Dave Mahoney Takes a Plea Bargain ( and Still Has a Posse)

Monday morning in Ramsey County District Court, RNC activist Dave Mahoney pled
– under pressure and significant duress – to a single count of second
degree assault, a felony. Instead of going to trial on the 10 felony counts
stemming from a single invented incident, Dave and the office of Ramsey County
Attorney Susan Gaertner agreed to a plea bargain. Given the disproportionately
ferocious, political prosecution, Dave and his attorney evidently found it in
their best interest to agree to a 90-day cap on jail time, reduction of the
(single) felony charge to a gross misdemeanor after the sentence is served, and
the ability for Dave to return to his native England after the jail term. With
credit for good behavior and time served, Dave is looking at 56 days or less in
jail, as opposed to the decades possible if he had lost at trial.

***

Dave Mahoney Still Has a Posse: Solidarity in the Face of Vindictive
Prosecution
a message from the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure (rncaftermath.org)

***

Of the dozens of RNC charges heard in open court, authorities have not won a
single conviction. The manipulation and reliance on overtly authoritarian
pressure evidenced in Dave’s case is indicative of the only tactic the state
has left to justify the police brutality and fiscal waste characterizing the
RNC and its aftermath. Dave faced two, then six, and ultimately ten charges.
First accused of aiding and abetting the drop of a bag of sand in front of a
slow-moving delegate bus on a closed highway exit ramp, authorities then levied
a count of terroristic threats and assault for each so-called "victim" on the
bus who claimed to feel "terrorized." All together, Dave eventually was looking
at decades behind bars and a dramatically tainted jury pool until the
prosecution made the sudden plea offer last week. The absurdity of the state's
persecution should be apparent, but so should the impossible position in which
Dave was placed. Indeed, what would you do under similar circumstances?

In a letter to his lawyer last December, prosecutor Richard Dusterhoft called
his case "by far the most serious RNC case I have" (an assertion we find silly
at best). He has referred to Dave as the "poster boy of the RNC" in open court.
Similarly, during the presentation of the Heffelfinger-Luger Report in January,
Andrew Luger called the alleged bag of sand incident "the most frightening
moment of the convention," apparently overlooking the pre-emptive raids,
state-sponsored shutdown of downtown, and hundreds of brutal injuries caused by
police.

It is, of course, too much to ask that agents of the state consider such
things. The cognitive dissonance could prove fatal, what with so many careers
to further, so many dollars to grab, so many atrocities to excuse. If an
activist like Dave -- whose community believes him, as we do, completely
innocent of the anything resembling assault or terror crimes (if in fact there
was ever a crime at all) -- has to serve months in jail on a politician's whim,
so be it. There are, of course, priorities. That those priorities fail to align
with common sense or justice is neither here nor there.

Back in reality, Dave, his comrades, and friends -- from England to the Twin
Cities and beyond -- are not guilty of assaulting delegates. Rather, they and
we are launching assaults on the interlocking systems of injustice and
oppression which keep all of us in one form of prison or another. Like Dave, we
didn’t and don’t commit this assault with bags of dirt or pointed fingers;
we attack the system with continuous, relentless organizing in a diversity of
forms, seen and unseen. That those who benefit most from temporary power fail
to recognize this should surprise no one.

The state-sanctioned kidnappings of our friends by cartoonishly villianous
stooges like Bob Fletcher – the very embodiment of corruption and
contemptible, scabrous sleaze, as even the mainstream press and the FBI are
starting to realize – and the subsequent legitimizing of these crimes by
other criminally smarmy agents of the state should not stop anyone. Until
borders have been broken and police prevented from terrorizing our communities
in the manner they do every day, we will continue to assault any system that
withholds our basic needs and denies our wild dreams.

Due to the nature of these battles waged within the confines of the criminal
injustice system, there is of course more to be said -- but it must wait. If
you, too, have dreams of love, rage, and freedom, perhaps you too can say some
of it under your breath. More important than what we can or cannot say,
however, is what we can do.

The RNC happened in our community, but the interests it served and the
repression it entailed are fundamental to the structure of this society …
indeed, the world system. Don’t forget. From the RNC 8 to the RNC Others; the
Tarnac 9; the AETA 4; and all those past and present - defend ALL targets of
state repression.

RNC 8: rnc8.org

Jesse Forrey, currently on trial call: supportjessejames.wordpress.com

Christina Vana and Karen Meissner: helpmkethree.blogspot.com

Write to the Texas Two, Bradley Crowder and David McKay, serving 2 and 4 years
in prison, respectively, as well as Matt DePalma, at (this address will change
in a few weeks):

Sherburne County Jail
13880 Highway 10
13880 Business Center Drive
Elk River, MN 55330-4601

Write to Glenn Dyer, incarcerated in Ramsey County until at least June 13, at:

Glenn David Dyer
297 S. Century Avenue
St. Paul, MN 55119

More info about Glenn:

"dear friends and comrades,

1.  yesterday our friend glenn was sentenced to 30 days in the ramsey county
correctional facility workhouse in minnesota for RNC 2008-related felony
charges.  in addition to several thousand dollars in lawyer and court fees, we
just learned that he is being charged $3,000 in restitution costs.  thus, glenn
could really use our support right now--all contributions to his legal fund,
large or small, will be a huge help.  by clicking on the link below, you should
be able to donate funds easily with any credit or debit card.  we will use all
donations towards lawyer and court fees, glenn's commissary account in the
jail, and the insane costs of making calls from the jail ($50/15 minutes)."

here's the link:
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_donations&business=UHSR98XC3N6LG&lc=US&item_name=cobra%20commander%20jail%20fund&currency_code=USD&bn=PP%2dDonationsBF%3abtn_donate_LG%2egif%3aNonHosted