(A)narchists and r@dicals are notoriously paranoid, @ssaultive, destructive, and their own worst enemies–a trait so well known among law enforcement agencies, it is used as a ‘tell’ when they assess a suspect. It suits their purpose and becomes part of the strategy deployed by police, right or wrong. Paranoia makes communications difficult and organizing almost impossible. It attracts the mentally imbalanced who recognize kindred spirits. It keeps the targets on the defensive. R@dicals are reduced to using 2 tin cans and a string for conversations once held openly.  Technology becomes their enemy. They become their own oppressors, their own nemesis. Masking up, they draw attention and derision to themselves in public while providing an appearance which encourages a presumption of guilt. Their assaults on photojournalists do not dispel the presumption. Like a chapter from The Art Of War, the police need do nothing as the enemy fights and destroys itself, terrifies the public, incurs the  wrath of its victims, hardens official sanctions against it. Instead of appearing as deft Robin Hoods, these violent self described (A)narchists give every impression of being the self-aggrandizing manipulative street thugs they are.

Like some nightmarish Jekyll and Hyde character, the very elements who protest the violent culture we’ve become help perpetuate it, their bi-polar dystopi@n fant@sies complete, their insistence on ‘good’ vs. ‘bad’ violence is paradoxical.

So why would a conscientious feckless young college student, et al, dabble in the sophistry of this lifestyle (A)narchy? In part, it has to do with the Punk and Hip Hop scene which has been grafted onto the polemics in an appeal to the barely pubescent and naive.

Some may recall the recent Pacific NW story of a young (A)colyte, Leah Plante, a Portland, OR federal grand jury resister who became the all too brief poster child of NW r@dicals. Her story is instructive as she quickly became a persona non-grata to her erstwhile f@ns when she began to fail under the weight of torture in solitary confinement for little more than her casual association with area (A)narchists and her refusal, at least initially, to answer speculative questions about them.

Leah had admitted she had emotional/psychological issues and was not in the best of mental health or able to resist the solitary confinement to which her federal tormentors deliberately exposed this young woman in a successful effort to break her.

Leah was released, possibly after a week of this abuse which included the promise she would be kept in isolation for the indefinite duration of her incarcerations. Leah broke down. Her f@natical supporters turned on and vilified her. She remains unavailable to the public today, fearing for her sanity and safety. This is the prospect for anyone who takes up with these f@ir weatherman ‘friends’ who will turn on each other in a heartbeat.

The more recent story of the John Towery lawsuit in Washington State alleging damages from his spying on area r@dicals, currying trust and confidences from them, is as instructive. Mr. Towery, in fact, was working with the U.S. Military to provide information/surveillance in targeting a group perceived to be a threat to military operations preparing for deployment of troops to Iraq. The lawsuit’s premise is the government and its agents are a threat to democracy and the 1st Amendment (ironically, @narchists often target photojournalists).

The uncomfortable truth is, it isn’t agents such as Mr. Towery who provide the most critical information or are the more egregious betrayers. It’s the conspir@tors themselves! Almost all of them roll over for the feds in a judicial system exquisitely tuned to extract the same through terror, torture, isolation, and long prison sentences or even death. Many so targeted become clinically insane before the government is done with them–a realistic parallel to the movie, BRAZIL. 

Yet, adding to the lifelong stigma the government uses to label the human detritus it creates, the self-righteous r@dicals who sit in judgment insist on a pattern of stigmatizing, or ‘snitch hunts’ in a vain attempt to counter government terror with r@dical terror along with a thinly disguised call to @ction against these broken human remains.

The following is re-posted from the Earth First! journal, which maintains an active ‘snitch list’ index to illustrate the point and what neophytes like Leah Plante, et ux, may expect when the whole venomous snake pit comes crashing down on them:

INFORMANT TRACKER

(from Earth First!–an online journ@l promoting defending the environment/planet)

This feature on the EF! Newswire keeps you abreast on the whereabouts and status of informants and ‘snitches’ who are cooperating with, or working for, the State in effort to monitor and/or repress ecological resistance movements. Sadly, the names on this list are people who can never be trusted again in activist circles or resistance movements. We aim to present short summaries of these individuals, so that they are consolidated in a single location. There is very likely more information, including additional photos, to be found for each individual through online search engines and resources designed to gather personal information on people (some of which cost money). We hope that this page will serve as a useful starting point for those seeking to do further research. We only post information on this page that can be verified to the greatest extent possible through public documents—in most cases, their plea agreements.   Types of Informants Listed:

Undercover Agent/ Infiltrator

A law enforcement officer who uses an assumed name or fake identity to infiltrate a movement or organization to gather information or evidence. In political infiltration cases, an agent will typically pose as a sympathizer to a particular organization, gain the trust of its key members and then use this access to gather confidential information to pass on to the investigative agency. A secondary objective may be to lay the groundwork for a separate investigation. Undercover agents typically concoct a cover story as detailed as the assignment requires as well as a basic biography and plausible story covering past and present activities.

Informant

Individuals who are not employed as law enforcement agents who provide law enforcement agents with information, often in exchange for money. An informant ordinarily has previous involvement in – and more intimate knowledge of – the movement or organization that the agents are investigating.

Cooperating Witness

Similar to informants, except that cooperating witnesses usually agree to ‘flip’ or ‘snitch’ after being threatened with prosecution. Cooperating witnesses will testify in court in exchange for lesser or no charges filed against them.

Law enforcement recruits informants and cooperating witnesses from the ranks of people already active within the movements or organizations being targeted. The government often threatens these individuals with charges carrying massive jail time, offering to not file charges in exchange for a promise to inform on others in the movement. Undercover agents, on the other hand, use false pretenses from the beginning of their association with any movement or organization.

The U.S.-based informants are listed by release date (when applicable) or date of cooperation from least to most recent, while the International informants are listed in alphabetical order because to our knowledge none have served time. This page was originally posted on 9/5/11, and last updated on 6/26/13.

Currently Walking Free

                                                      Justin Clayton Samuel (DOB: Dec. 31, 1978)

of Snohomish, Washington Height: 6’ 0″ Weight: ~165 lbs Hair: brown. Eyes: hazel Race: white

Informant Status: Testified against Peter Young in charges related to cutting fences and liberating mink from a series of fur farms in October 1997. He was sentenced to two years in federal prison plus a year supervised release and ordered to pay $364,106 in restitution in exchange for his cooperation. Current Information: He was released on 11-28-2001. As of 2010, he had gone into the computer security field, working for Firefox, and was a PhD student at UC Berkeley. His school department profile: www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~jsamuel His twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/jstnsml

“Anna”

(DOB ~1986, according to court testimony) of Miami, Florida when she started working for the Feds Height: approximately 5’4’’

Informant Status: Worked as an informant in the anarchist/environmental/animal rights movements since at least 2003 (during the FTAA protests in Miami). She attended various gatherings, meetings and protests up until January 2006 when Eric McDavid, Lauren Weiner, and Zachary Jenson were arrested in Auburn, CA and charged with conspiracy to destroy public and private property. During her time with the trio, Anna wore a wire, had a recording device in her car, possibly her bag, and the house they were living in (that the Feds paid for) was wired. She reported back to the feds about anyone and everyone she came into contact with—not just Eric, Zach and Lauren. The criminal complaint against Eric states that Anna was involved in the prosecution of at least 12 other “anarchist” cases. According to her testimony at Eric McDavid’s trial, she was recruited by the FBI after going “undercover” to write a paper for a class about the FTAA protests. During her time as an informant, she reported on people attending Crimethinc gatherings, the DNC, the RNC, BioDev in Philly, the G8, Feral Visions and more. Her work entrapping Eric McDavid landed him in prison for a term of almost 20 years.Current Information: During her time working for the feds, she dyed her hair frequently—sometimes blond, sometimes red, sometimes brown. She told people she was a medic, wore a medic’s garb and carried a medic’s bag, although no one ever actually saw her perform any of the functions of a medic. She boasted of previous actions, was bold in her speech, and was incredibly pushy. She always had seemingly bottomless pockets and even paid for Weiner to fly across the country. According to FOIA documents, Anna was residing in Philadelphia at some point after Eric’s arrest. Before Eric was arrested, Anna had used the email address: annadavies99@yahoo.com and the phone number: 954-821-2477. She also sometimes told people that Anna was an alias and that “Grai Damiani” was her real name. For more insight into Anna, you can read court transcripts of her testimony at Eric’s trial at: supporteric.org

Zachary Jensen

(DOB: ~1986) of Monroe, Washington

Informant Status: Arrested on January 13, 2006, along with Eric McDavid and Lauren Weiner and charged with a single count of conspiracy to destroy by arson or explosives public and private property. His arrest was the direct result of a paid FBI informant, known as “Anna,” who spent over a year and half befriending and entrapping the trio. Zach plead guilty to a lesser charge on July 18, 2006 and was released on bail later that month. The terms of his plea agreement required full cooperation with the government against Eric McDavid at trial, as well as in any and all other investigations in which the government deemed him useful. Zach received time served (which amounted to about 6 months) at his sentencing on December 4, 2008. His supervised release expired in December 2011. Current Information: Zach has a medium build, with brown hair and brown eyes. He stands at about 5’5’’. His last known place of residence was Seattle, Washington. He fancies himself a writer and claimed to have been working on a book about his experiences (and warning others against following a similar path) during the time of his sentencing hearing. He has also claimed an interest in Buddhism, yoga and other “spiritual” pursuits. He is normally withdrawn and quiet and eager to please whatever company he might be keeping.

