O'odham: Not Guilty in Border Patrol Lockdown Protest

DATE: Thursday June 29, 2011
Contact: Alex Soto
Phone: 602-881-6027
Email: stopbordermilitarization@gmail.com

Border Patrol Headquarters Occupation Protesters Found Not Guilty
Reaffirms Call to End Border Militarization

Chuckson (Tucson), AZ - The six protesters who locked-down and occupied the United States Border Patrol (BP) – Tucson Headquarters on May 21, 2010 were found not guilty on the remaining count of a disorderly conduct "with serious disruptive behavior” charge.

The legal defense, William G. Walker and Jeffrey J. Rogers, argued that the remaining charge of disorderly conduct did not apply because it did not meet any of the statutes of the charge. After three hours of deliberation, the judge found the six not guilty.

The city prosecutor had attempted to re-introduce the previously misfiled criminal trespassing as a misdemeanor charge, but this charge was dismissed after the first trial date for the occupiers in February. After an objection by the defense, the state’s motion was denied.

“Today’s not guilty verdict shows that we, as O’odham, are not the ones who are disorderly. It is the Border Patrol, the Department of Homeland Security, and the various levels of government that perpetrate the violence in our communities,” stated Alex Soto, Tohono O’odham, one of the protesters and member of O’odham Solidarity Across Borders Collective. “When will the institutions, whose conduct continues for more than 500 years of trespassing, that terrorize indigenous and migrants communities, be held accountable?”

“No state entity can deny peoples’ inherent right to freedom of movement," said Marisa Duarte, one of the protesters standing trial. "Borders are a colonial weapon used to continue the genocide of indigenous people and their culture. Through trade they exploit natural resources and use the profits to further the progress of neo-liberal infrastructure projects such as CANAMEX and NAFTA. This results in the criminalization of those who defy borders through living their lives traditionally. You see the forced relocation of families from borders all around the world. Today we say no more to this criminalization of people.”

O’odham Elders and community members attended the court proceedings to demonstrate their support.

“Today we celebrate our victory in court, but understand this is just one step in ending border militarization. We took action last May in order to directly confront the issues in our communities by physically intervening and occupying the Border Patrol station. Since that time, many have answered the call to end border militarization, and victories like today have inspired more action,” said Franco Habre.

As the six waited for the state’s decision, 16 angry community members targeted the prison firm G4S (formally Wackenhut) and were cited criminal trespassing charges. The16 declared in no uncertain terms their opposition to the company’s profiteering at the expense of immigrant communities in Tucson, across the nation and throughout the world. Their action, which was organized autonomously by Tucson community members, was carried out under the banner of Direct Action for Freedom of Movement.

The six still stand firmly with their commitment and demands to end border militarization and their initial demands are listed below:

- Immediately withdraw National Guard Troops from the US/Mexico border
- Immediately halt development of the border wall
- Immediately remove drones and checkpoints
- Decommission all detention camps and release all presently held undocumented migrants
- Immediately honor Indigenous Peoples rights of self-determination
- Fully comply with the recently signed UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous
Peoples
- Respect Indigenous People's inherent right of migration
- End NAFTA, FTAA and other trade agreements
- Immediately end all CANAMEX/NAFTA Highway projects (such as the South
Mountain Freeway)
- Immediately repeal SB1070 and 287g
- End all racial profiling
- No BP encroachment/sweeps on sovereign Native land
- No raids and deportations
- Immediate and unconditional regularization (“legalization”) of all people
- Uphold human freedom and rights
- Uphold the rights of ALL Indigenous People - repeal HB 2281, support the UN
Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
- Support dignity and respect
- Support and ensure freedom of movement for all people

Soto concluded, “This action was a prayer. We’d like to thank those who stood with us during this process and to all who firmly stand with us to end border militarization. The occupation of the Border Patrol station was never about any group/organization, or us, it was about directly confronting the terror that the state unleashes upon indigenous and migrant communities, so we can critically challenge border militarization. As an O’odham, I always think back to my grandparents’ teachings: We as O’odham people have always traveled freely, regardless of the border. It’s our land, who we are, and we will defend it.”


To view the occupation video and for additional resources please visit:
http://www.oodhamsolidarity.blogspot.com/
http://www.survivalsolidarity.wordpress.com/

U.S. judge acts to help endangered species in California

Federal agencies are given six months to enhance protections in four Southern California national forests for 40 endangered species.

By Louis Sahagun, Los Angeles Times

June 29, 2011

A U.S. District Court judge Tuesday ordered three federal agencies to "take all necessary measures" to better protect 40 endangered species in four national forests in Southern California.

Judge Marilyn Hall Patel's action followed a 2009 federal court decision that management plans for the Angeles, Cleveland, Los Padres and San Bernardino national forests failed to ensure that human activities not jeopardize already-imperiled plants and animals.

Patel gave the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Marine Fisheries Service and the U.S. Forest Service six months to develop and implement long-term safeguards for the 40 species, which include the California condor and California gnatcatcher. The forest managers will have to develop a comprehensive program to reduce activities threatening the survival of the few steelhead trout left in the Los Padres and Cleveland national forests.

