FBI’s Classic Divide-and-Conquer Tactics Tried Again in NYC

In the past week, individuals in New York City have been visited by agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigations. They say that they are investigating the 2008 bombing of the Times Square military recruitment center, and have been asking about many different individuals.

According to the FBI’s recent June 2013 report, the bomb used in the incident, described at the time as unsophisticated, was made out of an ammunition can commonly used in the fields of Iraq and Afghanistan. The bombing occurred at around 3:30 in the morning. No one was near to get injured and it caused only minor damage to the center. The height, weight, age, sex and race of the suspect are unknown. Let’s keep it this way.

It is possible that this FBI investigation is only peripherally related to the open grand jury investigation that has imprisoned anarchist Jerry Koch. While Jerry has been granted immunity from the bombing incident, he is currently imprisoned at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in order to coerce him to inform on others who are suspected.

The FBI’s current focus on specific people exploits ongoing rifts in activist circles, in an effort to glean information to persecute and imprison individuals. During the recent spate of FBI visits, agents have been suggesting that multiple people have been identified as responsible for the Times Square recruitment center bombing, using methods such as insinuating that those accused are themselves already informants for the state. All of this is an obvious effort to encourage others to inform on each other. Law enforcement agents are legally allowed to lie to accomplish their missions. This is a simple divide-and-conquer tactic exploiting the already fractured anarchist scene. It is understandable that the FBI would choose weak points in our community to try to sever the spirit and resolve of all who might come together to fight against oppression. We hope that each one of us can see the benefit of fighting activist repression in whatever form it takes.

Stay strong, understand your rights, and remember what we have in common. We can galvanize our communities and fight against the wedge tactics of the state. If they had enough evidence to charge anyone then someone would have already been arrested and charged. The FBI needs us to make their case. It’s up to us not to give them what they want.

If faced with questioning by any police or FBI, you do not need to talk to them. You do not need to let them in your home without a valid warrant. They are legally allowed to lie to you. Ask for a business card and call the National Lawyers Guild at 212-679-6018. Below is a link to information about the rights you have when the FBI comes to question you.

http://issuu.com/sparrow/docs/ccr_if_an_agent_knocks

New York City: Gerald Koch’s contempt hearing tomorrow (Tuesday May 21st)

From Jerry Resists:

Jerry’s contempt hearing is tomorrow, May 21st at 3:45 PM on the 20th floor of 500 Pearl Street.

We expect that he will be taken into custody by U.S. marshals tomorrow.

Because the hearing is public, we will be able to be in the courtroom with Jerry. Bring a photo ID if you will be going into the court house. No electronics are allowed and will be checked with security.

We suggest folks arrive 45 minutes to an hour early: security takes a while, and we want to show Jerry–and the feds–that we support him, and all grand jury resisters.

Bring banners or flyers. Spread this widely.

Resist state repression! Support Jerry! Support all political prisoners!

New York City: Rebel Diaz Arts Collective space raided, evicted by Federal Marshalls and NYPD

From Rebel Diaz:

South Bronx community center Rebel Diaz Arts Collective (RDACBX) shut down by Federal marshals and NYPD. Rally to be held denouncing lockout and forced eviction.

March 1, 2013- After a violent daytime raid yesterday, Thursday, February 28, 2013, on the warehouse turned arts space at 478 Austin Place in the Bronx, members of Hip-Hop community center RDACBX are denouncing their forced eviction at a rally to be held at 6pm today in front of their locked out building.

The building landowner, local commercial developer Marc Pogostin of Austin Property Corp., had for months stalled negotiations on a new agreement with the RDACBX after the group’s original lease expired this past November. Despite diverse support for RDACBX from local politicians, churches, and community organizations in the area, Austin Property Corp. eventually refused to renew the lease, citing concerns about the group’s political murals, and prompting the surprise eviction yesterday.

“The violent actions taken yesterday are an attack on young people, artists, and Hip Hop culture,” says RDACBX co-founder RodStarz. “In a time where budget cuts, stop and frisk, and gentrification are affecting our communities, it’s a shame we are being treated like criminals. There is no justification for this eviction.”

Karen Louviere, 19, a past participant in RDACBX youth programs, expressed her disappointment at the violent shutdown of the space. “They came in with armed officers into what is supposed to be a safe space for the community. A space that has served as an alternative for young people in the area, helping develop their talents in a positive way.”

The internationally renowned RDACBX, host to weekly cultural performances and educational workshops, had recently announced plans for the creation of the Richie Perez Radical Library, as well as the continuation of their widely recognized Boogie Mics open mic series, and the SxSBX Hip-Hop Festival.

“Despite the violent removal of RDACBX from its space, RDACBX will continue to work on its development, as it strives to be a resource for the community. There is a need for this organization to exist in The South Bronx,” says Claudia De La Cruz, a member of the collective.