Lauren Weiner

(DOB: ~1986) of Pound Ridge, New York

Informant Status: Arrested on January 13, 2006, along with Eric McDavid and Zachary Jenson. She was charged with a single count of conspiracy to destroy by arson or explosives public and private property. Her arrest was the direct result of a paid FBI informant, known as “Anna,” who spent over a year and half befriending and entrapping the trio. Lauren was released on bond in early February 2006 and later plead guilty to a lesser charge on May 30, 2006. However, there is evidence that Lauren was cooperating with the government months before the plea agreement was signed. The terms of her plea agreement required full cooperation with the government against Eric McDavid at trial, as well as in any and all other investigations in which the government deemed her useful. Lauren received time served (which amounted to about 3 weeks) at her sentencing on December 11, 2008. Her supervised release expired in December 2011. Current Information: Lauren has a heavy build, with brown hair and brown eyes. She stands at about 5’1’’. Her last known place of residence was Pound Ridge, New York (Westchester County). Lauren attended art school and is quite skilled in pottery and various other art forms. She is outspoken and often lies or engages in hyperbolic speech to impress those around her. Stories have surfaced about her attempting to attend fundraisers for Green Scare defendants after her release on bond.

Angela “Angie” Marie Cesario

(DOB ~1979)

Informant Status: Took a cooperating plea deal for a 2001 firebombing of logging and cement trucks in Oregon, pointing the finger at Tre Arrow to reduce her sentence. This was a departure from earlier testimonies, when both Cesario and Rosenbloom did not name Arrow as the instigator, but Jake Sherman. All three named Arrow in exchange for sentences of 41 months. She was released on 12-22-2006. Current Information: None at this time.

Jeremy David Rosenbloom

(DOB ~1977)

Informant Status: took a cooperating plea deal, pointing thefinger at Tre Arrow to reduce the sentence. This was a departure from earlier testimonies, when both Cesario and Rosenbloom did not name Arrow as the instigator, but Jake Sherman. All three named Arrow in exchange for sentences of 41 months. He was released on 12-22-2006. Current Information: None at this time.

Jacob “Jake” David Bardwell Sherman

(DOB ~1982) of Portland, Oregon

Informant Status: Convicted of arson of logging trucks and a front-end loader near Eagle Creek in 2001. Sherman “immediately began to cooperate” with investigators after his arrest, according to court documents, naming three others who had participated in the arsons: Tre Arrow, Angela Marie Cesario and Jeremy David Rosenbloom and pegging Arrow as the ringleader in exchange for a sentence of 41 months. Sherman was boastful and told several girlfriends (two of whom also provided information to the government), in detail, his version of the events that took place that night. Sherman had also not been an especially careful saboteur. His mother’s vehicle smelled of gasoline and he dumped his clothes in the trash bin when he returned that night at 2:00 am, asking his brother to tell his parents that he had returned home at 10:30 pm. Sherman’s father contacted the FBI telling them he believed his son was involved in the arson. Current Information: None at this time.

Darren Todd Thurston aka “Goat”

(DOB: ~1970) of Canada

Informant Status: Took a cooperating plea agreement, charged with conspiracy to commit arson and destruction of an energy facility east of Bend, OR in 1999. Thurston was given a sentence of 37 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy and arson in the 2001 fire at theLitchfield, Calif., U.S. Bureau of Land Management wild horse corrals. Current Information: He was released on 8-14-2008. As of summer 2010, he was running his own computer security firm (http://www.hard-mac.com/blog/) out of Canada. Hegoes by “rad_boy” and “hard_mac”.

Stephanie Lynne Fultz

(DOB ~1980)

Informant Status: Cooperated with the authorities and testified against Marie Mason and Jesse Waters after being charged with participating in one ELF action with Mason and Ambrose. In 2009, Fultz was placed on probation for two years and ordered to perform 100 hours of community service. Current Information: None at this time.

Aren Bernard Burthwick

(DOB ~1980)

Informant Status: Cooperated with the authorities and testified against Marie Mason after being charged with participating in one action with Mason and Ambrose. Burthwick was sentenced to 14 months in 2009. Current Information: none at this time.

Trapper James Zuehlke

(DOB: April 14, 1975) of Council Bluffs, Iowa

Informant Status: To evade his own legal issues, he provided information in 2010 on his brother Walter Bond’s whereabouts and criminal activity, including going out of his way to trick Walter into a location where he was arrested. While this is not a case of someone in the movement informing, it does illustrate another example of how one may become an informant to be aware of. Current Information: He lives with wife and three children in Council Bluffs. He is employed at Jim Hawk Truck Trailers.

Lacey Phillabaum

(DOB: ~1975) of Spokane, Washington

Informant Status: Phillabaum took a cooperating plea agreement, pleaded guilty to conspiracy, arson, and use of a destructive device at the University of Washington’s Center for Urban Horticulture in 2001. The university spent $7.2 million to rebuild the center. She is very intelligent, calculated and manipulative. Phillabaum is a formerEarth First! Journal editor, known for her role as the narrator of the underground documentary film Breaking the Spell, which advocates property damage and examines the 1999 Seattle WTO riots from the perspective of anarchists in Eugene, OR. In 2005 she moved to Charlottesville, VA, to take reporting position at C-Ville Weekly. She turned herself in to federal agents sometime around early 2006. In 2008, Phillabaum was sentenced to three years in federal prison and three years’ probation. Current Information: She was released on 4-21-2010 and is currently out after transitioning via a halfway house in Spokane, WA. She is thought to be living at her parents’ house in Phoenix, AZ and reportedly seeking work as a paralegal.

Sarah “Kendall” Harvey Tankersley

(DOB: ~1977) of Ohio

Informant Status: Arrested while living in Flagstaff, AZ,charged with arson and attempted arson of US Forest Industries in Medford. Kendall received a 3-year, 10-month sentence. Judge Ann Aiken sentenced Tankersley to five months less than she agreed to when she took a cooperating plea agreement to arson at the US Forest Industry’s office in Medford in 1998 because she cooperated with the state. Current Information: She was preparing for medical school when she pled, and attended Humboldt State and graduated with molecular biology degree in 2004 so may be working in either field. She was released on 9-17-2010.

Suzanne Nicole Savoie aka “India”

(DOB: ~1977) of Applegate, Oregon

Informant Status: Charged with arson at Superior Lumber Co., in Glendale, OR. She was sentenced to more than 51 months in prison for her role in two arsons. She turned self in to FBI agents in mid-January 2006. Savoie made statements against Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher and was given a sentence only 8 months less than expected because of her cooperation with investigators. Current Information: Released in March 2011, living with her husband in the Applegate Valley of southern Oregon. She attended the April 2011 screening of “If a Tree Falls” in Ashland and was heckled and harassed during and after the showing. She claims her “innocence” as a reluctant federal informant, and her husband has attempted to rejoin the activist community.

William “Billy” Jensen Cottrell

(DOB: 1980) of Gainesville, Florida

Informant Status: A former Ph.D. candidate at the California Institute of Technology who was convicted in April 2005 of conspiracy and arson, associated with the 2003 destruction of 8 sport utility vehicles and a Hummer dealership in the name of the Earth Liberation Front (ELF). He named Tyler Johnson as the ‘mastermind’ behind the arsons. He was sentenced to eight years in federal prison on arson charges and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution. His lawyers appealed the verdict and sentence on account that he has Asperger’s syndrome and it was upheld 2/3 of the way through his sentence. Current Information: He was released August 16, 2011, and is now living in Florida.

Ian Wallace

(DOB: ~1981) Formerly of the Twin Cities and recently attending college at Stony Brook (NY)

Informant Status: Signed a cooperating plea agreement on September 5, 2008 resulting in a sentence of three years in prison, beginning June 1, 2009, for his role in placing two failed firebombs at US Forest Service buildings where GE tree research was being conducted on the campus of Michigan Tech University in 2001. Wallace and another traveled from Minneapolis to upper Michigan for the action, according to the pleas agreement. He faced a maximum of 10 years in prison. Wallace also admitted involvement in three other acts in the plea agreement: two in Saint Paul—sabotage of a building and vehicles at a US Forest Service research station in 2000 (loss $25,186) and arson of the construction site of what is today the Cargill Building for Microbial and Plant Genomics on the University of Minnesota campus (loss $630,000). He also admitted to involvement and named three other activists responsible for the destruction of 500 research GE trees in Rhinelander, Wisconsin: Bryan Lefey (who took a non-cooperating agreement) and was sentenced to 3 years in prison for the Rhinelander action, Katherine Christianson(who took a cooperating agreement) was sentenced to 2 years, and Daniel McGowan, serving a 7 year sentence currently. Aaron Ellringer, who drove the activists to the Rhinelander site, cooperated with the government and was sentenced to four days in jail. Please contact us with any further information on Christianson or Ellringer. See Source. Current Information: He was released on 01-12-2012.

