No Convictions for Roman Shankaras!

from Support The Vaughn 17

Rome is the eighth defendant to be tried in this case, and the fifth to have now been cleared on all charges. Having been scheduled for release last year, he has now been released and is at home with his family.

Two more defendants, Lawrence Michaels (“Smoke”) and Alejandro Rodriguez-Ortiz (“Capo”) are still scheduled to be tried in October. One defendant from the second trial, Obadiah Miller (“OB”) is still waiting for the state to decide whether it will retry him. The other defendant in the second trial for whom the jury returned “no decision” verdicts for two charges, John Bramble (“Johnny”), had his remaining charges dropped for good in March.

After their failure to convict any defendants in the second trial, the state dropped their case against the other six defendants in March.

Anathema Volume 5 Issue 2

from Anathema

Volume 5 Issue 2 (PDF for reading 8.5 x 11)

Volume 5 Issue 2 (PDF for printing 11 x 17)

In this issue:

  • What is a Collective?
  • Tactics Innovation Update
  • What Went Down
  • Whither the Insurrection II
  • Representation is Indirect Action
  • Galleanist Centennial
  • Vaughn 17 Update
  • In Memory of Mauricio Morales
  • World News
  • Immanent Immigration Arrests
  • Go-Gurt Reportback
  • Whereas (Poem)

Monday, May 27th: Intro to Prisoner Letter-writing Event

from Philly ABC

Curious to write to prisoners, but not sure how to start or who to write to?

Join us for our monthly letter-writing event this month for an intro on how to get started and open discussion on political prisoners who might be seeking more mail or penpals. We will also be distributing our newly-printed Philly ABC guide to supporting political prisoners as a take-home reference, and sending birthday cards to political prisoners with birthdays in June: Matt DeHart (the 10th), Jay Chase (the 11th), and Tom Manning (the 27th).

We encourage folks who know of prisoners seeking more correspondence to come and spread the word to folks looking to write to people for the first time.

When: Monday, May 27th; 6:30-8:30pm
Where: A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue

Snacks and letter-writing supplies provided!

Anarchy Afternoons on Hiatus for Summer

from Twitter

we won’t be hosting regular open hours for the summer. Check back in with us late August

RED: Breaking Ground

from Facebook

Check out RED’s latest zines: https://radicaleducationdepartment.com/zines/ “RED: Breaking Ground” includes our manifesto, an account of our emergence and objectives, a conversation with our comrades at Cutting Class, and an assessment of our first year of work.

[For reading online For printing]

Vaughn 17 Trial Begins for Roman Shankaras: Mastermind to Puppet Master, Depending On Who’s Describing Him

from Support the Vaughn 17

The third trial in Delaware’s prosecution of the Vaughn 17 began on Monday, May 6th, 2019. This time, Roman Shankaras is a solo defendant, fighting the same charges that fifteen of his co-defendants also faced — conspiracy, felony riot, assault, kidnapping, and murder — for allegedly participating in the February 2017 prisoner takeover of C-building at James T. Vaughn Correctional Center in Smyrna, Delaware (two additional prisoners were also indicted on the same charges except murder). What’s changed is that at this point, the state has been unable to successfully convict five of them, and subsequently dropped their case against another six defendants. Another co-defendant, Kelly Gibbs, died under suspicious circumstances after writing a dying confession to the murder that also named the state’s star rat, Royal “Diamond” Downs. The question is, why does the state continue to pursue a bunk case built on the lies of prison snitches?

In opening statements, we learned that the prosecution is relying on Delaware’s accomplice liability theory in order to convict Roman for the entire uprising. The state doesn’t have any physical evidence related to Roman, aside from two “kites” (prison notes) written from Roman to Royal Downs, who Roman had not known was already collaborating with the police. Although even the state acknowledges that Roman never held a weapon and remained in his cell the whole time, they are trying to hold him responsible for everything that happened during the uprising — including the death of a cop — by alleging that he helped plan the takeover.

So far the prosecution has called in various police investigators and correctional officers to testify against Roman, but the only witness who claimed to identify him was Royal Downs. For anyone who has been following the trials, his lies this time clashed significantly from his previous testimony. Multiple times he identified another defendant, Lawrence Michaels (a.k.a. Smoke), as doing things in the takeover that, during the first trial, he testified to seeing Jarreau Ayers (Ruk) do. The coincidence is not lost that Michaels never had his charges dropped, and his trial is scheduled for October 2019.

