Young Persons Called to Private Grand Jury for Owning Books

Just a few weeks ago, an FBI task force raided a home* in Portland, Oregon very early in the morning. They broke down the front door with a battering ram and threw in a stun grenade, which is non-lethal but produces a very loud and disorienting noise and a blinding bright light. The team locked down the building and secured the sleepy, compliant occupants. The operation was one of several which also occurred in Olympia, WA and Seattle, WA, involving some 60-80 officers.

Just who were these dangerous criminals, these domestic terrorists whose threat level is so high that an FBI team with stun grenades, battering rams, and assault rifles needed to burst into their homes in the wee hours of the morning?

Why, it’s these two young folks,

Leah-Lynn Plante:

and Matt Duran:

Reportedly, the FBI search warrant was for black clothing, paint, sticks, computers and cell phones, and ‘anarchist materials or literature.’ According to an FBI Domestic Terrorism guide published by greenisthenewred.com, “anarchists are criminals seeking an ideology to justify their actions,” and are “not dedicated to a particular issue.” Common meeting places are “college campuses, underground clubs, coffee houses/ internet cafes.” The implication is that owning “anarchist” literature is enough to indicate to the FBI that one is a criminal – even if that person happens to be a student studying political thought. Or maybe particularly if you are a student – the FBI document states that anarchists are “educated persons of various backgrounds, often students.”

What even counts as anarchist material? Given the vitriolic US political rhetoric of anti-socialism, you might think a book by Karl Marx or about Tommy Douglas would count. What about someone like Shulamith Firestone? Hell, what about Walt Whitman?

Leah-Lynn and Matt have since been subpoenaed and ordered before a Grand Jury hearing, which is a private hearing used to determine if there is sufficient evidence to indict someone with a federal crime. During the proceedings of a Grand Jury, the defendant is not allowed an attorney to represent her or him. This means that a Grand Jury is essentially a group of twenty or so judges, a prosecutor looking to indict someone with a felony, and Leah-Lynn Plante, vegan. A Grand Jury is also secret, so we do not know and are not allowed to know what is going on in the courtroom.

Leah was first called before a Grand Jury back on August 2. She refused to co-operate with the jury proceedings, giving them only her name and date of birth. She refused to answer any other questions and explicitly stated she would not talk about any other people. Historically, the Grand Jury process was intended to protect citizens from slanderous or malicious prosecution. However, Grand Juries have been used to isolate members of political activist groups and use the fear of imprisonment to gain information about other groups and persons. Leah was re-subpoenaed, and returned to court yesterday, where she again refused to co-operate. She has been re-re-subpoenaed without yet receiving a date for her next hearing.

All this is because someone vandalized a Seattle courthouse on May Day. Leah has publicly stated that she does not condone what happened on May Day, and that she was not in Seattle during that time. She has made it clear that her refusal to co-operate is not a strategy to protect criminals, but is rather a protest against a legal system which is unconcerned with the civil rights of citizens. Considering that she could be held in contempt of court and sentenced to jail time, we should take what she says seriously. Matt Duran, also subpoenaed and brought before a Grand Jury, has already been held in contempt of court and is currently in U.S. Federal custody. His contempt hearing was made private by the presiding Judge, a move unprecedented since the McCarthy era.

You know, they arrested Emma Goldman a couple times. I learned that from reading about her. In a book I own.
http_://thesoundandnoise.com/2012/09/14/young-persons-called-to-private-grand-jury-for-owning-books/
 
This is now on sott:
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/251402-Young-Persons-Called-to-Private-Grand-Jury-for-Owning-Books

Oh, please, that is just absurd. It's a good example of how the US constitution were thrown out the window.

I've checked the link above about "FBI Domestic Terrorism guide" (published by greenisthenewred(dot)com), the FBI warned that:

– Anarchists are "Criminals seeking an ideology to justify their activities"

– Anarchists are "Not dedicated to a particular cause"

– Green anarchists believe "individuals should 'get back to nature'"

The last one is just bizarre. Maybe it could be how it'd be interpreted? My understanding of "getting back to nature" is basically living a simple life, including in the countryside.
 
Zadius Sky said:
This is now on sott:
http://www.sott.net/articles/show/251402-Young-Persons-Called-to-Private-Grand-Jury-for-Owning-Books

Oh, please, that is just absurd. It's a good example of how the US constitution were thrown out the window.

I've checked the link above about "FBI Domestic Terrorism guide" (published by greenisthenewred(dot)com), the FBI warned that:

– Anarchists are "Criminals seeking an ideology to justify their activities"

– Anarchists are "Not dedicated to a particular cause"

– Green anarchists believe "individuals should 'get back to nature'"

The last one is just bizarre. Maybe it could be how it'd be interpreted? My understanding of "getting back to nature" is basically living a simple life, including in the countryside.

Either or both of you, and perhaps others here, might or might not be aware of the long history of authoritarian repression in the US, which began almost before the ink was dry on the Constitution and has continued ever since, starting with ad-hoc gangs of thugs and proceeding through the Pinkertons after the Civil War and on to the FBI and now the burgeoning apparat of the modern US security and prison industrial complex including the Department of Homeland Security (zieg heil!) and an alphabet soup of other government agencies and parasitic private contractors.

The FBI is an instrument of state repression. A good case can be made that it was responsible for the assassination of Martin Luther King. It was at least complicit in the murders of Black Panthers and Native American activists as well as railroading Leonard Peltier, among many other crimes. But it was and is not the most immoral and vicious shadow government organization operating with impunity in US society.

That distinction belongs to the CIA and its many programs to infiltrate and disrupt popular dissent, which have proceeded mostly under the radar ever since the end of WWII, operating with the excuse that it conducts counter-intelligence that it calls COINTELPRO. And oh, by the way, the CIA assassinated JFK and RFK, for sure....

A series of interesting articles that hints at the CIA's COINTELPRO work during the late 1960s and early 1970s written by Dave McGowan starts here: http://www.davesweb.cnchost.com/nwsltr93.html . It makes for interesting reading.
 

Trending content

Back
Top Bottom