$112.00 donated in
past month
africa
canada
east asia
europe
latin america
oceania
south asia
united states
west asia
process
projects
regions
topics
|
Grand juries are one of the good intentions paving the road to our current legal system. Unlike a trial jury, which decides whether a suspect is guilty, a grand jury merely decides whether there’s probable cause to prosecute a suspect on felony charges. The goal was to create a filter to catch unjustified felony cases and stop them at an early stage, so that the suspect wouldn’t be wrongfully prosecuted (and have to spend unnecessary time in jail and unnecessary money on lawyers). But it all went very wrong.
Defense attorneys aren’t even allowed in same room as the grand jury, let alone permitted to put on defense witnesses, question the prosecution witnesses, or make any statements to the jurors. So grand juries nearly always just “rubber stamp” the cases brought before them. For example, in fiscal year 2000, federal grand juries voted to indict a total of 59,472 suspects and chose not to indict 29 suspects—only one out of every 2,000 suspects was left un-indicted. An additional factor in grand juries’ unwholesome compliance with prosecutorial plans is the frequent lack of diversity among the jurors.
 download the PDF: What You Should Know About Grand Juries
The indynewswire show airs weekly on Free Radio Santa Cruz 101.1 FM, Friday mornings 10-12 noon, broadcasting news and opinion from independent media worldwide, focused on indymedia sites but also drawing from other websites. The October 3rd episode features discussion of sexual violence, patriarchy, and militarism across Mexico. This show is dedicated to Sali (Marcella Grace Eiler), found dead September 24th in San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico.
On October 1st, green mesh fencing was put up again in Santa Cruz's Parking Lot #4 next to the downtown Farmer's Market. The market began at 2:30pm and by 3:00pm, many people were disappointed by the fencing around the trees and the absence of the sounds of drumming in the air. However, people eventually removed the fencing around the trees and a drum circle formed, playing music into the night.
Marcella "Sali" Grace Eiler, a solidarity activist with the struggle in Oaxaca and Chiapas, was found dead on September 24th in a deserted cabin twenty minutes from the village of San Jose del Pacifico, Oaxaca, Mexico. She was brutally raped and murdered.
Sali, born in Eugene, Oregon, USA, was always inclined to help. She used her artistic talents to paint, Arabic dancing to raise funds for the struggle, put on punk shows, published photos on indymedia, gave self-defense courses to women, and much more. Sali was also an international accompanier for people in Oaxaca who felt harassed by the Oaxacan government of Ulises Ruiz Ortiz.
On different occasions and to different people, Sali mentioned that recently she had suffered political persecution and surveillance in Oaxaca. Many people believe that her murder is part of the widespread repression against the social movement and directed particularly at international observers. Because of this, it is believed that the intellectual authors of Sali's killing are the same who ordered the repression against the people of Oaxaca in their struggle for justice and freedom.
On September 30th, the day Sali would have turned 21, a march was held in Oaxaca demanding justice for Sali and an end to violence against women. (  Photos)
Read More with Photos, Video and Poetry | Ya Basta De Asesinatos Contra Los Que Luchan Por La Justicia Y Libertad!
In Santa Cruz last week, at least three individuals were visited by FBI agents and compelled to give DNA samples. The agents possessed court orders for their DNA in investigation of a "violation of the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act."
Another individual was served with a subpoena for a federal grand jury hearing. FBI Special Agent Andrew Myers found her in downtown Santa Cruz as she hung out with friends last weekend. The grand jury hearing is scheduled for October 23rd at the federal courthouse in San Francisco.
An anonymous contributor to Santa Cruz Indymedia states, "Anyone with more specific information should post here. We need to be as public about this as possible. We need to let folks facing FBI intimidation know that they have our utmost support, and send the FBI the message that we will never cooperate with their witch-hunts." Read More
previous coverage: Information on Grand Juries || Know Your Rights || Santa Cruz Resident Nathan Pope/Knoerl Arrested in Oceanside by the FBI || FBI Agents Visit Individual's Workplace in Oakland
From September 26th - 28th, a national conference organized by Critical Resistance will take place at Laney College.
Critical Resistance seeks to build an international movement
to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief
that caging and controlling people makes us safe. Critical Resistance's vision is the creation of genuinely safe, healthy
communities that respond to harm without relying on prisons and punishment.
Prisons and policing are destroying us. In the past two decades, the number
of people in prison in the U.S. has risen 400%. The system is filled with
68% people of color. One in three Black males born today will end up in a
cage. And an additional 4 million former prisoners in the U.S. are left
without hope or resources - barred employment opportunities,
disenfranchised, and often prohibited from getting federal loans, applying
for public housing, or getting services.
More Event Information
|
Critical Resistance
On September 17th, Jack and Wes were arrested at a gathering in Parking Lot #4 alongside the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market. According to reports published on Santa Cruz Indymedia, police initially went after and arrested Jack, a Food Not Bombs volunteer. Some people followed the police while drumming and demanding that Jack be released. Police reacted by arresting Wes, a drummer with Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra.
On Sept. 18th, the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit in federal court against the NSA on behalf of five AT&T customers to stop the ongoing surveillance of their telephone and internet communications. The plaintiffs are also suing the President, Vice President and other officials who ordered or participated in the warrantless wiretapping.
Evidence in the case includes documents provided by former AT&T technician Mark Klein showing AT&T routed copies of internet traffic to a secret room in San Francisco controlled by the NSA.