Downs also previously claimed to have smuggled the kites out in a visit with his sister, and he is now testifying that he mailed it out in a card. He is no longer claiming for the jury’s benefit that testifying is the hardest thing he’s ever had to do and that given the chance he wouldn’t do it again, after that strategy failed under cross-examination in both the previous trials.

So far media has been silent on the major fallacies and inconsistencies of the case, attempting instead to rile up the public by reporting on new evidence recently found at Vaughn, which is irrelevant to this case.

Meanwhile, for the first time over the course of the three trials in which they’ve testified, both Lieutenant Charles Sennett and Detective David Weaver cried (obviously fake) tears while on the stand in order to influence the jury. The state is desperate, and this time they are resorting to tactics of red herring evidence and emotional play in addition to outright lies.

The state argues that the two kites show that Roman helped orchestrate the prison takeover and that therefore he is legally responsible for everything else that happened during it. So far, Diamond has testified that other Vaughn 17 defendants who’ve said they helped plan the takeover — Dwayne Staats and Jarreau Ayers — were in Roman’s cell during the uprising and consulted with Roman, Lawrence Michaels, and several others to make key decisions. On Wednesday, Diamond characterized Roman as the uprising’s “puppet master,” but the details of Diamond’s testimony indicate that major decisions about hostage negotiations were made spontaneously over the radio by Diamond and Staats in a different room, not in Roman’s cell.

Moreover, the state’s interpretation of the letters themselves is in question. In his opening statement, Roman’s lawyer — Patrick Collins — noted that, as we’ve heard in previous trials, what was planned for February 1, 2017, depends on who you talk to. Some inmates planned to stay in the yard as a nonviolent protest, while Diamond says he’d learned there would be a takeover but that he never heard that violence would be involved. Another plan was a coordinated violent takeover. But it’s still uncertain which prisoners intended to participate in which plan.

This means that the state would first have to prove that Roman’s letters unequivocally show that he helped plan a takeover of C-Building, as opposed to a nonviolent protest, and then also prove that Roman intended the takeover to be violent. In the language of Delaware’s accomplice liability law, they would have to show that Roman planned to commit an “unlawful act” with others in which the assaults, murder and kidnapping was “reasonably foreseeable” as a possible outcome, even if he never personally held a weapon. It is unclear how the state would decisively prove this based on Roman’s letters and the snitch testimony they’ve presented so far — which is supposed to be the strongest part of their case. As Collins pointed out, under the standard of reasonable doubt, even the jury thinking Roman is “probably guilty” is not enough to return a guilty verdict.

The state’s entire case against the Vaughn 17 has been based on snitch testimony, and it’s important to note that the two kites that the state is presenting as hard physical evidence in this case were written in communication with a snitch. In cross-examination, the defense has already established Diamond’s extensive influence in the prison as someone with time, and these letters seem to be a sting set-up.

So far, the state has failed to secure any convictions in its entire case against the Vaughn 17 except for what the defendants personally attested to having done. In the fall, Dwayne Staats was found guilty on all charges but intentional murder after he explained to the court that he had helped plan the uprising, knowing it could turn violent. Jarreau Ayers, also serving a life sentence, was found guilty of conspiracy, riot, kidnapping and assault based on his own testimony that he helped facilitate the takeover once it began. Deric Forney (called Twin) maintained his innocence and was found not guilty.

Following the second trial, in which all four defendants maintained their innocence, the jury found Abednego Baynes and Kevin Berry not guilty on all charges and came to no decision on a few final charges for John Bramble and Obadiah Miller, effectively acquitting them as well. The state has since quietly dropped those final charges for good.

After the second trial, the state also dropped most of the remaining defendants’ cases. Lawrence Michaels and Alejandro Rodriguez-Ortiz are still facing trial in October of this year.

Having completed his sentence soon after the uprising, Roman should have already been released from prison. Instead he is still being held on $2.8 million cash bail pending the outcome of this trial.

The seven Vaughn defendants who have already stood trial, along with an additional four whose charges were dropped, have since been moved to different prisons in Pennsylvania. After more than two years of state retaliation and abuse, they are all still being held in solitary and denied privileges, despite almost all having been exonerated by Delaware’s so-called justice system.

Roman’s trial will resume on Monday, May 13, at 9:45am in Room 8B of New Castle County Courthouse in Wilmington and will be in session every day for the rest of this coming week except Wednesday, May 15th. Court support is welcome and encouraged!

For more information on the Vaughn 17.

Hello!

