Amelia Nicol had another court date on the 22nd of August that turned out to be quite non-eventful.  Her lawers had failed to file the motions on time, and so had to ask the court for a continuance, which was granted. The lawer representing Amelia has filed a constitutionary motion against the state regarding the statute concearning possession of an expendiary device, which in the Colorado law states that anything from a nuclear weapon to something as small as, say, a firework, are charged under the exact same precedence. 

The next court date is set for September 15th at 1:30pm at the Denver court house, which will consist of the discovery hearing, as well as the motions filed hearing. Thank you all for the tremendous support throughout this, and we hope to see you at the next court date.

from the Denver Anarchist Black Cross:

It’s been more than a month since a demonstration commemorating the year anniversary of the murder of homeless street preacher Marvin Booker resulted in the arrest of three protesters. All three have attended court in the last few weeks, bringing about new updates in the context of anti-policing struggles in Denver.

The first person arrested that day turned out to be a minor and was released after a short period of detention. He had no prior criminal record and was given a deferred sentence on the condition that he completes anger management courses. There is an obvious irony in all of this: While a person who is upset about the police’s indiscriminate and brutal violence against people in this city is required to take classes to “manage their emotions,” the cops that murdered Marvin Booker were never required to take anything of the sort. Those who deal out beatings or fly off the handle towards mere traffic violation witnesses throughout Denver never found themselves being patronized by some “sensitivity coordinator.”

The other two arrestees, who were released after eight hours in custody after the Denver Anarchist Black Cross raised more than $700 for bond, have been arraigned on various charges relating to the “illegal posting of bills” and defacement of private and public property. An August 9th hearing went off routinely, with the exception of a constant police escort for the defendants and their supporters.

On July 18th, Denver Police took human life once again. The victim in this case was Alonzo Ashley, a 29 year old man visiting the Denver Zoo during one of the summer's hottest days. As the visit went on, he suffered increasingly from heat exhaustion and decided to cool off by sticking his head in a water fountain, after which Zoo Security tried forcefully to remove him. What followed is still debated, though the police story continues to be debunked detail by detail, but the event resulted in 18 police cars being called, 5 tasings of Ashley and ultimately the death of an innocent man.

A couple weeks later, on July 31st, the International Day of Action Against Fascism and Racism, 160 city parking meters were sabotaged in retaliation for the murder. This action was chosen for numerous reasons - it being a clear attack on the same city government responsible for the Ashley murder, that also benefits the general populace in the form of a free parking spot, to draw a connection between the racism of the far right and that of the police forces; and above all to deliver a significant financial blow to the city responsible for this death in an extremely easy, simple way. The exact damage is unknown, but repairs on one defaulting meter alone averages out at a little more than $200, not to mention the money missed out on over the course of it being down or the fact that many of these meters were brand new, high tech ones. Each meter filled, bonded, jammed, sealed, welded, or otherwise destroyed can cause the government the same amount as say, a broken window, but with the advantage of being able to be repeatedly carried out one after another after another without detection. In other words, over the course of a minute the damage adds up real quick in a way that nosier attacks make nearly impossible.

There was a cop car window smashed in the Denver area in solidarity with the cop car burnings in London today.

A few anarchists dropped a banner over I-25 downtown last night. The banner read "Anarchy Lives."

from Rocky Mountain Antifa:

We are pleased to state that our inaugural post as Rocky Mountain Antifa is a post of substance and action. A report and several pictures informed us of a rash of Nazi graffiti in East Arvada. Targets included the Lutz soccer field, Vanderhoof elementary school, a park adjacent to Vanderhoof, a wall dividing the nearby neighborhood from 58th Avenue, and the Arvada Plaza. Two antifascists took it upon themselves to cover up the filth and leave an antifascist message, and several members of the neighborhood were reportedly overheard talking about how slow the city was to respond and that it was a good thing people had taken the initiative to cover it up themselves.

August 12th - 14th, 2011

This August, Earth First! Durango's monthly Full Moon open public meeting will be held in the woods of La Plata Canyon, West of Durango, CO up County Road 124 off Highway 160. Join us and other concerned community members for a weekend of fun, education, hiking, wild foraging, and of course, (safe, legal, low-risk) reconnaissance of Wildcat Mining Corporation's locally infamous Mayday mine/mill site(s), hopefully with the help of local Mayday & La Plata Canyon residents already active in resisting the destruction wrought by the mine.

