Today, 38 of us gathered at 100 Centre Street for Noche Diaz' trial on two arrests in which he was observing police arrest others, and got arrested and charged with some serious misdemeanors himself.  We all knew these charges, three counts of Obstructing Government Administration, one each of Resisting Arrest and Disorderly Conduct, which could have meant 2 years at Rikers, were piled on by NYPD because of Noche's well-known role in Harlem with the Peoples' Neighborhood Patrol, and as a freedom fighter who didn't walk on by when people were being abused by NYPD, but told them their rights.

Noche and his attorney, Gideon Oliver of the National Lawyers Guild, were prepared to for the trial with video, photos, witnesses, and with the truth that Noche didn't commit any crime in either case.   1700 people, including a lot of well-known people in NYC, signed on, calling on District Attorney Cyrus Vance to drop the charges on Noche.

We were prepared, in choosing the jury, to reference the political climate in NYC since Noche's first arrest in October, 2011, when we did the first wave of civil disobedience protest against NYPD's stop-and-frisk, and the lawsuit Floyd v City of New York, now in a fifth week of exposing the abuse stop and frisk means for hundreds of thousands.

Apparently the DA's enthusiasm for trying Noche got reduced by some or all of this.  The same Assistant D.A. who has tried many OWS cases, and who got 20 of us convicted of Disorderly Conduct last May for the October 2011 protest, approached Gideon Oliver with a vastly different deal than he had been proposing for the last year.  Instead of Noche pleading guilty to two crimes, and getting 30 days in jail, which was not acceptable, the state would drop all criminal charges, seek no jail time or fine, if Noche pled guilty to a violation.  This is what happened in court today, after Noche gave an excellent statement to the judge. 

We care celebrating! After 18 months, no crime, no time, no fine.  The most remarkable thing about the time in court was that a packed courtroom -- probably 80 people in addition to our crowd -- heard a young revolutionary describe an "average day in Harlem" in terms most deeply felt to be their experience, win a victory, and walk out to applause.  One person who really lost it then, Judge McGrath, who almost jumped over the bench, screaming, "SHUT UP! This is a courtroom,
not a playground.  GET OUT! CLEAR THE COURT!"  A young man grabbed one of us, and said, with pride, "you all are NO JOKE!" (another version is that he said "you mf's are serious!") and others came out to shake Noche's hand, and say they had seen him on Channel 12 this morning.  Cornel West texted, "Give my love to brother Noche on the occassion of this victory."

Most strongly, people in line and walking by, stopped to find out what was extraordinary about Noche: a young person who doesn't walk on by when someone is stopped by the police, but lets them know they have rights, and that there is a whole different way the world could be.  We met many friends today, and saw people holding heads a little higher, because people do not have to be beat down like they are.  Thanks to friends from the Lower East Side, the Revolution Club, and many on this list who came out today, who circulated the statement for Noche, and signed it.

NEXT UP: Noche still has charges in 3 boroughs: Disorderly Conduct in the Jeffeth James beating by NYPD in The Bronx; Disorderly Conduct with 6 others in Brooklyn from the November 1, 2011 protest of Stop-and-Frisk, and with 8 others in Queens where charges are still 2 counts of OGA.  This wave of protest isn't over until all the charges are gone.  And:

Court hearing for people arrested in March when Kimani Gray was killed in Brooklyn,
Thursday April 25 at 120 Schermerhorn Street, 9:30 am

Monday April 29, 7:00 pm Next Stop Mass Incarceration Network Meeting.  Riverside Church
120th & Claremont.  Agenda will be discussion of Carl Dix' proposal for action to support the
July California prison hunger strike.

Next freedom-fighter trial: Monday May 20, Queens Criminal Court for Greg Allen, Noche Diaz,
Ribka Getachew and Matt Swaye.

Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance dropped all criminal charges against Noche Diaz in a victory for him and his supporters after 18 months of hearings, protests, legal motions, and petitions.  Diaz plead guilty to a single violation of Disorderly Conduct in a courtroom packed with 38 supporters, and dozens of defendants with whom Noche's statement to the judge resonated:

"October 21, 2011 and March 27, 2012 were not your average days in Harlem, where the NYPD carries out some part of it's 1,900 daily stop and frisks, 85-90% of which are of Black or Latino people, over 90% of whom are doing nothing wrong and given no legal or legitimate reason for being stopped, and routinely put up against walls and searched, have their basic rights violated, and often worse.

October 21 was a day where hundreds came together in Harlem in peaceful protest to demand an end to this NYPD policy, which was followed by waves of protest. Now we see the policy being challenged in a lawsuit that has further revealed the illegality and illegitimacy of the NYPD's Stop and Frisk practice.

On March 27, a number of high school students spoke up about what they know and feel, knowing through their experience with NYPD's Stop and Frisk (and including on that day where a 14 year old student was thrown through a bank window for allegedly having his hands in his pocket) what it is to be viewed as a generation of suspects, and saw themselves when they looked at how Trayvon Martin was murdered by a vigilante who saw Trayvon as suspicious and probably up to no good, for nothing other than being a young black man. I stood with the students as they chanted “We are all Trayvon Martin” and “We want Justice”.