Submission

Yuppie hair salon on Baltimore ave was greeted this week with a shattered window and red paint, with “Welcome! to Philly” painted on the door. We’re not interested in local business models or co-ops. We’re not interested in ‘conscious’ capitalism. It’s still capitalism, it’s still gentrification.

We’re not done.
Happy May!

Some paint

Submission

Some paint in the Temple area <3


Bhaskar Sunkara Attacked with Yogurt

from Twitter

The Founder of Jacobin Magazine – Bhaskar Sunkara – , author of “The Socialist Manifesto, and founding member of was just attacked with yogurt at Calvary Church with yogurt? The guy threw these to the audience. See image.

[Video Here]

[Philly Anticap note: The above tweet says Bhaskar Sunkara is a founding member of Reclaim Philadelphia which is incorrect.]

Ian Hoffman, Identity Evropa PA coordinator

from Philly Antifa

Ian Hoffman AKA Papa Pizzagate; Identity Evropa PA Coordinator

One of the Identity Evropa originals!

A devoted white nationalist, Ian Hoffman of Palmyra, PA was arrested on assault and battery charges at Unite the Right in 2017,(https://archive.st/lryf ). He was doxxed then, but its time for a redoxx! Ian Hoffman is the Pennsylvania coordinator for Identity Evropa and handles the t-shirt orders for his fellow nazis. One time he put up stickers in Harrisburg, before they were promptly removed by locals.

He’s 30 years old, born on July 25, 1988 and is a diehard Trump supporter. Hoffman enjoys trolling the opposition using racial slurs, and posting it to Discord: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/481597551272001546/509197425601413136/unknown.png. He has declared that “we have a president who is openly calling himself a nationalist. Demographics are being discussed openly (and not always favorably) on cable television. Senators and pundits are using language that would only have been heard from White Nationalists as recently as 5 years ago.” Hoffman goes on to say that he thinks Trump won because he hates a lot of the same things regular Americans hate too, like Globalism, political correctness, bureaucracy, the “deep state”, multiculturalism and so forth. Further illustrating his belief that the time is right for proudly claiming one’s white identity, Hoffman helped cement connections between Identity Evropa and politician Steve King of IA, saying “The left went full court press on ‘STEVE KING IS A WHITE NATIONALIST’ and he still won.”

Hoffman’s social media is full of loads of garbage, including this sad attempt at poetics:

“Nationalism is Rising

Globalism is falling

Neoliberalism is on it’s way out

Trump taught the American public to hate the media, and they do.

People are seeking other answers to the truths

of our broken society and system

White Identity is in the air.”

Around the holidays, Ian Hoffman recommends encouraging Identity Evropa members to “name the Jew” to their parents and family. Going on to say that “White people [are] not acting in self-preservation and group interest. Let’s focus on improving that. Promoting these ‘grand Jewish plans’ makes us sound extreme, inaccessible and unhinged, so may as well drop it and focus on what we can do.  Ultimately, whether or not you believe in the plan is irrelevant” and ending his diatribe with “I’m SURE that if (((THEY))) didn’t circumcise young men, America would be [a] white ethno-paradise.”

An active shit-poster, Ian is easily searchable on social media; Ian Hoffman’s twitter is www.twitter.com/papapizzagate with an archive of http://archive.fo/NLKOS, his followers are archived here http://archive.fo/jajud, plus which white supremacist trash bags he’s following can always be found here http://archive.fo/IfIG3 His private youtube, is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L78ORLT1zY and his public YouTube is https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChoqPqK5guwUdFXSgVW0XVw/videos(http://archive.is/9u498 ) which he makes a lot of money off of https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/481597551272001546/516044381526949891/unknown.png so flag him for explicit content to get him de-platformed and make this Nazi broke again.

 

Don’t forget Ian, the internet is forever and we will keep finding you and finding you.

Ian lives alone at 129 W Main St, APT 2E in Palmyra, Pa. In a show of how empty his life is, he lists his hobbies as cars, entrepreneurship, dirt bikes (his field of work now) and bonsai trees.

Address:

129 W Main St

2E

Palmyra, PA

Age:

30

July 25, 1988

Social media:

Twitter: www.twitter.com/papapizzagate http://archive.fo/NLKOS, followers: http://archive.fo/jajud, following: http://archive.fo/IfIG3

YouTube (private): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1L78ORLT1zY (unlisted/private video, same avatar as Twitter)

YouTube (public): https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChoqPqK5guwUdFXSgVW0XVw/videos (http://archive.is/9u498 )

 

Charlottesville connections: