Friends,
Greetings on the new year. We ended 2012 with victories in putting stop-and-frisk on trial and defeating serious protest charges on the freedom fighters. Myself, Jamel Mims, Bob Parsons & Morgan Rhodewalt were found not guilty of Obstructing Government Administration in Queens, and Greg Allen, who defended himself in Brooklyn, got his charge of disorderly conduct dismissed.
We have much to do in the year to come. Others will go on trial in Queens for the same charges in January and February. 2 Stop & Frisk trials are scheduled in Brooklyn in February. Noche Diaz, in addition to being part of these trials, also faces trials in Manhattan, where he faces several years in jail for observing the police brutalizing people, and the Bronx. In all these cases, we need to put Stop & Frisk and all the abuse the police and law enforcement overall enforce on the people on trial outside and inside the court room.
And we have to escalate our efforts to STOP mass incarceration and all its consequences. An important way that we will be doing that is thru a project called Bear Witness, which will involve collecting stories of people who have been stopped and frisked or hit with racial profiling in other ways, people who have been railroaded to prison, who have been subjected to torturelike conditions in prison or who have been discriminated against once they've served their sentences and been released from prison. We will make these stories accessible in various ways to open people's eyes to the unjust and horrible ways tens of millions of people's lives are enmeshed in the criminal "injustice" system. And we will use this exposure as a springboard to launch broader resistance to mass incarceration.
I urge you to join us in doing this, beginning on Monday, January 7th, at the sentencing in Queens and at the Stop Mass Incarceration Network monday night at Riverside Church. (Details on this are below.)
Yours in resistance,
Carl Dix
Court Battles in Queens & Manhattan - Support Needed
We've learned how important it is to challenge the unjust policies all the way through, and support those who stand up politically to unjust authority, while bringing out the huge difference between what the system promises and what it delivers.
Monday: Carl, Jamel, Bob & Morgan will be sentenced Monday morning in Queens. A strong showing of supporters, as we had during the trial, will make a difference. The prosecution is asking for 5 days community service and a $250 fine. Please write a letter to Judge Gene Lopez asking for a sentence of time served only, no fine, no community service. 1/5 days in jail and about 40 days going to court on this case, for disorderly conduct - not even a crime, but a violation - that is enough. And the "community service" was already performed when these and other protesters stood up and said NO to Stop & Frisk.
Send letters via e mail to attorney Martin Stolar at [email protected]. He will present them to the judge on Monday.
January 22: Noche goes on trial Tuesday Jan 22 in Manhattan for two instances of being arrested while observing NYPD actions in Harlem. We are still looking for witnesses in one case, and will be organizing teams to canvass the area around 135th & Fred Douglass, between Jan 7-21. The charges against him -- a possible 4+ years at Rikers - are outrageous. This brother, a revolutionary leader, needs our most active support.
A Year of Stopping Mass Incarceration
On two Mondays this month we will meet to discuss the state of mass incarceration and make plans to greatly step up work to stop it. Please join us. Even if you can't attend meetings, or make it to court, there will be many things you can do.
Mon Jan 7, 2013 9:30 am
Queens Criminal Court
125-01 Queens Blvd
Sentencing for Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Morgan Rhodewalt, Bob Parsons
Mon Jan 7, and Monday Jan 21 7pm
SMIN/Defense Committee meeting. All welcome.
Riverside Church, Claremont Ave btwn 120th and 122nd Sts in Manhattan.
#1 train to 116 or 125
Tuesday Jan 22 8:45 am Rally 9:30 am Trial
Manhattan Criminal Court
100 Center Street
Noche Diaz for arrests observing police 10/21/11 and 3/27/12 in Harlem
Tuesday Jan 22 8:45 am Rally 9:30 am Trial
Queens Criminal Court
125-01 Queens Blvd
Calvin Barnwell, Elaine Brower, John Hector, Richie Marini trial from 11/19/11 arrests at 103rd Precinct
Mon Jan 28
8:45am Rally, 9:30am Trial
Bronx Criminal Court
215 East 161st (old bldg)
Trial for Noche Diaz, arrested as Jeffeth James was beaten 3/12/12 more info on Noche; blog post on Dec 3 court date
Greetings on the new year. We ended 2012 with victories in putting stop-and-frisk on trial and defeating serious protest charges on the freedom fighters. Myself, Jamel Mims, Bob Parsons & Morgan Rhodewalt were found not guilty of Obstructing Government Administration in Queens, and Greg Allen, who defended himself in Brooklyn, got his charge of disorderly conduct dismissed.
