ARPAIO 5: Saving Grace.

This is an SOS to the Community.
Grace Daniels needs our support.

The first post is from the Phoenix Class War Council's blog.
I posted it as an echo, not just something to show.

Then comes Grace.

As for me, tonight I'll be working on letter about how when I was burglarized I was able to reflect on some community organizing ideas that Grace had shared to make the neighborhood safer, and how she joined the cause to support my friend with Hep C early on..that we need her out here, basically, more than anyone needs to lock her up or even tie her down for a year. We all need her to be free to create and express and - yes, to resist. In so doing she compels us all to reach a little beyond where we are to try harder to be better to the rest of life on this planet. How can you call someone like that criminal?.

I may not be a big part of Grace's community, but she's been a big part of mine, so anyone out there who knows her similarly who thinks that what you might have to say on her behalf is too insignificant, think again. The court needs to hear from more than just a few good friends - there's a whole lot of ways we all matter to the larger community we help create, and from my own experience, I can say that Grace's touch has only been a blessing in my life.

- Peg

----------------------from the Phoenix Insurgent------------------

An Urgent Request from Grace Daniels

Below my comments here I have re-posted a letter appealing for assistance in Grace Daniel's case. Please do everything you can to offer aid and comfort as requested. Your help is needed now more now than ever.

PCWC stands unequivocally behind everyone beaten and arrested by those thugs the Phoenix Police and MCSO at the January 16th anti-Arpaio march. We likewise denounce the leftist activists who collaborated in advance and after the fact with the attack and the bullshit press that, in the truest tribute to the Red Scare I've seen in some time, quickly tried and convicted our friends without bothering getting the facts.

One reason anarchists oppose law and policing is precisely because it focuses on process over substance, power over equality and the result therefore almost always resembles nothing even remotely like even a shadow of what we might call justice as most people understand the word. More often than not the outcome looks more like blackmail or, as Orwell put it in a slightly different context, a boot to the face. That the State is incapable of delivering justice in most cases -- for instance when factors like race, income or oppositional politics come into play -- reveals the entire spectacle to be a sham.

Often, when the cards are stacked against you as is the case with the majority of us without wealth and power, you are forced into a lose-lose situation, where the choice becomes more one of damage control and the hedging of bets in order to preserve ones already limited freedom. Deeper questions of justice and wrong and right frustratingly fade into the background.

Frustratingly, I say, because despite the sheer absurdity of the process when taken at face value, at every turn the so-called justice system reminds you with the grand language of guilt and innocence, justice and reparation, that although what you're going through feels a lot like extortion, instead it is supposedly a quest for truth and fact. Bullshit! Cognitive dissonance prevails nowhere in this society so much as in the courtroom. And since the State is built on laws, it is in the courtroom where we often get our purest look at its hypocrisies, as well as its failings. Consider, as a case in point, Grace's case in which two sentences, one a month and the other more than ten years are bandied about as equally viable options. Where does justice lie when the outcomes, both State-sanctioned, are so disparate?

Realistically, going to trial can be very dangerous given the tendency of the agents of the State and their masters to lie, cheat and manufacture/disappear evidence/witnesses. It takes strength and courage to stand up against that onslaught, even if the struggle isn't carried through to trial. As anarchists we reject the State's definitions of guilt or innocence and we stand with our comrades under attack, even as we understand the limitations that the legal framework puts on defense and the sad pragmatism that often must result from the pathetic application of the stinking law.

For my part, I do not begrudge anyone, with the obvious exception of those whose deals lead to collaboration with the State, for taking the better of two shitty deals, or of not risking a fight that can have catastrophic results.Battling the State on their home turf is not easy and in the courtroom they hold all the cards. I myself have faced this situation more than once in my life. My deepest sympathies to anyone who sits in a similar position. Decisions rarely come easy.

Justice in capitalist democracy is a sham and I would no more hold a comrade to its anemic standards than I would myself. It's failings reveal only more clearly the need for an uncompromising revolution that overturns this wretched order: an overturning of this justice death-machine that has left so many wrecked lives in its wake. Solidarity in struggle to all who face it in the name of liberty, freedom and equality for themselves and others, as well as to those who face it just to pay the rent or put food on the table.

Support our comrades under attack. Support Grace Daniels.

-Phoenix Insurgent

-------------------An Urgent Request from Grace Daniels--------------

Friends, Family, Comrades:

I just spoke to my lawyer regarding the current state of proceedings regarding the charges being alleged against me since my arrest on January 16th at the Anti-Arpaio march in Phoenix, Arizona. I had hoped my next post on this topic would at least contain semi-positive news; unfortunately that is not the case. The prosecutor has disclosed their final plea deal which would require me to plead guilty to a class 5 felony, with a mandatory 30 days in jail, and a minimum of 1 year supervised probation (which could be up to 3 years).

I have until Wednesday to agree to take this plea or not, if I decide to go forward with the plea it would be effective on September 3rd, Friday. If I decide to take this to trial, the date is set for September 14th. Given the case that we have I normally would see taking this to trial as the best option, however, because a special sentencing statute specifying that this was a “dangerous” offense was added, the judge has no leeway in my sentencing and if convicted it would mean a mandatory 10.5 years in prison. As of right now although we have witnesses, we do not have any video documentation showing the moment that the alleged “crime” was committed. The police as anyone who was there knows, and as we know through the video that we have seen, had numerous cameras throughout the protest and at that moment. However, they are claiming that it does not exist at this point, meaning that it has likely been destroyed.

I am writing this as a last urgent call out to whoever reads this. Things that may help if received by Wednesday would be; character letters (guidelines specified below, you can email them to me at s0917daniels@gmail.com), any video documentation of the protest, and witnesses who saw me directly before, during, and after my arrest. If you feel you have any possible information or documentation that may help in this case, please email me for my lawyers phone number.

Thank you to everyone who has provided unending support and to those who continue to fight despite tactics such as these used to try to scare us into submission.

If you are unfamiliar with the events on the 16th, please see links below for more background and current updates in regards to the other 4 who were arrested that day.

~Grace

GUIDELINES (for character letters)

Who they are - brief

How they know you, how long, etc

Acknowledge that they know essentially what you are charged with

Then, FOCUS on your good character traits, with specific examples if possible.

Character for non-violence generally, and if they have experience with you at marches, rallies, etc, your non-violence at those.

They can then simply request leniency on your behalf.

They should NOT profess your innocence unless they were there and saw you right before and up to your arrest – and of course, we have found no such person yet.

They should NOT try to school the prosecutors and/or judge on the justice system, jail, prison, etc.

The latter stuff just turns off the professional who is reading it and they will ignore the good stuff!

The focus is on you, not the case.

On the Eve of the Revolution...

I sent an e-mail to Director Ryan today (cc'ed to Counselor Klausner, and Deputy Director Flanagan) thanking him and his staff for their time and assistance last Friday. Also e-mailed Betty Cassiano, the Constituent Services Officer, this afternoon about the men on lock down sweltering in Tuscon without being allowed to have their fans, just in case their families didn't get the info about contacting her yet. Hopefully she will be able to get them some kind of relief before another case of heat stroke.

Earlier today I was feeling pretty overwhelmed with some of the things I've been trying to take on - like setting up an Arizona Prison Watch site (akin to Nevada Prison Watch) and trying to network with the immigrant rights communities about what to do to keep everyone in this state from getting criminalized and incarcerated before this legislature can be voted out (I think it'll still take a few election cycles). Been talking with folks working on Nevada's prisons about some regional collaboration, which is pretty exciting - but just mapping out the prison industrial complex in AZ - with all its points and players - seems like a monumental task in and of itself.

That seems like the place to start, though - especially now, as the state's looking at privatizing the prison medical services and the feds/private sector are looking at more immigrant detention centers. If we don't have a map of who's doing what in this state, how are we going to know when and where to file public comments, who to lobby, what to protest, and just generally how to turn this monster around?

And there's no separating what's happening with the explosion of citizens in the state prisons from the racial-profiling, anti-immigration laws, anti-humanitarian laws, and massive round-ups of people with brown skin and those damn insisent litterbugs with water jugs. Dealing with reforming what's happening inside the prisons is a whole lot easier, I think, than dealing with what leads up to prison - and with what keeps these archaic structures in place. Like racism. Fear-mongering. Patriarchy. Capitalism and greed. Entitlement of the privileged class. The vindictiveness of our society. The vestiges of slavery. And so on.

Most people seem to think it's the "other" that goes to prison, but damn, 1 out of every 100 adults in the state right now is in prison or jail. And they aren't all poor, Black, Latino, Native American or even mentally ill - though that does cover most of them. That's like one out of every 100 sixth graders going to prison when they grow up - way more than that if they're from poor schools or communities of color, where they tend to be better prepared for prison life than for college. At least they are led to expect that one is more likely than the other, and "discipline" is conducted accordingly.

