EVENT: Thursday December 6, 2012
TICKETS: suggested Donation $40 (whatever you can afford $10+)
TIME: Doors Open 6:30pm- 7:00pm Shout out to Freedom Fighters, 8-9:30pm Dance Party
PLACE: St. Augustine’s Church 290 Henry Street,  New York, NY 10002
GUEST: Cornel West, Nicole Paultre Bell, Randy Credico, Suprecute, Big Apple Playback Theater,  DJ MacNificent, &  YOU!

Dear Supporters & Friends

I, am writing to you on behalf of our FREEDOM FIGHTERS who risk their lives for our freedom and liberties every day. Support 19 people on trial for protesting at precincts with the highest incidence of Illegal & Unlawful incidences of NYPD Stop-Dehumanize-Frisk. We, at STOP MASS INCARCERATION NETWORK & HEAL Network Inc., have taken up this cause on behalf of our City’s children, and families, but we need your help.

All, donations are 100% tax deductible. You can donate in product, cash, or service, and help us get closer to our goal. Our organizations  are clearly excited and eager to see our dream project succeed. You too can be a part of this dream by supporting our budding talent with a donation. You can donate food, decorations, material, paper, accessories, etc. related to preparation of this event December 6th, 2012 and to continue our support of all FREEDOM FIGHTERs, their families, and children.

                                                                                                                  Thank you,

                                                                                                                  Aleah Holland RN

I would like to thank you for considering our request and becoming a part of our creative dream to stop the mass incarceration of Black & Brown children and families.  If you have any queries regarding our fund management policy, various projects, or our organization, please feel free to contact Steve Yip at 347-979-SMIN (7646) or  Email: [email protected].

1. Make a tax-deductible donation online through our fiscal sponsor, the Alliance for Global Justice, on our web site at http://www.stopmassincarceration.org/donate.html  Choose "FSP-- Stop Mass Incarcerations" on the Cause list.

2. Donate by mail.  Send a check payable to "Alliance for Global Justice,"  a 501c3 tax-exempt organization, with "Stop Mass Incarceration" on the memo line to:

Stop Mass Incarceration Network P. O. Box 941 Knickerbocker Station New York, NY  10002

Donations are tax-deductible.  If you'd like us to send you a "Stop Stop & Frisk" button with our logo, please indicate with your contribution

To the sisters & brothers of the New Freedom Fighters,
 
Were it not for my physical limitation I'd be there with you today, but I am there with you in spirit.  I just wanted to touch on what we did in Brooklyn last Nov and why we did it.  We stood up together to say NO MORE to treating Black and Latino youth as a criminalized generation, guilty until proven innocent, if they can survive their encounters with law enforcement and prove their innocence.  We were acting to bring an end to the way this society breaks the bodies and crushes the spirits of so many people for nothing more than the color of their skin.  In doing this we were standing on and extending the tradition of previous generations that stood up, from the abolitionist movement that struggled to end the horror of the enslavement of Afrtican people in the US thru the young people who went on the Freedom Rides and sat in at lunch counters.  As they did, we put our bodies on the line as part of struggling to end injustice.
 
What we did was right and was just.  It is Stop & Frisk, and all the other terms the authorities use to describe the racial profiling that traps up so many people, that is criminal.  It is mass incarceration and all it means for the lives of 10's of millions of people who are forced to live their lives enmeshed in the web of the criminal injustice system that is criminal, not us and what we did.
 
The last thing I want to say is, "We Won't Stop Till We Stop "Stop & Frisk!"
 
Carl Dix

Resulting from the 11/1/11 protest at the 73rd Precinct in Brooklyn, Randy, Greg, Noche, Matt, Christina, Bob, John, Nick had appearances today in Brooklyn.  Channels 4 and 12 came to cover the opening rally,  interviewing John, Christina and Travis.  So check the news!

Greg was severed from the other defendants a few weeks ago because he wanted to defend himself pro se.  His trial took place during the Queens trials, and all reports are that he did very well before the judge, who decides the verdict.

Before the start of the other defendant's trial this morning, we were to hear the judge's verdict today.  After waiting a few hours, that decision announcement was postponed until 12/5.  Since the outcome on his case is relevant to everyone's charges, we moved to postpone the other trials.  The current schedule is this:

Wednesday 12/5 we have 2 trials in Brooklyn at 120 Schermerhorn Street
    Carl, Morgan, Luis, Gbenga, Marina
    Randy, Noche, Christina, Matt

Wednesday 12/12 one more trial:
    John, Nick, Bob

Noche's Bronx trial is Monday 12/3 10:00 am at DIFFERENT Bronx Courthouse 215 East 161st Street.  This is the old courthouse west of the new one we usually have ap

And of course, the benefit PARTY Thursday December 6 to which
all are invited. 

By Jeff Mays, DNAinfo Reporter/Producer


HARLEM — The Harlem couple who had their faces and home address displayed on "wanted posters" after being branded "professional agitators" by the NYPD for filming police stop-and-frisks have been aquitted or had charges against them dropped.

Matthew Swaye, 35, and his partner Christina Gonzalez, 26, were both facing charges ranging from felony assault to disorderly conduct for confrontations with the NYPD.

