Philadelphia, Pa 19143
>Don't let them criminalze Protest
>
_________________________________________________________
Newly released protesters focusing on jail conditions
Stacey Burling

PHILA INQUIRER

Put hundreds of people, who came to Philadelphia to protest a hodgepodge of
social injustices, in jail, and what do you get?
Another cause.

"Four hundred hard-core prison activists have been born, and that's all I
have to say," Kate Sorensen, an ACT UP activist who was held for 10 days
with bail initially set at $1 million, told a crowd of clapping supporters
yesterday evening.

Sorensen, who was released Friday after her bail was reduced to $100,000,
and other activists held a media briefing to mark what they had hoped would
be the day when the last of 391 people jailed in connection with protests
during the
Republican National Convention would be set free. As it turned out, at least
one protester was still in jail last night.

The activists said their struggle had entered a new phase.
"Today," Sorensen said, "the protesters are shifting from jail solidarity to
court solidarity."
That approach, leaders said, will include using a national team of lawyers
to represent protesters in their trials, filing lawsuits about their alleged
mistreatment, and making legal decisions as a group.
The activists will be "working again as a group to get equal treatment for
all people," said Marina Sitrin, a recent law-school graduate who is helping
to defend the protesters.

The activists hope to improve conditions for the general prison population
as well. While in jail, protest leaders said, they talked with other
prisoners and became convinced that they are frequently mistreated.

Zosera Imaana, who worked with the Direct Action Coalition and the Student
Liberation Action Movement, said prisoners were fed poor-quality food in
inadequate amounts, particularly for pregnant women.

Her voice shaking, she talked about coming "face to face" with a "racist"
prison system populated primarily by poor Latinos and African Americans.
"You do not know the truth of America or the reality of its lies until
you've been in our prisons," she said.

Sitrin said lawyers had taken statements from 180 jailed protesters who
described numerous abuses. Several talked of having their testicles or
nipples twisted by prison guards. Others suffered injuries from being
"hog-tied." And there were "multiple accounts" of people being beaten,
stepped on, or held to the ground with someone's knee on their necks.

In a press statement, the group said several protesters were denied
medications they needed, and there were many accounts of people becoming
dehydrated or passing out while being held on a hot bus.

Philadelphia police and prison officials and Mayor Street have denied the
allegations.
As for the general prison population, the protesters plan to take up the
following issues: improving food, living conditions and medical care;
improving access to phones, lawyers and social services; changing court
procedures to move people through the system more quickly; and improving
job-training and drug-rehabilitation programs.
Stacey Burling's e-mail address is
sburling@phillynews.com
###### Julie Davids ######
###### ACT UP Philadelphia ######
###### jdavids@critpath.org ######
************* ************ ************* ************* *************
Lives must become more valuable than drug company profits
************* ************* ************* ************* *************

_________________________________________________________
________________________________________________
      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
 ________________________________________________

To the local, national, and international media:

We are among the over 300 people now beginning our second week of
incarceration for our participation in non-violent protests at the
Republican National Convention in Philadelphia intended to raise awareness
of the abuse of the criminal justice system.

The Philadelphia police did not brutalise us in front of the cameras and
have as a consequence been praised for their professionalism. Out of view
the brutality began at once. People in handcuffs were peppersprayed. Others
were hog-tied with plastic  cuffs that cut off their circulation. Men were
dragged and kicked in the genitals until they bled. These are only examples
of some of the acts of cruelty and torture we have personally experienced.
Isolated as we are, we cannot confirm the rumours we have heard of people
hung by their ankles to obtain their "cooperation." But we believe them.

Bruised and bloody, the city of Philadelphia has little choice but to level
absurd charges at us and request outrageous bails to keep us off the streets
long enough for our most visible wounds to heal. There are still many of us
with scabs and bruises. If half of the charges levelled against us were
true, Philadelphia's Center City would be a smouldering ruins. The simple
fact is that the charges against us are ridiculously exaggerated when they
are not completely fabricated. And we doubt many of them will ever come to
trial.

Our bails, ranging from $10,000 to $1,000,000 for the misdemeanors, far
exceed anything ever demanded for similar charges. the exclusion of the
public from our arraignments between 2 and 6 days after our arrests only
made these farcical proceedings seem more sinister.

In prison every effort has been made to cut us off from the outside world,
from each other, and from the general population.  We are confined to 2
person cells 23 hours a day. Our phones do not work and we have been denied
visitors. In spite of this, we have been able to learn something of the
unconscionable conditions of other prisoners.

Many prisoners here have been awaiting trial for two or more years. Medical
emergencies routinely go unattended for weeks or even months. The food is
frequently unfit for human consumption. Pods are overcrowded, with makeshift
cells serving for six men at a time.  Prisoners are beaten by guards. In one
case, ten guards savagely beat a handcuffed prisoner into unconsciousness.
Phones are commonly out of order, making contact with families and lawyers
impossible. Promissory prices are inflated. Prison workers often go unpaid
for their work and money sent by family and friends often goes uncredited to
prisoner accounts. Backed up toilets can go for weeks without being cleaned,
with predictably wretched sanitary conditions resulting. Rehabilitative
programs are effectively non-existent with even monthly sessions being an
uncertainty. We have undoubtedly been shielded from the worst conditions of
the prison but we have seen enough. One of us was threatened with rape by a
guard. The food we get is often inedible.

