Charges dismissed against the Arpaio 5.

Been battling dental oppression lately which derailed me early into Garyn and Claire's trial today, so I missed the grand finale, personally, and haven't seen much of a write up yet from others. As court was getting underway this AM - the prosecution having rested yesterday on the conflicting testimony of several cops - the defense was busy working on photographs and videos they had to submit into evidence. (If you ever need that for your own trial, bring a back-up machine - they don't have prompt service if their own projector or other equipment fails). The judge heard "Rule 20" motions from both defense attorneys. Rule 20 states the following:

Rule 20. Judgment of Acquittal

a. Before Verdict. On motion of a defendant or on its own initiative, the court shall enter a judgment of acquittal of one or more offenses charged in an indictment, information or complaint after the evidence on either side is closed, if there is no substantial evidence to warrant a conviction. In an aggravation hearing, after the evidence on either side is closed, on a motion of a defendant or on its own initiative, the court shall enter a judgment that an aggravating circumstance was not proven if there is no substantial evidence to warrant the allegation. The court's decision on a defendant's motion shall not be reserved, but shall be made with all possible speed.

b. After Verdict. A motion for judgment of acquittal made before verdict may be renewed by a defendant within 10 days after the verdict was returned.

The defense put up their first witness, a photographer who was present at the rally on January 16, 2010. They adjourned for lunch to research a few things, then reconvened and the judge dismissed charges due to lack of evidence that the state could obtain a conviction on any count if they proceeded. In other words, we ended up with a fair and honest judge, this time, and the cops who could have so easily compared their stories and lied to make for a better case, didn't. Maybe they were all satisfied with the jail time they nailed Grace with in her plea bargain.

I had to leave before lunch, but it's my understanding that the charges are all dismissed with prejudice, meaning that the state can't turn around and charge Claire or Garyn again. YAY!!! Way to hang in there, you two.

I learned a lot from the cops about riot control procedures during this trial, and about their own vulnerabilities when it comes to making arrests that can actually be prosecuted. The cops couldn't even identify each other in the march, much less individual protestors. They were disoriented and confused when the pepper spray hit, even the ones in gas maks. Their testimony was conflicting, except that all indicated pepper spray was deployed, it was a chaotic atmosphere, it was hard to hear and see, and no one identified themselves as police to Garyn or Claire until after they were in custody.

Garyn was arrested on the word and gesture of a cop whose glimpse of a similarly-dressed bottle-thrower was immediately obscured by pepper spray; an officer who couldn't even identify him as the thrower in the aftermath. He was handed off to several other officers for detention, arrest, and booking, such that it sounds as if the booking officer never even heard the integrity of the direct testimony of the witness. That was how the cops were organized out there to function, too - the front line would hand suspects out to the arrest team with a brief synopsis of what happened, then fall back in line, not follow through with the booking themselves - not really even know who was doing it, apparently.

The myth that made Claire an accomplice to Garyn's non-act of resisting arrest - supposedly chaining herself by the neck to his body in an attempt to obstruct police - was repeated by every cop that testified about her yesterday, but no one had any evidence of such a chain or leash, no did any of them see Claire wearing anything resembling a collar. The only possible explanation for this phenomena seems to be that Claire's purse strap got caught on Garyn somehow and when the police tried to take him town, they dragged her down on top of him, kicking and screaming with no idea of what was happening. It's a wonder no one got seriously hurt.

It was also clear from police testimony that they were expecting "trouble" from the anarchists by the time the marchers reached the site where the pepper spray was deployed - it sounds like they were trying to provoke it along the route. I saw photos and heard testimony myself that cops were punching people in the black bloc crowd before any bottles were thrown.

That all said, I think Stephen Lemons and the Phoenix New Times owe the Arpaio 5 a big apology for convicting them before trial last year, and not showing up to see how the real thing turned out.

Trial of the Arpaio 5: This is what an anarchist looks like.

Hey Phoenix PD:
















This is what an anarchist looks like.

So is this...

------------From the Phoenix Anarchist Coalition list-serve--------

The trial will continue Wednesday, Feb. 2nd at 10:30 AM on the sixth floor (Rm. 612) of the East Court Bldg located at 101 W. Jefferson. It will open with the defense motioning for a Rule 20, meaning that the state is left with the burden of providing evidence that could lead to Garyn and Claire's convictions. If they can't, then the cases get dismissed, to my understanding. If they don't, trial will continue with witnesses for the defense. Today, trial kicked off with the state's witnesses, four cops, who pretty much punched holes through the state's case and the police reports with the assistance of the defense attorneys, the judge and even the prosecutor, ironically! Unfortunately, the police did ID the defendants, so their cases weren't dismissed today.

http://arpaiofive.blogspot.com/2011/02/garyn-and-claires-trial-reconvenes.html

------------------------------------------

Also, Brian Wilkins was at the trial from the get-go today (I stumbled in with no pen half an hour late), so follow his Operation Nation blog posts for the details on the trial. Really, go read it; you won't find a better account anywhere else. What a huge waste of our time and money the MCAO is responsible for here.

The Girls Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest: Political Prisoners

This letter came in via the Phoenix Anarchists. Answer Lynne's call to support political prisoners and remember the Arpaio 5 next week. Grace Daniels gets sentenced and taken into custody by the MCSO on November 22. Check their blogspot for jail visiting info, and current news on Claire and Garyn - they're up next.

Be careful in there, Grace - don't let them give you more time. We're counting on you to come back and help lead the revolution...

-------------------------------------

For those who don't know [Lynne] Stewart is a 70 year old radical attorney who was imprisoned for staunchly defending her clients -- as a post-911 threat to other leftist and progressive attorneys to "back off"....

Buried Alive, But Fighting On

- A Letter to Friends from Lynne Stewart


In the best-selling Steig Larsson trilogy, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,The Girl Who Played with Fire, and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, the heroine, Lisbeth Salander, a hardwired, brilliant young computer genius is shot and presumed to be dead, but is actually buried alive by the antagonist. He is a prototype of the cruel, greedy, misogynistic, exploiter.

She claws herself out of her premature grave and, indomitable and focused, defeats him. Finally by the end of volume three she has triumphed-using her own brains and, relying on her friends and comrades-over the entire corrupt corporate, governmental, military power structure that had been trying to oppress and suppress her, her whole life.

Thursday, July 15, Federal Judge John Koeltl attempted to bury me alive.

Acting for the Government and Judges of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, he sentenced me at their demand, to more than five times the term he originally thought "right and just." With his new sentence, of ten years, I am buried in the Prison Industrial Complex until I am nearly 80 years old, if I make it. But, believe me, I, like Lisbeth Salander, intend to lift the dirt off and, even if weakened and wounded, regain my voice and strength!

Like Lisbeth, I too will always fight back. Justice has been my life, and upholding the Bill of Rights, my joy to defend and utilize on behalf of the People. Since I am now reduced to asking everyone's support and help for personal problems, whether medical or designation of my prison, or other legal issues, I want everyone to know what's expected and to have immediate connection to the people who will continue to be responsible for me and getting the word out.