I later gathered with more than two other people near where police officers were placing someone under arrest, and when the officers directed me to leave, I did not immediately leave.  [I knowingly and verbally refused the order from the officer, and knowingly risked creating public inconvenience, annoyance, or alarm."

Many people know Noche Diaz from his work on the streets of Harlem with The Peoples Neighborhood Patrol and the Revolution Club.  These statements were collected recently:

From a 14-year-old middle school student:
"I think they don't want us to do well, we're sposed to go to jail or something like that.  We're sposed to be the animals and animals don't get rights.  Look how we're living - in the projects - why is that?  We're not sposed to make it?  I hope they can't lock him [Noche] up.  Because we are human beings.  He's standing up for everybody."

50 year old ex-prisoner:
I hate this that they're singling us out.  How are they going to say this is a democracy?  I'm signing this because I've been a victim of this.  I'm a "ward of the state", I'm on parole right now.  We do need revolution and it's about time somebody's doing something about this.  That's why I'm signing this.  Gimme more of those. [Took 5 statements]

Man in his 50s
The cops ran up in my mother's place, said they we're looking for me and I was in court! I hate this shit.  This is not democracy.  This is a police state.  People just don't know it.  I've seen this young brother [pointing at Noche's picture] in the Neighborhood Patrol watching the police.  This is a good brother.  He's not a criminal.

From a resident of Grant Houses:

“Noche, you doing the right thing. Everybody in these projects needs to sign this petition! I got kids that's harassed by the police all the time. Every day they out with this damn “Stop and Frisk” shit – 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and kids ain't doing nothin' at all! They just run up on them...Noche represents the youth! Stopping this stop and frisk shit. They criminalizing these youth for nothing! They don't want Noche to get the message across to these other youth out here. That's why they don't want you out on the street to wake up the youth to what's really goin' on. How they bein' trapped! To lock him up is wrong. It's a message to all the people but it's wrong! It's not right to put him on trial! All these cops they need to be on trial. People need to get together from the projects and go down and attend that trial. I'm gonna try to go. Stop hiding behind closed doors. I'm gonna try to go to the trial because I know where it's at! I been down there enough for nothing! Nothing but stupid things! I might as well go down there for something!"

From a supporter of Noche

I ran into a young man I know in the neighborhood. He's about 18 or 19 years old and no longer lives in the projects. He was walking with two others At first he didn't want to stop saying he was in a hurry but I insisted telling him that it was urgent that he at least give me a moment while I unrolled the poster. He recognized Noche with the patrol (all three recognized Noche) and did not know he was facing this trial and the charges and the 4 years jail time. He immediately wanted to sign the petition As he was going to sign another youth I know from the area who is less inclined to speak with us came walking past. As he approached he pointed to the petition with the image of Noche and started saying, “That's uh.. That's uh.. Oh! That's Noche!”

I called on him to sign as well telling him that he needs to get with this He waved me off saying, “Naw/ That's okay!” I struggled with him, “Look you know what these cops do out here and if you like this and the way you're treated then go on but if you really do hate this, how you're treated and what they do to people around the world then you need to support this brother and you need ot get into this revolution!” He simply kept walking. Meanwhile another kid saw that the first young man was going to sign the petition and called out. “Yo Man! You signing that?! To which our friend responded, “Yeah man this is Noche!” and he started chanting “NO-CHE! NO-CHE!” I told him to take more petitions and get out to others to sign. He immediately agreed and took a stack of about 10 from my hands. One of the kids with him took them from him and said, “This is how I'm gonna help y'all. I'm gonna get these out! But I don't sign anything!” I told him, “No! You have to sign because when people like Noche step out there like this the people MUST have their back. The revolution won't be made on the cheap. People have to represent.” He changed his mind and signed the petition. They took some more petitions and the other kid with them signed as well before insisting they had to go on. The other kids had pretty much all passed by but what happened was observed by all.

For the third time, seven remaining Brooklyn defendants appeared to have charged dismissed before a judge who had dismissed them for four protesters in the November 1, 2011 stop-and-frisk action at the 73rd Precinct.  For the third time, that judge was not on the bench.  Brooklyn prosecutors won't dismiss, and say they are ready to try the seven on disorderly conduct charges, having failed in the first two trials to have convinced judges that there were any laws broken.

So our defense attorneys are filing a written motion for dismissal, on which a decision will be given June 4. Last we heard from the prosecutors, they are still searching for evidence to get a conviction.  They won't find it, but they are dragging people into court successfully.  So far there have been 16 or 17 appearances in this case.

Four defendants are on for trial Monday in Queens: Calvin Barnwell, Elaine Brower, John Hector and Richie Marini.  Judge Lopez, who was in charge of the trial of Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Bob Parsons and Morgan Rhodewalt last fall, denied our motion to dismiss charges against the remaining nine defendants, even though a jury found them not guilty of the criminal charges.

We're calling on everyone available to come to court Monday, or days next week as the trial proceeds, at 12501 Queens Boulevard, Kew Gardens.  Updates will be posted every day at this site.