The treatment we have received and the conditions we have been made aware of
are inconsistent with a democratic or civil society.  The time is overdue
for public outrage at the crimes being committed in the name of criminal
justice.  It is time that a new civil rights movement that has two million
people, mainly black and Latino, locked up tonight. America's prisons are
its  new plantations.

Many of us have been on hunger strike demanding that the trumped up charges
against us be dropped and that we be released.  As of noon today, the rest
of us are joining the hunger strike. We call on all people of good
conscience to call Philadelphia officials to demand our release and to
demand an end to the barbaric conditions in Philadelphia's jails and
prisons.

Professor
Max
Agent Italia
Tennessee
Wisp
Harry
JD

_________________________________________________________
________________________________________________
      A - I N F O S  N E W S  S E R V I C E
            http://www.ainfos.ca/
 ________________________________________________

Flea of the Puppetistas prison diary

12:25, SAT, AUG 5: FLEA of the PUPPETISTAS recorded the following timeline
of his experience.  Events on the bus were chanted and memorized by the
group.  Events in the Roundhouse were recorded by scratching on WaWa Iced
Tea containers with the clasp of my watch.  At CFCF they took away my watch,
but I was able to scratch with the tines of a spork.  Friday, Aug 4 around
9am we were supplied with pencil and paper for the first time.

I am John Doe #5100, inmate 907835.  I have been on hunger strike since
Wed., Aug 2.  My bail is $50,000.  I am in solidarity, I would not wish to
be bailed out even if my family and friends could afford to.  I am a
puppet-maker.  I considered myself non-arrestable.

TUES.
I was the puppet warehouse at 41st and Haverford until 4am Tuesday morning,
making 10 dove puppets out of clothes hanghers, cheese cloth, and copious
amounts of glue.  I slept in my truck that night and was back at the
warehouse at 10am, painting some giant paper-mache faces with prison
stripes.  We were all to meet for last minute organization at 2, and were
loading our puppets - my doves, cardboard prison bar masks, and ponchos with
bar codes, and cardboard ball-and-chains, the giant paper mache prison
heads, cockroach sandwich boards and hats and a banner that they marched in
front of, when the warehouse was surrounded.

2:05pm - A search warrant is not needed to enter an 'open area' and look
around, so the first thing that happened was an officer tried to bum-rush
the door when we opened it to see what was going on.  The door was closed,
but through the windows we could see we were surrounded on all sides.  There
were even officers on our roof.  They said they did not yet have a search
warrant "but we're getting one right now."  For the next three hours they
told us that a warrant was on its way.  Inside, we tried to decide what to
do.  We were willing to have them search the space, but wanted freedom to
leave - and hopefully to be able to take our painted cardboard with us.  The
officers were not negotiating.  We called our media and legal team and soon
had live TV coverage and a legal observer on the scene.

5:00pm - Chainsaws started up outside.  We were told that just as soon as
the warrant arrived, they would going to cut through our doors.  They told
us if we left we would be "detained" - not arrested - until the warrant was
served.  In order to keep the initiative on our side and minimize the risk
of armed police forcing their way into us, we opened the doors and gave
ourselves up one by one.  "Detaining" 70-plus people takes quite a bit of
time, so some of us were able to unload some of our puppets and give a quick
show for the media through the open garage door before we had to leave.
Everyone in the building including the owner and legal observers, were taken
into custody.  They took our bags, headwear, and everything in our pockets,
snapped polaroids of us, cuffed our hands behind our backs, and loaded us
onto maximum security transports - school buses with the windows bolted open
1/2" and steel grilles over everything.  I was still wearing my clown face
paint in my polaroid.

6:00pm - The last puppetistas boarded the bus and the buses left.  No one
told us where they were taking us or what was happening.  We were just being
"temporarily detained," we thought.  No one said what the police thought we
had in the warehouse.  "Weapons" the original warrant request apparently
said, but even the judge didn't believe that.  "Implements of crime" we
heard the warrant had been changed to, but no one actually saw a warrant
(not even the owner of the space!)  According to the NY Times (Sat Aug 5
article by Francis X. Clines) the warrant's contents have now been sealed at
the request of the city prosecutors.  Nobody knows.

6:30pm -  We arrive at the "Roundhouse" at 7th and Race.  The temperature
inside our bus is now over 100 degrees.  Demands to know why/where we are
being taken and for water go unanswered.  We are sweating rivers.  At some
point we begin moving again.  No explanation.

7:05pm - We arrive at Holmsburg prison.  A head count is made.  Still no
water.  We discuss non-violent non-cooperation (going limp) if attempts are
made to remove us from the bus until our questions are answered.

7:50pm - The bus leaves Holmsburg prison and we retrace our drive to the
Roundhouse.  Still no water, no lawyer, still no answers.  For all we know,
we are still just being "detained."  My clothing is soaked with sweat.  A
heavy-set brother, SLIM, starts fading:  his head falls, his eyes roll back,
he is having trouble sitting up.  We start yelling for a medic, and are
ignored.

8:05pm - SLIM loses consciousness.  We are still demanding medical attention
and are ignored.  The bus does not slow or stop.  We arrive at the
Roundhouse, and are told that "nothing can be done until the Fire Rescue
squad arrives."  We plead for SLIM to be taken out of the scorching bus, at
least, and/or to be give water.  They refuse.