What: Press Conference/ Rally to Defend RDACBX
When: Friday, March 1st, 2013 at 6:00 p.m.
Where: 478 Austin Place, Bronx NY 10455

New York City: Police arrest two people allegedly connected to Occupy Wall Street, claim search revealed weapons cache and explosives

Please note, Occupy Wall Street is claiming that neither of the two people arrested had links to OWS. However, keeping in mind the immediate distancing by OWS from the Cleveland 4, it is hard to ascertain what claims may be accurate. A link to OWS’s response is here.

From the Daily Mail:

The daughter of a prominent New York doctor went into labor and had to rushed to the hospital when she was arrested on charges of having explosives, illegal weapons and a stack of papers labeled ‘The Terrorist Encyclopedia’ in her New York City apartment.

Morgan Gliedman, 27, and her boyfriend Aaron Greene, 31, an Occupy Wall Street organizer, were taken away from their home in Manhattan’s pricey Greenwich Village on Saturday.

Gliedman, who was nine months pregnant, has had her arraignment postponed because she went into labor as she was being hauled away, the New York Daily News reports.

She is the daughter of a top Brooklyn cancer doctor and was educated at the Dalton School, an exclusive New York prep school attended by the likes of Anderson Cooper and Claire Danes.

Greene, the father of the child, went to Harvard University for his undergraduate degree and did graduate work at the Kennedy School of Government there, as well.

He was being held without bond.

The New York Post reports that police found seven grams of HMTD, a high explosive powder that was reportedly used in the 2005 London Underground bombings.

Also found in the living room were numerous written items containing instructions on the manufacture of explosive materials and bombs, including a collection of pages that had a cover page entitled ‘The Terrorist Encyclopedia’ and a booklet entitled ‘Deadly Homemade Weapons,’ court papers said.

No political writings were discovered, and New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the investigation was continuing into whether the couple had any larger plans or ties to any radical groups. They did not show up on any watch lists.

Police evacuated the building and several others nearby as the bomb squad removed the highly-unstable material from the apartment.

Officers also found a sawed-off shotgun and ammunition, according charging documents.

Full Story

New York City: More than 180 arrests at Occupy Wall Street Anniversary demonstrations

From Capitalist Media:

NEW YORK — Occupy Wall Street protesters celebrated the movement’s anniversary on Monday by clogging intersections in the city’s financial district, marching to the beat of drums that were a familiar refrain last year.

Protesters roamed around the lower Manhattan financial district all morning in groups of a few dozen each, from one intersection to another and back again, chanting loudly about the ills of Wall Street. In total, there were a few hundred protesters scattered throughout the city. More than 180 of them were arrested by early Monday evening, mostly on disorderly conduct charges.

Full story at the Washington Post.

NYC: Solidarity demo for Jeremy Hammond

From Anarchist News:

On the 23rd July 2012, the Jeremy Hammond Support Network will sponsor a rally in NYC to show support for the accused hacktivist. Friends, family, and supporters of Jeremy Hammond will gather at Foley Square for a brief march to the Metropolitan Correctional Center where we will pack the courtroom in solidarity with Jeremy

We wish to make it clear our intent to peacefully fill the courtroom. We are there to support Jeremy, and the more people that actually make it into the courtroom, the better. In this light, we have also been informed that sadly, individuals with any items identifying them as Anonymous have, in the past, been denied entry to the court. This is not something the Support Network agrees with, however, if you intend to actually sit in the court room, you will need to take this into consideration.

Full call out

Pre-Mayday Police Raids in New York City

DABC Note: Reports have started to circulate that at least one other house was raided, and a professor at a local college may have been detained for refusing to allow cops into the classroom.

This morning around 6:30am at least two houses were raided by NYPD detectives. In both cases, the cops used the pretext of spurious arrest warrants to gain access to apartments of local anarchists. The warrants were for individuals unconnected to those homes, but allowed cops access to one and apparently justified them forcibly breaking into another.

After entering the apartments the police searched them, intimidated the residents, and ran their identification. In one of the instances, an anarchist organizer was taken into a separate room and interrogated by detectives about past actions and upcoming plans for May Day.

It awaits to be seen if more houses were subject to raids this morning. Regardless, this ‘preemptive strike’ by the NYPD was clearly a coordinated effort to intimidate local organizers and fish for information.
[I’d love a writeup of exactly what the legal justification was here, not cuz I want the details but knowing all the ways they justify their shit could be useful to us all]

This news comes on top of reports that over the past weeks hundreds of cops have been drilling on Randall’s Island in anticipation of May Day. Those in the NYC area should be aware of these pig tactics and take any necessary precautions in the hours leading up to tomorrow’s activities.