Thank god for the minority community organizing that's already been going on to regain control of community resources and to challenge draconian laws and punishments. They've been up on what's going on for a long time - white people are just really slow because we think we're already liberated. Except for Quakers, Unitarians, and the community of families of the wrongly convicted, I don't know that there's a whole lot of political organizing going on against the prison industrial complex among whites across the state. That which is happening - like creating caring communities to engage youth constructively instead of cracking down on pre-teen hooligans - probably isn't thought of as being anti-prison, but it is. So is the effort to get universal health care, the lobbying to yank Arpaio's immigrant-bashing powers, every effort made between citizens to resolve disputes without involving the police or other agents of the state, living wage and unionizing campaigns, anti-war protests, self-sustaining collectives, and global justice activities - inequality is at the bottom of it all, and that's what needs to change in order for prisons to lose their purpose and power to punish. We just need to come together from our disparate parts to recognize our common visions. Some groups have already begun to do that.

Now, if that sounds pretty radical, read some of the authors I've linked to on the left. They're serious about a more beautiful world being possible, and pull no punches about what it might take to bring it about. Hard Work. Perseverance. Hope when all seems lost. Belief in the strength of the little guy when partnered with the Truth - including those little guys (and strong women) still working for the liberation movement from within their torturous Supermax prison cells.

There are powerful forces in opposition - not all necessarily organized or in a conspiracy - just really entrenched, like "tough on crime" politicians, correctional officers unions, the Fraternal Order of Police, and the people who keep voting for Arpaio and Russell Pearce and Andrew Thomas. And, of course, the corporate giants who profit from the privatization of incarceration - right down to the companies selling prisoners $3.50 candy bars that might cost $.55 in the drugstore. And that's from prisoners who earn maybe forty cents a day. Now that's criminal.

So, all this started, I think, with feeling overwhelmed with the task at hand - just dissecting Arizona's prison industrial complex. I must say that I am subject to soar to exuberant heights and plunge into profound depressions, and the only thing that's kept me moving steadily forward on all of this are the families who have not abandoned their loved ones to die in prison, the parolees who are doing everything they can to help those they left behind, the idealists who keep plugging along as if prison abolition is the most natural social aspiration in the world, the political theorists who can plot a course through the darkness to the light that the dreamers keep alive, and the prisoners themselves who struggle honestly to find that balance between what they are responsible for changing within, and what we are responsible for transforming together...those prisoners whose stories leak out and compel us to reach in and find our own forgotten humanity long enough to consider another way through our fears.

Not everyone who supports the prison industrial complex has any idea what they have a hand in perpetrating - and few have ever considered that there might be an alternative. Even among most prisoners and families there's an internalized shame that tells them whatever befalls them in prison or throughout the course of their lives as "ex-cons" is a result of their own bad choices - not in any way a result of our collective lack of imagination for restorative justice and community reconciliation. So, an awful lot of abuse of accused "criminals" and prisoners is tolerated or ignored by the community at large, and those of us who see it as unacceptable are often marginalized or ridiculed as being too soft on crime or having our heads in the clouds.

Funny, though - it's those jerks who always have abusive things to say about people like Marcia Powell or undocumented immigrants who never use their real names when they post hostile comments to the AZ Republic or other on-line sites - as if they are ashamed of what they have to say. It's the anonymity in today's society, it seems, that allows people to so readily detach from their own humanity and inflict or condone unspeakable cruelty and suffering on others without any idea of what they've really registered their voice for - not "safer communities" or the "protection of American jobs" (or the sanctity of our marriages, for that matter), but rather the disenfranchisement, exploitation, and abuse of a large segment of the population which they - we - could join in the blink of an eye: all it takes is the incompetent debriefing of a victim of molestation, the mistaken perception of a witness, the desperation of addiction, hunger, or their infant's need for formula or medicine, or a wrong turn while distracted by one's cell phone two weeks after smoking a joint at a party (drug-related criminally negligent homicide gets you into prison, no matter how sorry you may be).

We could become criminals and prisoners of the state through a stupid, irrevocable mistake, or a desperate act of survival - we needn't have a criminal mind to cross the line. We could even become criminals and prisoners of the state for what we believe are humanitarian acts - like leaving water in the desert, driving immigrants to get medical care, defending sacred land from corporate designs, helping a family resist an eviction order, or attempting to thwart our country's ability to wage war on helpless people. And even if we are among the privileged elite, we could become criminals and prisoners of the state if we turn on our own - we're generally left to perpetrate harm if we just exploit the powerless. It is not the class or even race of the criminal that matters so much in law enforcement as it is the class or race of the victim. The killer of a Latina or a Black woman has much less to fear in most states than the killer of a white higher-class woman, or a white cop.

Now, isn't that shocking? Wouldn't that make you look twice at who ends up with the death penalty or life behind bars - or what cases even get closed at all?