8:15pm - A white-shirted official - presumably a medic of some kind arrives,
but does not enter the bus.  Our untrained bus driver is sent to fetch SLIM
out, which he attempts to do by brute force, pulling harder at SLIM's
handcuffed arms when he immediately gets wedged in the aisle.  SLIM is not a
small fellow. JOYFUL (and others) scream at the driver to stop tugging at
him and attempt to gently extract SLIM.  JOYFUL is assaulted by the driver
for her efforts.  SLIM is dragged out of the bus and laid on the ground
still cuffed.  We lose sight of SLIM as he is separated from the group and
hauled away.  Our requests that one of us accompany him are ignored.  We
still have no water.  SLIM's symptoms were indicative of dehydration, heat
exhaustion, and shock and we knew the same was waiting for us.

9:30pm - We finally receive water:  One 500 ml bottle to split between all
31 remaining of us.  This is the drivers' personal water, he tells us.  He's
doing this as a favor.

9:50 pm - After we chant "WATER, WATER" or 20 minutes, we are given a total
of 128 oz of water, 4 32 oz bottles.  This is about 4 oz a person.  Around
this time someone finally informs us we've been arrested.  We're not told
out charges, and have never been read our rights.

11pm - It starts to rain around 11:00.  We're so thirsty we try to drink the
water dripping from the roof by collecting it in our hands and letting it
run down our arms.  Only those who have been able to bring their hands
around to the front by passing them under them and putting their legs
through are able to do this.  The rest of us lap at the water dripping from
their elbows.

Wednesday August 2nd

12:57 AM
I am finally let off the bus. About a dozen men are still waiting behind me.
We are taken through a garage, where RABBIT and bout 70 others are sitting,
still handcuffed and awaiting processing. I and the others on my bus are
taken right in. Our shoes, belts and everything in our pockets were taken
and bagged. Our cuffs were then cut and we were frisked. When frisked, I was
asked why I was soaking wet. Being locked up in a 100% bus for 7 hours will
do that to you. The officers were convinced I was holding stuff in my boots,
which of course I was not. Another polaroid was taken while I was still in
clown makeup and we were asked our names.  About 80% of us exercised our 5th
amendment right to remain silent. We were labeled John or Jane Doe. I was
John Doe #203. We were then taken to holding cells downstairs.

by 2 AM
I was in a 6'x7' cell with 5 other people: NATHAN, ACRO, PORKCHOP, SLIM and
LARRY. We would remain here for 33 hours attempting to sleep on concrete.
The cell had a metal shelf and a toilet in the center. Nothing soft. The
floor and walls were coated with dried feces. I was wearing two shirts. ; I
gave one to a protester brought in without one.  By our numbering system I
was put in Cell Block 3, cell E. By the guards' system, this was A2. We soon
worked out a way to run meetings and reach consensus within our cell block,
and to communicate to the cell block directly behind ours. There were tow
cell blocks of men, all packed 6 to a cell , 14 cells to a block. There was
also a cell block of women and more females in a holding area originally
meant  for those waiting for bail. There were even more protesters being
held elsewhere. We reached consensus that we would resist being
fingerprinted or separated. Protesters discarded their ID bracelets, jammed
the cell doors locks, and switched shirts to confound identification. We
demanded to see our lawyers, but were not allowed. Given only cheese
sandwiches and Wawa Lemon Ice Tea ("contains 0% juice") to drink. No
allowance was made for vegans. Some short hunger strikes.

8:30 PM
I am finally fingerprinted, after hiding twice. In solidarity, I move as
slowly as possible. Grease paint from my clown face is on my hands, which
smears the machine. I am told to wash my hands, which I do meticulously,
with careful attention to each digit and wrinkle. Drying takes as long. When
I look up, I see female sisters in the holding tank cheering for me.
I am also photographed again, still wearing my clown makeup.
I am brought back to cell 3E.
We start to formulate a list of demands, and non-co-operation until they are
met.

by 11:15 PM
RABBIT, TENESSEE, BUCKY and WOLFMAN are cuffed opposite hand to foot as
punishment for not voluntarily going to be fingerprinted. They are left in
their cells cuffed. They can't stand up and lying down is extremely
uncomfortable. It is late night.
11:35 PM
Cellblock starts chanting "MEDIC" after BUCKY's hands turn blue.
11:40 PM
Badge 113 examines BUCKY and refuses to help him. We continue chanting.
11:49 PM
BUCKY's cuffs are cut. RABBIT< TENNESSEE and WOLFMAN are still cuffed. We
chant "TAKE OFF THE CUFFS!"