Nicole “Nikki” Stanford (formerly Viehl)

(DOB: ~1990) of Salt Lake City, Utah Height 5’3″ Weight: 95 lbs

Informant Status: Was subpoenaed to a federal grand jury in 2009 investigating local illegal animal rights activities, mainly fur farm raids in Utah. She was initially going to resist the grand jury along with Jordan Halliday, but later decided to testify and admitted to naming names and vehicles on the stand. She used to be married to former animal liberation prisoner BJ Viehl. Current Information: She works as a model and at a gun store called Gallenson’s at 166 E 200 South in Salt Lake City.

Daniel Kruk

(DOB ~1980) of Baltimore, MD Height: 6’5” Weight: ~250 lbs Race: White

Informant Status: Daniel Kruk appeared in federal court in Indianapolis on July 19 2012, to offer a guilty plea and for sentencing for charges relating to an arson at the Republican National Headquarters in Bloomington, IN in 2000. At this hearing, it was disclosed that Kruk has been cooperating with the feds since 2009. Kruk was facing a sentence of up to 5 years and a fine of up to $150,000 in restitution. Because of his cooperation, he received 4 years of probation (no jail time), 2 years of community service (one 8-hour day a month), and a $5000 fine. Current Information: Kruk is currently on probation. He lives in Baltimore and works at a FedEx store.

David Agranoff

(DOB ~1974) now of Portland, OR

Informant Status: Agreed to become a government informant as part of a plea agreement related to Earth Liberation Front crimes in Bloomington, Indiana, more than 10 years ago. According to the prosecution at Kruk’s sentencing hearing, Agranoff began, “negotiating with the state on various issues” in 2009. In January, 2012, Agranoff was sentenced to 1 year and 1 day for misprision of a felony (knowing about the commission of a felony and failing to report it to the police). The court recommended he serve his time in a low-security prison camp. He also received 1 year probation. Current Information: He was transferred to a halfway house in Seattle on 10-15-2012 and was released on 01-03-2013. He is currently residing in the Portland, OR and runs a blog.

Jennifer Lynn Kolar aka “Diver”

(DOB: ~1973) originally of Spokane, later Seattle, Washington

Informant Status: Took a cooperating agreement pleading guilty to charges in connection with the firebombing at the University of Washington. She turned herself in to federal agents in Washington sometime around early 2006.  Ironically, she was often the ‘computer security expert’ for the groups she worked with. Current Information: She was released on 2-01-2013 and resides in Seattle where she is working as a dog trainer at PAWS. For the years prior to arrest, she spent much of her time sailing and racing a yacht, Manta Ray, an Olson 911 SE sail number 45, she co-owns. She was a chair of the Corinthian Yacht Club (CYC) of Seattle Large Boat Racing Fleet.

Jacob “Jake” Ferguson

(DOB: ~1972) of Eugene, Oregon

Informant Status: Court records indicate that by spring 2004, Ferguson was wearing a hidden recording device in an effort to bait others, into incriminating themselves. He admitted in a cooperating agreement in 2007 that he set fire to the US Forest Service Ranger Station in Detroit, OR and a government pickup in 1996. He admitted to being granted immunity plus $50,000 for his cooperation, and received 5 years probation. Ferguson, searched out others and had them recount experiences while he was wearing a recording device. The recordings provided investigators the evidence that they needed to convict Daniel McGowan, Jonathan Paul, Joyanna Zacher and Nathan Block (who all received sentences of 5-7 years). Ferguson wore the hidden recorder to the 2005 annual Earth First! gathering, to the Public Interest Environmental Law Conference at the University of Oregon, and to meetings with six of his former partners, by then scattered across the country. FBI and Forest service special agents were possibly tracking him since 1996, when an accomplice at the Detriot Ranger station fire left a Slingshot organizer phone book in a local phone booth. Ferguson was under surveillance for nearly 5 years when a roommate assumed he had stolen her truck after an argument, reported it stolen and filed a restraining order against him, putting him further on the police radar. He was using heroin heavily by 2003, when feds contacted Ferguson and lied to him about people within the community linking him to the Romania fire and other arsons. That, ostensibly, is when Ferguson agreed to cooperate. He was never indicted for the over 15 acts of sabotage he admitted and he may have been financially compensated for his cooperation. After testing positive for opiates on 3/29/11, he was incarcerated for violating probation. On 7/14/11, Ferguson was charged in state court with manufacture, delivery, possession of heroin, cocaine, methadone, and others; child neglect and child endangerment. For this violation, Ferguson received 22 months in prison (the bottom end of range), and Judge Ann Aiken made his sentence concurrent (meaning he will serve both sentences at the same time). Current information: He was released on 5/29/13. Prior to his arrest he is believed to have resided in an Edgewood Center condo (paid for in full by the FBI) located on 40th and Donald in Eugene, Oregon which he may return to. He may be easily recognized by a pentagram tattoo on his forehead.

Briana Waters

(DOB: ~1975) formerly of Oakland, California

Informant status: Sadly, this former non-cooperating ELF prisoner, took a cooperating plea deal in the prosecution of two 2001 ELF acts of arson. She had been released earlier this year after a mistrial and is expected to testify against former boyfriend Justin Solondz, who was captured as a fugitive in China, is now in US custody for alleged ELF activity. Current Information: She has a young daughter and was working as a violin teacher prior to arrest. She was released from a halfway house on 06-27-2013.

Chelsea Dawn Gerlach

(DOB: 1977) of Sweet Home, and later Eugene, Oregon

Informant Status: Sentenced to 9 years for arson at Childers Meat Co. in Eugene; arson at a Boise Cascade office in Monmouth, OR; toppling of a Bonneville Power Administration tower; arson at the Eugene Police Department West University Public Safety Station; attempted arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie. Gerlach pled guilty in a cooperating agreement to conspiracy and arson charges in 20 fires that did $40 million worth of damage in five states, including a 1998 fire at the Vail ski resort in Colorado. After the group disbanded in 2001, Gerlach went underground and became a DJ in Portland, OR. At the time of her arrest, she was selling drugs in Portland with her boyfriend Darren Todd Thurston. Thus far, drug charges are not pending with either Gerlach or Thurston. Gerlach was extremely helpful to the prosecution, although she defends herself against being vilified as a snitch and says she cooperated ‘for the movement.’ Gerlach made statements against Nathan Block and Joyanna Zacher. She convinced Thurston to turn informant, unsuccessfully attempting to get Zacher, Block and McGowan to turn as well. She led the prosecution on several field trips to previous arsons and a buried cache of guns, ammunition and fake passports allegedly belonging to William “Avalon” Rodgers. Current Information: She provided information about herself including self-identifying as good with words and computers in an interview she did from prison in 2007. She also developed an interest in Buddhism while incarcerated. She is still registered at a halfway house in Seattle (although she is working at her brother’s business in Eugene, The Divine Cupcake) and released on 10-10-2013.

Currently Serving Time

Frank Brian Ambrose

(DOB: ~1975) formerly of Bloomington, Indiana

Informant Status: Ambrose pleaded guilty in a cooperating agreement to conspiring to set a fire and explosion that caused more than $1 million in damage to the offices of Michigan State University’s Agriculture Biotechnology Support Project on New Year’s Eve 1999. Ambrose became a paid FBI informant after his arrest (for disposing of evidence of actions in a dumpster that were found and law enforcement notified). Ambrose has provided information on 15 other people allegedly involved in ELF/ALF actions, including ex-wife Marie Mason. Court documents reveal that Ambrose was being used by the FBI not only to gather information on ELF/ALF activities but general movement organizing as well (specifically organizing against I-69 and Cincinnati Earth First! organizing). He “traveled outside of Michigan seven times at the FBI’s direction, often working extremely late hours; he made repeated trips from Detroit to Grand Rapids; he made 178 consensual recordings of telephone conversations and in-person meetings with investigative targets; and he participated in lengthy interviews with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit and otherwise assisted the FBI’s efforts to improve its intelligence-gathering protocols related to, and its understanding of, underground environmental and animal-rights extremist groups and movements.” In sum, his cooperation with investigators after his arrest has been substantial and rather extraordinary. He was sentenced to 9 years in prison in 2008. He also received a lifetime of supervisory release after prison and was ordered to pay $3.7 million in restitution to the University and for other sabotaged sites. There is speculation of an additional informant in Ambrose’s case (listed as another confidential source in official documents). Confirmation and details on the identity of this person are currently pending. Current Information: He is currently being held at a halfway house in DC and has a projected release date of 12-23-2013.

Stanislas “Stan” Gregory Meyerhoff, also went by “Jack”

(DOB: ~1977) of Charlottesville, Virginia

Informant Status: Meyerhoff was the first of the group called “The Family” to be sentenced, and the first to snitch once arrested. Charged with May 1999 arson at Childers Meat Co. in Eugene; 1999 arson at Boise Cascade office in Monmouth, OR; toppling of a Bonneville Power Administration tower; arson at the Eugene Police Department West University Public Safety Station; arson at Superior Lumber Co., in Glendale, OR; arson of sport utility vehicles at a Eugene car dealership; arson of Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie. He admitted guilt in his first hearing in front of an arraignment judge. Meyerhoff eventually pleaded guilty in a cooperating agreement to conspiracy and arson charges in a string of 20 fires that did $40 million worth of damage in five states, including a 1998 fire at the Vail ski resort in Colorado. Meyerhoff, who admitted to fashioning the devices to start the fires, was sentenced to 13 years in prison. After the group disbanded in 2001, Meyerhoff enrolled in college in Virginia, where he studied engineering. Current Information: He is currently held at Englewood FCI and is scheduled to be released on 7-08-2015.

Kevin Tubbs

(DOB: ~1969) originally from Nebraska, but had been living in Springfield, Oregon

Informant status: Tubbs attended Humboldt State University and was once editor of the Earth First! Journal. Despite his status as an informant, he still has an active support page at. Tubbs cooperated three weeks after his arrest. His cooperation was substantial, after he learned of three snitches against him: Ferguson, Meyerhoff and Kolar—in that order. Tubbs’ testimony was sufficient enough to get Jonathan Paul indicted. Tubbs was an animal rights activist charged with arson of Oakridge Ranger Station; arson of Cavel West horse slaughterhouse in Redmond, OR on July 21, 1997; attempted arson at US Forest Industries in Medford, OR in December 1998; arson at Childers Meat Co., in Eugene; Sept. 6, 2000 arson at the Eugene Police Department West University Public Safety Station; Jan. 2, 2001, arson at Superior Lumber Co., in Glendale, OR; using a destructive device to set fire to sport utility vehicles at a Eugene, OR, car dealership in March 2001; arson at Jefferson Poplar Farms in Clatskanie, OR, in May 2001. In 2007, he was sentenced to nearly 12 years and 7 months in prison with 3 years supervised release. Current Information: Tubbs is currently held in Safford FCI and has a projected release date of 11-23-2016.

International Informants

Additional information on all of the UK informants may be found via the Activist Security collective. The same organization has also published a few security guides.

Jim Boyling aka Jim Sutton

of the UK

Informant Status: A serving Metropolitan police officer who spent five years infiltrating environmental groups, including Reclaim the Streets, between 1995 and 2000. During his time undercover, when he is said to have become a key organiser, Boyling met a 28-year-old woman and began a relationship with her. He later disappeared from her life. It was only when he reappeared a year later that he told the woman he was a police officer. They later married and had two children but divorced two years ago.

Current Information: None at this time.

Simon Bromma aka Simon Brenner

(DOB 13-04-1985)
of Leimen, Germany
allegedly in Bad Säckingen in the Waldshut (Baden-Württemberg) area

Informant Status: On the 12th of December 2010 a undercover agent working for the Landeskriminalamt (LKA) Baden-Württemberg was uncovered in Heidelberg, Germany. Undercover, he used email addresses simonbrenner@ymail.com and californication@riseup.net,the latter has already been blocked. Under the user name ‘californiaction’ he also wrote articles on Indymedia. From November of 2009 – November of 2010, he infiltrated groups and actions including SDS, Umzingelung des AKW Biblis, blockades against the fascist protest in Berlin, Campus Camp in Heidelberg, anti education cuts protest in Heidelberg, a direct action climbing workshop, blockades against the fascist protest in Sinsheim-Hoffenheim, the NoBorder Camp in Brussels, antifascist protests in Rastatt and Rheinmünster-Söllingen against the fascist centre „Rössle,“ protests against the nuclear waste transport and the ‘south blockade’ („Südblockade“), antifascist protests against the hero memorial of Heidelberg on the ‘honor graveyard’ („Ehrenfriedhof“) and the Critical Mass Action in Heidelberg. After being recognized by an acquaintance and confronted, he admitted that he gave reports to his superiors in Stuttgart every two weeks, as well as over the phone with the Heidelberger state security division for follow up assessments of political actions. He also self-confessed that he was responsible for the raiding of a flat of a comrade as well as the enormous police presence at the Heidelberger “Ehrenfriedhof” during the protests against the hero memorial.

John Dines a.k.a. “John Barker”

of the UK

Informant Status: John Dines posed as an environmental activist between 1987 and 1992, while working as an undercover sergeant in the Metropolitan police’s special branch feeding intelligence to his handlers in a secret unit called the Special Demonstration Squad (SDS). During this time, he had a two-year relationship with an activist. He was one of many spies who stole the identities of dead children to make his alter ego more credible. By the summer of 1991, as part of an exit strategy, Dines began exhibiting symptoms of a mental breakdown.

It was not until 2010, after almost two decades of research, that his former girlfriend found out for sure that the man she had loved was a police spy. After locating a copy of his marriage certificate she states, “What hit me like a ton of bricks is that he listed his occupation as a police officer…What had once seemed like heart-wrenching stories in these letters, disclosures that made me really worried about his wellbeing, were completely false. That is manipulation. It is abuse.”

Current Information: He is believed to have returned to work at Scotland Yard, however, no other details are known at this time.

Matthew Gibbons

of the UK

Robert Steven Gilchrist

(DOB: 25 October 1968)
New Zealand/Aotearoa.

Informant Status: In September 1996 Rob Gilchrist was fired from his job selling door hardware. He was charged with attempting to defraud the company he worked for, but in June 1997 he was found not guilty “by the skin of his teeth” according to the Judge. A year later, as Christchurch activists were preparing for protests against an Asia Pacific Economic Development (APEC) free trade conference, Gilchrist appeared on the scene and started joining local groups. It is likely that he was recruited by the Police around the time of his fraud case, well before he approached any activist groups. The anti-APEC groups, led by experienced activists, were suspicious of him but he moved on to other scenes, eventually befriending local unemployed rights and anarchist activists. By early 2000 he was involved in animal rights activists and traveling up and down the country as part of a network of anti-capitalist groups. Over the next eight years he was a police informant active in animal rights, environmental and anarchist groups.

Through these connections he was able to spy on many other activists in NZ for the police. He also provided the police information on the whereabouts of many Maori, anarchist and environmental activists who were raided and imprisoned during Operation 8. Rob is also known to have perpetrated sexual abuse on a number of occasions.

Additional detailed information on who he was spying on, what information he was gathering and how he was caught:

http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr38-180b.htm

http://www.converge.org.nz/abc/pr38-180c.htm

Current Information: Rob is known to be currently living in the Waltham area of Christchurch. He is suing the police for mental pain caused during his employ with them.

“Mark Jacobs” or “Marco”

of the UK
Height: Over 6′

Informant Status: Acted as a campaigner inside anti-globalisation and anarchist groups for four years. He was first noticed in activists’ gatherings in Brighton in March 2005 and became a regular face at meetings of Dissent!, the network mobilising protesters for the G8 summit at Gleneagles in July. In 2006, he moved to Cardiff to monitor the activities of an anarchist group as well as the Rising Tide Network. Former friends said he traveled with UK activists to protest against the G8 in Heligendam, Germany, in 2007. Jacobs, like both the other male undercover officers (Jim Boyling and Mark Kennedy) exposed by the Guardian, has been accused of having an affair while infiltrating a group. By 2009, there was enough suspicion that he was an informant that he was no longer welcome in many circles and appears to have moved out of the area.

Current Information: None at this time.

Mark Jenner a.k.a. “Mark Cassidy”

of the UK

Informant Status: Jenner was an undercover police officer in the Metropolitan police’s Special Demonstration Squad (SDS), one of two units that specialised in infiltrating protest groups. He pretended to be a leftwing activist from 1994 to 2000, sharing a flat with an activist girlfriend for four years despite being married in his real life. The activist now understands she inadvertently provided “an excellent cover story,” helping persuade other activists he was a genuine person. Jenner disentangled himself from the deployment in 2000, disappearing suddenly from his faux girlfriend’s flat after months of pretending to suffer from depression. “This is not about just a lying boyfriend or a boyfriend who has cheated on you,” she said. “It is about a fictional character who was created by the state and funded by taxpayers’ money.”

Current Information: He is believed to have returned to work at Scotland Yard, however, no other details are known at this time.

Toby Kendall aka Ken Tobias

of the UK

Mark Kennedy a.k.a Mark Stone

of the UK, now the US

Informant Status: Acted as an informant from 2003-2010 [seechronology]. He had at least three relationships with female activists and sued the Met for emotional trauma resulting from his exposure.

Current Information: After his exposure in October 2010, he is still actively seeking to operate as a private consultant. He appears to be based in the US. His LinkedIn profile lists as an employer US-based “risk managers” Densus Group, for whom, since March 2012 as a consultant. He has several tattoos.

Bob Lambert aka Bob Robinson

of the UK

Informant Status: Acted as a spy in London Greenpeace from 1984 to 1988, and he went on to supervise other agents who continued with infiltration of groups such as Reclaim the Streets, along with anti fascist protests, and actions against genetically modified crops. – an operation he took part in or supervised over two decades, whilst rising to the rank of Detective Inspector. Bob was also actively involved with many other protest activities including at Molesworth Peace Camp, free festivals, and animal rights activities and was even prosecuted at Camberwell Green Magistrates Court for distributing ‘insulting’ leaflets outside a butchers shop. He adopted a false identity to infiltrate leftwing and animal rights groups, said he had the 18-month relationship with a woman, who was not herself involved in political activism, as part of his cover story. He was outed on October 15, 2011.

Current Information: None at this time.

