We stand with Seattle activists
The July 10 raid by a Seattle SWAT team on an apartment of several Occupy Seattle activists began with a busted-down door and a stun grenade. After storming through the apartment, the police left without making any arrests.
This assault on basic civil liberties is part of a national pattern of police infiltration, entrapment and raids aimed at Occupy and antiwar activists. From the entrapment of the NATO 5 in Chicago during protests against the military alliance to the Cleveland 5 and the RNC 9, government officials and law enforcement bodies are seeking to clamp down on the right to protest. This crackdown represents a threat against all our movements.
On the day of the raid, the Seattle branch of the International Socialist Organization issued the following statement of solidarity.
THE SEATTLE International Socialist Organization stands in solidarity with Seattle activists raided by the Seattle Police Department (SPD) on Tuesday morning, July 10, 2012. Police attacks on the physical safety and civil liberties of political activists are shameful and indefensible.
Witnesses report that police forcibly entered the apartment of several activists associated with the Red Spark Collective and Decolonize/Occupy Seattle. Police threw flash grenades before ransacking the apartment and searching the activists' books and belongings. Paperwork handed to the activists by SPD detectives asserted that police were looking for "anarchist materials" and items related to May 1 actions. The activists were held while the apartment was searched and then released without charges.
This is obviously nothing but an attempt at intimidation of activists--both those directly attacked and anyone else organizing against the 1 percent. The right to possess "anarchist materials" or any other political literature is theoretically protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Possession of such materials is not a crime, nor is it proof of the commission of a crime. There is no reasonable excuse for police to be investigating political opinions and physically attacking people and personal property.
The police claim that this is related to May 1. Yet on May 1, when some windows were broken downtown, police for the most part stood back and made few arrests. Instead, they are using a few easily replaced windows as an excuse to destroy the irreplaceable civil liberties of activists over two months later. This should make it even more clear that the police are defenders of the power and wealth of the 1 percent against the rights and freedom of the 99 percent.
All the civil liberties we have today were fought for and won over decades of struggle against the 1 percent and their agents. Activists in the '60s and '70s forced the police in Seattle and across the U.S. to formally dismantle their political spying operations. The post-9/11 era has given police an excuse for renewed repression. Attacks against Arabs and Muslims and other supposed potential "terrorists" have become commonplace. Under Obama, the pace has quickened, with U.S. citizens now subject to imprisonment without trial. Antiwar activists in Minneapolis and Chicago have been recent victims of raids, police entrapment, and grand jury investigations.
It is in the interest of all activists of any political persuasion and all people who care about freedom of speech, press and association to quickly and strongly condemn this raid and any subsequent arrests or trials.
This is a blatant attack on activists and organizers in Seattle and an aggressive display of political repression. It will not stand! Solidarity with all political activists!
First published at the Seattle ISO blog.