We have much to do in the year to come. Others will go on trial in Queens for the same charges in January and February. 2 Stop & Frisk trials are scheduled in Brooklyn in February. Noche Diaz, in addition to being part of these trials, also faces trials in Manhattan, where he faces several years in jail for observing the police brutalizing people, and the Bronx. In all these cases, we need to put Stop & Frisk and all the abuse the police and law enforcement overall enforce on the people on trial outside and inside the court room.
And we have to escalate our efforts to STOP mass incarceration and all its consequences. An important way that we will be doing that is thru a project called Bear Witness, which will involve collecting stories of people who have been stopped and frisked or hit with racial profiling in other ways, people who have been railroaded to prison, who have been subjected to torturelike conditions in prison or who have been discriminated against once they've served their sentences and been released from prison. We will make these stories accessible in various ways to open people's eyes to the unjust and horrible ways tens of millions of people's lives are enmeshed in the criminal "injustice" system. And we will use this exposure as a springboard to launch broader resistance to mass incarceration.
I urge you to join us in doing this, beginning on Monday, January 7th, at the sentencing in Queens and at the Stop Mass Incarceration Network monday night at Riverside Church. (Details on this are below.)
Yours in resistance,
Carl Dix
Court Battles in Queens & Manhattan - Support Needed
We've learned how important it is to challenge the unjust policies all the way through, and support those who stand up politically to unjust authority, while bringing out the huge difference between what the system promises and what it delivers.
Monday: Carl, Jamel, Bob & Morgan will be sentenced Monday morning in Queens. A strong showing of supporters, as we had during the trial, will make a difference. The prosecution is asking for 5 days community service and a $250 fine. Please write a letter to Judge Gene Lopez asking for a sentence of time served only, no fine, no community service. 1/5 days in jail and about 40 days going to court on this case, for disorderly conduct - not even a crime, but a violation - that is enough. And the "community service" was already performed when these and other protesters stood up and said NO to Stop & Frisk.
Send letters via e mail to attorney Martin Stolar at [email protected]. He will present them to the judge on Monday.
January 22: Noche goes on trial Tuesday Jan 22 in Manhattan for two instances of being arrested while observing NYPD actions in Harlem. We are still looking for witnesses in one case, and will be organizing teams to canvass the area around 135th & Fred Douglass, between Jan 7-21. The charges against him -- a possible 4+ years at Rikers - are outrageous. This brother, a revolutionary leader, needs our most active support.
A Year of Stopping Mass Incarceration
On two Mondays this month we will meet to discuss the state of mass incarceration and make plans to greatly step up work to stop it. Please join us. Even if you can't attend meetings, or make it to court, there will be many things you can do.
Mon Jan 7, 2013 9:30 am
Queens Criminal Court
125-01 Queens Blvd
Sentencing for Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Morgan Rhodewalt, Bob Parsons
Mon Jan 7, and Monday Jan 21 7pm
SMIN/Defense Committee meeting. All welcome.
Riverside Church, Claremont Ave btwn 120th and 122nd Sts in Manhattan.
#1 train to 116 or 125
Tuesday Jan 22 8:45 am Rally 9:30 am Trial
Manhattan Criminal Court
100 Center Street
Noche Diaz for arrests observing police 10/21/11 and 3/27/12 in Harlem
Tuesday Jan 22 8:45 am Rally 9:30 am Trial
Queens Criminal Court
125-01 Queens Blvd
Calvin Barnwell, Elaine Brower, John Hector, Richie Marini trial from 11/19/11 arrests at 103rd Precinct
Mon Jan 28
8:45am Rally, 9:30am Trial
Bronx Criminal Court
215 East 161st (old bldg)
Trial for Noche Diaz, arrested as Jeffeth James was beaten 3/12/12 more info on Noche; blog post on Dec 3 court date
RSS Feed