And so it goes...I could write on. I will, in fact, just on another day. Soon I'll retire this blog - my place for thinking out loud, finding kindred spirits, making the dream visible - for the next blog I write will have to be more about the potentials of our communities than it is about me working out my identity and new life goals. For those of you who have followed and encouraged me along the way - including my professors, anarchist friends, Lois Ahrens, Nevada Prison Watch comrades, and my big brother and Mom - Gracias. You have filled my days with hope, my nights with Grace. For the first time in years, I feel I am in the right place, at the right time, heading in the direction I want to go, and in very good company. I know I am where I need to be right now, in the service of something much bigger than myself.

Finally, to everyone out there who reads and throws in on this with me, a hug and a blessing, brothers and sisters. I am so looking forward to sharing with you any portion of the rest of this journey. It is nowhere near as impossible a dream as it appears to be. Believe me. Trust me. However long it takes to dismantle the carceral regime, the process of building something new will itself will be worth a lifetime of work - so long as we clear the path and leave the dream alive for future generations to realize truly universal human rights and freedom.

Keeping Tempe Clean

An article in last week's Arizona Republic described a police sweep of the downtown Tempe area, where they nailed a number of people for panhandling, violating public liquor laws, various city code violations, and even one for selling narcotics - 30 arrests in all of what constitutes probably the most dangerous segment of our community: young kids hanging out, drinking and bumming money from passersby. Maybe some had homes to return to at the end of the day, maybe some didn't, though it was seen by local advocates for the poor as a crackdown on people who were homeless. But what do they know?

So good to know that the Tempe Police are putting their lives on the line to help make our shopping experiences more pleasant. That's some serious crime-busting, there. Bravo.

Everyone on AZ Central who commented on the article seems to know exactly who these youth are, what they want money for, what their employment and housing status is, what their social worth is, and where they belong - which is in jail, of course, since they're clearly just lazy bums who refuse to get a real job.

I didn't read through all the comments, but found many that sounded as if they were coming from the same people who blamed Marcia Powell for her own death in prison because she broke the law. Some even joked and cackled about it, trying to show how clever they can be.

Those are the people in this community who disturb me most - not the panhandlers. Hard-working, tax-paying citizens who believe that their social status entitles them to condemn just about everyone "beneath" them - particularly those who are such a nuisance - to jail, prison, or death. Prostitutes and panhandlers - and those brown-skinned people always looking for jobs - appear to cause this county much more concern than the upstanding child abusers, rapists, batters, murderers, and other serious offenders among them. After all, at least the latter don't stand out and make us uncomfortable as we walk down the street. They blend right in with the rest of us; some even make good neighbors.

While certainly not all commentators were critical of the youth arrested in the police sweep, I didn't catch any observations associating the increase of late in "aggressive panhandling" and the downturn in the economy. I had noticed that downtown Tempe was already losing businesses long before the sidewalks were so heavily populated by young people and street musicians - store after store - even Borders - has closed. Half of Tempe shut down before the school year even ended.

Now, I may have missed something, but aren't we in a recession? Or is it a depression now? Are there any "real jobs" left around here? Could it be that these kids are taking the heat for something much bigger than them?

And who really believes that jamming up the courts with people who can't afford to pay citations - and may therefore go to jail - is going to somehow benefit the community? Aren't we wasting enough money sending people to jail for petty things? That's just being vindictive. We've already put 1% of the adult Arizona population in prison - and the state wants to build more.

Maybe if Tempe took one of those empty storefronts and converted it into a collective some of these youth could run, they'd be surprised at the art, music, and poetry that comes out of there. They could cover rent with a coffee or sandwich shop, an off-beat bookstore - you know, something like Conspire in Phoenix comes to mind. Some young people are actually doing some pretty brilliant things around here - like running the Rusty Spoke Bike Collective. As is the case with most people, I'd guess, some young adults are much more "productive" and happy working with each other and for their community rather than in the service of someone else just looking for cheap labor to exploit and profit from.

But Tempe, like most of middle-class America, would rather invest in petty policing that criminalizes youth than creative community-building potentials. Why not "round up" all those who got arrested last week and ask them what the "problem" is, and how they'd solve it? I think we'd be surprised at how sophisticated their understanding of our economic and political systems are, and the alternatives that could be tried instead. I also doubt that any single one of them would fit the stereotypes we've already plastered on them. And I bet we'd find that through the week, in their own way, a lot of them are out there helping others who are having a rougher time than themselves.

That's more than I think can be said for our precious ASU boys drinking underage, pissing in the streets, selling meth and coke, and spreading venereal disease...how it is that they aren't considered a "public nuisance" is beyond me; instead this whole town rolls out the red carpet and goes down on its knees, competing for that student green.