{"id":16392,"date":"2020-09-23T09:29:26","date_gmt":"2020-09-23T13:29:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/2020\/09\/23\/defend-the-black-lives-matter-activists-arrested-in-denver\/"},"modified":"2020-09-23T09:29:26","modified_gmt":"2020-09-23T13:29:26","slug":"defend-the-black-lives-matter-activists-arrested-in-denver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/2020\/09\/23\/defend-the-black-lives-matter-activists-arrested-in-denver\/","title":{"rendered":"Defend the Black Lives Matter activists arrested in Denver!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Protesters demand justice for Elijah McClain as they march in Aurora, Col., on June 27. (David Zalubowski \/ Colorado Springs Gazette)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

By MICHAEL SCHREIBER<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 17, Denver police arrested six activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, including four who are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). According to the district attorney, all will be indicted on combined charges of 34 misdemeanor and 33 felony counts, including the incredible charge of \u201ckidnapping\u201d several police officers. The combined charges, if they are allowed to stand and result in conviction, could mean many years imprisonment for the six. The Denver arrests followed the arrests of three other activists in Colorado Springs, Col., on Sept. 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six people who were arrested on Sept. 17\u2014Joel Northam, Russel Ruch, Lillian House, and Eliza Lucero (all supporters of the PSL); Terrance Roberts (a Black community activist and co-founder of the Front Line Party for Revolutionary Action), and John Ruch\u2014have all been active in Black Lives Matter protests, including events demanding justice for Elijah McClain. In the summer of 2019, McClain was murdered by three cops who put him in a chokehold in Aurora, Col. The cops remain unpunished and are still on the streets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The arrests were staged to be as intimidating as possible. Ruch was seized while in the parking lot of a Home Depot store. An hour later, five police vehicles swarmed Lillian House\u2019s car and pulled her over as she was driving. That afternoon, an entire police SWAT team stormed Northam\u2019s home to arrest him. And Roberts was arrested while relaxing in a park.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Colorado Springs a week earlier, Sherrie Smith and Charles Johnson were arrested\u2014while Lloyd Porche was arrested in Denver\u2014after police and FBI raided their homes. The three were charged with felonies for \u201criotous and illegal behavior.\u201d The charges stemmed from an Aug. 3 protest demanding justice for De\u2019Von Bailey, a 19-year-old Black youth, who was shot in the back and killed by police on the same date a year earlier. The protesters temporarily blocked a road in the Pulpit Rock neighborhood of Colorado Springs near the house of one of the officers involved in Bailey\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The charge against the six Denver activists of first-degree kidnapping refers to events at a July 3 protest in which a crowd of 600 people barricaded 18 cops in a police station in Aurora. The protesters demanded that the two officers who had detained McClain be dismissed and charged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four of the Denver arrestees are also charged with inciting or engaging in a riot. The district attorney alleges that the demonstration became a riot because protesters blocked the streets and the doors to the police station, which \u201ccreated a danger of violence and property damage.\u201d The charge is constructed to be in line with Colorado law, which defines a riot as \u201ca public disturbance involving an assemblage of three or more persons which by tumultuous and violent conduct creates grave danger of damage or injury to property or persons or substantially obstructs the performance of any governmental function.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 30-pages of affidavits against the arrested activists are reportedly based largely on police analysis of live-stream videos and social media posts by people in the movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After he was freed on bail, Terrance Roberts told Fox 31 news reporters that the arrests were politically motivated, and that he and the other activists facing charges weren\u2019t present when so-called violent actions took place during the summer. \u201cThey\u2019re blaming us for inciting a riot, starting a riot\u2014but it\u2019s a riot I was not there for.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Roberts said that he and the other activists helped plan peaceful protests but never encouraged any unlawful acts. \u201cI\u2019ve never advocated for someone to break a window or break anything. I\u2019ve never told anyone in a speech, \u2018go hurt someone,\u2019 or \u2018go beat a cop.\u2019 I\u2019ve never advocated for anything negative,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe still need those officers [in the Elijah McClain case] arrested.\u201d Roberts demanded. \u201cWe want them charged with murder. Not us\u2014we should not be charged. We did not kidnap anyone. We have not put our hands on a single person.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attorney Mara Verheyden-Hilliard said in a PSL online video defending the Denver arrestees: \u201cThe situation we are watching now is as historic as it could possibly be. We have on the one hand the people who murdered Elijah McClain, murdered Breonna Taylor, murdered Daniel Prude, murdered so many [who are] walking free. And the people who are being arrested\u2014and prosecuted \u2026 are those who are willing to stand up and fight for racial justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAnd make no mistake\u2014this is an attack on a powerful movement that is sweeping the streets, a movement that is drawing millions of people into political life, many who were never engaged in these types of actions before. \u2026 They are trying to send a message to everyone that they must step back \u2026 to terrify people, to send a message that if you engage in social justice activism, you are risking life and limb to come out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Sept. 19, over 1000 people gathered outside the Colorado state capitol in Denver to protest the arrests and demand that the charges be dropped. \u201cWhen activist lives are under attack, what do we do? Stand up! Fight back!