If there was any doubt how seriously the pigs are taking our efforts then those doubts can be put to bed. But if they think that intimidation and harassment can stop us, they have another thing coming.

Tomorrow they won’t be raiding innocent individuals in their beds, they will be up against tens of thousands of angry New Yorkers who have had enough of their bullshit.

May Day means no work. May Day means no shopping or housework. And May Day means revenge.

FTP/ACAB!
-Some Brooklyn Anarchists

Locked Up and Left Behind: Hurricane Irene and the Prisoners on New York’s Rikers Island

From Solitary Watch:

Aug. 26, 2011
by Jean Casella and James Ridgeway

“We are not evacuating Rikers Island,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a news conference this afternoon. Bloomberg annouced a host of extreme measures being taken by New York City in preparation for the arrival of Hurricane Irene, including a shutdown of the public transit system and the unprecedented mandatory evacuation of some 250,000 people from low-lying areas. But in response to a reporter’s question, the mayor stated in no uncertain terms (and with more than a hint of annoyance) that one group of New Yorkers on vulnerable ground will be staying put.

New York City is surrounded by small islands and barrier beaches, and a glance at the city’s evacuation map reveals all of them to be in Zone A (already under a mandatory evacuation order) or Zone B–all, that is, save one. Rikers Island, which lies in the waters between Queens and the Bronx, is not highlighted at all, meaning it is not to be evacuated under any circumstances.

According to the New York City Department of Corrections’ own website, more than three-quarters of Rikers Island’s 400 acres are built on landfill–which is generally thought to be more vulnerable to natural disasters. Its ten jails have a capacity of close to 17,000 inmates, and normally house at least 12,000, including juveniles and large numbers of prisoners with mental illness–not to mention pre-trial detainees who have yet to be convicted of any crime. There are also hundreds of corrections officers at work on the island.

We were not able to reach anyone at the NYC DOC for comment–but the New York Times‘s City Room blog reported: “According to the city’s Department of Correction, no hypothetical evacuation plan for the roughly 12,000 inmates that the facility may house on a given day even exists. Contingencies do exist for smaller-scale relocations from one facility to another.”

For a warning of what can happen to prisoners in a hurricane we need only look back at Katrina, and the horrific conditions endured by inmates at Orleans Parish Prison in New Orleans. According to a report produced by the ACLU:

[A] culture of neglect was evident in the days before Katrina, when the sheriff declared that the prisoners would remain “where they belong,” despite the mayor’s decision to declare the city’s first-ever mandatory evacuation. OPP even accepted prisoners, including juveniles as young as 10, from other facilities to ride out the storm.

As floodwaters rose in the OPP buildings, power was lost, and entire buildings were plunged into darkness. Deputies left their posts wholesale, leaving behind prisoners in locked cells, some standing in sewage-tainted water up to their chests …

Prisoners went days without food, water and ventilation, and deputies admit that they received no emergency training and were entirely unaware of any evacuation plan. Even some prison guards were left locked in at their posts to fend for themselves, unable to provide assistance to prisoners in need.

UPDATE (Saturday midnight): In his final news conference of the day, Mayor Bloomberg defended his decision not to evacuate Rikers Island, stating: “It is higher than the Zone A areas and it’s perfectly safe.” Representatives of the mayor have made further statements to New York Magazine (see update at end) and the Wall Street Journal, also specifying that no part of Rikers Island is in Zone A. Deputy Mayor Howard Wolfson went on Twitter to say the same thing. To our knowledge, the mayor’s office still has not clarified what zone, if any, Rikers Island is in, and has not responded to questions regarding the lack of any evacuation plan for the jail.

NYC: Cop convicted of assaulting cyclist will not face any repercussions

Patrick Pogan, the former NYPD officer who was caught on tape in 2008 violently shoving a cyclist off his bike, seemingly without provocation, faced up to four years in prison for a felony conviction of filing a false criminal complaint against cyclist Christopher Long. But yesterday Justice Maxwell Wiley (a Pataki appointee) sent a clear message to all those following the high-profile case: Lying cops suffer no consequences. And the “sentence,” a “conditional discharge” which set no conditions, was even more lenient than Pogan’s lawyer, Stuart London, had recommended.

Full story

NYC: Anarchist sentenced to prison for violation of supervised release

A Post-Sentencing Statement From Dave Solidarity

On June 1, I was sentenced to a 1 month stay in a Federal Prison, starting June 22nd, after being convicted of a ‘violation of the terms of my supervised release.’ To give a little bit of background, in 2006, I was convicted of ‘damaging United States property’ after setting fire to an Army recruiting center in the Bronx, and served 6 months in a federal prison, followed by 3 years of ‘supervised release.’ Last year, a few months before this term of supervised release was set to expire, I was arrested outside of the second occupation of the New School, and charged with assaulting an officer, rioting, resisting arrest and maybe a couple other things.