Thursday, December 13, 2007 - 8:30AM
Criminal Justice Center - Room 1003
1301 Filbert Street
Philadelphia, PA 19107
On July 23rd 2007, four Philadelphia-area anti-racist activists were
arrested on multiple trumped up charges stemming from a
counter-demonstration against a Ku Klux Klan rally that was scheduled
to take place in Center City that morning.
Two men wearing neo-Nazi t-shirts were verbally confronted by
anti-racists and forced to leave. The men then boarded a waiting SUV,
at which time another verbal confrontation ensued, at the end of which
one of the SUV's windows was damaged. Police personnel waited until
this point to break their cover and identify themselves - the driver
of the SUV was a Philadelphia Police Detective while the passenger and
owner of the vehicle was an FBI special agent.
The initial charges against each activist consisted of 4 felony and 6
misdemeanor counts, but were quickly reduced to 8 misdemeanor charges
when the arresting offices realized the original trumped up charges
were just too exaggerated to ever stick.
On December 13th, the Love Park 4 will have their day in court.
We are happy to report that the defendants are confident in their
lawyer's ability to help them beat these trumped up charges, and are
currently proceeding towards trial in December with cautious optimism.
We are encouraging friends, family, and fellow activists to pack the
courtroom on December 13th to show their support and solidarity for
the defendants.
It is important that as many people as possible attend this court
date. We must show the State the large amount of support that exists
for these anti-racists arrested in a situation that - for all
practical purposes - was straight up entrapment. We must send a clear
message that State-sponsored harassment of political activists will
not go unchallenged.
We have also received word that local white supremacists are planning
to attend this court date to intimidate and harass both the defendants
and their supporters. With this new information, it is even more
imperative that people turn out in large numbers on December 13th. We
must not allow this attempt at intimidation to go unchecked. Let's
pack the court room with signs of solidarity for our comrades – fill
those seats early and keep the neo-Nazis out!
We are asking that everyone who comes to court please dress in an
appropriate manner, and behave professionally. Coming to court will
help show the judge and district attorney just how much support the
Love Park 4 has - but anything negative will only hurt their case.
Please keep that in mind when you are planning to attend.
In Solidarity with ALL Political Prisoners,
The Love Park 4 Defense Committee
www.myspace.com/supportlovepark4
Friday, November 30, 2007
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Update from the Love Park 4
***PLEASE FORWARD WIDELY***
Quick Update from the Love Park 4
It's been awhile since we updated everyone on our case. First of all, we want to really thank all of our friends and comrades for their outpouring of support since our arrests in July. To date, we have raised about $2400 for our legal defense and have received hundreds of supportive messages from around the world.
Our first date court is fast approaching - just 3 weeks away on October 3rd. It's just a status hearing - where our lawyers will enter their appearances, we will enter our not guilty pleas, and the discovery process will begin. Not much usually comes out of these initial appearances, and in our case our lawyers expect nothing different. They have explained that in all probability, discovery will go on for some time as they expect the prosecution to not be completely forthcoming with all the discovery our legal team needs (surprise, surprise) so a series of discovery motions will have to be filed to secure all of those documents and other evidence necessary for our defense.
To that end, we have hired our legal counsel and will have a legal team consisting of 3 lawyers - one for Tom Keenan and Jared Schultz, another for Jason Robbins and a third for the member of Progressive Labor Party who was also arrested with us. The members of Anti-Racist Action will be represented by Paul Hetznecker and Larry Krasner, respectively. Both lawyers are well-known to the Philadelphia activist community, having spent time defending other activists arrested in the
city, and are sympathetic to our anti-fascist politics. Both Hetznecker and Krasner were a big part of the post-RNC legal team in 2000, as well as counsel to several people arrested during the Bio-Devastation protests in Philadelphia in 2005, among many other politically charged cases over both of their long careers. Our lawyers are currently preparing for our October court date and we will be
meeting with them again during the next few weeks to ready ourselves for court and continue to formulate our defense strategy.