\u201d they chanted. Lillian House sent a message to the rally from inside the jail, stating, \u201cWe won\u2019t be intimidated. This is so much bigger than me and so much bigger than any sentence you can give us.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Denver arrests are part of a heightened crackdown on protests and free speech in recent years that has been carried out by governments and police throughout the country. Since the Dakota pipeline protests in 2016, at least 25 states have enacted measures to clamp down on free speech, according to the International Center for Not-For-Profit Law. The process of criminalizing protests, with a broader application of felony charges and heightened penalties, escalated this year in response to the surging of the Black Lives Matter movement following the police murder of George Floyd.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The attack on the movement by police and local governments has been urged on and facilitated by the \u201claw and order\u201d policies that are regularly blasted out from Trump\u2019s White House. Trump\u2019s directives were given teeth when the president sent federal agents to Portland, who proceeded to snatch peaceful protesters from the streets and bundle them into an unmarked vehicle. Federal marshals also participated in the raid on Portland activist Michael Reinoehl\u2019s apartment on Sept. 3, shooting him down as he got into his truck. Reinoehl was accused of shooting a member of a far-right vigilante group at the end of August, but was never given the opportunity to explain his case to a jury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Following the lines of a memorandum that Trump issued earlier this month, the Justice Department has now labeled the cities of New York, Seattle, and Portland, Ore., as jurisdictions \u201cthat have permitted violence and destruction of property,\u201d targeting them for possible cuts in federal funding. The Trump administration has said that it is considering adding other cities to the list\u2014a clear warning to local governments to follow its hard-line policies against protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many local and state governments, with both Democrats and Republicans in office, appear to be vigorously embracing the extreme \u201claw and order\u201d policies advocated by the White House. The mayor of Louisville, Ky., a Democrat, is following the playbook, having just declared a state of emergency while citing the potential for civil unrest. The edict was released on Sept. 22 as the public awaited an announcement by the state attorney general as to whether he would charge the police officers involved in storming the apartment of Breonna Taylor on a \u201cno-knock\u201d warrant on March 13 and shooting her to death. In accord with the mayor\u2019s action, the Louisville police department announced that the downtown area would be cordoned off, including barricading Jefferson Square Park, where peaceful protests of Taylor\u2019s death have been held throughout the summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Elsewhere, Black Lives Matter protesters have received unprecedented charges for alleged infractions of the law. Some of the most onerous charges were lodged against five protesters (three of them in their teens) in July in Oklahoma County, Okla. The people were charged with terrorism for their alleged participation in burning a sheriff\u2019s van and attacking a bail bond business during BLM protests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a highly staged military-style operation, which now has been echoed in Denver, New York City police carried out a raid on the home of a Black Lives Matter activist on Aug. 7. Derek Ingram, co-founder of the Warriors in the Garden collective, awoke at 7 a.m. to the sound of police banging on his door. For five hours, dozens of cops stationed on his fire escape and in a neighboring apartment demanded that he surrender, as helicopters buzzed overhead. Ingram turned himself in at a police station the following day. Charges were filed against him of second-degree assault (a felony), stemming from a June 14 demonstration when he allegedly yelled through a megaphone directly into the ear of a police officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Socialist Resurgence condemns the attempts by governments and police to repress the movement against police brutality, for Black rights, and for social justice. An attack on one (or several) is an attack on all! We urge our readers to sign the PSL\u2019s petition to have the charges dropped against the Colorado activists; click here to sign.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defense funding link for Sherrie Smith, arrested in Colorado Springs, is: https:\/\/www.anarchydadfundme.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By MICHAEL SCHREIBER On Sept. 17, Denver police arrested six activists in the Black Lives Matter movement, including four who are members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). According to the district attorney, all will be indicted on combined charges of 34 misdemeanor and 33 felony counts, including the incredible charge of \u201ckidnapping\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13882114,"featured_media":15312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[30821,30824,30850],"tags":[30889,30934,30962,30973,31154],"class_list":["post-16392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-liberation-racism","category-civil-liberties","category-police-and-prisons","tag-aurora","tag-colorado","tag-denver","tag-elijah-mcclain","tag-psl"],"translation":{"provider":"WPGlobus","version":"3.0.2","language":"es","enabled_languages":["en","es"],"languages":{"en":{"title":true,"content":true,"excerpt":false},"es":{"title":false,"content":false,"excerpt":false}}},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/workersvoiceus.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/June-27-march-Elijah-McClain-David-Zalubowski-Gazette.jpg?fit=1200%2C754&ssl=1","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pdQxqk-4go","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13882114"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16392"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16392\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/workersvoiceus.org\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}