Along with that, I hope you will maintain contact if there is an opportunity where you live or at an event sponsored by your organization, to speak out about my current situation and highlight the injustice of increasing my sentence only to satisfy the most conservative judicial elements and feed the fear of the so-called war on terrorism.

Sources:

1. Website, complete with sentencing minutes and submissions to the Court, articles, comment, letters, and upcoming events: www.lynnestewart.orghttp://www.lynnestewart.org/>

2. Live persons: Ralph Poynter, 917 853-9759;

email: Lynne Stewart Organization: 1lawyerleft@gmail.com3.

Snail Mail: Lynne Stewart, #555304054, MCC NY, 150 Park Row, New York, NY10007, or Ralph Poynter, 1020 Dean Street, Brooklyn, NY 112164.

Email: 1lawyerleft@gmail.com

Medical: I still have a number of unresolved conditions-mysterious spot on my uterus to be checked (biopsy) for possible cancer, monitoring of bladder condition, a newly discovered kidney stone. My chronic problems undertreatment-diabetes, high blood pressure, cholesterol and assorted aches and pains and annoyances of aging! The Judge directed that I stay at MCC in NewYork City so that my doctor will continue to be responsible for my treatment. Our daughter, Dr. Zenobia Brown, will continue to consult with him.

Prisons: The Judge also directed that I remain at MCC during the pursuit of an appeal. He also recommended to the Bureau of Prisons that I be sent for imprisonment to Danbury FCI in Connecticut, about two hours driving, or on Metro North Rail line, from New York City. Visiting conditions will be much better and I will be able to see more of my family and supporters for longer periods in more ameliorative surroundings. Of course, the Bureau of Prisons is a law unto itself and if it decides I need to go elsewhere, the Judge's recommendation doesn't control. There are a limited number of women's prisons. They are in Minnesota, Florida, California, and West Virginia.

There is also the Federal Prison Hospital for Women in Carswell, Texas (near Fort Worth).

The Numbers: ten years equals 120 months; 87 percent Good Time Credit for Good Behavior equals 104.4 months; Already Served, equals eight months.Totaled out, it is approximately eight years. The last six to 12 months is usually served in a halfway house (but nothing about this case has ever been usual!) The Grand Total is 84 months more to go.

Where so we go from here legally?

Court-wise, we are still making decisions about Possibilities of Appeals, Campaigns for Commutation, Clemency, etc. Keep in touch with the Web Page.

There will always be issues for me. Incidentally, I mentioned at sentencing that I had volunteered to teach GED and Literacy in here, and had been turned down - BOP regulations. They have neither program, nor any education program for the women. The following Monday, a sign-up sheet was posted for...GED and Literacy classes, a first here according to long term prisoners!!! The classes have started. You never know what can work! I was also asked how much time I could give. We'll see.

Just as the establishment tried to finish off Lisbeth Salander by burying her alive, I too am trying to dig myself out. Give me an assist. Continue the work. That is most important to me. Join the ongoing campaigns for Justice for the Scott Sisters, MumiaAbu-Jamal, Leonard Peltier, Albert Woodfox and Herman Wallace (of The AngolaThree).

Remember All the Political Prisoners. Write to them. Put a little something in their commissary.

Force the government to End the Imperialist Wars.

Fight Racism. Fight for Palestine.

Challenge the Politicians. Demand that they tell you where they stand on Me.

Resist! Resist! Resist! Resist! Resist!

My gratitude and boundless embraces for everything everyone has done.

Love/Struggle

Lynne Stewart
53504-054 MCC-NY 2-S
150 Park Row
New York, NY 10007

Prosecuting Innocence: Resistance is (damn near) Futile

----------Mental Illness Awareness Week: October 3-9, 2010-----------

Article originally posted Thursday, February 25, 2010.

Resurrected for the Arpaio 5 and the Freedom March.

The sentencing committee meeting was canceled again today, by the way - I have no idea when it's rescheduled for. I hung out at the Capitol awhile anyway, handing out copies of Tenacious to the women legislators I could find, since it was "Women's Day at the Legislature" today, and I didn't think they'd made any arrangements for state prisoners to participate or talk to their legislators. I also left one for Governor Brewer, with an article done by a woman who had cancer while at Perryville a few years back. She's now with an organization that helps women in prison. I'll post her story here when I get permission.

I hope those legislators I gave the zines to actually bother to read them. I don't know when or how they're going to hear a woman prisoner's voice address their conditions otherwise. Maybe we should try to get them to hold hearings out at the prisons themselves. Given the Arizona Republic and Lumley Vampire reports on the physical condition of the facilities alone, they should have organized an emergency oversight committee to check it out in person. The legislature is responsible, after all, for compromising the safety of state prisoners and corrections employees in the first place. They've now been duly warned that they'll be held liable for failing to follow up on it.

Anyway, the following article is very pertinent to the work of the House Sentencing Committee - and most of the issues I have with Andrew Thomas' office. In fact, this is a very good reason why we don't want that man to be Attorney General. He'll be putting ten times as many innocent people away, while letting the really guilty ones walk by making questionable deals - like the one that put the Scott Sisters away. The innocent don't have anything to fear, they think, nor do they have anything to trade. The guilty, on the other hand - the "triggermen" - can trade them.

There's nothing guaranteed to get you a more severe punishment in America than insisting that you're innocent and losing to the prosecutor at trial - and they make sure you know that when they make their offer. Their job is to prove guilt, not to find truth - don't make any mistakes about that. They're out to get convictions, by and large - not to protect the innocent. Victims are just useful tools to win their cases with, and to use to promote their own tough-on-crime image.

There are a few remarkable exceptions to that rule, of course. Some DA's have been very committed to investigating reports of wrongful prosecutions/convictions. I hope that's the beginning of a trend towards more ethical, responsible prosecutorial conduct. I have yet to see evidence of that happening in Arizona, though.

Borrowed the post below from our friends at Idaho Prison Watch...

-------------

What is Wrong with the Plea Bargain System in our Courts Today?

Frontline Interview with
John H. Langbein

John Langbein is a professor of law and legal history at Yale Law School. In this interview, he describes how the plea bargain system pressures people to buckle and accept a plea-even if they are innocent-and how prosecutors, judges and defense attorneys have a role, a stake even, in seeing that this happens. He also talks about the Supreme Court's indifference to the pressures on a defendant in the plea process, and why he believes the rampant growth of pleas is rooted in the trial system's failures.

(I have condensed this interview for the sake of this forum. You can view the entire interview on the link I provided below)

Q: "What is wrong with the plea bargain system in our courts today?"

Plea bargaining is a system that is best described as one of condemnation without adjudication. It is a system that replaces trial, which is what our constitution intended, with deals.

Second, those deals are coerced. The prosecutor is basically forcing people to waive their rights to jury trial by threatening them with ever greater sanctions if they refuse to plead and instead demand the right to jury trial.
But every defendant has a right to go to trial; it's a choice they make to plead guilty.