They were also ordered to report on the impacts that suction dredge mining in the San Gabriel River has had on the Santa Ana sucker, and "explain why such mining should not be immediately halted." Suction dredge mining, which is used to separate gold from stream gravel, harms water quality by spreading silt and sand.

Concrete river channels, dams and pollution caused by urban runoff have played roles in the suckers' decline, scientists say. Today, the fish clings to existence in small, shaded stretches of the Santa Ana and San Gabriel rivers and Big Tujunga Creek.

Officials from the agencies were not immediately available for comment. Ileene Anderson, spokeswoman for the Center for Biological Diversity, which sued over the agencies' forest management plans, said, "We're ecstatic. We always felt we had a strong case, and on Tuesday, the judge agreed."

Pending development of the new protection plans, Patel ordered the U.S. Forest Service to halt construction and public access in the vicinity of Williamson Rock and Little Rock Creek Road in the Angeles National Forest, popular hiking areas that are also home to endangered mountain yellow-legged frogs and arroyo toads. Both amphibians have lost nearly all their historic habitat.

In addition, Patel closed the Cherry Canyon area of the Los Padres National Forest to recreational shooting.

Kim Delfino, California program director for the Defenders of Wildlife, said, "The lesson of this ruling is this: These federal agencies can no longer get by simply saying, 'Nothing is going to happen to these species — trust us.'"

In addition to the condor and gnatcatcher, animals and plants expected to benefit from the ruling include the San Joaquin fox, Steller sea lion, Smith's blue butterfly, ash-gray Indian paintbrush and bird-footed checkerbloom.

Elmer ‘Geronimo’ Pratt, at 63; former Black Panther leader

NAIROBI — Former Black Panther Party leader Elmer “Geronimo’’ Pratt, whose California murder conviction was overturned after he spent 27 years in prison for a crime he maintained he did not commit, died early yesterday from a medical ailment, an associate said. He was 63.

Mr. Pratt died at his home in Imbaseni village, 15 miles from Arusha, Tanzania, where he lived, said a friend, former Black Panther Pete O’Neal.

Mr. Pratt was convicted in 1972 of being one of two men who robbed and fatally shot schoolteacher Caroline Olsen on a Santa Monica tennis court in December 1968.

Mr. Pratt insisted he was in Oakland for Black Panther Party meetings the day of the murder, and that FBI agents and police hid and possibly destroyed wiretap evidence that would prove it.

The Black Panther Party was an African-American revolutionary leftist organization, active in the United States from 1966 until 1982. It achieved notoriety through its involvement in the Black Power movement and in US politics of the 1960s and ’70s.

Lawyer Stuart Hanlon, who helped Mr. Pratt win his freedom, said Mr. Pratt refused to carry any resentment about his treatment by the legal system.

“He had no anger, he had no bitterness, he had no desire for revenge. He wanted to resume his life and have children,’’ Hanlon said from San Francisco. “He would never look back.’’

Mr. Pratt lived a peaceful life in Tanzania that he loved, O’Neal said. Mr. Pratt returned from a visit to the United States about 10 days ago and remarked that he appreciated the pace of his life in Africa.

“He’s my hero. He was and will continue to be,’’ O’Neal said. “Geronimo was a symbol of steadfast resistance against all that is considered wrong and improper. His whole life was dedicated to standing in opposition to oppression and exploitation. . . . He gave all that he had and his life, I believe, struggling, trying to help people lift themselves up.’’

Mr. Pratt worked with the United African Alliance Community Center in Arusha for the last nine years that he lived in the Tanzanian community, which sits near the base of Mount Kilimanjaro. The organization, which O’Neal founded 20 years ago, works to empower youth.

Mr. Pratt’s lawyers, who included high-profile defense attorney Johnnie Cochran, blamed his arrest on a politically charged campaign by J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI against the Black Panthers and other perceived enemies of the government.

Mr. Pratt’s belated reversal of fortune came with the disclosure that a key prosecution witness hid the fact he was an ex-felon and a police informant.

Superior Court Judge Everett Dickey granted Pratt a new trial in June 1997, saying the credibility of prosecution witness Julius Butler — who testified that Mr. Pratt had confessed to him — could have been undermined if the jury had known of his relationship with law enforcement. He was freed later that month.

Cochran, best known representing such clients as O.J. Simpson and Michael Jackson, called the day Mr. Pratt’s freedom was secured “the happiest day of my life practicing law.’’

Prosecutors announced two years after the conviction was overturned that they would abandon efforts to retry him.

“I feel relieved that the L.A. DA’s office has finally come to their senses in this respect,’’ Mr. Pratt said at the time. “But I am not relieved in that they did not come clean all the way in exposing their complicity with this frame-up, this 27-year trauma.’’

He settled a false imprisonment and civil rights lawsuit against the FBI and city of Los Angeles for $4.5 million in 2000.