Bring adequate camping gear and clothing for August monsoon Colorado (heat and) rain, any supply donations you can (money, food, fuel, camping gear, etc.), maps of the area, cameras, video cameras, binoculars (etc.), your friends and family, and your indomitable spirit of resistance!

We also ask those planning to come to the canyon to please read the Basic Recon Skills primer:

"Basic Recon Skills" Readable (non-collated) version (.pdf) | "Basic Recon Skills" Printable (collated) version (.pdf)

With so much urgently needing to be addressed in America right now why are our leaders in Washington so seemingly centered on reelection? We have two wars that need sorting out and an economy that was slowly recovering as of a month ago, now maybe sputtering. The wars themselves drain economic resources to protect the “interests” of companies that have no interest in everyday Americans at all many of which aren't even American. Yet in Washington once again we are subjected to another long drawn out piece of “hey look at me I'm doing nothing signifying I'm important to you, so you better remember that come election time or you'll be even worse off” drama being played out and for what?

 

The same thing happened over health care in 2009 and 2010 and really didn't sit well with people. It is perhaps hard for people to see how petulant they can seem from the inside of things when they believe their behaviors as seen by the public to be more important than meaningful actions. They believe the nation seeing them tussling and fighting it out after hanging loose and joking like they had a hundred inside jokes just a short time ago is going to reinforce the idea they stand for separate things.

Both sides of the political machine are threatened now. A poll taken in 2008 showed, “the proportion of voters who identify with the Democratic Party outright has not increased in recent years. Currently, 36% say they think of themselves as a Democrat, virtually unchanged from 2004 (35%) and 2000 (35%). Instead, as the proportion of self-identified Republicans has decreased, the percentage of independents has grown substantially, from 32% in 2004 to 37% [as of 2008].” (http://pewresearch.org/pubs/773/...)

One of the biggest casualties of the four-decade long war on drugs is our freedom. The Drug War has been used to gut our Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights, to lock-up millions of non-violent offenders in our booming Prison Industrial Complex, and to extend an ever growing network of secret police and paid informants.

The use of undercover police and paid informants is a notorious area for graft and corruption. Since these undercover operations are secret there is little or no oversight of their actions.

A glimpse into the secret world of the Drug War is available by looking at the Arrest Affidavit for Steven Anthony Valles, who was convicted of selling meth in 2007.

GJPD Officer and Drug Task Force member David Arcady swore under oath in the affidavit that he used an unwitting accomplice, Jennifer Williams, to make meth buys. Williams, according to Arcady, was three months pregnant when they bought meth from Valles. Arcady swore that after the buy “Williams then opened the bag and took some methamphetamine out of the bag as payment for the completion of the deal,” but that “the general rule is not to allow any drug to get away.”

Arcady states under oath that during the buy, “Williams advised that she used a hypodermic needle and it was good (meth).” William then showed UC (undercover) Arcady “where she used the needle and the UC in turn showed her where he used the needle.” They then discussed “how and where ‘they shot up’ at and how to avoid a knot on the vein.”

So peace Officer Arcady, is using a pregnant woman to make meth buys. He is paying her in meth, and he is shooting up. Hmmm. Law and order at its finest.

P&L Press is issuing an open call out to all authors interested in seeing their work distributed through P&L Press. We choose a new zine to publish bi-weekly, so if you are an author interested in seeing your work published through a radical distro and printed in a worker owned and run print shop, submit your work to plpress@riseup.net. This will be a completely open submission, with no deadline on our reading time. We are looking for submissions for zines and chapbooks presently, with the possibility of short story collections and longer books in the future. Even if your work doesn't have a radical bend, we'd love to see what local authors are working on and see where we can fit in as a small press.

Please head all emails with submissions as such and send your stuff to plpress@riseup.net.
 

    Over the weekend of July 9th and 10th a short-bus full of activists associated with Confluence Media Collective, and Grand Junction Earth First!, unearthed five dump truckloads of illegally buried toxic waste in a pristine meadow, just yards from the Larime River. The US Forest Service is now investigating the situation, and has pledged to clean up the waste.