The problem with choice arguments is that they neglect the main dynamic of plea bargan which is the pressure that the prosecutor puts on you to do it his way.

Plea bargain works by threat. What the prosecutor says to a criminal defendant in plea bargaining is, "Surrender your right to jury trial, or if you go to trial and are convicted of an offense, we will see to it that you are punished twice. Once for the offense, and once for having had the temerity to exercise your right to jury trial." THAT is a coercive system.

And the prosecutor has many devices which increase the level of coercion: multiplying the counts, threatening to recommend the most severe end of the sentence range, keeping you locked up in pretrial detention if you're poor - most people who are in the criminal justice system are poor - prosecuting your wife as well as yourself, and things of this sort. The prosecutor can pile it on if you don't play it his way. It is therefore a deeply coercive system. Yes, you have a choice, but your choice is constrained by coercion.

Q: What is the role of the defense lawyer?

Sometimes defense counsel does a very good job for people in the plea bargaining process, and gets you a good deal. But there are many other outcomes.

In the public defender system the defense counsel is representing a hundred other people; the defense counsel can not take every case to trial....

Defense counsel in some circumstances is not very competent and is delighted simply to take his money and run, so to speak."

"So there's no particular reason to think that defense counsel is any serious answer to the intrinsically coercive nature of plea bargaining."

Q: Whom does the system benefit?

The main winner in the plea bargaining process is the prosecutor. I describe plea bargaining as a system of prosecutorial tyranny..."

What has happened is that a single officer, the prosecutor, now is in charge of investigating, charging--that is, bringing formal charges--deciding whether to prosecute, evaluating that evidence, deciding whether or not in his or her judgment you're guilty or not, and then basically sentencing you.

"....what we have now is a system in which one officer, and indeed a somewhat dangerous officer, the prosecutor, has complete power over the fate of the criminal accused."

Q: You let the defense attorney off lightly.

I think defense counsel is to some extent at the mercy of a bad system. There's not a lot you can do when the other guy has all the chips. And the prosecutor has an awesome pile of chips in our plea bargaining system, because the prosecutor can threaten ever larger sanctions if you don't do what he wants.

So I believe that by far the worst failure in the plea bargaining system is the prosecutor, and I think that's in part because the prosecutor is not always as noble as he would like you to believe he is."

"It's a lot easier to coerce somebody into waiving all his defenses than to actually investigate the case thoroughly..."

But, again, the trial is there for anyone who chooses that option.

It is true that one always has the right to go to trial, but the prosecutor can make that right so costly that only a fool will exercise the right..."

Part of the reason why we in this country have criminal sentences that are so much more severe than in the rest of the civilized world, is the need that prosecutors have to threaten people with these huge sentences in order to get them to waive the right to jury trial...."

".... most people (in the system) are too poor to afford bail, and these people are particularly likely to yield to the demand that they confess whatever it is they're being charged with rather than wait for some kind of trial, because they'll be sitting in jail for months and months and months, and therefore there is a very evil interaction of prosecutorial power with poverty, with indigence."

It is very sad that the Supreme Court, which has been so anxious to protect various rights of persons who go to trial, has been so cowardly about seeing the evils of the plea bargaining process."

"...the Supreme Court has been indifferent to the pressures on accused in the plea bargaining process, as exemplified by the famous Alford case, where the fellow actually stood up and said, "I'm innocent, but I'm pleading because the disparity of outcome that they're threatening me with is too great". It's terribly sad."

"...the prosecutor is allowed to coerce people out of trial."

"...what happens is that prosecutors don't have to prove their cases; they're simply allowed to coerce people into waiving their rights. Judges are spared the difficulty of conducting trials and the danger of being found to have erred; they (plea bargains) can't be appealed from .."

"...what actually happens is you're coerced into confessing yourself guilty, whether you are or not."

"The saddest things about plea bargaining is that it is not widely understood. Most people have the television model of Perry Mason or somebody similar contesting for a verdict of a jury."

"Plea bargaining is sometimes justified on the ground that we are giving a lighter sentence to someone who is showing contrition or remorse for the offense. But that's a pack of lies. What is in fact happening is that the accused is being told by the prosecutor, "You accept guilt and confess and bear false witness against yourself and we will then see to it that it gets characterized as contrition or remorse."

The point is that the coercion, which eliminates trial, eliminates our ability to know you were in fact beyond reasonable doubt, guilty or not. And therefore it makes the remorse talk just window dressing by apologists who want to keep this existing system which is convenient for them."

Q: Do you have a solution?

I think the solution is very complex. I think it requires facing the underlying failure of this adversary criminal justice system. The idea that having one pack of lawyers and investigators saying, "You did it," and another pack saying, "We didn't," and nobody actually looking for what actually happened, nobody having an interest in investigating the truth, is a bit mistake."

"No knowledgeable student of comparative criminal justice is likely to fall victim to the notion that our is an admirable system.

It is an appalling system.

We have ten times as large a percent of our population locked up in jail by comparison with the European countries. We have sentences which are draconian. We've just had a 12 year old put in jail for life in Florida. Things of this sort are unheard of in the rest of the world.

There are many causes, but the failure of our adversary system is central, and the political nature of our prosecutorial system is also central..."

(complete interview at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/plea/interviews/langbein.html)

Arpaio 5 Trial dates: Claire, Garyn, and Grace.

That sucks that the judge won't let Claire change her attorney. What's the deal with that? He doesn't even understand her interests - how can he represent her adequately? And Grace still has a hell of a "choice" in front of her: A month in jail or ten years in prison? Hmm. Next up is a piece I'm re-running from February about prosecutorial abuses.

---------------From Support the Arpaio 5's blogspot---------

Claire and Garyn's Cases and an update on Grace's

It is apparent that the state still has faith, either in juries siding with the hilarious story the police concocted or that these two will actually cave and plea out somehow (although I believe that they both do not have plea deals on the table that aren't expired). They are both done with their preliminary hearings and Garyn's trial is expected to start on November 24th, while Claire's is expected to start in early December.

From what it sounds like, Garyn's attorney is working on trying to get his case thrown out through various motions, while Claire is unfortunately stuck with an attorney who says that she can't file any motions and that her case is a matter of the police story against hers. She tried to fire her attorney and filed to receive a new one and was denied.

Both attorneys, though, have mentioned that a compiling of eyewitness testimony surrounding their arrests would be of great benefit, so if you saw them get arrested on January 16th, that would DEFINITELY help a lot, especially in Claire's circumstance, not to mention Grace's situation.

As a quick update on her situation, she has a plea deal on the table for a class 3 felony, 30 days in jail and up to two years probation, with her deadline being this Friday, Oct. 8th. Other than that, the only news on her case is that her trial is scheduled to begin on Nov. 8th. So again, if you witnessed the events surrounding Grace's arrest, stepping forward and helping out would be wonderful!

If you can help, you can reach us at:

Arpaio5SupportCommittee@riseup.net

Marcia Powell: No Human Involved? Appeal to Rick Romley.

For many years, official police reports identified murdered prostitutes with the phrase
"No human involved."