Paul Symington Mercer

of the UK

Informant Status: In the 1990s, Mercer involved himself in the anti-roads movement including protests against the M11 in Claremont Road. In 1994, he published the ‘Directory of British Political Organisations,’ which contained personal information and contact details for people he’d met in Earth First! and other ecological direct action campaigns in the early ‘90s. Later, working for Global Open, the same company that employed Mark Kennedy, Paul was actively involved with environmental and animal rights campaigns in Nottingham, including Nottingham Against Incineration and Landfill (NAIL) from 2002-2007. Mercer was publicly exposed for his role in spying on anti-arms trade campaigners, Campaign Against the Arms Trade (CAAT) in 2007. In 2007, Mercer was thrust into the headlines when it was revealed that he had forwarded an email containing legally privileged material from anti-arms trade campaign, CAAT, to arms dealers, BAE. An investigation found that Mercer was working as a security consultant for LigneDeux Associates, a company paid £2,500 a month by BAE to provide information on “threats” to the company.

In his sworn affidavit to the court during the CAAT case, Mercer insisted that “most of my research involves the automated searching of public websites and newsletters,” indeed he claims to have “a good reputation for my ability to rigorously search the Internet.” Nevertheless, he says he has “a wide range of contacts” and “does sometimes receive information from anonymous sources, as do many journalists.” At a meeting organised by think tank Policy Exchange in January he described himself as having spent 29 years trying to “combine an academic study of extra-parliamentary groups with actually going and seeing what happens on protests.” He claimed to have “covered and having been on pretty well every major public order disturbance in London over that period,” including the Poll Tax Riots and Mayday 2001.

Current Information: None at this time.

Adrian Radford a.k.a. “Ian Farmer”

of the UK

Informant Status: From 2004 to 2007, he supplied his police handlers with detailed information on animal rights activists, mostly associated with SHAC. Radford gave detailed accounts of three actions in which he participated, and even staged a lone action to “prove” he was not an informant. He also disrupted some and prevented others, often by giving the police information that allowed them to warn targets. He often blamed errors on a legitimate activist Gavin Medd-Hall. Four activists who were befriended by Radford were prosecuted in 2009, Gregg Avery, Natasha Avery, Heather Nicholson, and Mel Broughton. Radford was nicknamed “Captain Nancy” because of his flamboyant character and past work as a gay rights activist.

Current Information: He is now based in Gran Canaria.

Rebecca “Becki” Todd

of Kent, UK

Current Information: None at this time.

Lynn Watson

of the UK

Informant Status: Posed as an environmental activist for five years after surfacing in in 2003 at a protest at Aldermaston, Britain’s nuclear weapons centre. In 2004 she returned to Aldermaston women’s peace camp. The following year, she moved to the student area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, where she became active in environmentalist groups centered around a radical social centre called the Common Place. Watson also took a role in the UK Action Medics Collective. She disappeared from Leeds in 2008.

Current Information: None at this time.

If you value us keeping these informant bios available and up-to-date, help keep us around by subscribing or donating to the Earth First! Journal. 

Hunger Strikes part of a larger campaign aimed at President Obama to issue an executive order halting deportations

ICE Detainees Immigration Protest (Photo: Joe Barrentine)

by Amel Ahmed (2-24-14) Tacoma, WA — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has confirmed that at least 550 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Washington state have launched a hunger strike.

Grim Reward

The detainees, who have been refusing to eat since Friday, are demanding better food, safer working conditions and for President Barack Obama to sign an executive order ending deportations, according to Maru Mora Villalpando, founder of Latino Advocacy.

The hunger strikers, Villalpando said, are part of a growing, nationwide campaign against the U.S. immigration policy. Villalpando put the number of hunger strikers at 1,200, more than twice what ICE reported to Al Jazeera.

The strike is expected to last through Tuesday, Villalpando said. The center, which is run by the private correctional services company GEO Group, currently houses 1,300 people being investigated for possible deportation.

ICE told Al Jazeera that hunger strikers are under continuous observation by detention center staff and medical personnel: “ICE fully respects the rights of all people to express their opinion without interference.”

Villalpando, whose group organized protests outside the detention facility last month, told Al Jazeera that protesters began the strike on a Friday because that is when guards segregate those who will be deported on Monday morning from those who remain in detention.

Hunger strikers at the facility were inspired to fast after witnessing protesters outside the gates of the detention center block deportation vans from exiting, Villalpando said. Solidarity actions outside the center are being planned in tandem with the hunger strikes. “People will be coming every day from noon to 4 p.m. until Tuesday to show their support with the 1,200 immigrants,” Villalpando said.

Villalpando accused GEO Group of exploiting detainees at the facility by paying them $1 a day for performing services that include working in the kitchen and janitorial work. “It’s just ironic that the government is detaining people for working without a social security number; meanwhile, they allow this company to exploit their labor,” said Villalpando.

GEO, which calls itself the world’s leading provider of correctional and detention services, lobbied Congress last year on immigration reform, standing against alternatives to detention, according to The Nation. GEO did not respond to requests for comment.

Nationwide campaign
Immigration detainees in Washington State are the latest to join a nationwide campaign to protest deportations. Similar actions have been held in Arizona, Illinois, California and Virginia.

Coordinated actions by immigration advocates and detainees signify a new front in the battle to halt deportations after a bipartisan immigration reform bill stalled in the Republican-controlled House last July. Activists have shifted their focus from Congress to President Barack Obama, demanding that he issue an executive order to end deportations until the immigration system is overhauled for the around 11 million undocumented immigrants currently living in the United States.

A national campaign dubbed “Not One More Deportation,” organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, is sponsoring events around the country to halt the deportations. On April 5, a day of action called “All Out in the Streets” will include additional hunger strikes and sit-ins outside the White House and across the country.

Peace Train

Climb on Board the Peace Train

People Are NOT ‘Illegal’!

What Would Jesus Do?

Into the Belly of the Beast

Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here

Main Stream Meets Main Street

As ye have treated the least of these, so have ye treated me. – Matthew 25:33-40 –

Gates to Immigration Hades

Tracks to Immigration Concentration Camp

Orphaned?

Good Fences Making Good Neighbors?

When the Saints Come Marching In

Endangered Species

Arbeit Macht Frei

Jobs & Jails: Eggs & Bacon?

Come to the Barrio

Mending Walls

Love is Stronger than $

A Nation of Immigrants

Sunday Sermon

Beauty and the Beast

Home to the Hearth from a Hard Day at the Gulag

Officer Friendly Checks Immigration Reform Advocates

Cold Day in Hell

Ms. Sunshine after a hard day at the Gulag

Prison-Industrial Complex

Good Humor Man

Meat Wagon

Human Trafficking

$oylent Green

Easy Come, Easy Go

Human Misery Profit Margin

Courage In the Face of Adversity

Pear shaped or square shaped, these walls don’t lose their shape.

What GeO’s for FexEx is good for America

Immigration Reform Advocates Stand Tall

ICE is NOT Nice!

Storming the Walls of the Prisons

Sisters of Mercy

Watching US Watching Them!

Taco Time at the Prison-Industrial Complex

Homeward Bound for those lucky enough to have one

Warm, Safe, & Dry

Bad Cop! No Donut.

A Fall River, MA. man has been charged with violating the Massachusetts wiretapping statute for recording a police officer talking on his cell phone and cursing while working a street detail.

by Carlos Miller of PINAC (3-8-14)

Fall River, MA — A Massachusetts cop who had been sitting in his car, cursing loudly into a cell phone, noticed another man appearing to video record him from his front porch, so he put his phone down and asked the man if he was, indeed, recording.

“That’s right, I’m videoing you,” confirmed George Thompson, who said he had his arm fully extended, holding his iPhone in full view.

Fall River police officer Thomas Barboza then stepped out of his car and stormed up to Thompson, arresting him on state wiretapping charges, calling him a “fucking welfare bum.”

Thompson spent the night in jail as Barboza placed the phone in the evidence room.

And then the footage mysteriously disappeared from the phone.

Well, that’s the story Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine is spinning to the local media, trying to convince them that Thompson went on iCloud and deleted the footage to prevent them from viewing it

According to WPRI:

Thompson – who spent a night in jail after the arrest – said Officer Barboza confiscated his iPhone. A review of the video would likely clear up the issue of concealment, but Fall River Police Chief Daniel Racine said the iPhone was erased while it was in an evidence room at the police station. They have issued a warrant to Apple Inc. to find out how the phone was reset.

“If a Fall River police officer erased that video, he’s fired and I would suspect the district attorney would take out charges,” Racine said. “If any other individual did that, we will take out felony charges.”

An iPhone can be wiped out remotely in the event it gets lost or stolen, but Thompson denied that he did so, saying he gave his password to police so officers could retrieve the video to use in his case.

“I wanted the police to see it, I wanted everybody in the city to see it,” Thompson said.

Huge mistake on Thompson’s part to provide them the password. Why even have a password if you’re going to hand it to the same thieves that stole it from you?

But that pretty much makes it clear that police deleted the video because why would the 51-year-old man, who doesn’t seem very tech savvy, go through the trouble of erasing the footage remotely after he voluntarily provided his password?

The truth is, this was an unlawful arrest, despite the claims that Thompson was surreptitiously recording, which is a crime in Massachusetts, even in areas where  people don’t have an expectation of privacy.

After all, how else did Barboza notice him recording in the first place?

But Thompson doesn’t seem to have a lot of money, so it’s obvious the cops are going to drag this out in the hopes he strikes a plea deal, which would prevent him from suing them.

