Preemptive arrest = 8 years in jail?

[The Sushi Bandit]

A University student arrested preemptively before the Republican National Convention will be one of the first people prosecuted under a terrorism clause in the Minnesota Patriot Act since it was passed in 2002.

Cultural studies junior Max Specktor is charged with conspiracy to riot in furtherance of terrorism.

Monday, Specktor’s hearing was postponed until at least November.

Specktor and seven other defendants facing the same charge will be heard together, and face a maximum of seven and a half years of jail time.

The eight suspects, calling themselves the RNC 8, plan to plead not guilty to the charges, defendant Nathanael Secor said.



Please help this boy!!

[The Magistrate]

1. Monstrous, Sir, Simply Monstrous!

Any competent Judge would be obligated to toss out this charge as soon as it was filed.

[mike_c]

2. the fact that the court-- or at very least officers of the court...

...are complicit in this is the greatest outrage of all, IMO. It's one thing for law enforcement to behave like fascist brownshirts, but quite another for the district attorney and the judiciary to pursue the same piggery, or worse. This is a dispicable perversion of law enforcement-- use of the laws to persecute the innocent for exercising their rights.

[The Magistrate]

4. We Are In Complete Agreement, Sir

Whatever the language of this statute might be, it is impossible for me to conceive any legitimate reading of it that would justify this arrest on any evidence actually present, or warrant prosecution. This thing is so profound a violation of the Constitution as to rank as a thing more Un-American than anything open enemies of our country have ever done.

[4lbs]

3. Pre-emptive arrest = movie "Minority Report"

We'll arrest you now, for a crime we're sure you'll commit in a few years.

:scared:

[BR_Parkway]

5. How exactly do we help? Call the prosecutor's office? Someone

else?

What can we do that might help and won't hurt his case?

[kas125]

8. I got an email the other day that has phone numbers to call -

Hold Police Accountable for Brutality and Unlawful Arrests!

818 people were arrested during the RNC protests. Please call these officials to demand that all charges be dropped! Please forward this email to others to spread the word and print off the flyer and distribute it to others!

Call Mayor Coleman at 651.266.8510

Mayor Chris Coleman misled the public and allowed St. Paul to become a militarized police state during the RNC. Riot police lined the streets of the permitted march on Sept 1. On Sept 4, the city-sponsored "public viewing area" across from the Xcel Center was closed to the public. Throughout the week, protesters were attacked with pepper spray, tear gas, concussion grenades, rubber bullets and police batons. Coleman called the actions of police "nothing short of heroic." Call Mayor Coleman to demand that police be held accountable for their brutality at the RNC and that all charges against protesters be dropped!


Call Ramsey County Attorney Gaertner at 651.266.3222

Ramsey County Attorney Susan Gaertner is responsible for prosecuting everyone charged with felonies at the RNC including 8 people who are facing over 7 years in prison on trumped up charges of terrorism. Gaertner, who's running for governor in 2010, is prosecuting the RNC 8 strictly for their political beliefs and affiliations. Call her to demand that all charges be dropped now!


Call City Attorney Choi at 651.266.8710

St. Paul City Attorney John Choi is in charge of prosecuting all RNC-related misdemeanors. He has referred to RNC protesters as outsiders who wanted to "create mayhem." On Sept 4th, nearly 400 people were arrested for unlawful assembly after riot police blocked every route to the Xcel Center. The vast majority were Twin Cities residents who were protesting the war in Iraq. Call Choi to demand that all charges be dropped now!

[Downtown Hound]

6. This is a trial we need to watch

It's a clear cut attack on our right to organize. If they are convicted the consequences will be dire.

[The Sushi Bandit]

14. We need to keep this story in the news!

for all our sakes

[stillcool]

7. Democracy?

[dgibby]

9. Not that you'd notice!

[pokerfan]

10. Protest & civil disobedience is now terrorism?

http://www.mndaily.com/2008/10/12/u-student-plead-not-guilty-terrorism-charges">Student to plead not guilty to terrorism charges

[snot]

11. What exactly are they alleged to have done? What evidence against them?

[Downtown Hound]

12. From what I understand

They were essentially an organizing group for all kinds of different protest groups. Some of these protest groups allegedly were planning violence at the RNC convention, most of which went on only for one day when a group of anarchists within a much larger splinter group of protesters started trashing windows, tipping over news stands, signs, and in some cases slashing the tires of police vehicles as well as busting some of their windows.

Anyways, these RNC Welcoming folks were already in jail when all of this happened. They had nothing to do with any of it. The cops however, are charging them with Conspiracy to Riot in Furtherance of Terrorism because they allegedly worked with the groups that did this violence. The thing is the RNC Welcoming Committee states that they work with all groups that wish to protest and preach respect for everybody's chosen tactics including destruction of property even if they personally disagree with it. In other words, they are true pacifists and true revolutionaries, because they don't condemn those that have chosen to use such tactics even though they personally don't.

From a legal standpoint, in my humble, not so expert opinion, even if they did work directly with any groups planning violence, and there's no evidence at this point to suggest that they did, their role was probably more of that as a general coordinator of things like transportation, food, ect. And they did this to all groups equally. The worst thing they're probably guilty of is maybe being some kind of low level collaborator, and I personally don't think they were even that. Either way this terrorism charge is downright insane and very, very scary.

[The Sushi Bandit]

13. K&R

Maybe we can send money to his lawers?