We are confident in our lawyers ability to help us beat these trumped up charges, and are proceeding with cautious optimism. While our supporters have done an excellent job helping us fund raise, we are still in need of help in this area. We are currently $600 short in meeting our fundraising goal of $3000, the amount our lawyers have asked to defend us. At this point, any amount of money you can donate to help us reach that goal will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate money online via PayPal. Send your donation to cyndipitt@gmail.com. If you wish to send funds through the mail, send
a check or well-concealed cash to:
Heartsville Community Space
PO Box 5917
Philadelphia, PA 19137.
Make sure to note that it is for The Love Park 4 and make out all checks or money orders to Jared Schultz.
Write to philly_ara@yahoo.com to receive updates on our case and find out how else you can lend a hand. You can also visit the Support the Love Park 4 Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/supportlovepark4 - or the Love Park 4 blog - http://lovepark4.blogspot.com/ - for more information and background on the case.
GIVE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: SOLIDARITY!
Quick Update from the Love Park 4
It's been awhile since we updated everyone on our case. First of all, we want to really thank all of our friends and comrades for their outpouring of support since our arrests in July. To date, we have raised about $2400 for our legal defense and have received hundreds of supportive messages from around the world.
Our first date court is fast approaching - just 3 weeks away on October 3rd. It's just a status hearing - where our lawyers will enter their appearances, we will enter our not guilty pleas, and the discovery process will begin. Not much usually comes out of these initial appearances, and in our case our lawyers expect nothing different. They have explained that in all probability, discovery will go on for some time as they expect the prosecution to not be completely forthcoming with all the discovery our legal team needs (surprise, surprise) so a series of discovery motions will have to be filed to secure all of those documents and other evidence necessary for our defense.
To that end, we have hired our legal counsel and will have a legal team consisting of 3 lawyers - one for Tom Keenan and Jared Schultz, another for Jason Robbins and a third for the member of Progressive Labor Party who was also arrested with us. The members of Anti-Racist Action will be represented by Paul Hetznecker and Larry Krasner, respectively. Both lawyers are well-known to the Philadelphia activist community, having spent time defending other activists arrested in the
city, and are sympathetic to our anti-fascist politics. Both Hetznecker and Krasner were a big part of the post-RNC legal team in 2000, as well as counsel to several people arrested during the Bio-Devastation protests in Philadelphia in 2005, among many other politically charged cases over both of their long careers. Our lawyers are currently preparing for our October court date and we will be
meeting with them again during the next few weeks to ready ourselves for court and continue to formulate our defense strategy.
We are confident in our lawyers ability to help us beat these trumped up charges, and are proceeding with cautious optimism. While our supporters have done an excellent job helping us fund raise, we are still in need of help in this area. We are currently $600 short in meeting our fundraising goal of $3000, the amount our lawyers have asked to defend us. At this point, any amount of money you can donate to help us reach that goal will be greatly appreciated.
You can donate money online via PayPal. Send your donation to cyndipitt@gmail.com. If you wish to send funds through the mail, send
a check or well-concealed cash to:
Heartsville Community Space
PO Box 5917
Philadelphia, PA 19137.
Make sure to note that it is for The Love Park 4 and make out all checks or money orders to Jared Schultz.
Write to philly_ara@yahoo.com to receive updates on our case and find out how else you can lend a hand. You can also visit the Support the Love Park 4 Myspace - http://www.myspace.com/supportlovepark4 - or the Love Park 4 blog - http://lovepark4.blogspot.com/ - for more information and background on the case.
GIVE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: SOLIDARITY!
Thursday, August 16, 2007
The Love Park 4 on Eye on Hate Radio
Listen to Jared, one of the Love Park 4 being interviewed by Floyd Cochran from Eye on Hate Radio on August 9th, 2007. This is a clip of just
the Love Park 4 interview, about 11 minutes long.
You can also listen to the whole
August 9th Eye on Hate Show. Jared's interview is during the last 10 minutes of the show.
the Love Park 4 interview, about 11 minutes long.
You can also listen to the whole
August 9th Eye on Hate Show. Jared's interview is during the last 10 minutes of the show.
Friday, July 27, 2007
Spreading the word
Photo from PhillyIMC
News sites and blogs are beginning to pick up on the story. Here are some links:
MySpace!