THURSDAY AUGUST 3
12:02 AM
Corporal Sculley glances at WOLFMAN's hands and proclaims them a "nice shade
of pink". We demand a medic. Sculley claims to be one. (He is obviously not)
12:03 AM
After our chanting escalates, Officer Cassady (badge 1976) uncuffs Wolfman
(not gently).
1:10 AM
A heavy, white haired diabetic is dragged in from fingerprinting, cuffed
hand to foot like the rest. He was uncuffed only when the cell block begins
chanting at full volume.
1:15 AM
RABBIT's cuffs are finally cut. His wrist is bleeding slightly. He's been
cuffed hand to foot in his cell for over 2 hours. TENESSEE is also out by
now.
2 AM
We find out that the women's leaders are being taken away and isolated. In
my 6-person cell, 3 of us finally manage to urinate in the close company,
after 30 hours of incarceration. No one has yet managed to defecate since
the 6 of us must sit knee to knee in the cell. There is no privacy. We have
still not seen our lawyer.
3 AM
A public defender- not our R2K lawyers- is finally let in to the Roundhouse.
5 AM
He gets to our cell block. The defender is not familiar with jail solidarity
and cannot give advice. He just lectures morosely on maximum penalties. Our
feeling is that he is not on our side.
6:20 AM
JOE HILL is cuffed hand to foot for not voluntarily giving his fingerprints.
6:55 AM
JOE HILL is finally uncuffed.
9:00 AM
Eleven from our cell block are dragged from our cells, chained together and
marched off. We would meet them again later in CFCF.
9:15 AM
Water in our cell blocks is turned off. Not even the toilet works. An
officer tells my cell: "There's water in the toilet. Drink that!"
9:30 AM
I am taken out of my cell and stood against ther wall to wait for
arraignment. While I am waiting, Officer Cassady (Badge 1976) drags
WOLFMAN's face through the gutter and then slams it into the cell bars for
moving to slowly. WOLF later shoed the abrasion on his right shoulder this
caused. GOD is also slammed into the bars by 1976.
9:50 AM
While I'm, standing there, all water is finally turned back on after 35
minutes of chanting. VELVEETA and other Puppetistas are waiting with me.
11 AM
I am finally taken in to my arraignment, where I hear my charges for the
first time. They are all misdemeanors but include charges like "Obstructing
a highway" which give the conditions and place of arrest I am obviously
innocent of. The paper work is mixed up, I am told: the folks arrested at
the puppet warehouse (4100 Haverford) and those arrested at the on ramp to
676 at 8th street - clear across town - have been lumped together and all
given the same charges. I am sent back to thje holding cell while the DA and
my public defender(our R2K lawyers still had not been allowed to see or
represent us) sorted things out.
11:20AM
I am called back in, and read the "amended" charges, which are exactly the
same. The DA asks if I wish to give my name. I again exercise my right not
to incriminate myself. I am given $50,000 bail. My defender appeals for
$25,000 but is dismissed.
11:40 AM
I am brought back downstairs, but put in a different cell: 5 of cellblock 3.
12:30 PM
We take a roll call:42 of us , one in solitary. After arraignment, some, but
not all of us are allowed phone calls to raise bail. WOLFMAN was never given
his phone call. We finalize our demands as a chant: 1. NO CHARGES 2. NO
NAMES 3. NO ISOLATION 4. NO RETURN DATE
Between 12:30 and 3 PM
Jules Espstein from R2K legal finally is allowed to visit the cell blocks.
He says that everyone who gives theior name is being released on their own
recognizance.  He doesn't know that non-Philly folks who give their names
are still getting 5k-10k bails.
3 PM
In cell 5 with me by this point are WOLFMAN, WISP, BUCKSHOT, RABBIT and ODB.
3:40 PM
>From the next cell block (our "2" their "B") we hear chants of "POLICE
BRUTALITY". One cell has locked arms to prevent themselves from being taken
for fingerprinting. The guards beat them with fists while trying to separate
them.
Around 6PM
Eleven of us are chained together and taken to CFCF (the Curran Fromhold
Correctional Facility). The guards try to convince us we are being put in
with murderers and rapists.
7:30 PM
We (SWITCHBLADE, WISP, TENNESEE, BUSTER, JERRY LOVE, FLEA, RABBIT, WOLFMAN
and GOD) enter CFCF. We talk to Morty, who was taken in when officers
searched his home, who reassures us. WOLFMAN still hasn't had an opportunity
to make a phone call. We enter medical quarantine. We are given prison
clothes and allowed to take a shower., which feels wonderful after our
experience at the Roundhouse. Our prison garb is a bright orange jumpsuit.
We are not given underwear or socks, so we must continue wearing what we
have which after the roundhouse is filthy. We move from room to room as we
are processed. We are given wristbands with our photo and barcode. My photo
has me in clown makeup.

FRIDAY AUGUST 4

3:40 AM
I make it as far as my TB and syphilis check in medical. I expect to flinch
as they draw blood, but after everything that has happened to me, the needle
is not a concern.
4:00 Am
My group of 11 enters Pod B2. I am placed in cell 30 with RABBIT. All cells
are 2 person.
8:30AM
We are woken for breakfast. I remain on the fast I have been on since
Wednesday.
11:10 AM RABBIT is asleep. I defecate for the first time in another's
company (and for the first time since Tuesday). Still no privacy, but at
least it's just one other person here.
11:30 AM
Wardens call a meeting, explaining that our anonymity is interfering with
our families' efforts to bail us out. We know this; we want to stay here in
solidarity with our brothers.
3PM
According to R2K, of 420 arrests, only 60 people have accepted release or
been escorted out of jails without consent.

