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Any commercial websites wishing to use this RSS file, please contact The Stranger. editor@thestranger.com (The Stranger Editor) webmaster@thestranger.com (The Stranger Webmaster) Sat, 25 May 2013 00:00:01 -0700 Sat, 25 May 2013 22:30:00 -0700 Foundation http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/24/new-calilfornia-law-could-prohibit-protesters-from-riding-public-transit http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/24/new-calilfornia-law-could-prohibit-protesters-from-riding-public-transit Brendan Kiley <p>A local ABC affiliate describes <a href="http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/local&id=9083676">the situation</a> this way: "BART is rolling out a new plan that will allow it to ban passengers who don't behave."</p> <p>But <a href="http://todnews.com/2013/05/new-law-will-ban-protesters-from-riding-mass-transit-in-california/">the RT blog</a> describes it this way: "New law will <strong>ban protesters from riding mass transit in California</strong>... that power could be used to prevent political protesters from getting to demonstrations or essentially going anywhere."</p> <p><a href="http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/11-12/bill/asm/ab_0701-0750/ab_716_cfa_20110701_115626_sen_comm.html">The law is here</a> and states, among other things, that possession of any illegal substance, "lewd" behavior, "unruly" behavior, or pretty much anything a transit cop decides is undesirable&#8212;they get a lot of discretion&#8212;can lead to a year-long prohibition from public transit. (It seems one must have gotten three infractions in 90 days.)</p> <p>This measure was put in place, in part, because of <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/14/linton-johnson-bart-emails_n_963294.html"><u>repeated</u></a> <a href="http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Anonymous-planning-another-BART-protest-2334394.php"><u>protests</u></a> against BART in San Francisco after a BART cop shot and killed a mentally ill homeless man. (A few years prior, a BART officer shot and killed an <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BART_Police_shooting_of_Oscar_Grant">unarmed 22 year-old</a>.) BART, of course, <a href="http://www.bart.gov/news/articles/2013/news20130130.aspx">defends the law</a> as an attempt to "create a safer, cleaner environment for BART riders and employees."</p> <p>But even the ABC report recognizes that "AB 716 won't only target violent behavior. It can be applied to protestors who have been arrested during free-speech movements."</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/24/new-calilfornia-law-could-prohibit-protesters-from-riding-public-transit#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16864437&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Transportation http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/24/new-calilfornia-law-could-prohibit-protesters-from-riding-public-transit?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16864437&id=comments 20 Fri, 24 May 2013 11:51:33 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/23/is-your-home-a-toxic-asset http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/23/is-your-home-a-toxic-asset Unpaid Intern <p><em>Posted by news intern Ansel Herz</em></p> <p>I have news from Morgan Stanley for Jeremy Griffin and the SAFE activists <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/defending-a-south-seattle-house/Content?oid=16837873">attempting to block his eviction</a> in South Seattle: "We do not own the loan and had no involvement in the foreclosure process," says Mark Lake, a Morgan Stanley spokesman. This despite Morgan Stanley, along with Deutsche Bank, being listed as plaintiffs on the eviction order.</p> <p>This stuff is complex, but from what I understand based on my reporting, Morgan Stanley was responsible for packaging a set of loans together, including Griffin's, and selling them to investors. This process is called <strong>securitization</strong>. Deutsche Bank represents those investors, and probably hired Wells Fargo as the servicer to carry out the foreclosure.</p> <p>I asked Lake whether Morgan Stanley has any comment on the practice of securitization, which <strong>contributed to the financial collapse in 2008</strong>. "No comment," he replied, after a pause.</p> <p>The securitization "food chain" was a "ticking time bomb," according to this a clip from the Oscar-winning documentary <em>Inside Job</em>, which explains how investment banks including Morgan Stanley sold packages of loans to investors, and in turn, <strong>helped wreck the economy</strong>:</p> <p><div style="text-align:center;"><object width="480" height="270"><param name="movie" value="http://www.wingclips.com/embed/player.swf?config=http://www.wingclips.com/player/295/1367/config.js" /><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true" /><embed src="http://www.wingclips.com/embed/player.swf?config=http://www.wingclips.com/player/295/1367/config.js" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" width="480" height="270"></embed></object></div></p> <p><a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/22/this-pope-understands-capitalism">Charles reports</a> that Pope Francis is "calling for a more ethical banking system and curbs on financial speculation." Hear hear! <a href="http://safeinseattle.org/">SAFE</a>, the group organizing the eviction blockade, sent out text messages this morning asking supporters to "<strong>please be on alert</strong>." They say King County Sheriff detective Pierre Thiry has warned them the eviction is likely to happen in the next several days.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/23/is-your-home-a-toxic-asset#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16846185&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/23/is-your-home-a-toxic-asset?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16846185&id=comments 10 Thu, 23 May 2013 11:42:49 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/18/where-was-bobby-jindal-when-the-grand-jury-refusers-were-in-prison http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/18/where-was-bobby-jindal-when-the-grand-jury-refusers-were-in-prison Brendan Kiley <p>Republican governor of Louisiana and POTUS hopeful Bobby Jindal has taken a strong stand against federal agents aiming their power at people for ideological reasons&#8212;in this case, the whole <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/may/18/bobby-jindal-irs-officials-jail-sentences?guni=Network%20front:network-front%20main-3%20Main%20trailblock:Network%20front%20-%20main%20trailblock:Position4">IRS-scrutinizing-conservative-groups scandal.</a></p> <p>He has declared that IRS officials involved should go to jail:</p> <blockquote><p>"You cannot take the freedom of law-abiding Americans, whether you disagree with them or not, and keep your own freedom. When you do that, you go to jail," Jindal said.</p></blockquote> <p>Hey Bobby! What do you think about <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/freedom-is-frustrating/Content?oid=16403520">this situation?</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/18/where-was-bobby-jindal-when-the-grand-jury-refusers-were-in-prison#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16804151&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/18/where-was-bobby-jindal-when-the-grand-jury-refusers-were-in-prison?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16804151&id=comments 19 Sat, 18 May 2013 10:49:03 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/us-military-grants-itself-the-power-to-police-american-streets-and-quell-civil-disturbances http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/us-military-grants-itself-the-power-to-police-american-streets-and-quell-civil-disturbances Brendan Kiley <p>The Long Island Press has noticed that <a href="http://www.longislandpress.com/2013/05/14/u-s-military-power-grab-goes-into-effect/">the US military has quietly given itself the power to police Americans and "quell... civil disturbances."</a></p> <blockquote><p>The lines blurred even further Monday as a new dynamic was introduced to the militarization of domestic law enforcement. By making a few subtle changes to a regulation in the U.S. Code titled &#8220;Defense Support of Civilian Law Enforcement Agencies&#8221; the military has quietly granted itself the ability to police the streets <strong>without obtaining prior local or state consent</strong>, upending a precedent that has been in place for more than two centuries.</p> <p>The most objectionable aspect of the regulatory change is the inclusion of <strong>vague language that permits military intervention in the event of &#8220;civil disturbances.&#8221;</strong> According to the rule:</p> <p><em>Federal military commanders have the authority, in extraordinary emergency circumstances where prior authorization by the President is impossible and duly constituted local authorities are unable to control the situation, to engage temporarily in activities that are necessary to quell large-scale, unexpected civil disturbances.</em></p> <p>Bruce Afran, a civil liberties attorney and constitutional law professor at Rutgers University, calls the rule, &#8220;a wanton power grab by the military,&#8221; and says, &#8220;It&#8217;s quite shocking actually because it violates <strong>the long-standing presumption that the military is under civilian control</strong>.&#8221;</p> <p>... Michael German, senior policy counsel to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), noted in a 2009 Daily Kos article that, &#8220;there is no doubt that the military is very good at many things. But recent history shows that restraint in their new-found domestic role is not one of them.&#8221;</p></blockquote> <p>So... does this mean America is now living under the hair-trigger threat of martial law? And what rises to the level of "civil disturbance"?</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/us-military-grants-itself-the-power-to-police-american-streets-and-quell-civil-disturbances#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16784929&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy News War http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/16/us-military-grants-itself-the-power-to-police-american-streets-and-quell-civil-disturbances?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16784929&id=comments 48 Thu, 16 May 2013 10:45:23 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/15/occupy-offshoot-blockades-home-to-save-south-park-man-from-eviction http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/15/occupy-offshoot-blockades-home-to-save-south-park-man-from-eviction Goldy <p><em>Co-authored by news intern Ansel Herz</em></p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/427d/1368661976-eviction.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/427d/1368661976-eviction.jpg" alt="A dozen activists are ready to risk arrest to defend ironworker Jeremy Griffin from being evicted from his South Park home." title="A dozen activists are ready to risk arrest to defend ironworker Jeremy Griffin from being evicted from his South Park home." width="500" height="311" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">Goldy &#124; The Stranger</li><li class="imageCaption">A dozen activists are ready to risk arrest to defend ironworker Jeremy Griffin from being evicted from his South Park home.</li></ul></div></p> <p>Shortly before midnight last night, 86-year-old activist <strong>Dorli Rainey</strong>&#8212;yes, the Dorli Rainey whose <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/blogpost/post/dorli-rainey-84-the-new-face-of-the-occupy-protests/2011/11/17/gIQAeEXKUN_blog.html">Maalox-covered pepper-sprayed face</a> became an icon of the Occupy movement&#8212;got a text message that sheriff deputies were about to evict ironworker Jeremy Griffin from his foreclosed South Park home. So she immediately jumped in a cab and headed down to Griffin's house to put her body on the line. </p> <p>Of course she did.</p> <p>Twelve hours later, the sheriffs had yet to arrive, but a couple dozen fellow activists did, transforming the lawn and sidewalk in front of Griffin's home into a kinda Occupy Seattle reunion. This is the first "eviction blockade" to be staged by <a href="http://safeinseattle.org">SAFE</a> (Standing Against Eviction &amp; Foreclosure), an activist organization that grew out of Occupy Seattle, focused on helping homeowners fight back against the banks through pragmatic public protests.</p> <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/7c9f/1368662337-griffin___daisy.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/7c9f/1368662337-griffin___daisy.jpg" alt="An eviction notice warned Jeremy Griffin and his dog Daisy to be out of their South Park home by midnight last night." title="An eviction notice warned Jeremy Griffin and his dog Daisy to be out of their South Park home by midnight last night." width="200" height="267" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">Goldy &#124; The Stranger</li><li class="imageCaption">An eviction notice warned Jeremy Griffin and his dog Daisy to be out of their South Park home by midnight last night.</li></ul></div></p> <p>The mood was almost festive (at one point, much to the delight of Rainey and others, schoolchildren from Concord Elementary across the street broke into a supportive chant). Griffin was surprisingly upbeat for man who soon could lose his house. <strong>"When you pick the right fight, you win,"</strong> Griffin defiantly proclaimed as he thanked his comrades for their support. "What matters is that people have joined together to fight the banks."</p> <p>It's a bold answer to those who criticize the Occupy movement for being too disorganized and unfocused to accomplish anything. SAFE is a direct offshoot of Occupy Seattle both in terms of organizational structure (horizontally, without hierarchy) and its membership (several of its founders are former Occupy activists). But unlike Occupy, SAFE's demands are specific and its tactics well proven. Such direct action blockades to stop evictions has been successfully employed by Occupy groups before, <a href="http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/news/2013/03/27/south-minneapolis-grandmother-spared-eviction-occupy-campaign">from Minnesota</a> to <a href="http://money.cnn.com/2011/12/06/real_estate/occupy_movement_spreads/index.htm">Atlanta</a>, often shaming the banks into negotiating with homeowners instead of evicting them.