The Denver Anarchist Black Cross is one of the best organized and awesome ABCs that we have come across. Their website is a great resource for anyone trying to stay on top of ABC, prisoners support, and prison abolition news. You can check out all of their articles at: http://www.denverabc.wordpress.com
A May 6th March Against Police Terror in Denver resulted in one arrest. Now, the charges against that person, including attempted murder, inciting a riot, and more, have the 20 year old Amelia Nicol with a 50,000 dollar bond and a 90 year sentence hanging over their head. This attempt at intimidation of anti-police movements and silencing in general should not be met with fear or infighting. Amelia Nicol has court this morning, and we will update with the results from that.
Solidarity with all victims of police violence and oppression! As an anarchist community we need to support each other in general, and especially in stressful legal situations. Beyond that, we can all stand to learn from similar movements in different places. Denver has a strong anti-police terror movement and they have a lot to say about it as well.
So far we have not seen any calls for specific acts of solidarity, but if anyone is interested in potentially organizing fundraisers or doing other support please get in touch with the Wingnut Anarchist Collective or the Richmond Anarchist Black Cross. wingnut_collective@yahoo.com and rvaabc@gmail.com respectively. The next Anarchist Black Cross meeting will be on the 2nd Tuesday of June at 7pm at the Wingnut. Before that will be the annual Wingnut Memorial Day Party in Memory of People Murdered by the State on May 30th from noon until 7pm. At 7pm on the 30th there will be an Anti-Police Brutality March starting at the Wingnut as well. One of the most important ways that we can show solidarity with our comrades in other places is through continuing to work on issues, in this case standing up to police violence/terror/brutality.
*UPDATE* Denver ABC updated the info and is asking for solidarity in the following ways: 1)Attend Amelia’s public hearing on Monday May 16th at 9:30 am in Courtroom 2100 of the Denver County Courthouse at 490 West Colfax in downtown Denver.
2)Donate to Amelia’s legal defense. Denver ABC will be accepting donations on behalf of Amelia’s family and friends. You can mail donations to Denver ABC, 2727 W. 27th Ave Unit D, Denver CO 80211. Checks should be made payable to P&L Printing. A paypal account where donations can be made is available through the username plpress@riseup.net
3)Sign up for updates on Denver ABC’s twitter account. Our username is DenverABC.
4)Send a letter to the Denver DA demanding that the charges against Amelia be immediately dropped. All letters or postcards can be mailed to: Denver DA Mitch Morrissey, 201 W. Colfax Ave #801, Denver CO 80202-5328
5)Keep checking the Denver ABC blog at denverabc.wordpress.com for all news, announcements, and other ways to show support for Amelia and other political prisoners.
Here are a couple articles we have pulled from the Denver Anarchist Black Cross site, but please go and check it out their website yourself for lots of important information and updates. The report back from the Queen City Antifa is especially good!
Posted on May 9, 2011 by denverabc
from Queen City Antifa
(Disclaimer: This reportback is authored by several participants and members of Queen City Antifa. However, it should not be assumed or insinuated that the comments, conclusions, or descriptions of events in anyway represent the feelings or experiences of anyone else, including other organizers, collectives, or participants. So, let’s just be clear: This reportback does not represent the opinions of West Denver Copwatch, Denver Anarchist Black Cross, or any other supporting groups or individuals other than the authors. Clear? Cool.)
Since the nearly year old murder of Marvin Booker at the hands of Denver Sheriff’s Deputies in the Van Cise-Simonet Detention Center, a movement against police and policing has grown in the Denver metro area. Between July 2010 and May 2011, at least 3 militant and unpermitted street marches have been organized. Press conferences, vigils, rallies, panel discussions, and other protests and events have also been held to protest not only the murder of Marvin at the hands of his jailers, but also others who have been murdered, beaten, attacked, raped, and assaulted by police in the greater metro area.
Buildup
In early April, an announcement started appearing on the internet and through handbills and posters calling for another march to be held on May 6th. This would mark the 4th march in a series of increasingly militant and larger street actions challenging police terror in the metro area.
The call was the first that explicitly intended to link foreign occupations by militaries with local occupations by police forces, as well as make connections between local police terror to the ongoing class and social conflicts raging in the U.S. and countries all over the world. (http://queencityantifa.wordpress.com/2011/04/22/march-against-police-terror-march-for-marvin-oleg-and-all-the-victims/)
The callout would not be the only aspect that clearly set apart this march from the events preceding it.
As the momentum from the previous protests fueled organizers and supporters, the increasing militancy of the previous protests alarmed and frightened others. At least one anonymous comment appeared on Colorado Indymedia, “warning” people of the many dangers they faced if they attended the demonstration.
The logic presented seemed to rely on the idea that the past marches had gotten lucky, but this time the cop response would be much worse. Since the militancy of the previous protests had upped the ante, the cops would respond in full this time around.
As an indication that this logic had basis in reality, a representative of the Department of Justice Office of Civil Rights attempted on seemingly multiple occasions to contact protest organizers to set up “negotiations” between the organizers and local police. The local movement responded to this in a variety of ways. Queen City Antifa released a communique denouncing the attempts to negotiate, while other organizations simply took down the initial callout for the march to avoid being pegged as organizers. The latter response, coupled with the anonymous comment on Indymedia, illustrated the fear present within the local movement. These early responses to the march would also serve to keep some people away from the protest. Fear was already crippling the march, before it had even begun.
The cops would also take the pre-march repression to an even higher level. Stories were related to us by several supporters and participants in past marches, that they and other homeless youth had been receiving threats from the cops in the week before the march. The police threatened that they would just identify march participants and later arrest or “find them”.
The impacts of the culture of fear permeating throughout the movement would definitely be felt on May 6th. (more…)