SATURDAY, AUGUST 5

12:25AM
WOKEN AND TAKEN FOR A PHYSICAL WITH WOLFMAN, BUCKSHOT and GOD.
8:30 AM
breakfast:2% skim milk, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, apple sauce and
corn flakes. I continue my fast.
11:40 AM
15 of us (including me) talk to three folk from the public defender's
office. We learn that the state can hold us for up to 120 days without a
trial. There were 100-150 people brought to CFCF; only 16 were charged with
felonies (mostly aggravated assault). I get a chance to talk to one of
these, NEIL, and will send his story out as soon as I write it down. We
release a statement with 2 real names and at least 15 John Doe signatures.
2PM
Went to see the prison social worker. According to her computer, my bail is
$25,000 and my charges are:
1. CC0907 M1 Possessing an instrument of crime
2. CC5101 M2 Obstructing Administration of Law or Government Function
3. CC5101 M2 Obstructing Administration of Law or Government Function
4. CC5507 M3 Obstructing Highway and other public passage
5. CC5507 M3 Obstructing Highway and other public passage
6. CC2705 M2 Recklessly Endangering
7. CC2705 M2 Recklessly Endangering
8. CC5503 M3 Disorderly Conduct
9. CC5503 M3 Disorderly Conduct

I apparently have a crash court date at 11AM on August 11, 2000. These
charges are different from those read to me at my arraignment; for one thing
at my arraignment, all charges were paired with a "conspiracy to" charge.
>From the circumstances of my arrest (in warehouse, voluntarily gave myself
up) it is obvious that charges 2-5 are completely bogus. Similarly for
charge 1: I can assure you that nothing even faintly resembling an
"instrument of crime" was found on my person. It is hard to see how any of
the actions were considered "Reckless Endangerment" or "Disorderly Conduct"
considering we never left the warehouse and quite orderly were detained.
Most others I have talked to have similarly trumped up charges. I don't know
why the social worker's computer showed my bail at $25,000 instead of
$50,000 but even the lower amount, $760 would be non-refundable EVEN IF I
SHOW UP AT MY COURT DATE AND AM FOUND INNOCENT. The presumption of innocence
is a myth.

It is now 10:50PM, Saturday August 5th. I am Flea.

Flea, Prisoner 907835

-for more info on our less than favourable situation got to the Philadelphia
Direct Action Group's site: thepartsover.org