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=219314960
Elsewhere
http://www.infoshop.org/inews/article.php?story=20070725183119407
http://yinsurgent.wordpress.com/2007/07/25/anti-racists-face-serious-legal-battle-in-philly/
http://www.phillyimc.org/en/2007/07/41333.shtml
http://mostlywater.org/node/26945
http://libcom.org/forums/north-america/support-love-park-4-anti-racists-face-serious-legal-battle-philly
http://pghbloggers.org/taxonomy/term/6735
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Support the Love Park 4!
Anti-Racists Face Serious Legal Battle in Philly:
UPDATE AND PLEA FOR LEGAL FUNDS!
On Monday July 23rd, four anti-fascists from the Philadelphia, PA area
were arrested at what was supposed to be a Ku Klux Klan rally in
Center City Philadelphia. Jared Schultz, Tom Keenan, Jason Robbins -
all of Philadelphia Anti-Racist Action - and Jim McGovern - of the
Progressive Labor Party - were all arrested and charged with a series
of trumped up misdemeanors in a situation that - for all practical
purposes - was straight up entrapment.
Rumors spread through Philadelphia starting Friday July 20th that the
Ku Klux Klan was supposed to show up for an 11AM rally on Monday at
Love Park. While anti-fascists were present in the area starting at
10:30AM, no racists showed up for the rally until noon when two men
wearing what appeared to be neo-Nazi t-shirts showed up in the area.
Anti-fascists approached the men, confirmed they were neo-Nazis and
told them to leave. Words were exchanged between the Klansmen and the
anti-fascists, and then the neo-Nazis said they were leaving. The
anti-fascists then followed behind them to make sure that they kept
their promise.
Strangely, Civil Affairs cops remained on the other side of the park
the entire time and made no efforts to follow the group even when they
were out of their sight. The boneheads got into an SUV around the
corner and were driven away. As they attempted to drive off,
conveniently blocked by traffic, a verbal confrontation ensued with
the anti-fascists lasting several minutes before a window of the SUV
was smashed. The driver – who could have flashed his badge at anytime
to disperse the crowd - then ordered Schultz, Keenan, Robbins and
McGovern against the wall.
While the arresting officer was a Philadelphia Police Department
detective, the SUV was, according to paperwork received by the
arrestees, the vehicle of FBI Special Agent Sean Brennan, also present
during the arrests. What an FBI agent was doing escorting neo-Nazis
away from the park remains a total mystery.
After the arrests, all four of the anti-fascists were transported to
the 9th Police Precinct where they remained for approximately 27 hours
awaiting notice of their charges and bail amounts.
Initially, the arrestees were informed that for some odd reason,
Internal Affairs was investigating their case and that they would be
facing 10 charges - 4 felonies and 6 misdemeanors. In the end,
however, all of the felonies were dropped, leaving the arrestees with
8 misdemeanor charges of varying degrees upon being bailed out. The
fact that the charges were dropped so quickly proves just how trumped
up these charges are. However there's still a lot at stake for The
Love Park 4.
Currently, everyone is facing the same 8 charges - Possession of an
Instrument of Crime With Intent, Criminal Conspiracy Engaging with
Possession of Instrument of Crime with Intent, Institutional
Vandalism/Illegal Possession, Reckless Endangering Another Person,
Resisting Arrest, Criminal Mischief, Harassment - Subject Other to
Physical Contact, and Disorderly Conduct/Grading.
At this point, everyone is out of jail, doing fine and just taking
some time to relax for a few days before what could be a lengthy and
expensive legal ordeal. All of the defendants are scheduled for court
on October 3rd, and are in the process of establishing a legal defense
fund and securing legal counsel.
We are confident that with the right resources, all of the
anti-fascists arrested will be able to defeat these outrageous charges
which could result in tens of thousands of dollars in fines and years
of jail time
*But we sure can't go it alone*
We need the resources to win this legal battle and you can help right now!
Simply go to http://www.paypal.com, click on the "send money" tab and
make a donation to cyndipitt@gmail.com. If you wish to send funds
through the mail a check or well concealed cash to
Heartsville Community Space
PO Box 5917
Philadelphia, PA 19137.