From the Sex Worker Outreach Project (SWOP) Tucson memorial last December,
marking the 2009 International Day to End Violence Against Sex Workers.

-----------------------------

Dear Friends of Marcia Powell:

I went to the Maricopa County Attorney's office yesterday and requested an appointment with Rick Romley to discuss the prosecution of those responsible for Marcia's death. I was deflected by a detective who knew next to nothing about the case, and sent me off to tell the state to do a better investigation for them, suggesting that they can still file charges later. I wasn't satisfied with that, but wasn't about to fight the guy to Romley's door - he was pretty big and wore a gun.

So, after visiting AZ Attorney General Goddard's office to be sure they can't do anything (they denied any jurisdiction, deferring to the MCA), I came home and wrote this letter. I hand-delivered it to Romley's office this morning.

Admittedly, I probably should have tried this before chalking up the MCA's sidewalks last week and posting my art, but I guess I needed to get it out of my system in order to articulate myself. I think this is the right thing to do, though I can't help but feel like I'm betraying some of my abolitionist principles by arguing for criminal prosecution. If anyone has any ideas about what transformative justice might look like in this community for the guards who killed Marcia Powell, let me know. I just don't want to empower or embolden them - or any other officer - to hurt prisoners again.

Anyway, this may end what I had left of secrets or a private life, but the truth about why I could have ended up in that cage myself seemed important to tell. I'm not entirely proud of all the decisions I've made in my life, but Arundhati Roy's closing quote is on my letterhead precisely because I believe we should never have to be ashamed to tell our stories. If we cower in silence and fear, then how else will others be free to tell theirs? We must assert that - whatever else we may be called - we are humans involved if we are to challenge the stigma that allows women like Marcia to be so readily discounted and ignored.

- Peg

---------------------------------------------

September 8, 2010

Richard M. Romley
Maricopa County Attorney
301 West Jefferson St.
Phoenix, AZ 85003

Dear Mr. Romley,

My name is Peggy Plews; I’m a friend of Marcia Powell’s. We didn’t actually meet before she died, but I immediately identified with her life story. As an alcoholic, drug-addicted, manic depressive, troublemaking survivor of childhood abuse and sexual assault, I was thrown out and dropped out of high school, sold myself for a high on more than one occasion, and ended up institutionalized before I was 20.

I was fortunate enough to end up in AA at that time, or I would have soon been criminalized like Marcia, if I even survived much longer. My recovery over the years has been a challenge; since the 2001 death of my little brother and the suicide of a man I loved, my mood disorder has been severe enough that I’ve had several episodes of relapse and extended periods of disability. Some of the medications I’ve been on have made me gravely ill. As an alternative, I went a year without meds, and even tried electroconvulsive shock therapy. Neither strategy was very effective; the latter caused lasting damage to my memory and cognitive abilities.

By the time of Marcia’s death, however, I’d been regaining my functioning for a couple of years, and was enrolled at ASU, 3 credits away from earning my degree in Justice Studies. Most of my academic inquiry around that time was in the history of slavery, women’s resistance to oppression, social movements in America, and the evolution of the contemporary prison industrial complex. By the time my Winter 2009 semester concluded, I was an avowed - albeit an imperfect - prison abolitionist, and just beginning to cast my gaze around my own community again. Hence my intensely personal reaction when I learned of Marcia‘s death.

Not quite sure how to cope with the grief and powerlessness I felt, I began to blog as one vehicle for both public education and advocacy. Needing to find others who shared my interests and concerns about our jails and prisons, I also organized with some of the community members I met at memorial services in the weeks that followed Marcia’s death to explore ways we could make a positive difference in how prisoners are treated and regarded, and in how the criminal justice system here works. We came to call ourselves the “Friends of Marcia Powell”, which is a much broader, looser network now that includes everyone from young Phoenix anarchists to international prison watchers to leaders in the movement for the wrongfully convicted to Republicans with kids in Arizona prisons. Of all of us, though, I am the one who could have most easily been Marcia Powell.

I still can be, in fact. I am regarded by some, I’m sure (particularly those at the AZ Department of Corrections) as a public nuisance; certainly as a dogged critic of state policies and people in power. I suspect I have not endeared myself to anyone but left wing radicals and outlaws, and - given my personal history - I’d be pretty vulnerable to malicious prosecution by any of my adversaries’ good buddies, as I understand Mr. Montgomery is.

I could also just as easily relapse or lose my mind and get arrested and prosecuted for a real crime. Once in prison, given my politics, I’d be in trouble all the time - and sure to be punished outside of policy guidelines from time to time. So, I have a vested interest in the outcome of your investigation and - hopefully - prosecutions: I don’t want those people to have power over my life after what they’ve done to Marcia.

Given that the constitutional rights we infer on crime victims in this state don’t apply to people who - like Marcia - are victimized while “in custody for an offense”, it’s no wonder that prisoners of the state and county alike are so often brutalized and neglected. Prisoners and ex-felons have fewer rights and protections than animals, while perpetrators of violent crimes against them are given far more benefit of the doubt by your office than the rest of us would be. Failing to prosecute anyone for the death of Marcia Powell will certainly facilitate justifications for prisoner abuse in the future by brutal, cruel, and careless people in uniform who think they will be immune to criminal sanctions. It also further erodes the public’s trust that “justice” in America is for all, not just for the privileged few.

As I suspect you know, people like Thomas, Arpaio, and Pearce have also done grave damage to the integrity and credibility of Arizona’s criminal justice system, and consequently, to the ability of many people to have any faith in law makers or enforcers anymore. Not prosecuting those responsible for the death of Marcia Powell just reaffirms that the lives of the most disenfranchised and vulnerable among us here are truly disposable in the eyes of the law - which earns only my disgust and contempt. That is where some of the rage directed at police by youth during the Anti-Arpaio march comes from - it’s a deep fracture that can’t be healed by punishing them - it needs to be addressed at the source.

In the meantime, those individuals already identified in an internal investigation as being criminally negligent in Marcia’s death are minimizing the harm they did and fighting to get their jobs back, some returning to the same prison yard with the same duties and powers they had when they killed her. That speaks volumes about the justice system to those prisoners who witnessed their incompetence or cruelty that day, and will now be subjected to it themselves again.

In light of that development, how is a prisoner who is raped ever supposed to have confidence that her complaint will be taken seriously, and that her assailant will be prosecuted instead of returned to a position of power over her? Why would any of those women have any confidence at all that the Maricopa County Attorney’s office makes a good faith effort to protect victims and seek justice, if the only people they see you punish are the poor and powerless or political enemies? As you should know, as many as 80% of women in prison have themselves been victims of crime already - and many will be again.

For these reasons I came by your office today in an attempt to schedule an appointment to meet with you, to personally implore you to take another look at Marcia’s case. Your office is prosecuting all sorts of people on less evidence, or with more contradictory testimony, than that which has been collected thus far in this case. You are threatening several Friends of Marcia Powell’s with prosecution as violent criminals - with prison time, if they don’t plead out - for their antagonism of police at the January Anti-Arpaio rally. What does it say to those young people - and their entire community - if you then won’t charge ADC officers for their role in Marcia’s death? She was far more helpless a victim than armed police on horseback or in riot gear. She suffered horribly due to those officers’ neglect; her body even had second degree burns on it from the sun. None of the Arpaio 5 hurt anyone like that, nor would they. You have the wrong dangerous criminals in your sights.

Please bring charges against those officers who are most implicated and let them put on their defense - what have you lost if some prove their innocence? You will have at least shown that human lives like Marcia’s matter as much as fallen K-9 dogs. You will help set a higher standard of expectations for the conduct of corrections and law enforcement officers in regards to their treatment of prisoners. And before you leave your post, you will teach this community to expect more from the county attorney’s office than we’ve been able to expect for years. Given who will be taking your place, that’s a vital, powerful tool for the people to have, lest we all become victims of that office again.

I can be contacted at the number and email above if you are willing to meet; I have a couple of other issues I‘d like to discuss, too. I’d very much like your help crafting a bill and lobbying the legislature to strengthen the rights of Arizona prisoners to be protected from neglect and abuse; you have credibility that my friends and I lack due to your reputation in law enforcement. We plan to make “Marcia’s Law” a visible issue this fall, such that it gets raised on the campaign trail and is in the forefront of everyone’s minds by the time the legislature reconvenes. If it is not initiated now, while the incident is still fresh in the community’s collective heart and mind, it will never be realized.

Thank you for your time and attention to this matter. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,


Margaret Jean Plews

--
"Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness, and our ability to tell our own stories..."

- Arundhati Roy

Joe Arpaio should be prosecuted, not sued.

I don't know what the big deal is about the feds "suing" the MCSO. I know a lot of folks celebrated this news yesterday, but all it did was piss me off more - that man should be arrested, disarmed, and awaiting trial in a jail cell. He sure shouldn't be out doing more "crime suppression sweeps". We haven't been marching and writing and waiting this long for the feds to sue our county. Arpaio's been sued by plenty of people - and he's never the one who pays, even when he's responsible for killing someone. While good people are being prosecuted as criminals for resisting that man's evil, the DOJ is just stalling until his term expires so they don't have to take responsibility for how he's treated people. I think he does a lot of their dirty work, anyway.


What a mistake to even hope that the Obama administration would come to our rescue in Maricopa County. Look at who the president tapped for Homeland Security, after all - she did nothing but enable this guy. Joe Arpaio may entertain a lot of the nation, but he shouldn't be dismissed as just a clown, a controversial politician, or an incompetent sheriff (though he is all those things): he's an armed and dangerous criminal. After all, what's false arrest if not kidnapping? Racial profiling if not a hate crime? Misuse of public funds if not stealing by both deceit and force? Vindictive investigations and prosecution if not destruction of livelihood and threat to life and limb?


We prosecute young people for terrorist conspiracies just for plotting to drag a few newsboxes into an intersection to momentarily stop the madness of an exploitative, vicious, greedy world. That's not terrorism - that's disrupting the flow of traffic. Using violence or intimidation to coerce political figures or communities is terrorism - which means that Janet still has a job to do here. If anyone else did what Arpaio has been doing, Homeland Security would have swooped in with the DOJ long ago - except that the feds think he's been doing it to people that they really don't give a shit about, either. As I suggested above, it just means less work for them, and by contrast they end up looking like the "good guys", even when all they do is play this game of chastising him.


America is hardly the land of the free or the home of the brave, but most of the rest of the world figured that out a long time ago. We throw the truly courageous and liberated souls into prison like murderers, lest they expose the brutal, corrupt nation we are. So, the feds can slap Sheriff Joe on the wrist or give him a medal - unless they prosecute him as the criminal he is, though, they can take my citizenship and shove it.


They, like Arpaio, are just tools of this hateful, white supremacist, patriarchal empire - they sure aren't serving the People. Arpaio and his kind are heroes only to those who benefit from perpetuating a slave state, and those who have been conditioned to fear the consequences of true justice. They and their kindred invaded and reproduced in this region with an explicit agenda in mind - gaining and maintaining their own wealth and power by impoverishing and criminalizing everyone who resists. It never ceases to amaze me how people like Russ Pearce manage to twist the truth of our collective history. It seems so blatant that I just don't understand how the rest of the country keeps falling for their lies and histrionics. We are indeed a nation of fools.


Well, I'm descended from the Pilgrims and soldiers of the American Revolution - I even carry Brigham Young's genes - but what I learned growing up (from my Young Republican parents, even) was that my family's relative privilege and our presence in this hemisphere by violent conquest makes me all the more responsible for preventing similar injustices from occurring here and now. It sure doesn't entitle me to subordinate the rest of those who populate this land, regardless of where our government erects borders and points its guns.


So, fuck you, your Keystone cops, and your source of power, Sheriff Joe - you are a corruption of what America has claimed to be. That's a claim that's led many young people to kill and die for the ideals of freedom and democracy - which you've done everything you can to subvert. Fuck the feds, too - they didn't come to our rescue - they just keep sending reinforcements to finish us off. And shame on every other American citizen who isn't resisting Power in this place - especially those citizens who lack color. You're like the so-called Christians who owned slaves, or felt a little guilty about it but looked the other way at the auction. I don't know what's so difficult about understanding that someone like Christ would never have voted for those who do violence in His name.


There are many ways to defeat racism and colonialism like this, but you are mistaken if you think you've found a neutral place from which to comfortably watch, tuning in once in awhile for to either vent about evil or scapegoat those being victimized by it. In fact, if you're comfortable with any of what's going on in Arizona - and not at least boycotting this place - then you're already with them, condoning the repression, deportation, incarceration, and even slaughter of people America once so gladly welcomed. The condition was that they had to remain in perpetual servitude - it was only when they began seeking liberty and justice that we decided that migrants were all criminals and aliens. Now the good Senator Pearce wants their children to be born into slavery, too.


What has become of us?


There's never been any consistency in the enforcement of law in America, but in Arizona it's especially biased and mean. Power here demands that people like Arpaio seduce the already-sympathetic, and brutalize everyone else into submission. It's already made sure he doesn't have to go out of his way to put people like me behind bars. The law of this land and its enforcers have no credibility with me; they have my contempt. I guess that makes me another radical preaching anarchy. Call me an outlaw, too, then: I haven't carried state ID since SB 1070 was passed - I know very well who I am, and a good many of the people who would incarcerate me do, too.


I've already said what I think of the DOJ - they're worse than a joke because invested in them is a lot of people's hope. I've been begging them for help for a year and they've answered with nothing but silence as people keep suffering and dying in these prisons. But if I refused to comply with them in the face of an investigation, I'd be charged with obstruction of justice and held without bond while search warrants were issued for everything they wanted - including my DNA for their database. They sure as hell wouldn't be suing me in civil court. What are they doing dancing with our Sheriff around this, then?