                       ********
               The A-Infos News Service
_________________________________________________________
 > Subject: Philadelphia Right Now
>
> Please go to: http://www.phillyimc.org
>
> ********
> Friends, family, others:
>
> What's going on in Philadelphia right now is a civil rights catastrope the
> magnitude of which is difficult to express in words.  As I'm writing this,
> two well known activists are being held on 1 million dollars bail each.
> Both were picked up while walking down the street during the recent
protests
> against the Republican National Convention.  Others arrested have bails
set
> as high as 500,000 dollars.  Most of the 341 protesters still
incarcerated,
> whose charges range from obstructing a highway to disorderly conduct, have
> bails set in excess of 10,000 dollars.  These are the highest bails on
> record in the US for these charges.  Needless to say, most cannot afford
> these bails and are practicing jail solidarity (refusing to give thier
names
> in order to get demands for fair treatment met) regardless.  Almost all
have
> been moved to county prisons at this point.  In a country that prides
itself
> on freedom of expression and asembly, they are political prisoners.  There
> is simply no other term.
>
> As I'm writing this, reports of intimidation, abuse and torture continue
to
> pour in from the jails.  Prisoners in custody up to 80 or more hours
before
> being allowed a phone call or access to a lawyer.  Prisoners being denied
> food and water, kept in sweltering buses until they went into heat stroke,
> prisoners denied life saving medication (including meds for HIV, asthma
and
> epilepsy), prisoners with broken wrists or hands, torn ears, chipped
teeth,
> abused genitals.  This isn't a laundry list of horror stories.  This is a
> list of testimonies I've heard personally, from the mouths of those it
> happened to or thier friends.  People red-faced, stunned, grieving.  These
> are people I--and probably you--know.  This is real.  This is happening
> right now.
>
> The police have isolated people they see as "leaders" for interrogation an
d
> exorbitant bails.  Many have not been able to meet with lawyers.  A friend
> of mine, a puppeteer from Austin TX, was detained by police before the
> protests began.  This occured outside the Haverford puppet space during
the
> raid that destroyed nearly all the signs and props people had been
building
> to communicate thier messages during the demonstration.  The puppets have
> since been out through an industrial shredder and my friend is being held
on
> seven misdemenor chrages, for 250,000 dollars bail.  Dozens of others,
> arrested miles from the demonstrations in the puppet warehouse, are still
in
> jail on charges ranging from "conspiracy" to "obstructing a highway."  The
> highest prison term being mentioned so far is 20-40 years, attatched to a
> person accused of assaulting Commisioner Timoney.  In addition to going
> after the puppets, police systematically picked off and arrested those
with
> cell phones or radios the day of the action.  Other "organizers" were
weeded
> out of milling crowds, police having identified them by previously taken
> photos.
>
> The state and federal governments are attempting to break the back of this
> movement and it has what seems to be unlimited resources to do so.  For
> months before the protests, police presence near activist spaces and
> survelance of activists has been extreme.  They tapped phones,
photographed
> the house I was staying in, send operatives into deep cover to befriend us
> and utilized a nationwide network of intelligence information to acquire
> knowledge about our movements as we were deciding these things ourselves.
> All this for a group of non-violent people planning to block traffic!
> Obviously, the resources delegated to stopping and punishing the
protesters
> are there not for what we did but for why we did it.
>
> And why is that?  Ironically, the day most of the 455 protesters were
taken
> in was themed The Criminal In-Justice system, with rallys and direct
actions
> planned to call attention to the growing private prison system and the
> disproportionate number of poor people and people of color in the jails
and
> on death row.  I could restate the statistics but we all know them by
heart.
>   The politicians know them and the people on the street know them. The
> rascist, classist prison system is part of our national heritage and
> national shame, something every American but the 2 million behind bars is
> complict in allowing to continue.
>
> The messages are simple, yet members of the mainstream press claimed they
> didn't understand. They called the message obscure, while thousands of
> police with batons and plastic cuffs stood in stony formation at city
> intersections.  Demands for an end to police brutality became more and
more
> clear as instances of police violence broke out towards the end of the
day.
> I saw on the local news that police did "nothing more than yell at
> protesters" and were "a model of restraint."  But I also saw a girl go
down
> after taking a baton in the leg.  And I saw my friend's broken thumb, bent
> back by two other hands simply because no one was there to record it.
>
> I remember marching from the jail Wednesday night in the rain.  The wicks
on
> our red candles had gone wet and black, the media had almost all left.
> Hundreds of cops cordoned off the hundred and fifty members of the vigil,
> one at the front with a rifle out, its muzzle pointed caddycorner to our
> thighs.  I was walking with a reproter from the Philadelphia Inquirer,
> telling her what I'd seen, telling her that people were being hurt.  She
> said, "I know.  But if we can't verify it, we can't print it."  The ink on
> her pad was smeared and illegible, the paper soaked and transluctent.
> Together we crossed the line off that rifle with our breath in our
throats.
> My fingers had gone numb, my intestines icy, my mouth frozen open in
> evaporated song.  I looked around and all I saw was policemen after
> policemen, a sea of powder blue shirts and shiny chrome bicycles.  All I
saw
> was the muzzle of that rifle and what it meant.  I had the sense of
history
> demanding something of me and every other person at that jail, in
> Philadelphia and in this country.  I had the sense of incredible loss. And
I
> knew that it didn't matter because no one was writing it down.
>
> We need help.  At the rallies outside the jail, people chanted "The whole
> world is watching."  But it often felt like no one was.  While isolated
> members of the press have worked hard to provide objective coverage, for
the
> most part the media has been biased against us to the point of criminal
> negligence.  This shouldn't surprise me.  Newspapers and television
stations
> are powered by and exist to serve the same corporations we in the streets
> hoped to unmask.  Still, I am surprised.  Surprised because after all
these
> companies are staffed by people, by human beings I assume have a sense of
> empathy, responsibility and justice, if not simple horror at the idea of a
> world without first amendment freedoms.  Ditto for the cops.   Each man
and
> woman in uniform in Philadelphia has seen this group of people (not to
> mention the many other groups who have faced and continue to face much
> worse) systematically vilified and abused.  Don't they understand tommorow
> it could be them?  That (for many of them) it has been and continues to be
> them?  I can only hope that everyone involved in the brave new police
state
> I see cropping up all around me realizes thier complicity in the situation
> and the power they have to stop it.
>
> The whole world is not watching.  People's lives are being destroyed.
> Incredible people: community organizers, gardeners, writers, dancers.  The
> people I know behind bars cook food for the homeless, publish magazines,
> build bikes for kids.  I have never seen or heard of any engaging in an
act
> of violence.  They are carpenters.  Most would rather build an alternative
> physical or economic structure than break the window of an existing one.
> Which is exactly what makes them so threatening.
>
> The world is not watching, and it needs to be.  The press is not watching.
> It hasn't been for a long, long time.  The convention is over but the
abuse
> it still happening.  Over three hundred people are in jail tonight in
> Philadelphia as part of what can only be described as a coordinated act of
> political repression.  Thousands of demonstrators have been portrayed as
> dangerous criminals for continuing a tradition of civil disobedience
passed
> on to us from Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. This is a crucial moment
for
> anyone who considers him or herself free.  As a friend put it
> yesterday--after we were followed and photographed yet again by a
> plainclothes policemen: "this is the first page in a very big book."
>
> Please help:
>
> * Write letters to your local newspaper and television stations.  Demand
> coverage of the situation in Philadelphia and the demonstrators still in
> jail.
>
> * Write to national media such as the NY Times and cnn.com, demanding the
> full story on continuing human rights violations.
>
> * Go to the Philadelphia Inquirer
> http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/
> and Philadelphia Tribune
> http://www.phila-tribune.com/
> And respond to them about thier coverage.
>
> * Call District Attorney Lynn Abraham at 215-686-8701 and Mayor John
Street
> (who has stated that Philly will throw the book at protesters) at
> 215-686-2181.  Let the Mayor know that while Police Commissioner John
> Timoney is riding high in the press right now, Street had better distance
> himself from the monster before the full story about systematic physical
> torture and civil rights abuses reaches the public.
>
> *Hook up with the Moms for Justice by emailing your name, phone and email
to
> Sue Mammarella at suemam@aol.com or Carolyn McGuckin-Robinson at
> crobin@icdc.com.
>
> *** Make a tax-deductable and urgently needed donation to the PDAG
> (Philadelphia Direct Action Group) Legal and Bail Fund by sending checks
> payable to "ISMCH" to PDAG/ PO Box 40683/ Philadelphia, PA 19107.  Please
> put "legal fund" on the memo line.***
>
> * Read the statement by the John Does at CFCS
> http://www.thepartysover.org/media/cfcfletter20000806.html
> Write prisoners in jail as the addresses become available over the
> www.phillyimc.org site.
>
> * Read the LA Times Article on Upcoming DNC Protests
> http://www.latimes.com/news/state/20000807/t000073900.html
> Write them on thier coverage, let them know how important the press will
be
> at the DNC protests and urge them to give critical focus on the issues
> people are demonstrating about.
>
> * Forward this or more concise info from the links listed to everyone you
> know, espeically those who might be willing to help, or who might have
money
> to contribute to the bail fund.
>
> In faith,
> Ammi