But over the last few weeks, Swaye won acquittal during a trial where he represented himself against charges of disorderly conduct after a July 12 confrontation with police outside the Bronx Criminal Courthouse.

Charges against Gonzalez for the same incident have been dropped.

Earlier this week, the Manhattan District Attorney's office also dropped felony assault charges against Gonzalez filed after a June 17 anti stop-and-frisk march in Manhattan. Police say Gonzalez moved a barricade causing a police officer to injure his hand.

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN - Supporters gathered outside Brooklyn Criminal Court to show solidarity for fellow protesters who were charged over a stop-and-frisk protest earlier this month.Thirteen people were arrested at a rally last month outside the 73rd Precinct, where they were protesting the NYPD's stop-and-frisk policy. They appeared in court today, where they were charged with disorderly conduct and obstruction of governmental administration, which carries a sentence of up to a year in jail.

Christina Gonzalez, one of those being charged, accused the police of creating false allegations against them when they just were just protesting policy.

You are needed to stop the jailing of the Stop-and-Frisk Freedom Fighters and bring many more people into stopping Stop-and-Frisk. Act now. November 15 concluded the first of several outrageous trials against courageous freedom fighters who put their bodies on the line against the racist NYPD policy of stop-and-frisk. Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Bob Parsons, and Morgan Rhodewalt were found NOT GUILTY of two heavier charges of Obstruction of Government Administration (OGA)!!! For protesting against Stop-and-Frisk at the 103rd Precinct in Queens on November 19, 2011, they had faced up to one year in jail, but no more. This is an important victory.

However, the freedom fighters were convicted of Disorderly Conduct with a maximum penalty of 15 days in jail. We cannot let our guard down. Nine other defendants face the exact same charges from November 19 last year in two upcoming trials in Queens. More trials are upcoming in Brooklyn for protesting against Stop-and-Frisk on November 1, 2011, at the 73rd Precinct, which has the highest rate of stop-and-frisk in the city. Freedom fighter Noche Diaz is still facing four+ years in four upcoming trials (two of these are with other Brooklyn and Queens defendants). All this is part of the fight against mass incarceration. And on January 7, the day of the Queens sentencing, the four freedom fighters, their lawyers and supporters will be in court demanding NO JAIL TIME for Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Bob Parsons, and Morgan Rhodewalt!! Go to www.stopmassincarceration.org/ for more information.

We have won this first round. But what we at the Stop Mass Incarceration Network said going into this trial is still true, “If we allow them to be convicted and jailed without a massive fight, the battle against stop-and-frisk and the whole spirit of resistance will be seriously weakened. But if many, many people stand with them in this legal battle, if we beat this back, then the movement will gain further initiative pulling more people into the struggle.”

What you do matters. Without mass resistance and the actions of these people and hundreds more who put their bodies on the line in protest, stop-and-frisk would not now be so hotly contested in the city and the courts. The even more urgent truth is that standing up to defend these freedom fighters has everything to do with putting an end to the crime of stop-and-frisk and the way a whole generation is being condemned to lives of criminalization, marginalization, brutality and the spirit-crushing, human-wasting confinement of the largest prison system in the world.

Occupy activists Jen Waller and Tim HIntze report on their project, Less Wall, More Street, training activists and community groups coast to coast and hosting conversations about state repression, They're joined in discussion with Jamel Mims, multimedia artist and challenger of Stop and Frisk, and Lamis Deek, a civil rights attorney. Then a Q & A with the audience. Event at Bluestockings Bookstore, Café, & Activist Center, November 13, 2012. Camera Joe Friendly

The Michael Slate Show

Friday, November 16, 2012   

10:00 - 11:00 AM, Pacific Time  
KPFK, 90.7 FM
Listen Live at www.kpfk.org  

Carl Dix, Revolutionary Communist Party, and co-founder of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, has been on trial in Queens, New York, for taking direct action against the NYPD stop-and-frisk program in 2011. The verdicts were delivered November 15: the four Freedom Fighters were acquitted of more serious charges carrying a possible 2-year jail sentence, but convicted of a violation, "disorderly conduct." Carl Dix will talk about trial, the verdicts and what's next.

Queens, NY – A Queens jury today found four men not guilty of obstructing the NYPD’s 103rd Precinct last year.  The high-stakes trial for political protesters began October 23, delayed several times by weather, and almost ended with a mistrial because of the highly unusual arrest of a sitting juror last week.

Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Morgan Rhodewalt and Robert Parsons were charged with two counts of Obstruction of Government Administration, a Class A misdemeanor which carries a possible sentence of 12 months in jail.  Prosecutors failed to convince the jury that the men, who were part of a group of 20 who loudly protested the NYPD stop-and-frisk policy last November 19, had disrupted normal functioning of the precinct.

Dix said today, “The prosecution attempted to make us pay a heavy price for protesting against stop and frisk.  They crafted the case from the beginning, and failed in this objective. They put on a case, but couldn’t provide any evidence that we obstructed the precinct, or that we intended to do that.  At the 103rdPrecinct last year, and today in court, we delivered a loud message against NYPD’s stop-and-frisk policy, and we won’t stop protesting this unjust, unconstitutional, racist, policy.”

The jury found the defendants guilty of one count of disorderly conduct, a violation.  They will be sentenced January 7.  13 more defendants await trial next year for the same incident.

END