</p> <p>SAFE's initial action got off to a promising start. As TV cameras rolled and speakers urged people to call Morgan Stanley CEO James Gorman (212-761-4000) to ask him to negotiate a home-saving lease/purchase agreement, <strong>Morgan Stanley's executive offices called for Griffin</strong>. They would talk to their lawyers, Griffin says he was assured, and then get back to him.</p> <p>Given the crisis facing local homeowners, it's surprising something like SAFE took so long to happen in Seattle. "42,000 Seattle homeowners (one in three) are $3.9 billion underwater on their mortgages," <a href="http://washingtoncan.org/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/SeattleHomeWreckers_ClergyFinalpm.pdf">according to a report</a> by United Black Clergy and the Washington Community Action Network. Many of them will face foreclosure, like the more than 16,000 Seattle-area residents already foreclosed on since the financial collapse in 2008.</p> <p>Of course, <strong>the assholes who wrecked the economy got bailed out.</strong> Part of that was the $700 billion Troubled Assets Release Program (TARP). "These troubled assets that were supposed to be relieved were all of these mortgages that had been taken on by the banks," James Parker, a SAFE activist, explains. "The banks called these mortgages 'toxic waste mortgages.' They knew they what was happening. And that's why this whole thing burst."</p> <p>Under TARP, the banks were supposed to negotiate with homeowners. But Griffin says Wells Fargo, the bank that foreclosed on him in South Seattle, has refused to negotiate. SAFE activists say they've accompanied Griffin and tried to deliver checks to the downtown branch for the past four months, as a sign of good faith. (Griffin's name was on the deed, but his ex-partner was on the loan.)</p> <p>"We went up to the mortgage department and it was 4 o'clock," Parker explains. "They were going close at 5. But they actually just closed down the entire branch rather than talk to their own client... Jeremy is saying, 'I want to pay to stay in my home,' and they're not letting him."</p> <p>Griffin fell behind on his mortgage after losing his job in the construction industry collapse (thanks, Wall Street!), but now he's back on his feet, working 35 hours a week on the new South Park Bridge. He's offered to buy his house back from the bank, for about $20,000 more than the bank paid for it at auction, but until today they've refused to talk him.</p> <p>Whether today's action will be enough to save Griffin remains to be seen, but the SAFE activists say they're <strong>ready to risk arrest</strong> to block his eviction if that's what it comes to. That means tossing the likes of Rainey and city council candidate Kshama Sawant, who joined the protest, in jail. As for Sawant's opponent, incumbent council member Richard Conlin, "If he wants to join the movement, we welcome him," Sawant told me.</p> <p>Sergeant Katie Larson from the King County Sheriff's office says they'll look for ways to "peacefully resolve this issue," but says "it's our job to enforce the court order." She sounded surprised to hear about the blockade. "<strong>We do these all year. We've done thousands of these</strong>, and we have very few problems." In fact, she said, their detectives' workload is "pretty horrific," so the eviction could go down as late as June. </p> <p>Which means SAFE activists could be camped out a very long time. </p> <p><div style="text-align:center;"><iframe width="480" height="360" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/nRstJebANHM?rel=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/15/occupy-offshoot-blockades-home-to-save-south-park-man-from-eviction#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16773517&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/15/occupy-offshoot-blockades-home-to-save-south-park-man-from-eviction?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16773517&id=comments 35 Occupy Offshoot Blockades Home to Save South Park Man From Eviction A dozen activists are ready to risk arrest to defend ironworker Jeremy Griffin from being evicted from his South Park home. The Stranger Wed, 15 May 2013 18:43:28 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/13/black-bloc-community-service http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/13/black-bloc-community-service Brendan Kiley <p>This weekend I spent some time with <em><a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/62-9780691155296-0">Two Cheers for Anarchism</a></em> by James C. Scott (whose <a href="http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780300078152"><em>Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed</em></a>, which I read as a student in Chicago, was a seismic event for my young brain).</p> <p>This passage is in a chapter about how rules can be exercises in futility&#8212;improvisation, experimentation, stumbling, and mistakes are how people actually behave, from the time they learn to walk and talk to the time they're in the bloom of their lives. We get stuff done, he argues, precisely because we break the rules on a regular basis.</p> <blockquote><p>Workers have seized on the inadequacy of the rules to explain how things actually run and have exploited it to their advantage. Thus, the taxi drivers of Paris have, when they were frustrated with the municipal authorities over fees or new regulations, resorted to what is known as a <em>greve de zele</em>. They would all, by agreement and on cue, suddenly begin to follow <em>all</em> the regulations in the <em>code routier</em>, and, as intended, this would bring traffic in Paris to a grinding halt. Knowing that traffic circulated in Paris only by a practiced and judicious disregard of many regulations, they could, merely by following the rules meticulously, bring it to a standstill.</p></blockquote> <p>I love the idea of a protest based on the principle of scrupulously following rules to show how unnecessary and counterproductive they can be. Since May Day, I've also been talking with people about the idea of "Black Bloc community service."</p> <p>For example: a pack of masked demonstrators amassing at Westlake, attracting a thicket of police in SWAT gear and nervous TV anchors, then calmly and efficiently conducting a free medical clinic. (Perhaps they could pull some support from the folks at <a href="http://www.countrydoctor.org/">Country Doctor.</a>) Or leading a march that splits&#8212;one to a smashup downtown, the other to an underserved neighborhood, where the demonstrators do the heavy lifting to help built a community garden. Balaclavas, bandanas, furious weeding and tilling, wheelbarrows full of manure. (It would be hot as hell, but it would look good on the evening news.) Or a Black Bloc protest in which the windows of malfeasant banks were smashed while residential windows are lovingly washed.</p> <p>Those might be impractical ideas. But something along those lines could be attractive to people who equate anarchism with nothing more than petulance and the kicking over of trash cans, and would merrily upend the usual public narrative about what anarchist demonstrators&#8212;particularly those in Black Bloc clothes&#8212;really stand for.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/13/black-bloc-community-service#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16750006&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics Life http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/13/black-bloc-community-service?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16750006&id=comments 38 Mon, 13 May 2013 17:00:20 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/03/may-day-anarchists-will-compensate-small-businesses-whose-windows-were-smashed http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/03/may-day-anarchists-will-compensate-small-businesses-whose-windows-were-smashed Brendan Kiley <p>On May Day, as police broke up <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/late-night-may-day-wrap-up">a downtown demonstration</a> and pushed activists (including anarchists) up Capitol Hill, some windows were broken at local bar Bill's Off Broadway, local bar/distillery Sun Liquor, and a Walgreens drug store.</p> <p><div class="blogImageLeft" style="width:187px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/0ccd/1367603784-1367482924-police_plant.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/0ccd/1367603784-1367482924-police_plant.jpg" alt="A poorly disguised undercover officer." title="A poorly disguised undercover officer." width="175" height="127" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit"></li><li class="imageCaption">A poorly disguised undercover officer.</li></ul></div>This prompted some immediate debate about who broke them and why. I heard activist types saying variations on: <em>I'd gladly smash a Bank of America window, but I'd never&#8212;and I don't know anyone who would ever&#8212;want to break the window of a neighborhood bar or pizzeria. What the hell happened there?</em> There were theories: agents provocateur? That sounds nutty at first, but there were some sloppily disguised undercover types in the crowd. (And it turns out that fellow in the photo on the left, who I'd speculated about on May Day, was in fact briefly undercover&#8212;last night, someone sent me <a href="http://imgur.com/5qFGkGI">photos and descriptions</a> of him working as a police officer. I recognized the guy by his shoes.)</p> <p>Or was it random folks who just got excited at the prospect of smashing anything? Or some demonstrators who forgot the "targeted" part of "targeted property damage"?</p> <p>Regardless, the next day some group who wanted to be credited as "the Anarchists of the Puget Sound" sent me an email saying:</p> <blockquote><p>We support everything that happened last night but feel that it is <strong>our responsibility to support our neighborhood small businesses as well...</strong> We would like to throw a benefit for Bill's Off Broadway and other small businesses to help them with the cost of replacing their windows. This does not include Walgreens, for obvious reasons.</p></blockquote> <p>Both Bill's and Sun Liquor soon responded to that gesture. From <a href="http://sunliquor.com/">Sun Liquor:</a></p> <blockquote><p>If anything was immediately apparent last night it was that we have an amazingly supportive and loving community on Capitol Hill. So many people reached out to us in person and via social media to express their outrage as well as their love that we can't help but feel strengthened by the incident. Having you reach out to us <strong>only emphasizes that feeling...</strong> We have a temporary repair in place and our insurance will handle the rest. If any funds are raised we would ask that they be <strong>redirected to an organization or organizations whose work represents what May Day is really about</strong>.</p></blockquote> <p>So activists set up <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smash-the-state-just-not-bill-s">an Indiegogo campaign to raise money to offset the bars' costs,*</a> with extra proceeds going to "organizations supporting fair labor."</p> <p>Then <a href="http://www.billsoffbroadway.com/">Bill's Off Broadway</a> talked to activists and allegedly said they aren't that concerned about the window, but want people to come support the staff. Another group organized this <a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/451903334902903/452112364882000/?comment_id=452113281548575&#172;if_t=event_mall_comment">on May 8:</a></p> <blockquote><p>"Bill's Off Broadway Worker Solidarity Fundrasier"</p> <p>Come show solidarity with the staff of Bill's Off Broadway impacted by the May Day Anti Capitalist March. </p> <p>Mr. Bill is not interested in money for the window. He is more concerned about the staff working that evening, the dishwasher, waitstaff, and bartender. He said the best thing we can do is come in, order pizza, drink some beer, and show solidarity. </p> <p>Mr. Bill said: "The window was only a physical thing." </p> <p>Our argument is with the corporations and government not small businesses or workers.</p> <p>Come, order some food, order some drinks, tip well, and have fun! This is a party and celebration!</p></blockquote> <p>The activists added, in a press release, that no matter who broke the windows, for whatever reason, "our battle is directed, not towards local businesses, but towards the symbols and harbingers of both government and corporate excess." Good to know.</p> <p>If you want to give those neighborhood businesses a hand, you can <a href="http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/smash-the-state-just-not-bill-s">donate here</a>* or go eat and drink at Bill's next Wednesday&#8212;and expect undercover police officers.</p> <p><small><strong>*</strong> Of course, these folks are anonymous and we have no way to guarantee who they are or what they might do with money.</small></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/03/may-day-anarchists-will-compensate-small-businesses-whose-windows-were-smashed#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16664140&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/03/may-day-anarchists-will-compensate-small-businesses-whose-windows-were-smashed?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16664140&id=comments 83 May Day Anarchists Will Compensate Small Businesses Whose Windows Were Smashed A poorly disguised undercover officer. Fri, 03 May 2013 11:28:20 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/city-files-light-misdemeanor-charges-against-six-may-day-demonstrators http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/city-files-light-misdemeanor-charges-against-six-may-day-demonstrators Brendan Kiley <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:312px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/1aee/1367519652-johnshot.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/1aee/1367519652-johnshot.jpg" alt="johnshot.jpg" title="" width="300" height="257" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>This just in from the office of city attorney Pete Holmes:</p> <blockquote><p>The City Attorney&#8217;s Office on Thursday charged six individuals who were arrested in downtown Seattle and held overnight in the King County Jail. Three others who were arrested posted bail overnight and will be considered for charges at a later time.