Law enforcement officers should be held to a higher standard of non-violence against citizens than anyone else precisely because they already have the guns, the training, and the benefit of the judge's and jury's doubt. Besides, they have a sworn duty to protect and defend us. Instead, however, it's the public that's held to a higher standard when it comes to the welfare of cops, whatever uniform they wear. Even the FBI is guaranteed to brutalize us if we cross them in any way, and the courts will back them up by dishing out solitary confinement for life, if they want - the Black Panthers are a prime example. So, I'm not really optimistic about the DOJ doing anything to rein in anyone's excessive use of force - not by the MCSO or anyone else. A lot of the violence against those targeted by police is done by prosecutors, anyway, in concert with the powers that be - far more than by cops walking their beat.

Case in point: the Arpaio 5. The feds are here because the Maricopa County Attorney wouldn't lift a finger to stop the MCSO from assailing the community (Andrew Thomas was in cahoots with him, anyway), even though tens of thousands of us have demonstrated repeatedly. But the MCA has no problem charging some of those youth who protested police tactics at last January's anti-Arpaio march as violent criminals for the chaos that erupted near the end with the Phoenix PD. There's a double standard, alright.

some of the more colorful anarchists

at the January 16, 2010 anti-Arpaio march.

No one who was there or has seen the multitude of videos can agree on what really happened - much less who was most to blame for police actions - so the default version of the "truth" is, as usual, the one told by the cops (and the Phoenix New Times - thanks a lot, Lemons). Those poor, frail officers (in body armor) were assaulted, obstructed and resisted by a handful of kids half their size who were being trampled by police horses and bikes, blinded by pepper spray, and threatened by a well-equipped cavalry.


Had I been there, I could have easily bumped (or been pushed) into a cop while trying to get out of the way, or arrested for interfering while trying to keep a friend from getting killed in the melee. But apparently it doesn't matter to the county attorney what your intent or your actual capacity to hurt anyone was: if you touch a cop with anything from a banner to silly string, your ass is theirs - especially if you call yourself an anarchist, wear all black, and dare to talk back to state authority. You're really in trouble if you're a woman on top of all that.


So I keep thinking, if Justice is really blind and one's purpose apparently doesn't matter in assault, then shouldn't the cop who hit toddlers with pepper spray be charged, too? Regardless of what frightened her or who she really intended to blind and cause pain (I really doubt she was aiming for the kids), totally innocent children got hurt - the videos and witnesses are pretty clear that little ones were screaming and all red and teary-eyed because they got sprayed. Relatively speaking, that seems to have been a far more serious "assault" than crashing into someone - even if that someone was a cop. If that officer doesn't do time for injuring bystanders by deploying her weapon - be it in self-defense or out of carelessness in all that confusion - why do the kids who got nabbed in the heat of the moment get screwed?


I'm especially disturbed that there's no semblance of proportionality in terms of what the Arpaio 5 are being accused of and what they might be charged with if they don't surrender their right to trial now. They clearly aren't considered to be a threat to public safety, since they aren't being held without bail and the plea deals being offered don't all entail jail. If they maintain their innocence, however, some are being promised the violence inherent in incarceration if they don't prevail in court - one has been told that if she puts up a defense she'll be prosecuted for a serious felony that would carry a mandatory minimum sentence of over ten years in prison.

That floored me - that's literally 100 times more severe than what she'd get if she just pleads guilty now. If the county attorney really thought this young woman was a danger to society, she'd be on her way to prison already. They're coercing her with a promise of harsh retaliation for resistance, not a deal negotiated in the interest of justice. The state isn't trying to protect the public, or even the police. They're trying to repress and silence these young people - and all their friends, by making an example of them - for their defiance of police authority, not for perpetrating violence on police officers. Yet how often do courts punish the cops with incarceration for harassing, pepper spraying, or wrongfully arresting one of us - much less beating or killing someone? They seldom ever treat it as criminal. All they're usually willing to do is let us sue the department they work for - like the DOJ is suing Arpaio.


The DOJ is basically a big fat cop, and thus isn't much different than anyone in Maricopa County - or the State of Arizona - for failing to press criminal charges against anyone at the top of the MCSO, letting Arpaio and his goons off the hook for the criminal harm they've done to so many people. Regardless of how embarrassing he is to the rest of law enforcement, he's still one of their own, so different standards of conduct - lower standards - apply than those which the rest of us are held to. Similarly, neither Thomas' nor Romley's office would prosecute any of the prison guards for Marcia Powell's homicide. Why not? They told me that despite 10,000 pages of testimony and evidence (and a year to investigate), they still couldn't sort out who did what. There were just "too many conflicting stories".


What??? Of course they're all pointing fingers at each other - no one ever wants to take the rap. Prosecute them ALL, then, and let them sort it out in plea bargains like you'd do to any of us. Don't let them off with the modified Nuremburg defense ("No one was following policy; it wasn't just me. Breaking the rules was SOP.") Who else would duck a negligent homicide charge in that situation but agents of the law? They may all tell a different story, but the story they tell is that it wasn't them. Again, the default version of the truth is theirs.

That's pathetic. I just don't believe that the Maricopa County Attorney can't even come up with a misdemeanor charge against one of sixteen (16) prison guards (officers of the law) who mocked or ignored a woman they had locked in a cage in the desert sun, leaving her for over 3 hours without water to defecate on herself, suffer horribly, and finally die with second degree burns on her body. There was enough culpability in her death for the prosecutor I discussed it with to say that it's unfortunate no one can find survivors with standing to sue the AZ Department of Corrections - that's the only way justice would be done, apparently, not through the efforts of the Maricopa County Attorney's office to find it. They're too busy prosecuting kids for challenging the police.

If Marcia Powell had been a child in the care of a parent, the MCA would be looking for someone to execute within days of her death, not closing the file a year later. At the very least negligent homicide charges would be brought. They'd be quicker to prosecute someone if Marcia was a dog, actually - and then they'd erect a memorial for the poor thing. Being "tough on crime" apparently doesn't apply if the perpetrator wears a badge and the victim is a whore with no family to bury her remains. I can tell you from the hits on my blog and the emails in my box about Marcia Powell: the entire world is disgusted with us - all of us, not just the AZ Department of Corrections.


I don't know where the original cancer in this place started - I think it was long before Arpaio, though. The MCSO is just one of the worst sites it metastasized to; it certainly isn't the only one. Nevertheless, Joe Arpaio and his cronies should be excised from this community immediately if we are to ever know the meaning of justice here. The DOJ isn't promising that, however. What consequences does Arpaio face if he loses this round to the feds, anyway? A big fine, perhaps? No - the rest of the county has to pay that part, most of which will come out of lifesaving resources for the poor, of course. They don't even broach the issue of restitution for his victims. Does he actually have to step down (with a healthy pension), or maybe just promise to "reform"? No indication that they have that in mind, either - he could run for office again, for all we know. So, what are all those civil rights laws for, anyway, if they leave abusers in power and enjoying the fruits of their crimes? I really don't know what the point of their lawsuit is, except for the feds to say they did something (even if it amounts to nothing beyond them reclaiming a few million bucks).