   Last summer and fall, Doug Harding, currently of Grand Junction, was working for Eagle Feather Construction, out of Roberts, Idaho, when he was ordered by project manager to dig the pits and bury the waste. “I was told to make it look like we were never there,” said Harding.

   “I knew when I did it, it was wrong, but I needed a job,” said Harding, “but I’m out here today to set things right.”

    The waste stems from a $555,071 federal contract from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act, to replace outhouses at four campgrounds in both the Roosevelt and Arapahoe National Forests. The Forest Service now admits that the waste from the popular, Tunnel Campground, was instead dumped nearby in a meadow. 

    Eagle Feather Construction and its sister company Peace Pipe Construction specialize in Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management contracts around the country. Eagle Feather Construction is right now re-building the outhouses at Kelly Dahl Campground near Denver.

    “If there were more people like Doug Harding in this world, willing to stand up and do the right thing. We would live in a better society and have a healthier environment,” said GJ Earth First! activist Ian Lafferty.

Fists and hearts burn in the streets as Denver marks the one year anniversary of the murder of Marvin Booker.

Saturday, July 9^th marked the year anniversary of the murder of Marvin Booker, a homeless street preacher booked on minor charges and killed by Denver Sheriff’s Deputies for attempting to retrieve his shoes. A fifth round of demonstrations was called for by West Denver CopWatch to mark the anniversary amidst a backdrop of local repression against the burgeoning anti-police movement.

In May, a demonstration ended with the flashing and banging of a firework during the rowdy crowd’s dispersal. Police arrested a twenty year old woman and charged her with two counts of attempted murder of a police officer and a slew of other charges. The Denver Anarchist Black Cross, a revolutionary legal support organization operating in the area for a few years now, mobilized court support and other actions demanding her release without charges. The attempted murder charges and most others were dropped, but she is still fighting felony possession of an explosive and misdemeanor resisting arrest charges.

From Rights Over Knights

The Knights of Columbus is having their 129th Supreme Convention in Denver, Colorado, July 30th -August 4th, 2011.

Rights Over Knights, a coalition opposed to this convention, is calling for a protest of the Convention.

Join us Sunday, July 31st, on the global day of action against fascism and racism, at 12:30pm outside of the Denver Sheraton Hotel to picket the registration for the conference and get plugged in to protests scheduled for later.

We are also calling on autonomous affinity groups to target convention activities throughout the week. Visit our website for the schedule of events, and a list of organizing, scouting, and self-defense trainings taking place in the next few weeks.

There was a banner drop on July 9th over a bridge on the highway near 20th Street in Denver --

It read:

No More Cops

No More Hate

No More Prisons

Smash the State!

It only stayed up for a short time, but in that short time enough people saw it to make a definite impression.

Solidarity to the comrades arrested in recent anti-police demonstrations!

-(A)

By Raging Yeti, Earth First! Durango

Despite the rhetoric of many mainstream environmental organizations and many “liberal environmentalists,” natural gas is not a clean energy, especially when the production process is considered in full. Like most commodities generated in the global corporate capitalist culture, natural gas is consumed regularly without much knowledge of where it is produced, how it is produced, or the deleterious effects it has on local people and local environments. Natural gas, like many commodities we consume, seems pleasantly ubiquitous, and without consequence.

In this short article, I will outline the insidious side of natural gas, leaving ample room for the reader to pursue this investigation further. I will sketch out four themes subtitled below about each of which a book could be written.

Criminogenic Corporate Gas Producers

In the oil and gas industry corporate crime is rampant as it is in all corporate sectors. In fact, corporate crime kills more people and costs taxpayers more money than all street-level crime combined. What makes this fact so insidious is that convicted corporate criminals can go right on offending because, as Baron Thurlow so eloquently noted, “corporations have no soul to punish and no body to incarcerate.” I would like to add to this observation that we have no valid legal system representing nonhuman and human life against the corporate murders of our planet. This is why our planet needs engaged and enraged human agents.

Gather at Acacia Park on Saturday, July 9th, at 1:00 p.m. to show support for Amelia Nicol and to express solidarity with Denver's movement against police terror!  Unplugged live music will be followed by an open jam and drum circle, and there will be zines and posters for sale.  The event is free, and all donations and net proceeds will go to Denver Anarchist Black Cross to help continue support work for Amelia.

Saturday, July 9th

1:00 p.m.

Acacia Park (Bijou and Tejon, Colorado Springs)

Bring your friends, your kids, your loudest instruments, and your angry eyes...just in case!

WHAT: March for Marvin Booker!

WHEN: July 9th 2011 11:30 AM

WHERE: Denver Skate Park – 20th and Little Raven

Please bring extra shoes that you’re willing to lose!

The March will snake through downtown and end at the jail, joining a rally put on by the ACLU.

It’s been 1 year since Marvin Booker was brutally murdered in the Van-Cise Simonet Detention Center. The murderers are still in the oppressive positions they so egregiously abused, still floating on our dime. We demanded the videos and they have been released. We continue to demand the immediate prosecution of the Sheriff’s Deputies. The community continues to demand justice!

In the last year pigs have terrorized, brutalized, and murdered:

Marvin Booker,

Oleg Gidenko,

Mark Ashford,

Shawn Johnson,

Michael DeHerrera,

Richard Arreola,

And countless other unnamed and unreported victims…

Recently the po-lice have attempted to intimidate and silence the anti-police brutality movement by arresting one of our comrades on ridiculous charges. Now more than ever we need to show that we will not be deterred, that we will stand strong!

Rights are never given; they are always taken and defended viciously. We’ve taken the streets, what comes next is in our hands…

Please bring extra shoes that you’re willing to lose!

Spread on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/event.p...

, Today a banner was dropped over I-25 near downtown in support of Amelia Nicol (learn more about the case here: http://denverabc.wordpress.com/?...) It was dropped at approximately 7 am, 1 and a half hours before her court date and right as morning rush hour was picking up. It was latter seen from said highway and was entirely visible and looked fabulous. Hundreds of people undoubtedly saw it. It was a red banner painted in black letters "Free Amelia Nicol! Shame on DPD." With a circle A for the A in Amelia!
It almost seems like a prophetic act, given that today at Amelia's court date most of the charges were dropped. She will, most indisputably not go to prison for 90 years as the prosecution would have liked her too. Indeed, even the judge said, dismayingly and shaking his head that he thought that she had been over charged. The court room was packed and filled with hushed laughter at the ludicrous testimonies given by the police officers and detective that served as witnesses.
Banner drops are easy and fun, effective in catching people’s eyes, educating people on issues that they may not know about, showing solidarity, and hopefully changing a few minds! I encourage that everyone partake in such actions and any actions that show support for those doing time and suffering in any other way from the overhanging power structures of capitalism and the police state.
Sincerely yours
Some Anarchist Banner Bandits.
 

Update #3 on Amelia Nicole, Anti-Police Terror Prisoner Denver, CO by Denver Anarchist Black Cross

As Amelia’s next court date approaches, support efforts have started to solidify locally. We’ve been able to have fairly consistent telephone contact with Amelia over the last week. As it stands, Amelia has been moved to solitary confinement within the jail, caged in her cell for 23 hours each day, with one hour for phone calls, recreation, and any sort of co-mingling with other human beings.

Amelia has been receiving tons of mail from across the country, and is very appreciative of everyone who has written her. She has promised that as soon as her stamp and envelope package arrives (it was mailed by DABC over 9 days ago), she will write to every single person she has received a letter from.

Denver ABC will be hosting a press conference and rally outside of Denver DA Mitch Morrissey’s office on Wednesday June 8th at 2pm. If you are in the Denver area, your presence would be greatly helpful and appreciated. The address for the DA’s office is 201 W. Colfax, the Webb Building downtown.

Amelia has court again on Thursday June 9th at 8:30 am in courtroom 2100 at the Van Cise Simonet Detention Center at Colfax and Elati downtown. We’re asking supporters to pack the courtroom and make a visible presence outside with banners, signs, etc.

This next hearing will be a hearing on bond (though Amelia has demanded to not be bonded out) and also should be a hearing where the prosecution will present their initial evidence and case to the judge. This could be a hearing where charges would be added or dropped, or where the judge could dismiss the case if the prosecution does not offer enough evidence. We’ll keep our fingers crossed, although we know that the courtroom is the weakest venue for justice that we have.