This latest lawsuit filed by civil liberties groups fighting the domestic spying program established shortly after Sept. 11th, 2001, follows on the heels of Congress' attempt to provide "retroactive immunity" to the telecommunications companies participating in the program through the FISA Amendments Act of 2008.
Press release | Complaint | Case info | Previous coverage: FISA Amendments Act Signed into Law
On Tuesday, September 16 at 7:30pm, a reportback from the mobilizations against the political conventions this summer will be held in San Francisco, at Station40 (3030b 16th. Street). Video from the streets will be shown with presentations, and afterwards an open discussion will be held to examine activist strategies, police actions, media, successes, failures, and more.
"As the dust settles around the storm of protests surrounding the Democratic and Republican National Conventions, Bay Area activists who were on the streets of Denver and the Twin Cities are coming together to talk about their experiences -- what strategies were employed, what went right, what went wrong, and where we will go from here?" Event AnnouncementIndybay coverage of RNC Demonstrations and DNC Demonstrations
Following last month's raid of the venerable Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley, the San Francisco chapter of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG-SF) says it is working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) on a legal response on behalf of the Infoshop. Court filings reveal that the University of California, Berkeley, police obtained a warrant to search the Long Haul as part of an investigation into e-mail messages sent to UCB staff in the spring of 2008. Prior to the raid, the UCPD used court orders to obtain identifying information from the Long Haul's internet service provider, Sonic.net, and from Google. UC police are still holding the computers and data storage devices seized from Slingshot newspaper and other Long Haul tenants for analysis by a forensics team.
According to Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of NLG-SF, "the conduct of the UC Police is reprehensible. They entered a community activist space with deadly weapons drawn and seized every computer, making no distinction between those used by independent media and those open to public use. They were able to invade people's privacy and seize all of this equipment based on the claim that threatening emails were traced back to this location. This would never be tolerated at a public library, a Kinkos, or a corporation with multiple computers and multiple users. The tactics used were abusive and violated basic First and Fourth Amendment rights."
In response to the raid, Long Haul supporters have held a protest on the UCB campus and tech volunteers held a weekend workshop to setup a new, more secure computing environment for Long Haul users powered by donated computers and open-source software.
Read more: Protest pics | Affidavit used to obtain warrant | Search warrant and inventory | Related interview with Google
Previous Indybay Coverage: UCPD and Feds Raid Long Haul Infoshop in Berkeley
On September 3rd, police preempted the weekly gathering in Parking Lot #4 alongside the Santa Cruz Farmer's Market by occupying the space under the trees usually used by the drum circle and Food Not Bombs.
Santa Cruz Trash Orchestra writes, "In January, the community spoke and acted out to prevent our town from becoming as flavorless as Carmel. We will defend the drummers from police harassment and we will win again.
"This is merely the newest battle of a war in Santa Cruz. A war against dissent, against the poor, against the homeless, and now against people making music. We challenge these laws and the police crackdown on undesirables -- an effort to "clean up" the streets of Santa Cruz of the young, the very old, immigrants, the unemployed, homeless, the insane, and anyone who resists."
Invitations were posted to Santa Cruz Indymedia calling for people to participate on September 10th at around 3:00pm in solidarity with drummers, other musicians and friends playing music together. On Wednesday morning, stakes were pounded into the ground around the trees in Parking Lot #4 to set up fences blocking access to areas where people traditionally sit and chat, play drums, eat food, etc. The fences and several police officers were not enough to prevent people from singing, playing instruments, sharing food and reclaiming an important community space under the trees.  Read More and Watch Video | Photos
Blueshirts Erase Drum Circle: New Ban on Public Assembly Near Farmer's Market | Police Surveillance at the Farmer's Market Drum Circle | Santa Cruz Reclaims Peoples' Parking Lot #4
On Tuesday September 2nd, Palestinian professor and activist Sami Al-Arian was released from prison after more than five-and-a-half years behind bars. Immigration authorities released him on bail after they failed to explain his continued detention pending a trial for refusing to testify before a grand jury about a cluster of Muslim organizations in northern Virginia.
Last week, Dr. Al-Arian's attorneys filed a petition for habeas corpus with the court, challenging the continued unlawful detention by ICE. Judge Brinkema gave the government until today to respond. Their response came in the form of an order for Dr. Al-Arian's release on bail.
While he is out of prison, Sami Al-Arian is not free. He must remain under house detention at his daughter Laila's residence in Virginia, pending trial.
Dr. Al-Arian's family was overjoyed upon hearing the news. Four of his five children along with his attorney met him at an ICE facility in Fairfax, Virginia earlier this afternoon. "We couldn't believe our eyes," Leena, Dr. Al-Arian's second oldest daughter, said. "We were so relieved. It's been 2,020 days since he's last been with us."
 Audio
|
Read More
Previous Indybay coverage
The 2008 Republican National Convention was held in St. Paul, Minnesota, September 1st through September 4th. In the Twin Cities, the RNC Welcoming Committee and a number of ad hoc regional activist groups made plans to demonstrate on the first day of the convention, September 1st. Twin Cities and Federal authorities moved hard against the activists by pre-emptively raiding a convergence space and numerous houses, confiscating equipment, and making arrests. After the convention began, police used tear gas, pepper spray, beanbag projectiles, and other weapons against demonstrators throughout St. Paul.
|
|