<br /> <br />1) SH, 5/22/91, obstruction of an officer and resisting arrest, at 8th and Howell<br /> <br />2) GH, 4/17/91, obstruction of an officer and resisting arrest, at 400 block of Olive<br /> <br />3) BS, 6/3/85, obstruction of an officer, at 6th and Olive<br /> <br />4) PN, 5/19/68, obstruction of an officer, <strong>failure to disperse</strong> and resisting arrest, at 9th and Pine<br /> <br />5) JG, 9/21/87, obstructing of an officer, at 8th and Pine<br /> <br />6) DB, 12/30/92, property damage and obstruction of an officer, at Boylston and Pine<br /> <br />Resisting arrest is a simple misdemeanor, punishable by up to 90 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.<br /> <br />Obstruction of an officer, property damage and failure to disperse are gross misdemeanors, punishable by up to 364 days in jail and a $5,000 fine.</p></blockquote> <p>Someone pointed out in comments below&#8212;and it has been my experience as well&#8212;that "obstruction" and "assault" of an officer can be thrown around like candy after demonstrations and is often dismissed by courts after tedious and sometimes expensive procedures. (Ever tried to contest a nonsense traffic ticket? Imagine trying to contest a nonsense charge of assaulting an officer if, say, the police charged a demonstration, you fell over, and your foot accidentally touched an officer's boot. That happens.)</p> <p>On the other side, the National Lawyers Guild has released its own statement:</p> <blockquote><p>Yesterday evening, the Seattle Police Department <strong>provoked violent confrontations</strong> with May Day protestors in downtown Seattle. The Seattle Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild condemns the unprovoked use of force, including the use of concussion grenades and chemical agents, against people who merely were exercising their First Amendment right to protest. The confrontation began when armed riot police moved in to break up a protest celebrating International Workers&#8217; Day that was taking place in a public street at the corner of Fourth and Pine. The police then declared a public safety emergency and ordered people who were observing their actions to leave the area or be arrested, thereby insulating police actions from public scrutiny. When the protestors moved through downtown streets, the police set off multiple concussion grenades, <strong>causing a series of injuries to those who were struck by the exploding projectiles.</strong></p></blockquote> <p>Crimes were certainly committed yesterday: Windows were broken, protesters threw rocks and plastic water bottles at police, police fired "exploding projectiles" directly into large crowds. But "obstructing an officer" is a measly charge that usually boils down to a he-said/she-said between a demonstrator and a cop.</p> <p><div class="blogImageLeft" style="width:262px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/4cf2/1367519586-ya_.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/4cf2/1367519586-ya_.jpg" alt="ya_.jpg" title="" width="250" height="211" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>Approximately 100% of the people at yesterday's evening march, including (especially) the journalists and photographers who were jockeying to get into the front lines for that sweet protest photo, could've been charged with obstruction.</p> <p>It'll be interesting to see whether the police can find and charge any window-smashers and whether any demonstrators file suit for their injuries.</p> <p>All in all, yesterday's early march for immigration reform was light and smooth and the evening anti-capitalist march was a bit of a clusterfuck. Both sides seemed clumsy and confused, full of passion but lacking tactical elegance.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/city-files-light-misdemeanor-charges-against-six-may-day-demonstrators#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16655643&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/city-files-light-misdemeanor-charges-against-six-may-day-demonstrators?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16655643&id=comments 51 City Files Light Misdemeanor Charges Against Six May Day Demonstrators bk Thu, 02 May 2013 12:05:18 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/late-night-may-day-wrap-up http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/late-night-may-day-wrap-up Brendan Kiley <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367480727-pocket_size_const.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/thumb-1367480727-pocket_size_const.jpg" alt="It started out as a regular afternoon in downtown Seattle..." title="It started out as a regular afternoon in downtown Seattle..." width="500" height="586" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption">It started out as a regular afternoon in downtown Seattle...</li></ul></div></p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367485888-el_comite_dancers.jpg" alt="Dancers at the march for immigration reform." title="Dancers at the march for immigration reform." width="500" height="352" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption">Dancers at the march for immigration reform.</li></ul></div></p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367485940-children.jpg" alt="Children watching the anarchists march past a playground." title="Children watching the anarchists march past a playground." width="500" height="361" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption">Children watching the anarchists march past a playground.</li></ul></div></p> <p>Despite the dramatic images on video and in photographs, and despite the highly emotional and polarized commentary that's already happening and will continue to happen, the anarchist component of May Day 2013 was a colorful, but fairly simple affair&#8212;as was the immigrant-reform march (a photo of which is above).</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/074f/1367479906-many_at_macys.jpg" alt="many_at_macys.jpg" title="" width="500" height="359" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367482132-crowd_from_above.jpg" alt="crowd_from_above.jpg" title="" width="500" height="326" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>It showed that Seattle has a robust dissident community. It failed to smash any big, symbolic targets this year (say, Chase Bank), which might show a lack of planning, vision, and discipline. I had privately hoped that radical activists would cash in on all the municipal anxiety from <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction">last year's smashy-smashy May Day</a> to conjure up a phalanx of riot cops and then do some <strong>Black Bloc community service</strong>&#8212;get doctors from the Carolyn Downs clinic to offer free healthcare in Westlake Plaza, with the image of tanks (or the SPD equivalent) behind them. Or set up a soup kitchen. Or gather in a poorer neighborhood to appropriate a vacant lot and do all the heavy-lifting work for a new community garden. <em>That</em> would have been creative and visually powerful and upended everyone's expectations of what anarchism and radicalism in Seattle means. But nobody asked me, so I can't complain.</p> <p>Instead, they had an old-fashioned street melee with police when the protesters pushed back against some arrests. (We don't know what those arrests were for yet&#8212;I saw several, and they seemed to come out of nowhere.) A tense standoff happened, with police firing incendiary devices directly into the crowd. I watched this and thought it looked extraordinarily reckless on the SPD's part. The photo below shows one about to go off a few feet away from someone's feet, but I saw those things explode right against people's shoulders and torsos:</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/f3d0/1367480482-1367466802-bang.jpg" alt="1367466802-bang.jpg" title="" width="500" height="252" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">Ansel Herz</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>I found this guy limping away from a protest&#8212;he got nicked in the knee by one that he said the police deliberately fired at his legs:</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:484px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367480578-protest_wound.jpg" alt="protest_wound.jpg" title="" width="472" height="565" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>In response, activists shot off fireworks (which, you must admit, is a decidedly more peaceful and pleasant thing to do than shoot at people's bodies):</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367481108-fireworks.jpg" alt="fireworks.jpg" title="" width="500" height="377" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>If there was a master plan for the march, it was derailed by the downtown standoff over the arrests.</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367481257-30some_cops.jpg" alt="Thirty-some cops defending a department store." title="Thirty-some cops defending a department store." width="500" height="460" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption">Thirty-some cops defending a department store.</li></ul></div></p> <p>A few other thoughts: For the journalists and others who say May Day in Seattle is upstaging the immigrant-reform march: (1) If you want to write about it, then do so! Nobody's stopping you. (2) You never seemed to write about it much before, so are you really aggrieved or just fishing for another excuse to discredit the radicals? (3) May Day is (historically) a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haymarket_affair">labor/anarchist event</a> anyway. So it's not like anarchists have "appropriated" May Day from immigration reformists. (4) Most importantly, the immigration-reform people and the anarchists agree that the way we manage our borders is inhumane and foolish. </p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367481853-bb_native_protester.png" alt="bb_native_protester.png" title="" width="500" height="398" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367481790-bb_immigration_baners.png" alt="bb_immigration_baners.png" title="" width="500" height="338" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367481755-no_borders_no_state.jpg" alt="no_borders_no_state.jpg" title="" width="500" height="368" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>One favorite moment: Activists kept shooting silly string at members of the media, including me. A particularly clean-cut and nice-seeming TV anchor kept asking earnestly, while being hit with silly string: <em>Why are you doing this? What is the point?</em> Aside from one lady, who tried to give a five-second explanation of anarchism (always a losing proposition), nobody would answer him. He seemed exasperated.</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367482462-tv_guy.jpg" alt="tv_guy.jpg" title="" width="500" height="361" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>Soon afterwards, he went from exasperated (at the hands of activists) to actually pained (at the hands of police). I saw him and his camera crew getting aggressively shoved by SPD cops with batons. While his expression was mildly aggrieved by the silly string, it crumpled in surprise over being rib-punched by baton-wielding police officers. And I thought, but didn't have the chance to tell him, <em>there</em> is your answer to your previous question. If you, as a fellow member of the media, commit an equal offense&#8212;asking irritating questions&#8212;demonstrators will hit you with silly string and cops will knock you with wooden batons.</p> <p>So, in the end, May Day was not that big a deal: Big immigration-reform march, smaller radical march, then (after the police had split the radicals into small factions) some running around and window-smashing and garbage-dumping and further arrests. Pretty simple.</p> <p>However! I deeply lament the fool who smashed a window at Bill's Off Broadway&#8212;smashing a favorite neighborhood bar is definitely not the way to win hearts and minds of your fellow city-dwellers. Though I (and others) spotted some police "Black Bloc" plants in the crowd, both by their dress and their demeanor. (I'm a theater critic, and I know bad acting.) Like this guy (Detective Hall?):</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367482924-police_plant.jpg" alt="police_plant.jpg" title="" width="500" height="364" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>I'd like to think some goofball agent provocateur broke that window, because it was such a ridiculously counterproductive thing to do, but there's no way to know&#8212;protests, especially radical ones, attract all kinds of people who don't always make the best ambassadors for the root cause.</p> <p>Either way, marches that turn on small, beloved neighborhood bars are shooting themselves in their two left feet.</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/05/02/1367485151-bodersblowuse.jpg" alt="bodersblowuse.jpg" title="" width="500" height="375" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/late-night-may-day-wrap-up#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16652260&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/02/late-night-may-day-wrap-up?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16652260&id=comments 37 Late-Night May Day Wrap-Up bk Thu, 02 May 2013 01:53:56 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/may-day-wrap-up-coming-soon http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/may-day-wrap-up-coming-soon Brendan Kiley <p>But for now, please enjoy this video for "Bad Kids" by the Black Lips:</p> <p><iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/lrNSjItTfes" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>It plays on repeat in my head whenever I'm at direct-action demonstrations like tonight's, where earnest idealism, clumsy hooliganism, and the comedy of human error (on all sides: cops, activists, media) are on parade.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/may-day-wrap-up-coming-soon#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16652003&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics Music http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/may-day-wrap-up-coming-soon?