However, Thompson also seems to have a lot of fight in him, even posting a sign in front of his house stating “bad cop, no donut,” so it doesn’t look as if he will be accepting any deals soon.

Thompson was also charged with resisting arrest, which we all know is the added contempt-of-cop charge they love to tack on.

But in adding that charge, he admitted that Thompson was openly holding the phone in his right hand, which indicates he was not recording surreptitiously.

“In attempting to placed [sic] the cuff on the right wrist, he resisted pulling his hands apart,” Barboza wrote. “Thompson was at the time holding his video taping phone in his right hand. I then knocked the phone from his hand and pushed him onto the porch floor.”

The landmark Glik decision out of Massachusetts specifically addresses this issue:

The Supreme Judicial Court has held that a recording is “secret” unless the subject has “actual knowledge” of the fact of recording. Commonwealth v. Jackson, 349 N.E.2d 337, 340 (Mass. 1976). It has also made clear that “actual knowledge” can be proven by “objective manifestations of knowledge” to “avoid the problems involved in speculating as to the [subject’s] subjective state of mind.” Id. at 340-41. Moreover, the court has noted that “actual knowledge” does not require that there be any explicit acknowledgment of or reference to the fact of the recording. Id. at 340 (“[T]he person recording the conversation [need not] confirm the [subject’s] apparent awareness by acknowledging the fact of the intercepting device.”).

Barboza’s actions are not surprising considering Racine’s capability to spin this story in support of the officer, whom the chief claims was suspended without pay after admitting to using foul language on the phone – a claim I would love to see verified because I’m not believing a word out of his mouth.

There are several apps out there that allow you to store your footage remotely, preventing cops from deleting it if they confiscate your phone, but I’ve been experimenting with one called Fi-Vo that automatically stores the video in your Dropbox account.

Police Rationalize Murdering Unarmed Anaheim Latino for Dress & Neighborhood

Manuel Diaz with his daughter in undated family photo

Rania Khalek

by Ranika Khalek (3-7-14)

Anaheim, CA — On July 27, 2012, 24-year-old Manuel Diaz was shot in the back of the head by Anaheim police officer Nick Bennallack. Officers then stood over Diaz, who was unarmed, for three minutes, watching him twitch and bleed out before doing anything. It was an execution.

Almost two years later, a federal jury has rejected a lawsuit against the officer and the city filed by Diaz’s mother claiming police used excessive force. Why? Because it happened in a neighborhood where there are gangs and Diaz was, according to police, dressed like a “gang member”.

As the OC Register reports (emphasis mine):

One of the jurors said that on Anna Drive, where the shooting happened, police could reasonably expect that a man dressed like a gang member and running from them could have a gun. The neighborhood is claimed by an Anaheim gang that was at the center of a multi-agency firearms and narcotics investigation.

In other words, had this happened in an upper-class suburban neighborhood free of gang activity, perhaps then it would qualify as excessive force. But, in the working class and poor Latino neighborhoods of Anaheim, young men like Diaz are fair game for police execution, armed or not (Diaz was not).

Humberto Guizar, the Diaz family attorney, called the jury’s decision, “ an indictment on the community,” adding, “They denied him justice because of where he lived.”

The jury, comprised of six men and two women (four white, three Latino and one Asian), deliberated for just two hours before reaffirming the long held belief that unarmed Latino men are disposable.

To be clear, “gang member” is code for nonwhite, usually black or Latino. Immediately after Diaz was killed, Anaheim police (in between shooting rubber bullets at women and children protesting the killing) painted him as a gang member who despite being unarmed probably did something to deserve his fate. And it worked. The cop who killed Diaz was cleared of any wrongdoing by the city. All that was left was this lawsuit brought forth by Diaz’s grieving mother. She plans to appeal.

Baltimore Sun Photographer Christopher T. Assaf

by Carlos Miller of PINAC

Baltimore, MD — Still not having finalized the $250,000 settlement for deleting a man’s images from his phone, the Baltimore Police Department continues to harass and intimidate photographers, including a photojournalist from the Baltimore Sun last month who was trying to photograph the aftermath of an officer-involved shooting.

Obviously, they would rather not let the image of a man shot by police make it into the newspaper.

But they once again opened themselves up to liability by shoving photo editor Chris Assaf away from the crime scene tape, where he had every right to be, while allowing countless other citizens who were merely watching to remain behind the tape as evidenced in the last sentence of this story.

However, another Sun photographer, Lloyd Fox, managed to photograph the bullying, posting the images on their news site, revealing a fascinating sequence of photos showing Assaf and the cop coming to a head-to-head standstill in the middle of the street.

Very impressive effort from Assaf.  I wonder if he switched any of his cameras to video mode to capture the verbal exchange.

According to the Baltimore Sun:

While photographing outside the police tape — which marked the established perimeter — an officer told him he would have to move across the street. Assaf protested, stating he was outside the established perimeter of the crime scene and he had every right to photograph from where he was standing.

While asking for the officer’s name, a second police officer grabbed Assaf and began pushing him across the street. Assaf on numerous occasions requested that the officer release him, saying that his rights were being violated. Baltimore Sun photographer Lloyd Fox witnessed and documented the scene. Baltimore Police said they are investigating the allegations.

If this were an isolated incident caused by one overzealous police officer, it might be possible to look past it. But, as I wrote in the 2012 blog post, there seems to be a misconception among some police officers and others in authority that they can stop not only the press but anyone taking pictures or recording police activity at a crime scene.

The good news is that a mainstream media publication is willing to admit this was not “an isolated incident,” which is generally the attitude they take when one of their photographers gets harassed in order to not ruin their professional relationship with the cops.

But relationships work both ways. If one side disrespects the other, the other side should not hesitate to call them out on it.

Besides, Baltimore police have such a sordid history of violating the rights of photographers that the United States Department of Justice issued them a set of guidelines in 2012 they must follow. But we haven’t heard much from the USDOJ since.

The Sun interviewed the president of the Maryland State Fraternal Order of Police, so he gave the customary spin as agreeing that we do have the right to record cops, but that sometimes the videos don’t tell the whole story – neglecting to acknowledging that many times, police reports don’t tell the whole story, which is why we should record every interaction with police.

One cop who didn’t bother with the usual spin was Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson, whose officer was caught on camera last month pushing and shoving a videographer, telling him he had “lost” his freedom of speech.

“The words of and demands to cease filming by sworn personnel and citizen volunteer auxiliary officers were incorrect, inappropriate and unnecessary,” Baltimore County Police Chief Jim Johnson said in a statement. “They were not helpful in bringing this incident to closure. As we already have stated, all aspects of this encounter are under investigation, and all personnel will be held accountable for their actions.”

In fact, Johnson placed the officer on unpaid administrative leave. But then again, the cop was an auxiliary officer, meaning he simply volunteers as an officer, so maybe he was trying to earn himself a paid position.

We will never know because as critical as Johnson was of the officer’s actions, he never did release his name, which is important for us to keep a track record of officers in case they become habitual offenders. No different than what they do to us.

So remember, next time you get harassed for recording on the streets, do your best to ask the officer’s name, which is usually required under departmental policy.

But be forewarned. Cops don’t like it when you ask their names so many times they will arrest you, telling you their name will be included in the arrest report.

Baltimore Sun photographer Christopher T. Assaf is confronted by police at the scene of a shooting along Centre Street under I-83.

Robert Hamilton says of the  incident:

A police officer forcibly escorted Baltimore Sun photo editor Chris Assaf away from the scene of a police-involved shooting on Feb. 21. He had been taking pictures from outside the police lines, but an officer told him he had to move back further. Assaf protested, stating he was within his First Amendment rights to be where he was standing. Another officer then forced him to move. The Sun is posting all of Assaf’s images from the shooting scene as well as photos taken by Sun photographer Lloyd Fox, who witnessed and documented the incident.

Lt. Eric Kowalczk, the chief spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department, said the department has opened an internal investigation into the allegation. He declined to comment more specifically on the incident, “because we have an investigation and we don’t want to prejudice that.”

150 Photos of the shooting aftermath

Two years ago I wrote a blog post on the struggles of photographers exercising their First Amendment rights to photograph in public places, especially in a post 9/11 era. Since then little has changed.

A recent event brought this close to home when Baltimore Sun photo editor Chris Assaf was confronted by a Baltimore City police officer at the scene of a police-involved shooting. The incident happened in close proximity to The Sun at the intersection of Centre Street and Guilford Avenue, so Assaf was able to respond quickly to the scene.

While photographing outside the police tape — which marked the established perimeter — an officer broke the tape and told him he would have to move across the street. Assaf protested, stating he was outside the established perimeter of the crime scene and he had every right to photograph from where he was standing.

While asking for the officer’s name, a second police officer grabbed Assaf and began pushing him across the street. Assaf on numerous occasions requested that the officer release him, saying that his rights were being violated. Baltimore Sun photographer Lloyd Fox witnessed and documented the scene. Baltimore Police said they are investigating the allegations.

If this were an isolated incident caused by one overzealous police officer, it might be possible to look past it. But, as I wrote in the 2012 blog post, there seems to be a misconception among some police officers and others in authority that they can stop not only the press but anyone taking pictures or recording police activity at a crime scene.

