Today, in Brooklyn Criminal Court, disorderly conduct charges against the last seven defendants of 29 arrested nineteen months earlier were dismissed "in the interests of justice."  In two previous trials, judges had dismissed the charges after the prosecution phase.  The judge's written opinion received today also grants defense motion to dismiss on the basis of "facial insufficiency," meaning that the charges, which originally included Obstruction of Government Administration" were not properly filed by the District Attorney.

Some defendants elected to take an "adjournment contemplating dismissal," which is not an admission of guilt, but the twelve people arrested who chose to go to trial all have had charges dropped.  The persistence of these freedom fighters, and their attorneys from the Brooklyn Legal Aid Society, the National Lawyers Guild, New York Law Collective and Brooklyn Defenders was sustained through more than 20 days of appearances, two trials, multiple hearings, and the arrest and jailing of Christina Gonzalez for contempt of court when she righteously objected to an order from a judge who has written a white supremacist book.

Congratulations to defendants Greg Allen, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Fr. Luis Barrios, Randy Credico, Noche Diaz, Carl Dix, Christina Gonzalez, John Hector, Nick Malinowsky, Bob Parsons, Morgan Rhodewalt, and Matt Swaye, and deep thanks to attorneys Noha Momtaz Arafa, Genesis Fisher, Julie Fry, Daniella Korotzer, Elizabeth Latimer, Meagan Maurus, and Marty Stolar,

Another Queens jury didn't accept the District Attorney's argument that protesters committed any crime back in November of 2011 when we marched on the 103rd NYPD Precinct, second in Queens in stop-and-frisks.  To two counts of Obstructing Government Administration, they said, NOT guilty.  But they could not get past the idea that the police ordered people to move -- even if it was not a lawful order -- and convicted Greg, Noche, Ribka and Matt of disorderly conduct, a violation.  They will be sentenced on July 18.

Any time the prosecutors slink out of a courtroom, it's cause for celebration, and we are glad there were no criminals convictions. Attorney Marty Stolar, part of the legal team who defended the freedom figthers, said tonight, "I am satisfied with the verdict but also disappointed. I wanted the whole thing."  There was no lawful order for protesters to be dispersed, and they should not have been convicted.

A most interesting scene developed outside the criminal courts building afterward.  Although one alternate juror declined to speak to us, and another juror said "no comment" as to her thoughts on stop-and-frisk after two weeks of hearing about it, 4 jurors and one alternate hung out for quite awhile with defendants, attorneys, and supporters.  There were hand-shakes and hugs.  They said, as jurors in the last case said, that they were most concerned that our defendants not get any jail time.  "You all are great people!"  They wanted to finally meet the defendants, and attorneys, and learn more background.

Discussing stop-and-frisk outside Queens Criminal Court. Attorney Steve Silverblatt; defendant Ribka Getachew, and attorney Mani Taferi speaking with juror.An older African American man was most outspoken and warmly hugged defendants.  We asked if his opinion of stop-and-frisk had changed, and he said yes.  "I still think it could do some good.  But it's so unfair how only certain groups of people are stopped."  Another juror said the defendants, and our attorneys, were "really interesting, honest people, but we didn't like the police or the District Attorney's attitude."  She said the contempt for the defendants showed by the D.A's alienated the jury, a fact they talked about in deliberations.

The jurors asked to know more about our movement, and got flyers about the Stop Mass Incarceration Network.  All said that the experience of the trial had given them a lot to think about in terms of how the courts and police work.  A very basic question they asked: why did they system spend two weeks trying people for something that was completely non-violent and lawful, when there are real crimes being committed?

There are still five defendants to be tried on these same charges: Elaine Brower, Calvin Barnwell, John Hector, Richie Marini, to be tried Tuesday July 8, and Christina Gonzalez, whose case has been severed and is not yet scheduled for trial.  We have no expectation that the DA will drop the OGA charges.

There is MUCH more to learn from the scene in Queens.  The controversy over stop-and-frisk in the city, particularly the Floyd v City of New York lawsuit in federal court, and the way in which the NYPD's policy has become an issue in the mayoral race -- because it's now more widely seen as a big problem -- affected this trial.  More importantly, it shows how potentially widespread opposition to it could be, and what a responsibility we have to carry forward resistance to this practice, and to mass incarceration, so that even more people see that there is no good reason for the authorities to get away with locking up so many people.

The defense rested Friday May 31 in the case of the Queens District Attorney v Greg Allen, Noche Diaz, Ribka Getachew and Matt Swaye.  Defense attorneys moved for dismissal of both Obstruction of Government Administration and Disorderly Conduct charges on the basis that the DA had not proved there had been an government business disrupted by the protesters.  They argued that the NYPD, by barricading a city block had put the public at an inconvenience for what they claimed to know would be a non-violent protest.

