FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 23, 2021

UPDATE on Jessica Reznicek’s case, SIGN THE PETITION “Protecting Water is Never Terrorism: Repeal Jessica Reznicek’s Terrorist Enhancement!”, and Free Jessica WEBSITE LAUNCH!

Contact: [email protected]
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freejessrez
Website: Supportjessicareznicek.com

Since sentencing Jessica has remained on house arrest at the Des Moines Catholic Worker, with her cat Noni who has offered constant comfort and solidarity. The United States Department of Justice has notified Jessica Reznicek that she is scheduled to report to Waseca, MN Federal Correctional Institution on Aug 11th at 2pm. Our hearts are filled with feelings of love and gratitude from all the requests to write letters of support to Jessica. Once she is in prison we will launch a letter writing campaign with all the information and directions on how to do so.

The 8th Circuit United States Court of Appeals has set a preliminary deadline of August 19th for an appeals brief to be filed. The appeal will be focusing on Judge Rebecca Goodgame Ebinger’s misuse of terrorism enhancements at Jessica’s sentencing.

Despite federal authorities use of ‘terrorism’ language to describe Reznicek’s actions, no person was harmed by her actions, nor was she technically convicted of any terrorism-related crime. In plain language, there are already laws on books to punish people for arson, and without the domestic terrorism enhancement Jessica would be looking at less than half of the 8 year sentence she has wrongfully received.

ADD YOUR NAME TO THE PETITION: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/protecting-water-is-never-terrorism-repeal-jessica-rezniceks-terrorist-enhancement
In the meantime, Jessica remains upbeat and heart-strong as she is receiving enormous amounts of support, solidarity and love from folks around the globe. She is currently exploring ways to earn her bachelor degree while in prison through prison correspondence education programs. For more information on Jessica’s case and to continue to support Jessica visit our website: supportjessicareznicek.com

If you are on organization that would like to add your name to the petition or support team fill out this form.

Thank you for your support!
Love and solidarity, Jessica and the Jessica Support Team

Join us in Clark Park this coming Monday for the next letter-writing event. Snacks and materials will be provided! We will be writing letters to extend our solidarity to Ron Reed, long-time civil rights activist and Black revolutionary who is fighting his conviction for which he was framed and given a life sentence. His birthday is August 31st, so if you are writing to him from home, please send him birthday greetings as well.

Ron is a former 60s civil rights activist. In 1969, Reed was among the students at St. Paul Central High School who demanded Black history courses and organized actions against racist teachers. He was also instrumental in helping to integrate college campuses in Minnesota. During this period, Reed began to look toward revolutionary theory and engage in political street theater with other young Black revolutionaries in the city of St. Paul.

Reed went on to join the Black United Front. In 1970, he was convicted of shooting an off-duty police officer during a bank expropriation and served 13 years in prison. Twenty-five years later, Reed was convicted of first-degree murder and conspiracy to commit first-degree murder after having a cold case of another police shooting pinned on him. He is now serving life in prison for the second conviction.

We will also be sending birthday cards to political prisoners with birthdays in August: Eric King (the 2nd), Bill Dunne (the 3rd), Hanif Bey (the 6th), Mutulu Shakur (the 8th), and Russell Maroon Shoatz (the 23rd).

If you have the ability, please check out political prisoner Eric King’s online wishlist at
tiny.cc/EK_Books  and buy a book or two. Eric has been in segregation for almost two years and facing new charges. He is a voracious reader and shares the books with many others. He is also, absurdly, on a mail ban for over a year and can only receive mail from his wife, mother and lawyers.

More about Eric
https://supportericking.org

Imprisoned Anti-Fascist Activist Says Federal Guards Let White Supremacists Beat Him

Voices from Solitary: Flipping the Script

Running Down the Walls 2021

Saturday, September 11, 2021 at 6:00pm (rain or shine!)

Southern Walnut Creek Trail at Govalle Neighborhood Park, 5200 Bolm Rd, Austin, TX 78721

Required registration form here.

Registration fee: sliding scale $20-100 ($40 strongly recommended). Each paid and registered participant will get a t-shirt (design is still in the works).