http://web.philly.com/content/inquirer/2000/08/04/front_page/target04.htm

Key activists were earmarked by police

Protesters say their leaders were arrested not for what they did, but for
what they might do. Police deny this.

Even as the world's media shone a bright light on Philadelphia police
clearing masses of protesters from blockaded streets this week, police were
carrying out a much less public - and much more selective - operation to
collar demonstration leaders.

Eyewitnesses accounts and video taken by demonstrators document police
moving in to swiftly arrest at least two such leaders.

One, John Sellers, 33, a nationally known civil-disobedience activist from
Berkeley, Calif., was arrested Wednesday as he walked along JFK Boulevard.

Yesterday, Sellers, who grew up in Chester County, was held on $1 million
bail - even though he was only charged with misdemeanor offenses.

Defense lawyers called the sum unprecedented and punitive, while a
prosecutor portrayed him as the real puppetmaster in a protest replete with
puppets and other theatrical agitprop objects.

Another protester, Paul Davis, a Philadelphia activist on AIDS issues in his
20s, was arrested Tuesday as he walked on a blockaded street and spoke on a
cell phone. It was unclear last night whether his bail had been set.

Police Commissioner John F. Timoney yesterday spoke of "some arrests
effected in the Center City area that included some of the so-called
leaders," but declined to provide details.

He did say police had good reason for every arrest.

"We think we can prove they've engaged in criminal activity," the
commissioner said during his morning news briefing.

There were no preemptive strikes "just to take leaders out," he said.

Furious demonstrators yesterday strongly disagreed. They said that the
strikes were indeed preemptive, and that police arrested people for what
they might do - and not for actual crimes.

The critics said the arrests of several protest leaders - "ringleaders," as
the District Attorney's Office termed them - were part of a pattern in which
police aimed to decapitate the leadership of the demonstrations. People
involved in the protests acknowledged that the arrests scrambled their
communications and reduced their effectiveness.

They said people had been arrested on false pretexts - especially during a
Tuesday raid on a West Philadelphia warehouse that was a key protest
facility.

Then, they said, protesters were held behind bars for unusually long times,
thus keeping them off the streets.

As of early yesterday, they noted, police said only about 30 of 369 arrested
protesters had been released. Scores more were released later in the day,
but officials could provide no figures.

"The whole point of this is preventive - preventive detention. Get them all
off the streets until the Republicans are out of town," said Ann Northrup,
an AIDS activist from New York City with the group ACTUP. "It didn't matter
if they had done anything."

Her view was echoed by Larry Gross, a University of Pennsylvania
communications professor who served on a blue-ribbon panel critical of
police misconduct during a 1991 protest. Gross noted that police had been
photographing demonstrators in weeks before the Republican National
Convention.

"They spied on the protest groups. I think they prepared a list of
organizers that they were looking for, and when they found them, they
arrested them," Gross said.

Yet Stefan Presser, a leading critic of the warehouse raid as legal director
of the state's American Civil Liberties Union branch, said the Police
Department acted within the law if it targeted leaders preparing an
unpermitted and, hence, illegal demonstration.

He said helping organize an illegal demonstrations, such as by staying out
of the fray and directing others via cellular phone, was criminally no
different than blocking traffic.

"It's probably smart tactics," Presser said, referring to the selective arre
sts. "And it probably succeeded, if you look at the speed at which the city
resumed to normalcy. I don't see that there's a constitutional question
here. It just makes good sense on the part of the department."

Apart from the protesters sitting on streets, police this week targeted
certain activists who they knew had been involved in past protests or who
simply looked as though they were organizing actions over a mobile phone.

The result was that scores of people, even medics and bicycle messengers
trying to do their jobs, were swept up in the search for a select few who
may have been pivotal to the protests.

Police interest in people with cellular phones and walkie-talkies led them
to detain and question several bicycle messengers over the last two days,
managers of several messenger firms said. Some were stopped going into
Center City office towers, others near hotels or on the street.

"They wanted to make sure he wasn't scoping out the area, or starting to
gather," Ted Teschner, general manager of Heaven Sent Couriers, said of an
employee who was stopped.

Police seemed to key on people carrying Nextel mobile phones, favored by
protest organizers because they cost about $125 each and permit users to
conduct mobile conference calls.

Activists said at least 15 important players had been arrested by police in
apparently targeted collars.

A similar police tactic was employed in Seattle late last fall and in
Washington, D.C., in April during crackdowns on disruptive protests there.

Temple University law professor Edward Ohlbaum said that $1 million bail -
which was set in Sellers' case - for a misdemeanor charge is extraordinarily
high.

Authorities provided few details of Sellers' allegedly illegal acts but did
say that at one point he chained himself to a trash barrel in order to
obstruct traffic.

Sellers, who has been unable to make bail, faces misdemeanor charges of
obstruction of justice, obstructing a highway, failure to disperse,
recklessly endangering another person, and conspiracy.

Sellers was also charged with possession with an instrument of crime, but
officials did not specify what that instrument was or at what point he was
using it. Colleagues said yesterday that he had been carrying only a Palm
Pilot and a cell phone at the time of his arrest.

Ohlbaum said he could not recall a previous case in which bail was set at $1
million for a misdemeanor.

Four other activists charged with assaults were held on lesser bails of
$400,000 to $500,000.

Only one of the four, Darby Landy, 20, was charged with a felony. He was
charged with robbery and assault in connection with the heavily publicized
incident in which Timoney and other officers on bicycles were involved in a
fight a block from Rittenhouse Square. He was held on $500,000 bail.

Lawrence Krasner, a criminal defense lawyer in Center City representing
Sellers, said he was astounded at the high bail.

"The D.A.'s behavior is like nothing I've ever seen in my life," said
Krasner. "This is a desperate effort to systematically punish these people
without a trial, to lock them up, keep them off the streets."

When Davis, the AIDS activist, was arrested Tuesday, he was walking with
other activists on a blockaded Center City street - and talking on a Nextel.

It was not immediately known what he was charged with.

In a scene Tuesday captured by a videographer working for the protesters'
Independent Media Center, police rushed Davis from behind.

"Come on, you're coming with us," an officer is heard saying. At one point,
a supervisor says: "I want him out of here."

As Davis is pulled backward, he can be seen pushing buttons on his Nextel
even as a police supervisor reaches to grab it from him.

Then a voice, apparently that of a protester, says: "The Nextel! The Nextel!
Throw it! Throw it!"

Davis, who has been active for many years with ACTUP in Philadelphia and
took part in the mass protest in Washington earlier this year, tossed the
phone toward other protesters, but it slipped through several hands and
tumbled to the asphalt. A police supervisor, identifiable by his white
shirt, kicked it about 10 yards.

The phone ended up under a police cruiser.

While the state ACLU found the police targeted arrests defensible, Presser,
its legal director, joined other critics in assailing other parts of the
police operation.

He and others condemned Tuesday's police raid on a West Philadelphia
warehouse that served as a workshop for the satirical puppets and bizarre
headdresses that have become an odd hallmark of the theatrical street
protests.

Police, who said the building also stored materials to block streets,
arrested 70 people there - 20 percent of all those collared this week - thus
taking them out of action before the street protests began.

Timoney yesterday declined to say what objects had been seized in the raid.

The search warrant itself, signed Tuesday by a Municipal Court judge, and
related paperwork, including the police affidavit outlining probable cause
for the search, are under seal, barred from public inspection.

A judge sealed the file Tuesday at the request of the district attorney.

Presser and lawyers from the Public Defender's Office faulted the secrecy,
with Presser calling the arrest of those at the warehouse "bogus."

All were charged with misdemeanors.

The "decision to seal the warrant only strengthens my feeling that this
whole process was a pretext," he said. "It's not a question of national
security, or anything that requires ongoing investigation since these
demonstrations are at an end."

Once arrested, many suspects spent long hours in prison.

Court rules give police up to two days to hold suspects before a bail
hearing. And Timoney said many of those held for long periods had only
themselves to blame. By refusing to identify themselves, some protesters
slowed down the whole process, he said.

Philadelphia lawyer David Rudovsky, who specializes in civil-rights cases
and is representing some of the protesters, said some of the arraignments
definitely took too long.

"There's a fair number of people that have been identified and still haven't
been arraigned," Rudovsky said. "I think that's completely unfair."

Ohlbaum said long waits between arrest and release are common.

Even so, he said, many of the protesters received citations for minor
infractions, which he said "generally means that bail is not an issue and
everyone gets out."

One of those arrested at the West Philadelphia warehouse Tuesday, Milan
Marvelous, 31, said he was kept on a bus for nine hours, from 4 p.m. Tuesday
until 1 a.m. Wednesday, and then detained in a cell until he was released at
4 a.m.

"We were preventively arrested. We had done nothing wrong," said Marvelous,
of the Northern Liberties section of the city.

"We were detained many hours on incredibly hot buses with incredibly painful
cuffs," said Jeremy Varon, 32, a history professor at Rutgers University in
New Brunswick, also among those arrested at the puppet factory.
By Craig R. McCoy ,Thomas Ginsberg and Emilie Lounsberry
INQUIRER STAFF WRITERS
------
News of interest to anarchist from Revolt
  http://flag.blackened.net/revolt


----- Original Message -----
From: "I Awoke" <looksfar@lycos.com>
To: <hacktivism@tao.ca>
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2000 10:19 PM
Subject: battles


[: hacktivism :]

Can anyone tell me what became of the political prisoners in Philly?? I have
been involved in a battle with the Canadian Government, and have not seen
any posts rearding the Phillidelphia arrests...Is anything being done?? are
they still in jail??oh  yeah....the HBPPM sounds like an excellent idea!!!!
Peace.




[: hacktivism :]
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[: http://hacktivism.tao.ca/ :]



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