On Friday March 6, defendants in the #Freeway9 trial returned to court to argue a “Selective Prosecution” motion. The #Freeway9 are people who acted coming from a deep moral compulsion to stop the crimes of their government and a far-sighted understanding of the danger that the Trump/Pence Fascist Regime posed. In 2017 they shut down the 101 Freeway in LA twice, once with a 50 ft banner that read “Trump/Pence Regime Must Go”.
#Freeway9 lawyers argued in court that RefuseFascism’s non-violent protest, is being targeted by the LAPD as if it were a violent terrorist group. This has profound consequences for all those who oppose the daily injustices perpetrated by the government while an American fascism is rapidly advancing. And the fact that a very liberal Judge DENIED this motion – should give pause to anyone who is counting on the normal institutions and processes to stop this.
A #Freeway9 lawyer posed the question “What is the role that the state plays when the people exercise their rights to dissent against their government?”. Then asked “How did the police respond to Refuse Fascism’s non-violent action blocking the freeway?” Within days of the protest, the LAPD Anti-Terrorism Division sent in a spy to secretly record at a publicly held meeting in a church. The defense team recently got a hold of the recordings which revealed that the informant not only spied, but repeatedly and insistently tried to entrap members of Refuse Fascism outright calling for violence.
Fact Sheet on the #FREEWAY9 and the #UCLA5
On trial for sounding the alarm against fascism The Freeway9 and UCLA5 are members of Refuse Fascism and the Revolution Club facing criminal charges for protesting the fascist Trump/Pence regime, calling for massive, nonviolent, sustained protest to drive this regime from power. – Learn about the cases
At one of the meetings the spy attended, there was a discussion focused on white supremacists groups and the spy stated “give me a gun, I’ll shoot them.” Then at a separate meeting, one attendee said “there are millions of people who voted for Trump and we have to reckon with that.” The spy then stated “No, we have to wreck it,” once again inciting violence. At every step of the way Refuse Fascism members are on audio rebuking and disavowing these claims stating that Refuse Fascism is a non-violent organization.
#Freeway9 lawyers connected this up with the history of the U.S. government how it has assassinated, murdered, surveilled, imprisoned, countless activists and political leaders. A government program called COINTELPRO sought to discredit, isolate, and destroy whole movements of resistance and eliminated an entire generation of leadership. But notice how the KKK is still alive and thriving?
The prosecution had the gall to say that the spying and entrapment operation wasn’t a big deal because it was unsuccessful. The LAPD didn’t find what they were looking for! AKA they couldn’t entrap members to fit the narrative that Refuse Fascism is a terrorist organization. The #Freeway9 lawyers pointed out that this is entirely missing the point. The actual effect of carrying out this kind of operation has a larger and very harmful effect on society. Now getting involved in non-violent protest means you will be surveilled, entrapped, and targeted as a terrorist by the police. It puts a chill on dissent, it silences voices who otherwise would have come forward to call out the crimes of their government, and it criminalizes First Amendment activity.
There are big questions wrapped up in this case that have to do with what kind of society are we going to live in: Will non-violent protest be allowed to be treated as terrorist activity? Will the police be able to surveil, target, entrap anyone they want and do so however they please? Will the LA city attorney be able to throw these heroes in jail for years for opposing the crimes this government is committing in our name? Will this trial contribute to the moves of Trump to designate anti-fascist protests as terrorism and his moves to criminalize dissent? The Democratic City Attorney, and the liberal judge presiding over this court, have made clear that to them ORDER is more important than JUSTICE, even if that means greasing the skids for fascism.
Are you going to let this all go down?