Pay online via PayPal to [email protected]protonmail.com or you can bring cash/check/money order to the event. Or email us to make other arrangements.

Contact: [email protected]

We have new shirts available in our new store! Featuring our spiffy logo, everyone’s lucky number and inspiring words from indigenous freedom fighter and imprisoned comrade, Oso Blanco. Order at abcfoc.bigcartel.com

All proceeds will benefit the ABCF Warchest Program. The Warchest is a fund maintained by the Anarchist Black Cross Federation which sends a monthly stipend to long term Political Prisoners/Prisoners of War. It also is available for post-release funds and emergencies. http://abcf.net/warchest-program/

Oso Blanco is a Wolf Clan Cherokee/Choctaw raised in New Mexico, his Cherokee name is Yona Unega and he became known by the authorities as “Robin the Hood” after the FBI learned that Yona Unega was robbing banks to support the Zapatistas in Chiapas on a regular basis in 1998/1999.

In the afternoon we will host a 5k run/walk/car caravan around the Cook County Jail Complex. In the evening there will be a live music show. More details to follow!

What is Running Down The Walls? RDTW is a 5k event where people inside and outside of prisons run/walk/roll in solidarity for prisoners everywhere. It is both a fundraiser and a protest against mass incarceration.

Facebook event
Contact: [email protected]

Unicorn Riot covers the case of Water Protector Jessica Reznicek.

Des Moines, IA – On Wednesday, June 30, Jessica Reznicek was sentenced to eight years in federal prison after she admitted to sabotaging the widely opposed Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in 2017. Reznicek previously had pleaded guilty to the charge of Conspiracy to Damage an Energy Facility. She is also ordered to pay over 3 million dollars in restitution and to serve three years of supervised release.

Read more at https://unicornriot.ninja/2021/dapl-saboteur-jessica-reznicek-sentenced-to-8-years/

Lowell/Lawrence ABC Running Down The Walls 2021
5K run/walk/roll
September 12, 2021
Bording House Park – 40 French St, Lowell MA 01852
[email protected]
@LowellABC

Here’s the latest compilation of every other week updates:
https://nycabc.files.wordpress.com/2021/07/updates-13-jul-2021-1.pdf

NYC ABC, along with several other individuals and prisoner support
crews, now send hard copies to all political prisoners and prisoners of
war we support.

If you consistently mail the latest updates to a specific prisoner,
please let us know so we can insure there’s no overlap. The goal is to
have copies sent to all of the prisoners we list.

We’ve also been told that some prisoners are not receiving the copies
sent in, yet we aren’t getting rejection notices. If you are in steady
contact with a prisoner, please ask them whether or not they are
receiving the updates and let us know.

tl:dr: Order at http://www.freebirdbooks.com/shop.html

Following June’s drive (over 330 books collected!) and a year after Freebird Books initiated this campaign, we focus on worker-owned publisher AK Press, a longtime supporter of NYC Books Through Bars and a leading publisher of literature on social justice and anarchism.

We have chosen a selection of titles that exemplify their ethos while exploring themes important for incarcerated readers. On previous drives we have featured Octavia Butler’s own influential speculative fiction. In Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements, we share the fruits of those influences: 20 short works of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and magical realism that connect visionary worlds with movements of social change. (Edited with Adrienne Maree Brown)

That anthology happens to be co-edited by the educator, writer, and spoken word artist Walidah Imarisha, the author of our second selection, Angels with Dirty Faces, a real life but poetic study of incarceration’s toll.

And in Fascism Today, Shane Burley provides a practical guide to understanding and combating a troubling political trend that did not end with the last administration.

About the Freebird book drive for NYC Books Through Bars
While NYC Books Through Bars operating out of Freebird’s basement is currently limiting in-person volunteering and drop offs due to COVID-19, book requests continue to pour in from prisons around the country: nearly 300 per week. In response to the challenges of accepting those donations during the pandemic, we have started a monthly program in which specific, in-demand titles can be purchased through Freebird at a discount.

Order the July bundle!