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16652003&id=comments 7 Wed, 01 May 2013 23:31:12 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/meet-dani http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/meet-dani Brendan Kiley <p>I'll write a May Day wrap-up post (with lots of photos) later, since May Day is still happening.</p> <p>But here's a quick one&#8212;I talked to a few journalists at today's El Comite/immigration reform march who seemed irritated that the "anarchist" and "political vandalism" question seemed to be looming larger than immigration rights. As one person said, gesturing to the marchers "these poor people are being completely overshadowed."</p> <p>Maybe. But to that I say three things: (1) That's in your head, pal, not mine. (2) That sounds a little condescending. (3) Some immigration-reform marchers were only too happy to be associated with the <em>other</em> May Day, including this guy. His name is Dani.</p> <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/30f7/1367456066-dani.jpg" alt="Dani.jpg" title="" width="500" height="375" /><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>"There will be little kids and elderly people at this march," he said, "so doing something [such as political vandalism] so the cops come in and grab people could be a problem. But if they do their thing, I have no quarrel with that. If they wanna beat the shit out of Bank of America, that's fine with me. Niketown, same thing. Fuck those guys."</p> <p>I'm off to the next event. More later.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/meet-dani#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16650203&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/05/01/meet-dani?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16650203&id=comments 11 Meet Dani bk Wed, 01 May 2013 17:58:08 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/29/tweet-of-the-day http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/29/tweet-of-the-day Brendan Kiley <p><div class="blogImageCenter" style="width:512px;"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/692a/1367277839-hardwork.jpg" alt="hardwork.jpg" title="" width="500" height="114" /></div></p> <p>And here's <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/EMT-cleared-in-May-Day-clash-claims-SPD-officer-4147533.php">a nice story from last May Day</a> about a Seattle EMT who was cleared of charges of assaulting an officer&#8212;a favorite charge against demonstrators&#8212;after video testimony showed the officers' accounts of events to be simply untrue. (For example: "The detective went on to assert that Morales kicked a second officer. Video of the incident shows Morales' feet were secured by officers immediately after she hit the ground.")</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/29/tweet-of-the-day#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16627610&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics Economy http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/29/tweet-of-the-day?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16627610&id=comments 14 Tweet of the Day Mon, 29 Apr 2013 16:28:26 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/26/may-day-is-around-the-corner-and-the-fbi-wants-us-to-know-theyre-watching http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/26/may-day-is-around-the-corner-and-the-fbi-wants-us-to-know-theyre-watching Brendan Kiley <p>In the past 24 hours, FBI agents in Seattle and Olympia have reportedly been showing up at people's houses, jogging locations (a park), schools (Seattle University), workplaces, and at least one nonprofit (which serves street-involved youth), asking: <strong>"Do you want to talk about May Day?"</strong></p> <p>They're also asking about people's coworkers, roommates, romantic situations, and general social-mapping questions. (All the sources wished to keep their anonymity, for the moment at least.)</p> <p>The agents are asking about May Day 2012, but it's difficult to believe that their timing, when May Day 2013 is just around the corner, is pure coincidence. We're all aware of <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/freedom-is-frustrating/Content?oid=16403520">the crap</a> the FBI, US Attorneys, and other law-enforcement agents have been willing to drag activists through, as well as their fondness for <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-long-con/Content?oid=7989613">"we know where you live, we know where you work, we know who you know"</a> leverage&#8212;even when they're encouraging people to participate in criminal activities that are far outside their normal interests and patterns of behavior.</p> <p>The Seattle agents, according to people who were present for the conversations in the past 48 hours, are primarily two guys in a gold SUV wearing jeans, button-up shirts, and vests (perhaps polar fleece). "Honestly," one source about the agents on the front steps, "at first I thought they were salesmen&#8212;maybe lawn service."</p> <p>The agents were mostly chummy with the people they contacted. As one woman talked to agents, another housemate described their manner as "jokey and flirty&#8212;I almost thought they were gonna ask her out!"</p> <p>Flirty or not, they identified themselves as members of the FBI's <strong>domestic terrorism unit.</strong> Apparently, the vandalism of May Day 2012, and the potential demonstrations on May Day 2013, are terrorism investigations. (Which, frankly, seems to me like a grave insult to anyone from Boston to NYC to Kandahar who's been a victim of, or lost a family member to, actual terrorism.)</p> <p>In one case yesterday, the agents reportedly <strong>turned up at a public park to intercept two joggers</strong>. The joggers said "no, thanks" and went home. About 20 or 30 minutes later, the agents reportedly showed up at a house, apparently still looking for them.</p> <p>In other cases, people approached have refused to give their names or any information (sometimes politely, sometimes not so politely). As of yet, that has not generated any push-back from the FBI.</p> <p>If the agency was really gathering evidence about May Day 2012 or 2013, I'd guess they'd be more low-profile, waiting and watching and quietly gathering evidence. This little blitz of visibility seems calculated to freak people out and perhaps chill people's participation in any upcoming May Day demonstration. (But what do I know? I'm just a journalist.)</p> <p>Ayn Dietrich, a spokesperson for the FBI, said she could not confirm or deny anything about the visits. "We do all kinds of routine activities throughout the state on any given day," she said. "If we have people out there, it could be community outreach, emergency response, or investigative work... We sometimes knock on doors when there's an issue of a missing child. We're around the community, especially with ethnic minority groups, to let them know they can come to us to report hate crimes."</p> <p>Good to know.</p> <p>Meanwhile, please enjoy this bit of homemade activist comedy about these kinds of FBI visits (in activist circles, they've become a trope), courtesy of independent journalist <a href="http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/">Will Potter</a> (who I got to know when he spoke at the 2011 <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/14/the-fourth-smoke-farm-symposium-september-22">Smoke Farm Symposium</a>).</p> <p><iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/rI8INgw0xq0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/26/may-day-is-around-the-corner-and-the-fbi-wants-us-to-know-theyre-watching#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16598200&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/26/may-day-is-around-the-corner-and-the-fbi-wants-us-to-know-theyre-watching?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16598200&id=comments 32 Fri, 26 Apr 2013 15:11:28 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/15/border-sabotage-and-immigrant-x http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/15/border-sabotage-and-immigrant-x Brendan Kiley <p>I've been wondering how long it would take for US activists engaged in border sabotage to make it into print.</p> <p>Some Israeli anarchists have practiced (mostly symbolic) <a href="http://awalls.org/topics/recent_activities?page=15">border sabotage off and on for years.</a> But the US-Mexico border, and its policing, has seemed like a ripe, highly visible, highly politicized target for a long time. One of the prime chants at last year's May Day protest in Seattle, for example, was: "Cops and borders, we don't need 'em, all we want is total freedom." (There's a strong dose of irony in that chant&#8212;"all we want" sounds like it's framing something minimal, but the subsequent demand for "total freedom" is so huge it seems impossible.)</p> <p>But <a href="http://jacobinmag.com/2013/04/the-landscapes-of-border-resistance/?utm_source=feedly">this article in <em>Jacobin</em> magazine</a>&#8212;have you been reading this new, slickly designed, smart, funny, and unapologetically Marxist publication?&#8212;has a profile of and interview with "Immigrant X," a person or collective engaging in border sabotage. Here's a taste:</p> <blockquote><p>Enter Immigrant X: an alternative universe of fictionalized anti-border renegades, the brainchild of a group of pseudonymous bloggers who operate as an imagined community of grassroots anti-border activists located in an unnamed &#8220;Western democracy.&#8221; The team includes <strong>a saboteur who works for the immigration authorities, along with a network of clandestine border resisters with anarchist leanings.</strong> Together they operate an underground railroad that liberates migrants from detention.</p> <p>Their stories describe sabotaged raids, a network of underground safehouses. In one post, &#8220;Raid Interrupted,&#8221; the rebels get tipped off in advance of raids and share the intelligence with migrants whom the immigration agents have targeted, and try to spirit them away to a hideout, a friendly squat. In another dispatch, they use <strong>their own remote controlled drones to disrupt an enforcement action:</strong></p> <blockquote><p>@Immigrant_Z Keep it in position. I crowd is gathering. The border policewoman looks really flustered.</p> <p>ImmigrantX Wed Mar 06 2013 at 3:52 PM</p> <p>@Immigrant_Z Take it up. She wants to take a swing at it with a baton.</p> <p>ImmigrantX Wed Mar 06 2013 at 3:53 PM</p> <p>@Immigrant_Z The person she stopped has walked off, good one. Get it high, she is pretty close.</p> <p>ImmigrantX Wed Mar 06 2013 at 3:54 PM</blockquote></p></blockquote> <p>That is proposing a very dangerous game&#8212;we've seen how the federal government reacts to <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/freedom-is-frustrating/Content?oid=16403520">the smashed glass of a courthouse door.</a> I can barely imagine the force and size of the hammer they would try to bring down on people actively and publicly sabotaging US border enforcement.</p> <p>The <a href="http://www.immigrantx.org/?page_id=12">Immigrant X manifesto:</a></p> <blockquote><p>1. Your rights as a world citizen are not defined by your race, religion, place of birth, nationality or lack of. They are afforded to you by your existence.</p> <p>2. Wherever you live on this earth you have the same rights as all those who live in your community not matter how or why you came to this place.</p> <p>3. A law that is unjust should be disobeyed through ingenuity and creativity not by violence or hurt those we oppose or seek to help.</p></blockquote> <p>People have been saying "I am a citizen of the world" ever since that proto-anarchist patron saint <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diogenes_of_Sinope">Diogenes of Sinope.</a> But Immigrant X wants to prove it.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/15/border-sabotage-and-immigrant-x#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16500587&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/15/border-sabotage-and-immigrant-x?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16500587&id=comments 6 Mon, 15 Apr 2013 11:38:58 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/03/seattle-police-arrest-two-tar-sands-protesters-at-canadian-consulate http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/03/seattle-police-arrest-two-tar-sands-protesters-at-canadian-consulate Unpaid Intern <p><em>Posted by news intern Jocelyn Macdonald</em><br /><div style="text-align:center;"><a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/94446910@N03/8616367821/" title="IMG_0070 edit by Tar Sands Blockade Seattle, on Flickr"><img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8616367821_b428e7b380.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="IMG_0070 edit"></a><small>Photo used with permission of Adam Gaya, Tar Sands Blockade Seattle</small><br /></div></p> <p>Seattle Police arrested two activists this morning for criminal trespass at the Canadian Consulate in Seattle's Century Plaza building after the activists U-locked their necks to the doors of a conference room. The activists were protesting the proposed <strong>expansion of Canadian tar sands oil production and export</strong>. Carlo Voli, a 46 year-old Edmonds resident, and Lisa Marcus, a 57 year-old Seattleite, were both cut free and arrested after 30 minutes of being locked to the doors, according to Adam Gaya, another activist on the scene. </p> <p>Two other activists poured fake oil over unfurled Canadian and American flags in the consulate, while a dozen others protested outside the Century Plaza building in Westlake park. Rachel Stoeve, an activist who was carrying a banner in Westlake Park, wrote in the group's official statement, "We&#8217;re here to expose the collusion between the tar sands industry and the Canadian government."</p> <p>Today's action was independent of, but in solidarity with the Tar Sands Blockade, a group based out of Southwest Texas that is trying to halt construction of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport Canadian oil to American refineries. Less well-publicized is the proposed increase in the number of tankers carrying tar sands through the Salish Sea and pipeline expansions in British Columbia. The pipeline expansions proposed in January by Canadian company Kinder-Morgan would nearly <strong>triple tar sands oil transport</strong> through the Trans Mountain Pipeline. They have also proposed an increase of oil tankers that would bring the total number to 360 tankers in the Salish Sea. Stoeve is worried that the <strong>Department of Ecology has no plan</strong> to deal with a potential spill, which could result in the loss of some 165,000 jobs and wipe out wildlife, such as the vulnerable resident orca population.