Just recently Sergio Gutierrez was recording Maryland State Police making arrests outside a Towson bar. With the video camera rolling, an officer approached him and told him to stop because he was distracting them. When Gutierrez asked what law he was violating, an officer gets up close and tells him to “shut your [expletive] mouth or you’re going to jail.”

Gutierrez responded, “I thought I have freedom of speech.” The officer responded, “You just lost it,” as the camera is jostled and the person recording says he is being pushed.

In response, the Baltimore County Police Chief said in a statement, “The words and demands to cease filming by sworn personnel and citizen volunteer auxiliary officers were incorrect, inappropriate and unnecessary.”

Maryland State Fraternal Order of Police President John “Rodney” Bartlett stated, “From when I started policing 35 years ago, it’s clearly changed. I think all of these officers out there, no matter where we are or what generation, have a certain sense now that there is a possibility that they are being recorded, they are being filmed. Based on that, we encourage our officers to be aware of that and conduct themselves accordingly.” But he also said that sometimes clips that surface on the Internet or news reports don’t tell the whole story.

“Sometimes it doesn’t capture the whole perspective of what’s happening,” he said. He cited an example of a tape where an officer’s conduct is questioned, but police obtain footage from a nearby business surveillance system that shows bottles were being thrown at the officer.

When confronting a photographer who is taking pictures in a public area such as a train station, police and other officials will often cite the Patriot Act as forbidding photography. The Patriot Act does not forbid photography.

Someone who has been at the forefront of defending photographers’ rights is Mickey H. Osterreicher, General Counsel for the National Press Photographers Association (NPPA) and editor of their press advocacy blog. In an article written in May 2011 by Baltimore Sun reporter Michael Dresser, Osterreicher stated, “I call it the Patriot Act gone wild. For some reason, police see someone with a camera and they don’t want them to take pictures or want to assert their authority.”

Osterreicher did a Q&A on the subject with The New York Times blog, LENS, in which he addressed the attack on photographers’ rights to take pictures in public places. New York Times freelance photographer Robert Stolarik was arrested in August 2012 while photographing police during a street brawl.

As mentioned, the Baltimore City police have had their own issues dealing with photographers filming or photographing police officers. In 2010, Christopher Sharp had his cell phone confiscated after filming police arresting a woman during an altercation at Preakness. Sharp, represented by the ACLU, filed suit against the Baltimore Police Department. Four years later, Baltimore is set to pay $250,000 to Sharp, according to a settlement proposal that will be presented to the city’s spending panel this month.

The Baltimore Sun’s photographers grapple with public access issues quite often. Even though the laws are fairly cut and dry, the response from authority figures is not. Whether it’s a security guard, Maryland Transit Administration official or police, there are too many times when someone looks to assert authority when it’s inappropriate.

Meanwhile, our photographers strive to remain as professional and polite as possible while still defending their First Amendment rights as members of the press and as citizens.

(Robert Hamilton is The Baltimore Sun’s director of photography. Sun reporters Justin Fenton and Colin Campbell also contributed to this article.)

Mark Lambrych had a very unfortunate and suspect brush with the law in his community. He describes how he was assaulted, arrested, and charged as follows:
“Corrupt Video just recovered, more videos still to repair after in police custody for a false violation!

After just calling 911, A police car drives by me even though I’m flagging it down on a narrow road, he drives right past me. I approach the police car wait next to it, obviously indicated that I’m waiting to speak to the officer. INSTEAD the officer approaches me and attacks. Charges me with obstruction of governmental administration a misdemeanor. Penalty 1 year jail. The data on the phone was corrupt and shows signs of tampering and erased data.
Someone online was able to recover one corrupt video. Working on the other parts where I’m screaming in pain and it gets much worse.

The dashcam video they clam was not in the police car at the time, and records of the 911 call have been unable to obtain.

There is even more to recover. If you would like to help recover the other files feel free to download them here: https://mega.co.nz/#F!cFNT1IIb!F_ILHh94qqY9o76gGAH9vA

This event happened the 18th. of july 2013 The officer is still working, and I have a very nice picture of him to help others say clear of a similar situation.”
——————————————

“Managed to retrieve the audio track”

by Carlos Miller of PINAC

Oneida, NY — Even after Mark Lambrych recovered the footage that had been deleted after his arrest, showing a volatile deputy storming up to him and yelling “get the fuck out of here” before pouncing on him and arresting him, ordering him to “stop resisting” as Lambrych pleads that he is not resisting, his lawyer still believes he is guilty.

Guilty of video recording the cop from a public street instead of leaving as he was told. Guilty of harassing a neighbor for pointing a camera towards his home. And guilty of pretending to be a journalist when he doesn’t even work for a television station or newspaper.

But obviously you get what you pay for when you opt for a public defender in Oneida County in upstate New York, one who specializes in divorce law. Especially when your alleged “victim” is one of the most well-connected and influential men in town.

But if anybody is guilty, it is Oneida sheriff’s deputy Lee David Broniszewski for attacking him, then deleting his footage as well as for filing a false police report against Lambrych, which left him in jail for ten days on a single charge of obstructing governmental administration where he was not even allowed a single phone call to have someone bail him out.

And if anybody else is guilty it is purported victim Patsy Duggleby, a 66-year-old man who not only sits on the planning board of Vienna, a lakeside town of less than 6,000, but calls himself the “captain of the fire police,” meaning he may have been on the scene of at least two fires that led to the arrest of fellow firefighters on arson charges last year.

Duggleby, who once sat on the town’s ethics board, lied in a deposition about the events that took place on July 18, 2013, claiming that Lambrych had not only harassed him earlier that year at the scene of a house fire, which is believed to have been started by arson, but had trespassed on his property and become belligerent with the deputy on the day of his arrest.

And Lambrych’s lawyer, George Massoud, can be heard on an audio recording telling his client a number of ludicrous things like he should not have placed his hand up when the deputy was about to pounce on him, which can be seen in the :32 mark as clearly a natural reaction and not violent in any way, or that he has less rights to shoot video in public because he is not an “accredited member of the media.”

New York is a one-party consent state when it comes to recording conversations, meaning you do not have to advise the person you are talking to that you are recording, which is why we’re able to provide the clips below.

Mark’s PD (public dump) court appointed lawyer dissembles regarding tapes

Mark’s PD (public dump) lawyer misinforms him about citizen photography 

Massoud has been urging him to accept a plea deal where he would be forbidden from ever pointing a camera in the direction of Duggleby’s home, which he rejected because he never leaves home without at least two cameras and he maintains a Facebook page called Oneida Lake Campgroundswhere he is always posting photos of the area.

“I live within eyesight of his home,” he said in an extensive interview with Photography is Not a Crime.  ”What happens if I get a pair of Google glasses and even look in that direction?”

The problem is, he can’t afford a proper lawyer. And from the sounds of it, it doesn’t appear as if any lawyer in that town would want to go against Duggleby.

So up until now, he has been fighting this on his own, even though he is scared, confused and unsure of whom to believe (it took more than a day to persuade him to even go on the record with me).

But, Mark is strong enough not to accept his lawyer’s plea deal. And, he was smart enough to recover the video files from his camera after they finally returned it to him last month, more than seven months after his arrest.

Even when he realized the files were corrupted, he was persistent enough in finding somebody who could repair them, ending up on Reddit where more than 80 people participated in the challenge, recovering several clips, which when pieced together, prove Lambrych’s innocence. (you can see them below.)

From there, the video of his arrest went viral, but up until now, the story hasn’t been told.

Denied Access to Public Land
The problem is that Duggleby has been treating the public land across the street from his home, Fels Street to be exact, as his private property, chasing Vienna residents off when they try to use it to launch their boats into the creek. He even placed a flagpole on that land in a defiant territorial claim.

It got to the point where a small group of residents
launched a petition in the hopes to get town officials to recognize the property as public, but it only generated 11 signatures, obviously not enough to sway officials against Duggleby. Click here on Google Maps to get a better idea of the area, even though it doesn’t offer a Street View.

The Arsons
Then there were the arsons. A whole string of them during the first part of last year that kept all the local volunteer fire departments busy.

One of these fires started at the home of Lambrych’s friend last April, which was unoccupied at the time because it is used seasonally. But, Lambrych always makes it a point to keep his eye on the home because it had been burglarized a few years earlier (by an ex-cop nonetheless), so he rode his bike up to the scene with his cameras to start taking photos.

Lambrych was chased off by firefighters and deputies, who accused him of obstructing, as he explains in an e-mail:

I stood next to some plain-clothes guy and he asked me who I was filming for, assuming I was part of a news crew as everyone does.  I told him I was filming for the owner, then the fire chief came over (I think it was the chief), asked me who I worked for I said no one. When I said this, he got into my face and touched the cameras and said he doesn’t want to be goddamn filmed and called a deputy over. The deputy grabbed and shoved my camera down.

The fire had already been put out and there didn’t appear to be much damage, so he didn’t bother sticking around, riding his bike to a friend’s house where he stayed a few hours before heading back home. That was when he noticed a white pickup truck in front of his friend’s house with the engine running and the windows fogged up.

Mark rode up to take a closer look when he met Duggleby for the first time. Duggleby immediately ordered him away, threatening to run him over with his truck. Lambrych rode away and didn’t think too much of the incident until he received a court summons a few weeks later.