Make sure to note that it is for The Love Park 4.
Write to philly_ara@yahoo.com to receive updates on how you can lend a
hand. They'll be plenty of work to do.
GIVE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: SOLIDARITY!
UPDATE AND PLEA FOR LEGAL FUNDS!
On Monday July 23rd, four anti-fascists from the Philadelphia, PA area
were arrested at what was supposed to be a Ku Klux Klan rally in
Center City Philadelphia. Jared Schultz, Tom Keenan, Jason Robbins -
all of Philadelphia Anti-Racist Action - and Jim McGovern - of the
Progressive Labor Party - were all arrested and charged with a series
of trumped up misdemeanors in a situation that - for all practical
purposes - was straight up entrapment.
Rumors spread through Philadelphia starting Friday July 20th that the
Ku Klux Klan was supposed to show up for an 11AM rally on Monday at
Love Park. While anti-fascists were present in the area starting at
10:30AM, no racists showed up for the rally until noon when two men
wearing what appeared to be neo-Nazi t-shirts showed up in the area.
Anti-fascists approached the men, confirmed they were neo-Nazis and
told them to leave. Words were exchanged between the Klansmen and the
anti-fascists, and then the neo-Nazis said they were leaving. The
anti-fascists then followed behind them to make sure that they kept
their promise.
Strangely, Civil Affairs cops remained on the other side of the park
the entire time and made no efforts to follow the group even when they
were out of their sight. The boneheads got into an SUV around the
corner and were driven away. As they attempted to drive off,
conveniently blocked by traffic, a verbal confrontation ensued with
the anti-fascists lasting several minutes before a window of the SUV
was smashed. The driver – who could have flashed his badge at anytime
to disperse the crowd - then ordered Schultz, Keenan, Robbins and
McGovern against the wall.
While the arresting officer was a Philadelphia Police Department
detective, the SUV was, according to paperwork received by the
arrestees, the vehicle of FBI Special Agent Sean Brennan, also present
during the arrests. What an FBI agent was doing escorting neo-Nazis
away from the park remains a total mystery.
After the arrests, all four of the anti-fascists were transported to
the 9th Police Precinct where they remained for approximately 27 hours
awaiting notice of their charges and bail amounts.
Initially, the arrestees were informed that for some odd reason,
Internal Affairs was investigating their case and that they would be
facing 10 charges - 4 felonies and 6 misdemeanors. In the end,
however, all of the felonies were dropped, leaving the arrestees with
8 misdemeanor charges of varying degrees upon being bailed out. The
fact that the charges were dropped so quickly proves just how trumped
up these charges are. However there's still a lot at stake for The
Love Park 4.
Currently, everyone is facing the same 8 charges - Possession of an
Instrument of Crime With Intent, Criminal Conspiracy Engaging with
Possession of Instrument of Crime with Intent, Institutional
Vandalism/Illegal Possession, Reckless Endangering Another Person,
Resisting Arrest, Criminal Mischief, Harassment - Subject Other to
Physical Contact, and Disorderly Conduct/Grading.
At this point, everyone is out of jail, doing fine and just taking
some time to relax for a few days before what could be a lengthy and
expensive legal ordeal. All of the defendants are scheduled for court
on October 3rd, and are in the process of establishing a legal defense
fund and securing legal counsel.
We are confident that with the right resources, all of the
anti-fascists arrested will be able to defeat these outrageous charges
which could result in tens of thousands of dollars in fines and years
of jail time
*But we sure can't go it alone*
We need the resources to win this legal battle and you can help right now!
Simply go to http://www.paypal.com, click on the "send money" tab and
make a donation to cyndipitt@gmail.com. If you wish to send funds
through the mail a check or well concealed cash to
Heartsville Community Space
PO Box 5917
Philadelphia, PA 19137.
Make sure to note that it is for The Love Park 4.
Write to philly_ara@yahoo.com to receive updates on how you can lend a
hand. They'll be plenty of work to do.
GIVE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: SOLIDARITY!
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