In a development unusual so far in these proceedings, the judge did not immediately deny the motion regarding the OGA charges.  He said he is "holding in in abeyance" until the jury makes its decision on guilt.  He denied the motion concerning disorderly conduct charges.

Closing arguments Friday afternoon by defense attorneys Marty Stolar, Daria Aumond, Tom Hilgardner and Mani Taferi visited -- as much as allowed by the judge -- the reason the protest in November 2011 focused on the 103rd Precinct to deliver a political message against NYPD stop-and-frisk. Asst District Attorney Heyman pointed to "these four defendants" 34 times, saying they "formed a human wall to block people from entering the precinct." 

The NYPD's own videotape did not show such a human wall, and their officers did not show that any disruption had taken place, other than delay by several minutes of an officer entering the precinct.  They jury began deliberations late Friday afternoon and will continue at 9:45 am Monday.

It was either the District Attorney, or Inspector McEvoy of the 103rd Precinct, discussing NYPD preparations for the protest November 19, 2011, when 20 people were arrested for standing in front of the precinct door, who referenced the need for so many police for "an event of this magnitude."  McEvoy's been in command of the precinct for years, but this was his first time to manage a protest at the precinct.  He had NYPD officers from Queens South Task Force, who during that time were very busy running after and corralling Occupy Wall Street activists; borrowed Community Affairs officers from Boro Command, and some of his own.

McEvoy's testimony is the heart of the state's case against our four defendants, Greg Allen, Noche Diaz, Ribka Getachew and Matt Swaye.  The District Attorney has a problem, though, because McEvoy testified in November at the first trial of freedom fighters in this case, and the jury didn't believe his testimony that the business of the precinct had been obstructed by the protest.  McEvoy testified today that, despite all these cops, and despite having barricaded a whole city block to traffic and pedestrians, he had no plan for using a side entrance, or escorting cops arriving for their 3:00 pm shift past protesters who stood for about seven minutes below the steps to the main entrance of the precinct.  The state claims roll call for that shift was late, constituting the two obstruction of government administration charges, which carry a possible twelve months at Rikers.

This misdemeanor trial is going into its seventh day, and is likely to continue until next week.  Many people have asked why the state is putting so much into prosecuting 13 people on these charges.  It became more clear today that the NYPD and the District Attorney consider the wave of stop-and-frisk protests began in fall 2011 to be on an order of magnitude that demands suppression.  Noche Diaz recalled this week, "When we were arrested at the 103rd precinct, the charges that were brought against us was an escalation and part of trying to punish people who stood up to Stop and Frisk, including with jail time."

The multi-national jury of Queens residents was not very engaged while four police officers testified.  But today, we saw them get more interested as the defense's case began.  Carl Dix, as a main organizer of the protest in his role as co-initiator with Cornel West of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, testified for the defense, describing the outreach and political message -- at least as much as he was allowed by the judge to do so -- of the protest rally and march, which began at Rufus King Park in Jamaica Queens, and continued through heavy pedestrian crowds to the 103rd.  Yes, he told the DA who accused him of leading people to intentionally block doors at the precinct, we wanted to be in front of the doors; yes, we intended to deliver a political message; yes, we knew we were risking arrest.  But, being arrested, he reminded the jury, does not necessarily mean you have done a crime.  The D.A. got flustered.  You don't want to go one on one in an argument like this with Carl Dix.

Noche Diaz was the first defendant to take the stand.  He said the protest "spoke to my very being" as a 24 year old growing up in The Bronx who had been very frequently stopped and frisked by the police.  "I thought this was a humiliation I would have to go through" until he learned about protest against these abuses, and joined them.  Noche was so direct and honest in his answers to the DA, and when the judge questioned him, that the basic immorality of NYPD abuse came through in spite of the DA's objections.

Ribka Getachew talked about her college activism at Columbia University against mass incarceration, again, at least as much as she was allowed.  She said she "had" to be at the protest in Queens, and yes, she did speak out, and step forward to go to the steps of the precinct.

That's where we left off today.  The defense will continue tomorrow, but the jury probably will not get the case for deliberations until Monday.

The ten week federal civil lawsuit against the NYPD's practice of stop-and-frisk, Floyd v City of New York, ended last Monday.  We learned much about the quotas, racism, and cynical operations of the NYPD -- but it all added up to what many people already knew.  Stop-and-frisk is racist, unconstitutional and unjust.