</p> <p>The Seattle group reports 50 arrests for the Tar Sands Blockade and its solidarity actions around the country this month.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/03/seattle-police-arrest-two-tar-sands-protesters-at-canadian-consulate#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16407288&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Oil News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/04/03/seattle-police-arrest-two-tar-sands-protesters-at-canadian-consulate?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16407288&id=comments 8 Seattle Police Arrest Two Tar Sands Protesters at Canadian Consulate Photo used with permission of Adam Gaya, Tar Sands Blockade Seattle Wed, 03 Apr 2013 15:35:27 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/27/grand-jury-refusers-katherine-olejnik-and-matthew-duran-are-free http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/27/grand-jury-refusers-katherine-olejnik-and-matthew-duran-are-free Brendan Kiley <p><small><em>This was originally posted at 4:19 pm.</em></small></p> <p>Or they will be at 4 pm tomorrow afternoon. Judge Jones has granted Duran and Olejnik's attorneys' request to release their clients, who have been in prison&#8212;<strong>without being accused of any crime</strong>&#8212;for five months and in solitary confinement for two months.</p> <p>I wrote about visiting them in prison, and how they got there, <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849">in this story.</a></p> <p>More details after I get Judge Jones's ruling&#8212;but <strong>this is happy, happy news</strong>. And it's a correction of a situation in the justice system that has seemed very, very far from just.</p> <p>The third grand jury refuser, Maddie Pfeiffer, is still in prison, but Pfeiffer's attorney did not join the motion to file for release. That motion, I'm guessing, isn't too far away. And sources say Pfeiffer has been moved out of solitary confinement and into the general population.</p> <p>Of course, all three might eventually be charged with criminal contempt&#8212;but at least that would have a semblance of due process, an opportunity for a trial (or some semblance of one), and a fixed term of incarceration instead of <em>you just sit in this cell until you tell us what we want to hear</em>.</p> <p>You know, the stuff most American citizens expect when dealing with judicial branch of American government.</p> <p><strong>UPDATE</strong></p> <p>Judge Jones's ruling <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2013/02/27/1362013554-order_granting_release-1.pdf">is here</a>, with selected paragraphs after the jump. In short, it reiterates what <u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">we've</a></u> <u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/no-right-to-remain-silent/Content?oid=15031154">been</a></u> <u><a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/11/and-then-there-were-three-third-grand-jury-refuser-goes-to-prison">saying</a></u> <u><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849">for</a></u> <u><a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/22/grand-jury-refusers-attorneys-ask-the-court-to-let-them-go">many</a></u> <u><a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/07/matthew-maddy-pfeiffer-another-grand-jury-resister">months</a></u>: That they weren't there on May Day, that their confinement is looking awfully punitive even though it's not legally supposed to be, that they have shown their resolve to not testify, and that the feds are asking them for testimony that would be tangential at best. (Not <em>who threw the brick through the window?</em>, but <em>who is this person and what are her political and social affiliations?</em>)</p> <p>Read it in Judge Jones's words below the jump:</p> <blockquote><p>Both Ms. Olejnik and Mr. Duran have provided extensive declarations explaining that although they wish to end their confinement, they will never end their confinement by testifying. The court finds their declarations persuasive. They have been submitted to five months of confinement. For a substantial portion of that confinement, they have been held in the special housing unit of the Federal Detention Center at SeaTac, during which they have had no other contact with detainees, very little contact even with prison staff, and exceedingly limited ability to communicate with the outside world...</p> <p>The government does not dispute the witnesses' assertions that confinement in the special housing until entails 23 hours of solitary confinement in their cells and an hour of solitary time alone in a larger room each day, a single fifteen-minute phone call each month (as opposed to five hours of monthly phone time for detainees outside the special housing until), and exceedingly limited access to reading and writing material. <strong>Their physical health has deteriorated sharply and their mental health has also suffered from the effects of solitary confinement.</strong></p> <p>Their confinement has cost them; they have suffered the loss of jobs, income, and important personal relationships. They face the possibility of criminal convictions for contempt... both she and Mr. Duran have nonetheless refused to testify...</p> <p>The court has observed both Ms. Olejnik and Mr. Duran in their prior appearances before the court. Whatever the merits of their choices not to testify, their demeanor has <strong>never given the court reason to doubt their sincerity or the strength of their convictions.</strong></p> <p>The witnesses and the government also invite the court to consider arguments specific to the grand jury investigation at issue. The witnesses argue, for example, that any testimony they could offer would be, at best, tangential to the investigation... Although they remain in contempt of court, the court finds no basis for their continued confinement.</p></blockquote> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/27/grand-jury-refusers-katherine-olejnik-and-matthew-duran-are-free#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16120906&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/27/grand-jury-refusers-katherine-olejnik-and-matthew-duran-are-free?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16120906&id=comments 140 Wed, 27 Feb 2013 17:15:27 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/26/hearing-about-the-grand-jury-refusers-moved-from-friday-to-thursday http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/26/hearing-about-the-grand-jury-refusers-moved-from-friday-to-thursday Brendan Kiley <p>Yesterday, <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/25/grand-jury-refusers-hearing-this-friday">I posted</a> about a hearing regarding the <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849">grand jury refusers</a>, in which Judge Richard A. Jones will announce his decision on some motions filed by attorneys for Matthew Duran and Katherine Olejnik. (The attorneys filed motions <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/22/grand-jury-refusers-attorneys-ask-the-court-to-let-them-go&cb=bd1a9268f92a096d1d8ec6dd87988304&layoutId=PostComment&view=comments#comment-16102103">asking for their clients' release</a>, the government will have a chance to respond, and Judge Jones will do what judges do.)</p> <p>That hearing has been moved from Friday at 10 am to <strong>Thursday at 9 am</strong> at the federal courthouse, 700 Stewart St.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/26/hearing-about-the-grand-jury-refusers-moved-from-friday-to-thursday#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16111442&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/26/hearing-about-the-grand-jury-refusers-moved-from-friday-to-thursday?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=16111442&id=comments 5 Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:20:38 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/08/grand-jury-refusers-five-months-and-counting-plus-solitary-since-december http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/08/grand-jury-refusers-five-months-and-counting-plus-solitary-since-december Brendan Kiley <p>Remember <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849">these guys?</a> Matthew Duran and Katherine Olejnik, who have been in prison since September without being charged&#8212;much less convicted&#8212;of a crime? Last fall, they were sent (not sentenced, just sent) to federal detention by Judge Richard A. Jones for declining to answer some questions in front of a federal prosecutor and a grand jury.</p> <p>(To refresh your memory, some background below the jump.)</p> <p>A few days after Christmas, and shortly after <em>The Stranger</em>'s <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849">story about visiting them in prison</a> ran, they were thrown into solitary confinement (aka the SHU, which stands for "special housing unit"). Their attorneys, Kim Gordon and Jenn Kaplan, are deeply frustrated because SeaTac officials have not given clear answers about why their clients are in the SHU. Have they broken a rule? Are they some kind of threat to the general population? Or what?</p> <p>Kaplan, Olejnik's attorney, says her client "is still in solitary, and the FDC has refused to give me an answer regarding why."</p> <p>It is not hyperbole to say solitary confinement is a form of torture. Dr. Atul Gawande wrote <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/30/090330fa_fact_gawande">an excellent and well-researched article</a> about the psychological and physiological damage of solitary confinement&#8212;even for brief periods of time&#8212;in 2009.</p> <p>Even John McCain, who suffered five and a half years of torture as a prisoner of war in Vietnam, wrote that solitary "crushes your spirit and weakens your resistance more effectively than any other form of mistreatment."</p> <p>According to Dr. Gawande's article:</p> <blockquote><p>A U.S. military study of almost a hundred and fifty naval aviators returned from imprisonment in Vietnam, many of whom were treated even worse than McCain, reported that they found <strong>social isolation to be as torturous and agonizing as any physical abuse they suffered.</strong> And what happened to them <em>was</em> physical. EEG studies going back to the nineteen-sixties have shown diffuse slowing of brain waves in prisoners after a week or more of solitary confinement.</p></blockquote> <p>Dr. Gawande writes that the effects on people who've done time in solitary in US prisons isn't much different.</p> <p>Duran and Olejnik have been in solitary since December 27&#8212;to repeat, they haven't been accused of any crime, they haven't been convicted of any crime, and the prison has <strong>failed to explain to their attorneys while they're in solitary.</strong></p> <p>This is what lawyers and reporters are talking about when they talk about this kind of process having a "chilling effect" on free speech. You can imagine, after this example, why people wouldn't want to hang out with other people who describe themselves as anarchists. (Again, see below the jump for background.) Knowing anarchists isn't a crime. But even if you don't commit a crime&#8212;even if you are granted immunity from being prosecuted for a crime&#8212;you can find yourself in solitary confinement.</p> <p>That's a problem.</p> <p><div style="text-align:center;"><strong>* * *</strong></div></p> <p><strong>The background:</strong> That grand jury and the federal prosecutor are ostensibly investigating the political vandalism in downtown Seattle on May Day. But Duran and Olejnik say the questions they refused to answer had little to do with actual crimes and more to do with social mapping&#8212;names and photographs, questions about who those people were, how they know each other, and their political beliefs.</p> <p>Most of the questions centered around what <a href="http://nopoliticalrepression.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/redacted-warrant.pdf">search warrants</a> have described as "known anarchists." The 1950s had its Red Scare; we've got our Black Scare.</p> <p>That's when the two shut down&#8212;on principle, not for their own protection, as they'd both already been granted immunity from prosecution&#8212;and declined to answer. They've been in prison since September and, since they haven't been sentenced for any crime, are there indefinitely.</p> <p>On Dec 26, Duran and Olejnik were joined by <a href="http://www.greenisthenewred.com/blog/maddy-pfeiffer-grand-jury-jail/6664/">Maddie Pfeiffer, another grand-jury refuser.</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/08/grand-jury-refusers-five-months-and-counting-plus-solitary-since-december#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15954788&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics News http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2013/02/08/grand-jury-refusers-five-months-and-counting-plus-solitary-since-december?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15954788&id=comments 67 Fri, 08 Feb 2013 09:59:59 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/king-county-has-brought-charges-for-the-may-day-vandalism-the-federal-government-has-sent-four-people-to-prison-but-has-yet-to-file-charges http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/king-county-has-brought-charges-for-the-may-day-vandalism-the-federal-government-has-sent-four-people-to-prison-but-has-yet-to-file-charges Brendan Kiley <p>Why is that? Why has the county, with its relatively paltry resources, been able to gather enough evidence to <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/28/charges-filed-for-the-may-day-vandalism">identify and charge five people</a> with May Day vandalism, while the FBI/federal prosecutor/federal judge Richard Jones have sent four people into prison for refusing to testify (after granting them immunity from prosecution), but have yet to wrangle a single actual charge?</p> <p>Two of those people in prison, by the way, are the subject of <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/christmas-in-prison/Content?oid=15565849">this week's feature</a>&#8212;non-witnesses to the crime who have not been charged with nor arrested for anything, but are affiliated with the local anarchist community.</p> <p>One of those people sitting in prison, Katherine Olejnik, wasn't in Seattle on May Day, which the federal prosecutor admits. She says that during her grand jury appearance, she was asked <strong>four</strong> questions about the May Day smashup and around <strong>fifty</strong> questions about other people's political convictions. (How can anyone look at this situation and not hear echoes of the House Committee on Un-American Activities?)</p> <p>I asked the FBI several days ago how the county has managed to be so much more efficient about gathering evidence and charging people without resorting to sending non-witnesses to prison to coerce their non-eyewitness testimony. The FBI has responded:</p> <blockquote><p>Thanks for your patience, Brendan. In answer to your question about timing, the investigation is ongoing because the FBI and Seattle Police Department remain committed to conducting it thoroughly. When subjects hide their identities, naturally, it takes longer to fully investigate the crime. The FBI and its partners don't aim for a specific timeline for solving a case; we aim to be thorough and precise, and take all the necessary steps to do so.</p></blockquote> <p>The FBI spokesperson warned me ahead of time that the statement would be brief, this being an ongoing investigation and all.</p> <p>But there it is, in case you're wondering.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/king-county-has-brought-charges-for-the-may-day-vandalism-the-federal-government-has-sent-four-people-to-prison-but-has-yet-to-file-charges#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15588280&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/12/21/king-county-has-brought-charges-for-the-may-day-vandalism-the-federal-government-has-sent-four-people-to-prison-but-has-yet-to-file-charges?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15588280&id=comments 17 Fri, 21 Dec 2012 16:22:19 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/14/sixty-five-days-and-counting http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/14/sixty-five-days-and-counting Brendan Kiley <p>That's how long Matthew Duran has been in prison for <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/no-right-to-remain-silent/Content?oid=15031154">refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury.</a> (Katherine "KteeO" Olejnik is just a couple of days behind him.)</p> <p>Over at <a href="http://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com/">nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com</a>, someone has posted an alleged transcript of the latest May Day-related grand jury appearance, by Maddy Pfeiffer, on Nov 7. ("Alleged" transcript, because grand jury proceedings are supposed to be secret, so there's no real way to verify what was said.) Recall that Pfeiffer has not been charged with any crime.</p> <p>Pfeiffer is scheduled to appear again on Dec 14.</p> <blockquote><p>P: Are you aware that the Federal courthouse was vandalized on May 1st?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Were you present at the courthouse on May 1st?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Do you know Person 1 (name redacted)?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Was Person 1 in Seattle on May 1st?<br />M:I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Do you know Person 2 (name redacted)?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Was Person 2 in Seattle on May 1st?<br />M:I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Do you know Person 3 (name redacted)?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Was Person 3 in Seattle on May 1st?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Did anyone tell you about vandalizing the courthouse?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Do you know what a black bloc is?<br />M:I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p></blockquote> <blockquote><p>P: Have you ever been in a black bloc?<br />M:I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Have you ever possessed a road flare?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Do you know a man named ____________ (name redacted)?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p> <p>P: Do you intend to answer &#8220; I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.&#8221; to all questions?<br />M: I am exercising my state and federal constitutional rights including the 1st, 4th and 5th amendments.</p></blockquote> <p>You can read <a href="http://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com/2012/11/08/transcript-from-maddys-grand-jury-appearance/">the whole exchange here</a> (but I bet you can guess how the rest goes).</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/14/sixty-five-days-and-counting#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15284909&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/14/sixty-five-days-and-counting?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15284909&id=comments 30 Wed, 14 Nov 2012 11:50:08 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/07/matthew-maddy-pfeiffer-another-grand-jury-resister http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/07/matthew-maddy-pfeiffer-another-grand-jury-resister Brendan Kiley <p>A couple of weeks ago, FBI agents served another <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">May Day-related*</a> subpoena, this one to Olympia resident Matthew "Maddy" Pfeiffer, ordering them ("them" is Pfeiffer's preferred pronoun) to appear at a federal courthouse this morning. Pfeiffer showed up and, according to <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/514375665254057/permalink/518158594875764/">Facebook</a>, refused to participate. Pfeiffer wasn't immediately taken into custody for contempt of court&#8212;as other grand jury refusers/resisters have been&#8212;but has a contempt hearing scheduled for mid-December. </p> <p>If Pfeiffer is held in contempt, they may join the other <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/no-right-to-remain-silent/Content?oid=15031154">grand jury refusers/resisters</a>, Matthew Duran and Katherine Olejnik, in SeaTac federal prison. (Leah-Lynn Plante has been released for reasons that remain obscure.)</p> <p><small>* The eternal caveat: We don't actually know why the subpoenas were served or what the grand jury was going to ask, since grand juries are secret. But everything points to this grand jury being interested in May Day and anarchists, from the activists whose houses were raided to deliver the subpoenas&#8212;wouldn't an afternoon knock on the door have been enough?&#8212;to the search warrants looking for "anarchist" and "anti-government" "literature."</small></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/07/matthew-maddy-pfeiffer-another-grand-jury-resister#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15214987&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/07/matthew-maddy-pfeiffer-another-grand-jury-resister?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15214987&id=comments 19 Wed, 07 Nov 2012 15:32:02 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/06/help-occupy-help-new-yorkers-who-need-help-after-sandy http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/06/help-occupy-help-new-yorkers-who-need-help-after-sandy Brendan Kiley <p>While we all gear up for tonight, ready to celebrate the election results/wail and gnash our teeth about the election results, why not <strong>do something nice?</strong></p> <p>In New York, the Occupy movement has been occupying Sandy, <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2012/11/04/occupy_sandy_hurricane_relief_being_led_by_occupy_wall_street.html">leading the charge</a> to help folks who are still in deep water/deep shit:</p> <blockquote><p>So how did an offshoot of Occupy Wall Street, best known as a leaderless movement that brought international attention to issues of economic injustice through the occupation of Zucotti Park in the financial district last year, become a leader in local hurricane relief efforts? Ethan Murphy, who was helping organize the food at St. Jacobis and had been cooking for the occupy movement over the past year, explained there wasn&#8217;t any kind of official decision or declaration that occupiers would now try to help with the hurricane aftermath. &#8220;This is what we do already, &#8220; he explained.</p></blockquote> <p>If you want to pitch in and do something useful instead of just wringing your hands, check out the <a href="http://interoccupy.net/occupysandy/">Occupy Sandy site</a> for real-time updates on what they need. Items requested as of now: blankets, candles, flashlights, food, batteries, diapers (adult and children's), wipes, gloves, masks (rated at least N95), rubber boots, shovels, warm clothes (gloves, jackets, etc.), and more. "General" clothes are apparently not needed at this time. Just the warm stuff.</p> <p>People helping each other. That's what it's all about.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/06/help-occupy-help-new-yorkers-who-need-help-after-sandy#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15203799&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy CHARITY! http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/11/06/help-occupy-help-new-yorkers-who-need-help-after-sandy?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15203799&id=comments 10 Tue, 06 Nov 2012 11:32:41 -0800 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/30/forty-seven-days-and-counting http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/30/forty-seven-days-and-counting Brendan Kiley <p>That's how long Matthew Duran has been in federal prison&#8212;the SeaTac Federal Detention Facility&#8212;for <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/30/seventeen-days-and-counting">refusing to cooperate with a federal grand jury</a> which was, ostensibly, going to ask him about people who might have been involved with this year's <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction">May Day protests</a>. (We don't know what the jury was actually going to ask because 1. grand juries are secret and 2. Duran showed up but refused to cooperate, so didn't get very far into the process.)</p> <p>Duran has now <strong>broken a record</strong>&#8212;though he hasn't been accused of a crime, he's been sitting in custody longer than the only person who was actually arrested and sentenced for May Day-related vandalism. (Cody Ingram was arrested on May 3 and <a href="http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/May-Day-vandal-sentenced-3631973.php">sentenced on June 13</a> to time served.) Katherine &#8220;KteeO&#8221; Olejnik is also in SeaTac FDC with Duran for the same reason, and is just a few days shy of his record.</p> <p>In other grand jury-related news: Leah-Lynn Plante was released without explanation earlier this month and another subpoena was issued last week to Olympia resident Matthew "Maddy" Pfeiffer, who was ordered to appear before the grand jury on Nov 7, 2012.</p> <p>And for those of you who despise political vandalism, and see no reason to think too much about this situation, <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/no-right-to-remain-silent/Content?oid=15031154">comment 22 on this story</a> is trying to tell you something:</p> <blockquote><p>The issue here is not whether this young woman has information that would lead to the indictment of a brave group of stick-wielding, attention-starved chumps. The issue is the bastardization of the Grand Jury system and the need to either fix it or jettison the entire mess. The Grand Jury was wisely introduced to U.S. courts with the intent of protecting citizens against unfair prosecution, but they have morphed into a modern-day version of the Spanish Inquisition - exactly the opposite of the founding fathers intent. The U.S. is the only nation remaining that maintains the Grand Jury system and its continued use is an embarrassment.</p></blockquote> <p>For more about this grand jury controversy, and grand juries in general, <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/no-right-to-remain-silent/Content?oid=15031154">see here.</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/30/forty-seven-days-and-counting#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15140512&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/30/forty-seven-days-and-counting?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=15140512&id=comments 14 Tue, 30 Oct 2012 09:47:07 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/11/and-then-there-were-three-third-grand-jury-refuser-goes-to-prison http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/11/and-then-there-were-three-third-grand-jury-refuser-goes-to-prison Brendan Kiley <p>Last night, Portland resident <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">Leah-Lynn Plante</a> spent the first of what could be a year and half's worth of nights in prison for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury about people she might know who might have been involved with the political vandalism on <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/anarchy-is-boring/Content?oid=13597692">May Day.</a></p> <p>That's a lot of nights for a few mights.</p> <p>Plante has not been charged with a crime&#8212;in fact, the court granted her immunity from prosecution, meaning she could not invoke her Fifth Amendment right to remain silent&#8212;but she could serve time until the expiration of this grand jury. During the open portion of yesterday's hearings, Judge Richard A. Jones told Plante that might last until March of 2014.</p> <p><div class="blogImageLeft" style="width:212px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2012/10/11/1349993038-plantehome.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2012/10/11/1349993038-plantehome.jpg" alt="Plante at home." title="Plante at home." width="200" height="272" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit"></li><li class="imageCaption">Plante at home.</li></ul></div></p> <p>Plante is the third person to be sent to the SeaTac Federal Detention Facility for refusing to testify in this matter. At her sentencing yesterday, around 40 supporters and activists&#8212;mostly dressed in black&#8212;sat in the federal courtroom while extra security, from the US Marshals and the Department of Homeland Security, stood by. As she was sentenced, and federal marshals prepared to take her away, Judge Jones reminded her that "you hold the keys to your freedom" and that she could be released at any time if she chose to "exercise your right to provide testimony."</p> <p>It was an odd turn of phrase&#8212;the same judge who, that morning, legally blocked her from exercising her Fifth Amendment right was sending her to federal detention for not exercising a "right." The 40 or so supporters in the courtroom stood solemnly as she was led away. "I love you," Plante said to the crowd, as marshals escorted her through a back door. "We love you!" some people in the crowd said. The security men looked tense for a moment, their eyes bright and their jaws clenched, ready for action. Then everyone walked out quietly, without incident.</p> <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/6349/1349989424-plantecourt.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/6349/1349989424-plantecourt.jpg" alt="Plante at court." title="Plante at court." width="200" height="261" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption">Plante at court.</li></ul></div></p> <p>The only federal defendant to be sentenced for an actual May Day-related crime so far&#8212;damaging a door of a federal courthouse during the smashup&#8212;was arrested in early May and sentenced, in mid-June, to time served.</p> <p>Which brings up a pointed question: Why was the only federally identified May Day vandal sentenced to time served (about a month) while people granted immunity from prosecution&#8212;Plante says government attorneys don't dispute that she wasn't even in Seattle on May Day&#8212;are looking down the barrel of 18 months in federal custody? Why is a person who might know something about a crime, but steadfastly insists she has her right to remain silent, facing more severe punishment (about 18 times more severe) than the person who was sentenced for actually committing that crime?*</p> <p>Minutes before Plante's hearing, her attorney Peter Mair sat, brow furrowed, in a courthouse lobby. Mair <a href="http://www.malpraclaw.com/Attorneys/Peter-K-Mair.shtml">worked for years</a> as a federal prosecutor&#8212;he's indicted the Speaker of the House of Representatives and prosecuted mobsters and corrupt government officials, and is familiar with the workings of federal grand juries.</p> <p>But given the way government attorneys are using grand juries now, he said, "<strong>you could indict a ham sandwich.</strong> Defense attorneys are not allowed in, other witnesses are not allowed in... They're going to send this poor girl off to prison for a year and a half. And the great irony is that the one guy who pleaded guilty to the crime served&#8212;what? Forty days?"</p> <p>He reiterated what many other lawyers in the course of this story have argued&#8212;that the grand jury system was originally included in the Bill of Rights to avoid frivolous government indictments. But, he said, federal prosecutors began using that system as a tool for investigation and intimidation during the Nixon administration: "They used it to chase dissidents."</p> <p>Jenn Kaplan, an attorney who represented Katherine Olejnik&#8212;another grand jury refuser who is now in prison&#8212;also showed up at the courthouse yesterday because she was "curious" to see how the Plante hearings would pan out. "Theoretically, the grand jury serves an important function as a jury of peers to find probable cause," she said, "instead of the US Attorney using it to indict anyone at will without having to publicly demonstrate why to anybody."</p> <p>The system has become, she said, "a constitutional bypass around the Fourth and Fifth Amendments, allowing the government access to evidence they wouldn't otherwise have." It is also a useful tool to intimidate people, she said, creating a chilling effect on political activism. If simply knowing someone who might be suspected of political vandalism puts you at risk of a subpoena, a federal judge deciding some of your rights no longer apply, and 18 months in jail, it gives you a strong disincentive to associate with such people.</p> <p>In the end, Kaplan said, it is "far too drastic to bring someone before a grand jury" because that someone might know someone who might have committed an act of vandalism.</p> <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2012/10/11/1349992768-attackone.jpeg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2012/10/11/1349992768-attackone.jpeg" alt="May Day." title="May Day." width="200" height="145" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">bk</li><li class="imageCaption">May Day.</li></ul></div></p> <p>This particular grand jury was empaneled in March, Kaplan said, well before the May Day smashup. Some of the activists in yesterday's crowd wondered if it had been empaneled simply to investigate the anarchist community, but Emily Langlie of the US Attorney's office says "that's not how grand juries work in this region." Grand juries, she said, hear multiple cases during their tenure. While she could not specifically comment on how many other cases this grand jury was hearing&#8212;because grand juries are sworn to secrecy&#8212;she could say with confidence that it was not empaneled to look into this one issue.</p> <p>Once Plante had been led away, her supporters milled around the elevators and in the front lawn of the courthouse, talking about going somewhere to get some food, and maybe a drink. One talked about an FBI special agent who, before the final hearing started, had talked with her and some of her friends while they waited in the antechamber. (I saw him at the end of their conversation, crouching on the carpet while the rest sat on a bench. As I approached, she quietly asked him: "How do you feel about the way the warrants were executed? People hog-tied in their underwear?" Perhaps sensing new ears listening to the conversation, he quietly stood up, walked away, and leaned against a wall until the courtroom opened.) As they walked out of the courtroom, a few looked a little teary.</p> <p>In the end, yesterday's quietly tense saga between activists, lawyers, judges, and cops was a symphony of incongruity. Nearly everyone involved seemed to believe they were doing the right thing, and executing their duty to their larger community. Nobody was there for fun, or for greed, or anything so simple as selfishness. That collision course of ideals, which resulted in some <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction">vandalism</a>, some <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/07/10/this-morning-police-raid-a-house-in-the-central-district-looking-for-a-black-hoodie-a-pink-scarf-and-paperworkanarchists">raids</a>, some <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">grand jury hearings</a>, and Plante going off to prison, gave the proceedings a melancholy, overcast feeling.</p> <p><div class="blogImageLeft" style="width:222px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/21fa/1349992686-wells_farg.png" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/21fa/1349992686-wells_farg.png" alt="wells_farg.png" title="" width="210" height="151" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">goldy</li><li class="imageCaption"></li></ul></div></p> <p>The guards at the security check to the courthouse&#8212;which activists and I shuffled through several times, emptying our pockets, taking off our shoes, putting our bags through the scanner&#8212;said yesterday didn't seem particularly busy. "You should see Thursdays," one said. "Bankruptcy hearings." He said those days were jammed with people.</p> <p>"How long have those bankruptcy days been so busy?" I asked.</p> <p>"Oh, you know," he said. "For three or four years&#8212;since the big crash. Lot of people hurting from that. Lot of people hurting."</p> <p><small>* Emily Langlie of the US Attorney's office encouraged me to "read the sentencing memorandum" for an answer to that question. The memorandum states that the defendant, Cody Ingram, was homeless, suffered from "mental health issues," and expressed remorse for his actions. The three grand jury refusers had homes, haven't been accused of any crime to express remorse about, and I don't know whether any suffer from mental health issues. But the question stands: Six weeks of detention for a crime committed vs. 18 potential months of detention without having been accused of a crime seems like a gaping disparity.</small></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/11/and-then-there-were-three-third-grand-jury-refuser-goes-to-prison#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14990817&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/11/and-then-there-were-three-third-grand-jury-refuser-goes-to-prison?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14990817&id=comments 72 And Then There Were Three: Third Grand Jury Refuser Goes to Prison Plante at home. bk Thu, 11 Oct 2012 15:55:43 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/09/twenty-six-days-and-counting http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/09/twenty-six-days-and-counting Brendan Kiley <p>That's how long Olympia resident Matt Duran has been held at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center for <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury">refusing to testify before a federal grand jury</a>, ostensibly about the <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction">political vandalism on May Day.</a> (Since grand juries are secret and Duran did not cooperate, we can't know for sure.)</p> <p>Tomorrow morning, Portland resident Leah-Lynn Plante will face a federal grand jury for the third time. (We <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury">wrote about her first go-round</a> back in August.)</p> <p>Why has she shown up before, refused to testify, and not been sent to the federal detention center like Duran and Katherine Olejnik (who is also being held)? Plante says she's not entirely sure, but thinks that, in part, she had "run out the clock" during her initial hearing by frequently leaving the stand to consult with her attorney, who had to stay outside of the room during the proceedings. Plante says that attorneys for the state have already admitted they know she wasn't in Seattle on May Day and granted her immunity. Nevertheless, she expects she'll be detained tomorrow.</p> <p>How long could she be held? "At the open hearing on Mr. Duran's contempt status," says Emily Langlie of the US Attorney's office, "the benchmark of 18 months was discussed in open court."</p> <p>How is Plante preparing for her possible detention? "Oh, I'm just tying up my loose ends," she says. "The good thing and the bad thing is that my cat died before my house got raided. So at least I don't have to worry about that."</p> <p>Plante will show up for hearings at the federal courthouse (7th and Stewart) at 9 am and 1 pm. Some local activists are <a href="http://www.facebook.com/events/201361689996904/">planning to show up, too.</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/09/twenty-six-days-and-counting#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14977143&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/10/09/twenty-six-days-and-counting?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14977143&id=comments 10 Tue, 09 Oct 2012 12:39:19 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/30/seventeen-days-and-counting http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/30/seventeen-days-and-counting Brendan Kiley <p><div class="blogImageLeft" style="width:262px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/055f/1349026295-warrantshotuse.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/055f/1349026295-warrantshotuse.jpg" alt="From one of the warrants, issued in Oregon." title="From one of the warrants, issued in Oregon." width="250" height="68" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit"></li><li class="imageCaption">From one of the warrants, issued in Oregon.</li></ul></div>That's how long Olympia resident Matt Duran has been held at the SeaTac Federal Detention Center for <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury">refusing to testify before a federal grand jury</a>, ostensibly about political or social acquaintances who may have had something to do with the political vandalism on <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction">May Day.</a></p> <p>At least three people have appeared before the grand jury after a series of raids and subpoenas issued in July. The warrants for the raids listed black clothes, sticks, paint, notebooks, and "anti-government or anarchist literature or material" among the items to search for.</p> <p>Two of the three&#8212;Matt Duran and Katherine &#8220;KteeO&#8221; Olejnik&#8212;are currently imprisoned at the SeaTac FDC for refusing to cooperate. The third, <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">Leah-Lynn Plante</a>, who prosecutors admit was not in Seattle on May Day, remains free.</p> <p>Duran had a hearing last week. Some eyewitness details from <a href="http://nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com/">nopoliticalrepression.wordpress.com:</a></p> <blockquote><p>... Matt&#8217;s lawyer took the floor to explain Matt&#8217;s current conditions and intentions. Here is an abridged and bullet-point list of issues and information brought up by Matt&#8217;s lawyer in court &#8212;</p> <p>Matt is in Solitary Confinement (the Secure Housing Unit) which means &#8230;<br />+ he has very little access to phone<br />+ he has been denied the ability to initiate contact with attorney<br />+ he has been denied visitor request forms<br />+ he has been denied vegan food (has access to vegetarian options and commissary items)<br />+ he has no way of socializing within the prison<br />+ he has no access to sunlight, fresh air or an untinted window to the outdoors</p> <p>Even under these conditions, Matt has no intention of changing his mind or strategy. Matt&#8217;s lawyer explained that Matt will be at peace no matter where he is within the prison. She said that he would like to socialize and play chess with other inmates, but is content where he is. He has a clock radio and a couple of romance novels the prison gave him upon arrival.