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30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

theintercept.com

331–340 of 577 posts

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#331
post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Or are you saying you'd be happy to have one of these shot at your face? Given the choice between the fireworks and an actual grenade? Yeah, absolutely.

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You can blind someone with a fork, but if the feds arrested you while you had one in you backpack and claimed you were carrying a weapon, that would be a ridiculous mischaracterization.

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#332

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What hogwash. Resistance is as American as the founding of the country, acting like there is a "right way" to protest is deeply antihuman.

The "protestors" shot someone, if that's not the wrong way to protest then what is?

This depends a lot what evil you're protesting.

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#334
Even if he did exactly what they said he did, no way that's worth 30 years. But people really need to realize that the justice system has been and never will be "blind" or "fair" or whatever you may think it is. It is wielded by those in power largely as they see fit, so keep that in mind if you're thinking about messing with the feds.

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#335

Here's the case: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndtx/pr/antifa-cell-members-con... The 30 year sentence was for hiding documentation being sought under a federal warrant after being called by his wife and asking him to do so. The warrant was for documentation after the protesters shot fireworks to bring out first responders from the ICE facility, and allegedly one of the group shot a responder in the neck instead of th…

If this was an incident in Europe, comments like this would be talking about how clearly the state is corrupt, it’s account cannot be trusted, and obviously civilisation is collapsing because free speech outside of the US is dead. “You can be arrested for zines!” Inside the US though? No, clearly the state’s account is definitely accurate , the citizen is obviously guilty, it’s not only correct they are being jailed…

> US propaganda/copaganda on its own citizens really is something else to behold

I live in the deep south. It's so much worse than you think. I regularly have people argue with me that they don't deserve to have nice things (like paid vacation) because someone, somewhere, might get something they don't deserve. You know, those government employees are lazy and get paid for doing nothing.

It's bizarre to an extreme. Mixed with the constant anger makes it particularly repulsive. I'll notice that everyone simultaneously seems angry about the same issue all at once. And it's almost always an issue that has no affect on them whatsoever. But they are _angry_ because someone is getting something they don't deserve.

It's worse than you can imagine.

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#336
post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One might consider a lot of things. But if you are at shooting war with United States government, then when United States government puts your away, you don't get to claim it's a free speech issue. You can't sit on those two chairs at once. Either you are a Warrior of Light battling the Nazis, and then it's way beyond free speech, or it's a public discussion and then "free speech" does not include shooting people. Yo…

Seven of the people jailed did not shoot the police officer or “assisted” the shooter in any form. They just happened to participate in the protest and share political affinity. The “crime” investigation obstructed by hiding the zines is being left-wing . That has no actual relation to the shooting. That is 100% a free speech issue.

They were the part of the organized criminal group that executed the shooting and later tried to help other criminals to avoid responsibility. If you are part of the group that does the crime, everybody in the group shares the responsibility (not equally, some part of it extends to accomplices) - not only she immediate shooter, but people who helped him to do it too.

> The “crime” investigation obstructed by hiding the zines is being left-wing.

That's nonsense. There are literally tens of millions of people in the country that are left wing (including literal communists openly calling for destruction of the United States and Western civilization). As long as they don't get violent, they don't have any trouble for it - in fact, some of them even win elections (including literal communists openly calling for destruction of the United States and Western civilization). The recipe is very simple - do not shoot people. Unfortunately, for the part of the left-wing, this is somehow too hard. They think shooting people who are not left-wing is A-OK. Those people need to be stopped, and putting them in jail for a long time is a good way to stop them. Not for their speech, but for the fact that speech is not good enough for them, and they choose violence.

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#337
post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From what I read, the person who was arrested for transporting zines was not even at the protest or part of the group - just the husband of one of the protestors.

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Isn't the purpose of zines to publish them? Then how could that even be considered concealment?

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They didn't shoot a cop. A single individual did. What you're calling for is collective punishment (a war crime in Geneva convention), and guilt by association (a perversion of justice). Kindly, abscond and desist.

If you're part of a conspiracy, you take the blame for what other conspirators do. Take a look at felony murder statutes sometime.

But isn't there be a legal difference between a "conspiracy" that led to a bad situation and a "conspiracy to commit murder"?

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#339
post #247
post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Lure police into an ambush" is quite a stretch. It's quite normal to do noise demonstrations outside jails/prisons to show solidarity with the captives, the captives will often times knock on the windows to communicate back. In fact there were noise demonstrations outside the Delaney Hall ICE jail in New Jersey just this month, which you may have heard about. The mischaracterization of fireworks as "explosives" is a…

[flagged]

This is like insisting a butter knife is a knife

Re: 30-year sentence for transporting zines is a five-alarm fire for free speech

#340
post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were transporting copies of this magazine, am I concealing evidence? What is special about this guy? Is there anything he could have legally transported, or is everything she's written banned? The irony of The Intercept requiring my identity is funny.

she called her husband, from jail, and asked him to move them so they couldn't be used in court against her. she said "do whatever you have to do". the cops listened to the phone call, watched him load them into the car and arrested him on the drive. i think it's pretty straightforward that she was asking for his help in obstructing the investigation by hiding potential evidence against her.

Maybe so, but 30 years is wildly disproportionate.
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