Even though it's a rare thing for the Justice Department to sue a police agency, this lawsuit is still petty bullshit when you stack it up against what the man and his machine have done. As far as I'm concerned, Arpaio is worse than the schoolyard bully that too many people dismiss him as. He's more like a gang leader being allowed to run loose with deadly weapons, commandeering an army of thugs who, at his orders, are kidnapping people, committing hate crimes, terrorizing communities, collecting protection money, and persecuting his enemies with threats of violence under the color of "law" - all while he's "under federal investigation" for civil rights violations. How is it not a real crime to violate someone's civil rights, anyway - especially when you chain them up in the process?


Maybe the documents Arpaio refuses to release hold evidence of corruption that could be criminally prosecuted - if so, they have or will be destroyed before he lets them destroy him. I doubt that man will ever get sentenced to jail or prison time, like some of the Arpaio 5 might. Marcia Powell was killed while doing a 27-month prison sentence for offering a cop a blow job, while Arpaio has prostituted himself to White Power for as long as he's been in office, spreading his racist, misogynistic venom in the community like an STD. He's a far greater threat to public safety than either the Arpaio 5 or Marcia could possibly be. So how is it that in the nation which incarcerates more of its citizens than anyone else in the world, this man is not worried about going to prison? I find this to be a very disturbing miscarriage of justice all the way around.


I can't imagine what more the DOJ needs to investigate to prosecute Arpaio. There's no lack of witnesses or evidence here to his criminal conduct: he's publicly boasted about it to no end. He should be arrested immediately and held without bail so the communities he persecutes don't have to keep living in fear. Unfortunately, no one with power in this state defends the common people or human rights - people like Russ Pearce cultivate bigoted, selfish, abusive men (and women) like him. They know Arpaio and his henchmen will enforce only those laws they make to protect their own interests - against those who resist or can be bullied - with the consent of a largely "Christian" public that votes from their fear, rather than from what they profess is their faith.


My bet is that I'll be the one who ends up in jail before the feds pack up and go home - not Sheriff Joe. If any of the Arpaio 5 are doing time there, though, I'd be more free in their company for cursing the state than I would be if I silently empowered the evil holding the keys to our chains.

one of the Phx PD's more dangerous hoodlums:
"Remember Marcia Powell"

-----------------------------------------------

Department of Justice Sues Maricopa County Sheriff's Office for Refusing to Cooperate With Investigation

Friday 03 September 2010

by: Nadia Prupis, t r u t h o u t | Report

The US Justice Department (DOJ) filed a lawsuit against controversial Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio on Thursday for alleged civil rights violations and refusal to cooperate with a federal probe.

Arpaio, who leads the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) and calls himself "America's toughest sheriff," has drawn both criticism and support as one of the country's most outspoken opponents of illegal immigration. Arpaio is also an active participant in 287(g) - a program funded by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) that trains and authorizes state police departments in enforcing federal immigration laws. The MCSO has deported more than 26,000 immigrants in the past three years, one-quarter of the national total of 115,841.

Since March 2009, the DOJ has attempted to investigate Arpaio for a litany of alleged civil rights abuses, including racial profiling, unconstitutional searches and seizures and enforcement of English-only policies in his jails, but Arpaio's office has refused to produce all the requested documents. Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits federally funded programs such as 287(g) from discriminating on the basis of race, color and national origin, and grant recipients are required to provide the DOJ full access to documents, facilities and staff during investigations. To receive federal funds for its participation in 278(g), the MCSO signed contractual agreements that assured its compliance with Title VI and promised its full cooperation with discrimination probes.

This DOJ investigation is not the first time Arpaio has faced federal charges for civil rights abuses. A separate probe launched this year by a grand jury is looking into abuse of power charges against Arpaio after he conducted baseless prosecutions of political opponents. In 1997, the DOJ also investigated Arpaio for civil rights abuses within his jails, alleging that he deliberately failed to discipline guards who subjected inmates to excessive use of force. Arpaio's compliance in that case led to the implementation of more humane jail policies, including the limited use of pepper spray, stun guns and restraint chairs.

Thursday's lawsuit marks the first time in more than 30 years that the DOJ has had to sue a police force for compliance. Arpaio refused to comply with an August 17 and a September 10 deadline to produce documents requested over 15 months ago.

"The actions of the sheriff's office are unprecedented," said Thomas E. Perez, assistant attorney general for the Civil Rights Division. "It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities."

Arpaio's attorney Robert Driscoll wrote in a letter to Judy Preston, acting chief for the Special Litigation Section, that the MCSO "certainly did not agree that every document DOJ requested is required to be produced in a Title VI investigation ... If DOJ seeks to dictate every deadline and maintain the position that it, in its sole discretion, can determine what it wants and when, without any reasonable limitations on scope and without any input from MCSO, what DOJ truly seeks is compelled or coerced compliance. MCSO is committed to providing DOJ with a reasonable amount of information and documents based upon which DOJ can investigate allegations of national origin discrimination."

The MCSO and Arpaio's alleged crimes violate not only Title VI, but also the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 and the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. According to the lawsuit, if the MCSO is found guilty of discriminatory behavior, Maricopa County stands to lose an estimated $113 million in federal grants. The funds also go toward programs such as assistance for low-income families and health care for the homeless.

During a press conference Thursday morning, Arpaio expressed disappointment in the ongoing investigation. "I thought we were really close to getting this resolved," Arpaio said. He also promised to proceed with his current operation of 278(g), stating, "I'm going to continue, maybe tomorrow, to enforce all the illegal immigration laws ... As [State Senator Russell Pearce] always says, 'Take the handcuffs off the cops.' I'm not going to be intimidated by the federal government going to court against us."

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.

Arpaio Five news and court dates

Update from Support the Arpaio 5 (Sorry we missed you, Garyn....)

----------------

Arpaio Five News

After five months on trial, Issa Emadi, who was charged with a class 6 felony for aggravated assault on a cop and aggravated assault with intent to injure, took a plea deal for a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct. He faces no jail time, a $500 fine and unsupervised probation.

As for Garyn Klasek and Claire Brock, the state has decided to pick up their cases again after initially scratching them. Garyn is being charged with a misdemeanor for disorderly conduct and a felony for resisting arrest and was offered a plea deal for a misdemeanor for resisting arrest, which he rejected.

Claire is being charged with disorderly conduct, resisting arrest and hindering prosecution. She was offered a plea deal for misdemeanors for resisting arrest and hindering prosecution (which leads me to believe that those are felony charges and that her disorderly conduct charge is a misdemeanor) and voluntary probation, which she as well rejected.


Upcoming Court Dates

Garyn's first (and hopefully last) preliminary hearing is scheduled for Friday, June 18th at 1:30 PM at 201 W. Jefferson. I believe his attorney has already put in a motion for the judge to throw the case out and plans to show his evidence to the judge.