The next day another trial of stop-and-frisk began in Queens, when four more freedom fighters were brought to stand trial for protesting at the capital of stop-and-frisk, the 103rd Precinct in Jamaica. On November 19, 2011, twenty people were arrested for standing outside the precinct doors, demanding an end to stop-and-frisk, and specifically in that precinct, which has the second highest number of illegal stops in the city. It's the precinct where NYPD killed Sean Bell in 2005, and where there's been intense harassment of trans people.

It's outrageous that Greg Allen, Noche Diaz, Ribka Getachew and Matt Swaye are even on trial. For 18 months, the District Attorney has refused to drop two counts of Obstruction of Government Administration against 13 people, even when the first group of four was found not guilty by a jury last November.  Prosecutors are bringing the same evidence, but say they hope to get a different outcome with another jury. 

It took two full days to get a six person jury and two alternates selected. So many people in the jury pool expressed opinions against stop-and-frisk that the prosecution was able to have some excluded for cause, because they said they wouldn't be able to listen to police officers and believe them.  Others who spoke out against stop-and-frisk, or had negative experiences with the NYPD, but said they could still be fair and unbiased in this case, were excluded when the prosecutor used pre-emptive challenges to exclude them. 

Of the last people in the jury pool to be questioned, four openly expressed opposition to stop-and-frisk. A young sister said she had been to protests against police brutality, and protested when Kimani Gray was murdered by the NYPD a couple months ago. She told one of those wrenching stories that breaks your heart about being abused as a child, going to court to testify against her abuser, and the prosecution not getting her abuser convicted.  A young man had friends who had been arrested during Occupy Wall Street when the police led protesters into a place, then busted them.  He didn't believe the police.  A human resources manager quoted statistics on stop-and-frisk, and said "I believe it's biased, and there is not evidence it stops crimes. Over 90% of the people stopped were doing nothing wrong, and they are almost all Black and Latino.  I think they should do stop-and-frisk on the Upper East Side (a wealthy area in Manhattan.) 

The potential juror questioned the most was a 40 year old African American train conductor.  He told of being stopped "many" times by the NYPD driving to work at night.  Our lawyer asked, "how many times have you been stopped?"  The court room -- except for the prosecutors -- erupted in laughter when he said, "you mean this year? I really couldn't even tell you."  He went on to say that his brothers, cousins, son, son's friends are all stopped a lot.  "And I do not know why.  We are all working, going about our business.  We have no records."  He said that he lives in what is called a "high crime area," and it turned out to be the 103rd Precinct.  He said that stop-and-frisk does not do any good, and he doesn't like it. 

We ended up with a jury of people born in Queens, and all over the world, who say they don't have an opinion about stop-and-frisk, with one alternate believing that it's a good practice which she is sure lowers crime, although she cannot site how. These jurors say they have never been involved in protest.  The prosecutor, who stipulated there was no violence from the protesters, is building his case on the fact that one could protest, even for a good cause, and still break the law.

Attorneys Mani Tafari, Martin Stolar, Thomas Hillgardner and Daria Aumond will argue that no laws were broken, and in fact the protesters were led, by NYPD officers, into a barricaded zone in front of the 103rd, and then arrested when they made a protest in front of the door.  The defendants will testify about why they protested stop-and-frisk.

The trial begins Tuesday, May 28, and is expected to go three or four days.  Trial support makes a big difference in front of a jury.  Join us 9:30 am Room K-15 at Queens Criminal Court.  125-01 Queens Blvd.  E/F train to Kew Gardens/Union Turnpike.

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.

Today seven defendants in the Brooklyn stop-and-frisk protest case were told to return once again, April 4, for the judge to consider, and likely grant, our motion for dismissal of disorderly conduct charges "in the interest of justice."  The judge who said weeks ago she would dismiss charges if the DA had no additional evidence against the defendants was not in court. 

The DA, however, said he "may" have more evidence against seven remaining defendants based on an "online" search.  Other than reports of people participating in a non-violent civil disobedience action on November 1, 2011 at the 73rd Precinct, there is nothing that could prove them guilty of disorderly conduct.

9:30 am at 120 Schermerhorn on Thursday, April 4, we will demand that the remaining charges be finally dropped, after fifteen appearances in this court.  It wasn't lost on us that April 4 is the anniversary of the assassination of Martin Luther King; we spent a lot of the day talking about the police murder of Kiki Gray in Brooklyn, and the righteous protests surrounding it. 

Tomorrow, come out to Bronx Criminal Court for a hearing in the case against the NYPD officer who killed Ramarley Graham last February.

Wednesday, Noche Diaz goes to trial, also in The Bronx.