No More Prisons

The vast majority of news I receive over prison activist lists is depressing and/or hopeless - either an urgent action, pen pal request or expression of frustration for the lack of resources available to those whose lives have been ruined by the 'criminal justice' system in this country. But this morning the first thing I read in my inbox had the subject: WE WON!!!

The jury in the Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney federal civil
rights lawsuit against four FBI agents and three Oakland Police officers
awarded plaintiffs $4.4 million for violation of the activists’
Constitutional rights and returned a verdict largely in favor of Earth
First! activists Cherney and the late Judi Bari. In a legal victory of
historic proportions against the FBI, the jury found that six of the
seven defendants violated the First and Fouth Amendments of the
Constitution by arresting the activists, conducting searches of their
homes, and carrying out a smear campaign in the press, calling Earth
First! a terrorist organization and calling the activists bombers, in
the aftermath of the explosion of a bomb that was planted in Judi Bari’s
car in 1990. This verdict finds unlawful the actions of those in charge
of the bombing investigation, and vindicates Bari and Cherney.

More information is available from judi bari.org and sf indymedia. Also recommended, Timber Wars, on Common Courage Press and The COINTELPRO Papers on South End Press.



via Prison Radio.