Marvin X,

Here's the material we're putting out on the trial opening on Tuesday.  It would be good if you could make it out to the courthouse, and also if you could spread the word on this outrageous injustice.  The DA's office that is trying to put us in jail for protesting Stop & Frisk is the same one that couldn't, or wouldn't, put on an effective prosecution of the cops who murdered Sean Bell in 2006.

Carl



Please share this Alert:  

Monday, October 22, before we gather at Union Square for the 4:00 pm protest, CALL the Queens District Attorney, Richard Brown, starting at 9:00 am.
  718 286 6000.  Tell the DA to drop charges from November 19, 2011 on Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Robert Parsons, and Morgan Rhodewalt.
Put Stop-and-Frisk On Trial – Not the Freedom Fighters! 
No Jail Time for Carl Dix & the Stop-and-Frisk Protesters 


All Out to Defeat the Charges 
BE AT THE COURTHOUSE TO make clear to the authorities and all those watching these trials that many are with these defendants and see this prosecution as totally illegitimate.  Cornel West puts the call out on youtube.    We'll be delivering copies of this resolution to DROP the charges on Tuesday.  Please sign it now.
  • Tuesday October 23: Rally 8:45 am Trial 9:30 am Queens Criminal Court, 125-01 Queens Blvd, Kew Gardens Queens.
  • Tuesday October 30: Rally 8:45 am Trial 9:30 am 100 Center Street, Manhattan
  • Tuesday October 30: 6:30 pm Raise the Roof on the Legal Defense Fund Party, St. Augustine’s Church 290 Henry Street, Lower East Side.
Trials on outrageous charges against five courageous freedom fighters who put their bodies on the line to end the racist police policy of stop-and-frisk begin on October 23 and October 30. Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Morgan Rhodewalt, Bob Parsons and Noche Diaz could be jailed for 2 to 4+ years. 
Make no mistake: what is being put on trial here is nothing less than the ability and right to stand up and say NO MORE to the racist policy of Stop-and-frisk, which terrorizes Black and Brown people throughout the city.  
Without mass resistance and the actions of these people and hundreds more who put their bodies on the line in protest, stop-and-frisk would not now be so hotly contested in the city and the courts.  The even more urgent truth is that standing up to defend these freedom fighters has everything to do with putting an end to the crime of stop-and-frisk and the way a whole generation is being condemned to lives of criminalization, marginalization, brutality and the spirit-crushing, human-wasting confinement of the largest prison system in the world.   
The authorities want to punish these people for having stood up for justice, and through doing that deliver a message that anyone who resists their criminal injustice will pay a heavy price.  
This must not go down!  If we allow them to be convicted and jailed without a massive fight, the battle against stop-and-frisk and the whole spirit of resistance will be seriously weakened. But if many, many people stand with them in this legal battle, if we beat this back, then the movement will gain further initiative pulling more people into the struggle.  BACKGROUND: Carl Dix is a revolutionary leader who initiated, together with Cornel West, the movement to Stop stop-and-frisk and End Mass Incarceration, including by leading a series of courageous non-violent protests of civil disobedience at police precincts throughout the city.  Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Morgan Rhodewalt and Bob Parsons will be on trial in Queens on October 23 facing more than 2 years in jail for the protest in Queens on November 19, 2011.  The Queens District Attorney has piled charges on them, twice adding to the charges they faced months after their arrest.  This DA, who couldn’t or wouldn’t put on an effective case against the cops who murdered Sean Bell in 2006, is vigorously trying to put these freedom fighters in prison.  This makes it even more clear their intent to punish any who dare to stand up.  This only underscores the importance of people coming to court to demand the charges be dropped!  
On October 30 Noche Diaz, a leader in the movement to end mass incarceration who is known throughout Harlem as a member of the People’s Neighborhood Patrols and across the city’s campuses for speaking in classes against stop-and-frisk, goes on trial in Manhattan,facing more than 4 years in prison for politically calling out police who were brutalizing people.   
14 more defendants will be tried in 2 more trials in Queens, and on November 5 and 27 
in Brooklyn, for a November 1, 2011 protest at the 73rd Precinct, which has the highest rate of stop-and-frisk in the city.
What You Can Do: 
  •      Attend the trial Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.  Check for updates at stopmassincarceration.org
  •      Monday, CALL the Queens District Attorney, Richard Brown, starting at 9:00 am.  718 286 6000. Tell the DA to drop charges from November 19, 2011 on Carl Dix, Jamel Mims, Robert Parsons, and Morgan Rhodewalt.
  •      Monday, October 29, call the Manhattan DA, Cyrus Vance staring at 9:00 am.  212 335 9000.  Tell the DA to drop charges from October 21, 2011 and March 27, 2012 on Noche Diaz.
  • ·         Spread the word on these outrageous prosecutions. Stopmassincarceration.org.
  • ·         Contribute money to help meet the costs legal defense ($7000 so far).






"There is nothing more unrealistic than the idea of reforming this system into something that would come anywhere near being in the interests of the great majority of people and ultimately of humanity as a whole."  Bob Avakian--from BAsics.

You can't change the world if you don't know the BAsics.