July 29, 2017 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

 

Received by revcom.us:

Stand With the Stonewall 4!
Drive Out The Trump/Pence Regime!

Trial Date: August 7, 2017 9:00am 
100 Centre St. Manhattan Criminal Court

WHO ARE “THE STONEWALL 4”? WHAT HAPPENED AT STONEWALL?
The Stonewall 4 are four people who were arrested at “LGBTQ Solidarity with Muslims”, a permitted rally held at the historic Stonewall Inn on February 4, 2017.

They were opposing Trump’s first Muslim Ban, and the regime’s attacks on LGBTQ people. At Stonewall, the 4 rallied together with thousands of others in 2+ hours of chanting, speaking, and spreading thousands of flyers, stickers, and posters with the message of RefuseFascism.org:

“NO! In The Name of Humanity We Refuse to Accept a Fascist America!”

As the rally was drawing to a close, several hostile Trump supporters appeared and began to harass the Stonewall 4, who stood their ground and did not respond. The Trump supporters walked away. As the Stonewall 4 were packing up to leave, they were surrounded by NYPD and then brutally arrested.

The police gave no order to disperse and offered no explanation for the arrests. This is an early example of a disturbing and growing pattern whereby fanatical Trump supporters (becoming increasingly organized and violent) carry out harassment aiming to provoke an incident and create pretext for police to arrest people exercising their right to protest and oppose this fascist regime.

This arrest also came after a month of NYPD stalking and harassment of RefuseFascism.org activists and an arrest of one of the Stonewall 4, all following the publication of a New York Times ad with Refuse Fascism’s call to action on January 4.

The Stonewall 4 include Noche Diaz who has been targeted repeatedly for years by the NYPD for his role in the NYC Revolution Club, especially in leading people to resist police terror, and standing with those brutalized and assaulted by police. Another defendant is a Revolution Club member who also faces outrageous charges in another case where police stalked, arrested and brutalized her on the way to a Refuse Fascism event on January 12, 2017. While in custody she was forcibly sent to Bellevue Hospital for psychiatric evaluation because, according to her medical report, an NYPD cop said she “talked about her dislike of President Elect Donald Trump.”

This additional case is set for trial August 15.

CASE UPDATES

After months of legal proceedings (which have included the District Attorney changing their story and the charges being brought against the Stonewall 4, as well as Stonewall 4 attorneys winning a dismissal of the charges of Disorderly Conduct)...  
They are now to be tried for Obstruction of Governmental Administration and Resisting Arrest (each misdemeanors carrying a 1 year maximum sentence). They are now claiming that somehow – by being backed up against police barricades and surrounded by a dozen or so police officers, then being closed in on by police, pushed around and dragged to the ground by police, and then arrested by police – the Stonewall 4 prevented the police from doing their job. 

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP NOW

  • SIGN AND SHARE THE PETITION: www.change.org/p/stonewall4
  • PACK THE COURT on August 7th (details above!)
  • CALL-IN July 31 – August 4th 9:00am - 5:00pm Flood the District Attorney’s & Mayor’s offices with phone calls to demand that all charges be dropped on the Stonewall 4.
    Manhattan D.A. Cyrus Vance: 212-335- 9000 |
    Mayor Bill DeBlasio: 212-369- 9675
  • And call City Council Members and ask them to join in demanding the charges be dropped.

Resources and Connections: www.RefuseFascism.org | www.revcom.us
IG/Twitter/FB: @RefuseFascism | @NYCRevclub
Email: info@refusefascism.org | nycrevclub@gmail.com

 

 

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