</p></blockquote> <p>The local chapter of the National Lawyers Guild <a href="http://nlgseattle.org/node/57">has urged</a> the FBI and US Attorney Jenny Durkan to drop the subpoenas, arguing:</p> <blockquote><p>While grand juries are part of our federal criminal justice system, the grand jury was intended to serve as a protector of people&#8217;s rights and should not be used as a mechanism for intimidating those who speak out against social and economic injustice in our society. &#8220;Movements and individuals working for social change in the United States have historically been at the receiving end of grand juries being used to harass political activism,&#8221; said Neil Kelley, an officer of the Seattle NLG. </p></blockquote> <p>Throughout the process, Emily Langlie from the US Attorney's office has reiterated: "We do not prosecute people for their political beliefs."</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/30/seventeen-days-and-counting#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14895351&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Crime Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/30/seventeen-days-and-counting?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14895351&id=comments 39 Seventeen Days and Counting... From the Portland warrant. Sun, 30 Sep 2012 10:16:50 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/17/occupy-wall-street-started-one-year-ago-today http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/17/occupy-wall-street-started-one-year-ago-today Dominic Holden <blockquote><p>Hundreds of protesters took to the streets of Manhattan's financial district early Monday to mark the 1-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement &#8212; choking traffic and crowding the area around the New York Stock Exchange but being met at most turns by <a href="http://www.latimes.com/news/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-occupy-anniversary-20120917,0,6713498.story">walls of police who stopped them from occupying anything</a>.</p></blockquote> <p>Many thanks to the cops who blasted peaceful protesters with pepper spray in those early days for making OWS blow up nationally (and condolences to the peaceful protesters who took eyesfull of the stuff). I don't think you can look back at those demonstrations without acknowledging that they've changed the type of conversations America has about wealth and taxation since. But, man, I don't think you can look at some of the megalomaniacal dipshits who, mistakenly, thought it was <em>supposed to be about fighting with cops</em> without seeing that they also drove those protests&#8212;and a lot of long-term public support with them&#8212;right into the ground.</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/17/occupy-wall-street-started-one-year-ago-today#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14768267&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/17/occupy-wall-street-started-one-year-ago-today?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14768267&id=comments 19 Mon, 17 Sep 2012 08:21:10 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury Brendan Kiley <p>A month ago, I met Leah-Lynn Plante, a Portland woman who had been <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">summoned before a federal grand jury in Seattle</a>&#8212;without an attorney present, which is how grand juries work&#8212;ostensibly to testify about the <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction">May Day smashup</a> during which a federal courthouse was vandalized.</p> <p>But we don't know what, exactly, the grand jury wanted to know&#8212;she came to Seattle, but refused to testify. She was told to come back today and has returned, along with several dozen demonstrators.</p> <p><div class="blogImageRight" style="width:212px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/b43c/1347570326-leah_plante.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/b43c/1347570326-leah_plante.jpg" alt="Leah-Lynn Plante" title="Leah-Lynn Plante" width="200" height="210" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">The Stranger</li><li class="imageCaption">Leah-Lynn Plante</li></ul></div></p> <p><br />Plante was not in Seattle on May Day, and she says the prosecutors know that&#8212;but she is a self-described anarchist. Her house was raided by the FBI, part of a series of raids in Seattle and Portland by local and federal law-enforcement officials, who, according to the warrants, were looking for items such as black clothing, sticks, paint, computers, cell phones, and "anti-government or anarchist literature or material."</p> <p>"The assumption that this is about broken windows on a courthouse is a false one," she said in an interview on the courthouse steps this afternoon. "This is a witch hunt."</p> <p>Emily Langlie, from the US Attorney's office, disagrees&#8212;this afternoon, she reiterated that "we do not prosecute people for their political beliefs."</p> <p>Nevertheless, Plante thinks she has been targeted for her political and social affiliations, and suspects prosecutors are hoping that she, along with other people who've received subpoenas, will incriminate others. If she refuses to cooperate, she could be jailed for contempt of court. Plante was scheduled to go before the grand jury at 2:30 pm.</p> <p>She also explained that she's not condoning the May Day vandalism. "Just because I'm taking this stand does <em>not</em> mean I endorse anything that happened on May Day," she said. </p> <p><div class="blogImageLeft" style="width:212px;"><a href="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/dc69/1347570286-adrianne_weller.jpg" class="zoomable"><img src="http://www.thestranger.com/binary/dc69/1347570286-adrianne_weller.jpg" alt="Adrienne Weller" title="Adrienne Weller" width="200" height="278" /></a><ul><li class="imageCredit">The Stranger</li><li class="imageCaption">Adrienne Weller</li></ul></div></p> <p>She's been told she's not the target of the investigation and was recently granted immunity from prosecution in the case, which is more problematic than it sounds. Once she's immune from prosecution, she says, she loses some legal ground in her right to remain silent, because she can't plead the Fifth. Last month, she was prepared to be jailed. Today, she's prepared to be jailed. "It's the last thing I want," she said. "No&#8212;that's not right. The last thing I want is for people to give into this kind of pressure."</p> <p>Other folks&#8212;non-anarchists&#8212;at the courthouse today made similar arguments. Adrienne Weller, a longtime socialist, said "the widespread raids and intimidation tactics discourage our freedom of speech and dissent against a government that desperately needs dissent."</p> <p>Weller said this issue is important, not just for activists, but for "people if they care about their right to strike, or even if they care about their right to speak."</p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14736720&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics City http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/13/activists-summoned-once-again-before-a-federal-grand-jury?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14736720&id=comments 23 Activists Summoned Once Again Before a Federal Grand Jury Adrienne Weller The Stranger Thu, 13 Sep 2012 14:45:52 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/06/today-in-the-surveillance-state-cell-phones-are-tracking-devices-that-make-phone-calls http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/06/today-in-the-surveillance-state-cell-phones-are-tracking-devices-that-make-phone-calls Brendan Kiley <p>Jacob Appelbaum lives in Seattle and has been heavily involved in the Tor project and and is the only known American member of the Wikileaks project. A few months ago, he gave a revealing interview about domestic spying, electronic (in)security, and more with <em><a href="http://nplusonemag.com/leave-your-cellphone-at-home">n+1</a></em>.</p> <blockquote><p><strong>Resnick</strong>: What should we know about cell phones? It&#8217;s hard to imagine going to a protest without one. But like all networked technologies, surely they are double-edged?</p> <p><strong>Appelbaum</strong>: Cell phones are tracking devices that make phone calls. It&#8217;s sad, but it&#8217;s true. Which means software solutions don&#8217;t always matter. You can have a secure set of tools on your phone, but it doesn&#8217;t change the fact that your phone tracks everywhere you go. And the police can potentially push updates onto your phone that backdoor it and allow it to be turned into a microphone remotely, and do other stuff like that. The police can identify everybody at a protest by bringing in a device called an IMSI catcher. It&#8217;s a fake cell phone tower that can be built for 1500 bucks. And once nearby, everybody&#8217;s cell phones will automatically jump onto the tower, and if the phone&#8217;s unique identifier is exposed, all the police have to do is go to the phone company and ask for their information...</p> <p><strong>Resnick</strong>: Okay, so one thing I&#8217;ve heard more than once at meetings when security culture comes up is that . . . well, there&#8217;s a sense that too much precaution grows into (or comes out of) paranoia, and paranoia breeds mistrust&#8212;and all of it can be paralyzing and lead to a kind of inertia. How would you respond to something like that?</p> <p><strong>Appelbaum</strong>: The people who that say that&#8212;if they&#8217;re not cops, they&#8217;re feeling unempowered. The first response people have is, whatever, I&#8217;m not important. And the second is, they&#8217;re not watching me, and even if they were, there&#8217;s nothing they could find because I&#8217;m not doing anything illegal. But the thing is, taking precautions with your communications is like safe sex in that you have a responsibility to other people to be safe&#8212;your transgressions can fuck other people over. The reality is that when you find out it will be too late. It&#8217;s not about doing a perfect job, it&#8217;s about recognizing you have a responsibility to do that job at all, and doing the best job you can manage, without it breaking down your ability to communicate, without it ruining your day, and understanding that sometimes it&#8217;s not safe to undertake an action, even if other times you would. That&#8217;s the education component.</p> <p>So security culture stuff sounds crazy, but the technological capabilities of the police, especially with these toolkits for sale, is vast. And to thwart that by taking all the phones at a party and putting them in a bag and putting them in the freezer and turning on music in the other room&#8212;true, someone in the meeting might be a snitch, but at least there&#8217;s no audio recording of you.</p></blockquote> <p><a href="http://nplusonemag.com/leave-your-cellphone-at-home">Read the rest here.</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/06/today-in-the-surveillance-state-cell-phones-are-tracking-devices-that-make-phone-calls#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14676783&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy Politics http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/09/06/today-in-the-surveillance-state-cell-phones-are-tracking-devices-that-make-phone-calls?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14676783&id=comments 9 Thu, 06 Sep 2012 12:34:23 -0700 The Stranger http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/08/09/the-everything-for-everyone-festival http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/08/09/the-everything-for-everyone-festival Brendan Kiley <p>Last week, while I was down at the federal courthouse working on <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/political-convictions/Content?oid=14397498">this story</a>, a man (youngish) and a woman (not-so-youngish) approached me about the first-ever <a href="http://www.everythingforeveryone.org/about/">Everything for Everyone</a> festival&#8212;a free, two-day event with music, lectures, workshops, etc. this weekend.</p> <p>The young man, Blake Pendergrass, said the EFE festival was the first of its kind in the country and they'd have people coming in from Occupy communities in Chicago, Oakland, New York, and many other cities.</p> <p>Saturday's events will happen in Jefferson Park on Beacon Hill&#8212;which the EFE festival is temporarily renaming <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jefferson-Hemings_controversy">"Sally Hemmings"</a> Park&#8212;and its centerpiece event will be a panel called "Beyond the Gaystream: Why Equality Does Not Equal Liberation." Sunday's events will happen at Seattle First Baptist Church on First Hill and its main event, at 4 pm, sounds like the <strong>most incendiary</strong> one: "From Down with Mubarak to Down with the 1%, a Discussion of Strategy and Revolution."</p> <p>That session, Pendergrass told me, would be a conversation/debate between the moderate-liberals who support Occupy and the radicals: a <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/05/02/why-all-the-smashy-smashy-a-beginners-guide-to-targeted-property-destruction/">heated subject</a> in Seattle since the Occupy movement first erupted.</p> <p>It says something about our city&#8212;though I'm not exactly sure what&#8212;that these camps exchange so much vitriol. The Occupy movement in Oakland, for example, seems more unabashedly radical. OWS in New York seemed to get those two centers of gravity to peacefully coexist in a cosmopolitan, New York way. But in Seattle, the moderates and the radicals have been at each other's throats.</p> <p>I'll be out of town, but if I could attend one event at the Everything for Everyone festival, it would be Sunday at 4 pm. The whole schedule <a href="http://www.everythingforeveryone.org/schedule/">is here.</a></p> <p>[ <a href="http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/08/09/the-everything-for-everyone-festival#comments">Comment on this story</a> ]</p> <p>[ <a href="http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14412546&amp;id=comments">Subscribe to the comments on this story</a> ]</p> Occupy http://slog.thestranger.com/slog/archives/2012/08/09/the-everything-for-everyone-festival?show=comments#readerComments http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/Rss.xml?oid=14412546&id=comments 2 Thu, 09 Aug 2012 10:14:24 -0700 The Stranger