Claire's first (and hopefully last) preliminary hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, June 22nd at 8:30 AM at 201 W. Jefferson. Apparently, her attorney is friends with Garyn's attorney and their offices are right next to each other, so hopefully they're figuring out a good game plan together.

Operation Nation: Arpaio 5 Coverage

Borrowing this post for the Arpaio 5 update  from Brian Wilkins' Blog, Operation-Nation. Check it out; he's on top of things...

------------------

"Arpaio Five": Phoenix Protestors Pepper Sprayed At January Rally Face Different Obstacles

by Brian A. Wilkins
4/4/2010

It is going on three months since five young people exercising their First Amendment rights were attacked by Phoenix Police, and forever had the course of their existence altered. There has, however, been some good news in the subsequent persecutions, which are now taking place.
All "charges" against Mr. Garyn Klasek and Ms. Claire Elizabeth Brock were dropped on January 29, after county prosecutors read the report drafted by obviously lonely Phoenix Police.


Ms. Claire Elizabeth Brock (L) and Mr. Garyn Klasek (R). Photos
from arpaiofive.blogspot.com.

The report alleges that [I'm paraphrasing] Ms. Brock jumped on Mr. Klasek's back and attached a chain from her waist to his neck. After reading the report himself, Mr. Klasek responded this way: "I don't recall filming a porn [movie] at the March." Regardless, no reasonable human being can believe anything these clown Phoenix cops say after reading this fictional fantasy, which has further destroyed any and all credibility this organization thinks it has.
Both Mr. Klasek and Ms. Brock have prima facie Fourth and Fourteenth Amendment federal claims against the Phoenix Police, but there is no word whether they will pursue such actions as of yet. They have until July to file a claim notice with the Phoenix Police on possible state law violations and two years to file federal claims.

The news is not as rosy for the other three, particularly Ms. Sarah Grace Daniels, as her case is proceeding in classic Maricopa County fashion.


Ms. Sarah Grace Daniels. Photo from
arpaiofive.blogspot.com.

Ms. Daniels appears to be the ONE these Maricopa County people are trying to make an example of, since chances are they will lose the other two pending cases.

In one of the most bizarre case dockets I've ever seen, Maricopa County filed a motion on March 4, asking for Ms. Daniels to submit to fingerprinting, which was granted by the court a week later. Its bizarre because Ms. Daniels was arrested and charged with the serious crime of "aggravated assault on a police officer," yet no prints were taken during the booking. Maricopa County has alleged, on January 29, the charges against Ms. Daniels are of a "dangerous" nature, thus not eligible for probation at sentencing (unless, of course, she signs some BS "plea deal"). The bottom line with Ms. Daniel's case is that Maricopa County alleges she used a "wooden stick or pole" as a "dangerous instrument," but as we've viewed virtually all angles of video of the incident, there is nothing that shows Ms. Daniels with a "wooden stick or pole" "assaulting" an "officer."
But this may not matter in the case, as Ms. Daniels is being represented by Clifford I. Levenson, whom I'm sure has his own private practice, but I'm unsure whether Ms. Daniels is paying for his services or if he is contracted through Maricopa County.


Attorney Clifford Levenson

Levenson declared in his March 18 disclosures that he will only use a few "character witnesses" at trial and will use no other evidence for the defense, including video or witness testimony from the scene which could potentially exonerate Ms. Daniels.  
Levenson has a checkered past as an attorney and it seems to be showing here. According to his website, he relocated to California from 2000-2005 to work in the offices of attorneys Do Phu and Anh Tuan. But this move was not voluntary by Levenson. According to the Arizona Bar Association, Levenson had his law license suspended by the Arizona Supreme Court on October 16, 2000 for one year and was placed on probation for two years after the suspension. He was not re-instated until September 22, 2004. According to the Bar, Levenson took retainer fees from clients and then failed to "adequately communicate" with them and "engaged in conduct that was prejudicial to the administration of justice."

Apparently, Levenson used retainers fees to support a drug habit, as again, according to the Bar, he entered drug rehab in Southern California in October 2000. I'm not one to point out people's past mistakes, but when it comes to the life of an innocent young woman (Daniels) being dragged through this system, Levenson's past is relevant.

In contrast, preliminary props can be given to attorneys Ashley Adams and Ernesto Quesada, who represent Mr. Issa Emadi and Mr. Jeremiah Henry, respectively.


Mr. Issa Emadi and Mr. Jeremiah Henry. Photos from
arpaiofive.blogspot.com.

In yet more bizarre (but good) happenings in these proceedings collectively, both attorneys filed a "notice of defenses," which is something I've never seen in all the cases I've covered in Maricopa County. CLICK HERE to read Mr. Henry's defenses. These "notices" are bizarre because this is the first time in two years I've ever seen defense attorneys in Maricopa County put forth a real effort to DEFEND their clients. Both attorneys correctly assert defenses such as insufficiency of state evidence, lack of criminal intent, and malicious conduct by Maricopa County deputies, which incited the disturbance.

Mr. Emadi's "charges" must stem from some other set of circumstances, because he is charged with class 6 felony "aggravated assault," as opposed to the more serious class 2 felony charges Henry and Daniels face. He is also charged with one of the more bogus "crimes" I've ever heard about: "attempted aggravated assault," which is a misdemeanor.

The fact is that Mr. Emadi and Mr. Henry have a chance to possibly get their regular lives back, since they seem to be represented by decent counsel (up to this point), as opposed to one of [now former] county attorney Andrew Thomas' whores in the public defenders office. This does not seem to be the case for Ms. Daniels, as it appears her lawyer, Levenson, will do anything to possibly move up the ranks in the county, and thus hope his past disappears. It is common knowledge that all a public defender or defense attorney must do in Maricopa County is destroy someone's life in the name of Andrew Thomas, in order to be promoted or land some other higher-paying, more powerful position (see public defender Michael Ziemba).

I've had the pleasure of meeting all five of these individuals and knowing them only reinforces the fact they are being targeted by this alleged justice system. All of them are very peaceful and very earthly, yet at the same time, believe strongly in our Constitutional rights as Americans; which is why they are being targeted. The First Amendment is supposed to protect those who protest wrongs by government, but instead lead to these individuals being assaulted and charged by those sworn to protect.

I expect Mr. Emadi to ultimately be offered some sort of misdemeanor/community service/expungement "plea deal," to avoid trial (which I hope he does not sign). Mr. Henry will likely be offered a last-hour misdemeanor "plea," but again, the State has NO evidence of these alleged assaults, so they will either have to drop the charges or go to trial. Ms. Daniels is the one who needs the most attention, as her attorney may actually be working for the other side.

Mr. Henry will next appear in court on April 26, for a "Comprehensive Pre-Trial Conference," with trial scheduled to start July 7. Mr. Emadi's next appearance will be on April 12, with trial set to begin on May 26. Expect both to be offered "plea deals" at their next appearances. Ms. Daniels will next appear on May 5, with trial set for July 12.

ALSO VISIT:

Support The Arpaio Five website.

RELATED ARTICLE:

Phoenix (AZ) Police Pepper Spray Peaceful Protestors (1/16/2010)