Below is Duggleby’s complaint of harassment against Lambrych that led to the summons, which has since morphed into his July arrest as a single case.

Less than a month after this encounter, two local firefighters, including a volunteer fire chief, were arrested on arson charges for fires unrelated to the one mentioned above. One of the men was captured in the act by a trail camera. One can understand their aversion to cameras.

There were several other fires believed to be arson, including the fire at Mark’s friend’s home, which have not been tied to the two men arrested. One has
since pleaded guilty,
admitting he started the fire while trying to steal copper wire from the residence.

“There were a lot of unusual house fires during the time,” Mark noted. “After the firemen were arrested, there haven’t been anymore I know of.”

The Arrest
On July 13, 2013, Lambrych was standing on the public strip of land  across the street from Duggleby’s home, taking photos of Fish Creek for his Facebook page, when Duggleby walked out of the house, ordering him away from the area.

One of Lambrych’s recovered videos shows Duggleby first telling him to leave the area, then telling him to “come over here” after Lambrych suggested he call the police.

Yet, when Lambrych did walk towards him, crossing the street onto the property with camera recording, Duggleby then ordered him to “Get off my fucking property!” Mark did.

Lambrych then called the local police and waited for them to respond while remaining on the public river bank across the street from Duggleby’s property. This view can be seen in one of the videos below.

Duggleby called the police too, according to his deposition (below). It alleges Lambrych wouldn’t leave the public area in front of Duggleby’s home while holding the camera. Duggleby’s wife, Mary, claimed she felt “threatened” by Lambrych’s actions in her deposition, insisting she wants “criminal action taken against Mark for coming here and filming us and scaring me”. (below)

Deputy Broniszewski arrived, he pulled up in front of Duggleby’s home and began talking to him in his front yard. Wanting to give the deputy his side of the story, Lambrych rode his bike up behind Broniszewski’s car to wait his turn.

Oneida Sheriff’s deputy Lee David Broniszewski

Deputy Broniszewski ordered him to “get the fuck out of here,” which led to his arrest. [Standard police procedure is to separate the parties in conflict upon arriving at the scene, before questioning them independently and out of earshot from one another.]

In the ten worst days of his life, Mark was not allowed to make a phone call. He was placed in a suicide ward.

“The conditions inside were very disturbing,” he said. “The medical attention I requested fell on deaf ears.”

He still faces charges of harassment and ‘obstructing governmental administration’. He really needs a lawyer. On the bright side, he has already been in contact with the
ACLU of Syracuse, so hopefully, they will step in.

Oneida County Sheriff: (315) 765-2200.

Mark states, “This guy yells at me on public land, then calls me over to his land and says I was trespassing and harassing him. The side of the road where he calls me from is public state land, thats my bike on the side of the road.

I called 911, and later was arrested for obstruction of governmental administration and savagely attacked by the officer. Police dashcam was visible to me, yet the police department said their was no camera in the car that day at all. The 911 call I didn’t even know it was recording on my other phone, which is good because the 911 call’s was also conveniently missing. When the officer took my phone the videos of him attacking me they seemed to have been erased some m4v files, and tampered with at a time when not in my possession was detected with software. How did I figure this, out about my phone, well I was there and the unerase software logs show dates. However the videos are damaged and i can’t recover yet.

If you can repair these .m4v files. Please let me know. here is the link. it will show the truth, a police officer attacking me, I called 911 yes, also the savage attack afterwards. An unlawful arrest and imprisonment.”

Damaged Files Link

Mark says of this 2nd video clip, “July 18, 2013 8:26pm, An assault on an innocent person and unlawful arrest by this officer? The camera’s ‘m4v’ video appears to have been tampered with. Alterations appear to have been made on July 19, 2013 prior to receiving it from the sheriffs department.”

Targeting Journalist Proves Expensive for BART

Dave Id, targeted for arrest by BART Police

by Andrew Meyer of PINAC

San Francisco, CA — After being penned like an animal and arrested inside an official “free-speech zone,” a San Francisco-area journalist has filed suit against BART, the Bay Area Rapid Transit Police Department, for planning his arrest ahead of time.

David Morse, known to the readers of Indybay.org as ‘Dave Id’, was arrested and held in jail along with dozens of protesters after documenting a protest at the Powell Street Station in 2011.  Prior to the announced “No Justice No BART” demonstration, BART decided to shut down over one-half of the Powell Street station, forcing the crowd of demonstrators, media, and passengers into a small section of the station. BART riot police then surrounded dozens of demonstrators and journalists for arrest.

After a BART officer grabbed a demonstration organizer by his backpack and lifted him off of the ground, BART’s riot police circled the demonstrators from all directions and trapped the entire group of protesters and media. Police claimed the suspects were blocking the movements of people within the subway station.

But, Morse later learned they had planned his arrest before the protest.

While the other credentialed journalists were released without arrest at the subway station, Morse was arrested and held at the San Francisco city jail. Morse, who has written about BART for years, believes he was singled out specifically for arrest by BART Police Deputy Chief Dan Hartwig, who knew Morse and his work as a journalist covering BART.

Chief Hartwig’s “retaliatory animus” may end up costing BART in court, as a Federal Judge ruled last month that Morse can sue BART Police for their retaliatory arrest. 

“They first tried to say that I was chanting and ‘marching’ along with protesters, deliberately blocking fare gates, but after more and more evidence came out, including their own video of me, they’ve changed their tune, now arguing my mere presence combined with people walking around me justified my arrest,” said Morse.

Morse’s case was likely helped by the fact officers admitted in depositions they discussed arresting Morse in their planning meeting before the protest, even printing his picture out on a flier prior to his arrest. (ibid)

Morse is no stranger to the legal arena. After suing the UC Berkeley Police Department, receiving a $162,500 settlement in 2012 following an unlawful arrest that occurred while documenting a protest on campus, Morse is once again seeking damages from public employees paid to “serve and protect.”

BART has a notorious history of serving the public, including tasing a man for no reason, murdering Oscar Grant, not to mention killing homeless men Fred Collins and Charles Hill in separate incidents. Johannes Mehserle, the BART officer who shot Grant in the back while another officer had Grant pinned to the ground, was released from prison after serving 11 months for the crime.

While BART’s settlement to Grant’s family has yet to make a lasting impact on the culture of the department, Morse hopes his case teaches BART not “to penalize journalists it doesn’t like.” The majority of the people arrested at the Powell Street protest chose not to file a lawsuit after being arrested on a pretense in retaliation for exercising their free-speech in BART’s designated ‘free-speech zone’.

The idea of a ‘free-speech zone’ in the first place is a Constitutional anathema to many. For those who find the police infringing further on First Amendment rights, going the extra mile in court may be the step that makes all the difference. While Morse’s case, “is far from over, and victory is not guaranteed,” civil suits provide people with a way to teach police departments like BART no one is above the law–a potential payday for the litigant’s defense of free speech.

According to the judge’s ruling:

It is undisputed that Plaintiff published numerous stories that were, at best, critical of BART and BART police officers, in particular. Plaintiff openly mocked and ridiculed the agency and its officers. These declarations did not go unnoticed at BART. For instance, Hartwig testified that he “maybe” discussed Plaintiff’s articles with Fairow and Chief Rainey. (Dkt. No. 64-1, Ex. A at 43:1-15.) Four other officers also testified they read at least some of Plaintiff’s articles, including Fairow who testified that he read any of Plaintiff’s articles that had to do with the protests. Further, Fairow—who was personally criticized and mocked in at least two of Plaintiff’s articles—ordered the creation of a flyer depicting Plaintiff and Cantor as the primary subjects of the day’s protest. The flyer was discussed and handed out to officers at a briefing the day of the protest. While Hartwig denies he was at the briefing, two other officers testified that he was in attendance. The officers were told that if either Plaintiff or Cantor was witnessed violating the law, he was to be arrested. In other words, Plaintiff was singled out, possibly to retaliate against him for his inflammatory articles.

Further, a reasonable trier of fact could find that Hartwig’s comment to the media following the protest that no “legitimate” members of the press were arrested, suggests animosity towards Plaintiff and Plaintiff’s reporting. While Hartwig testified that “legitimate” members of the media were journalists “we could identify” as a member of the media (Dkt. No. 64-1, Ex. A at 132:11-13), Plaintiff would have presumably fallen into this category since Plaintiff testified that he was wearing his press credentials around his neck during the protest and while he was being arrested. Moreover, it is undisputed that Hartwig knew Plaintiff was a journalist, and, as discussed above, there is evidence that Plaintiff’s conduct at the protest did not go beyond that of other journalists at the protest who were not arrested. A rational jury could thus infer that Hartwig did not consider Plaintiff a “legitimate” member of the media because of the content of Plaintiff’s speech. A rational jury could further infer that this animosity carried over into Hartwig’s arrest of Plaintiff, which occurred only shortly before Hartwig made his comment.

A reasonable trier of fact could also call into question the motivations underlying the arrest given that Plaintiff was subject to a custodial arrest, rather than the cite-and-release procedure used for other arrestees at the protest. (See Dkt. No. 64-1, Ex. A at 143:6-12 (Hartwig testifying that some non-journalists were cited and released).) Further, BART procedures for crowd control include a “cite & release procedure” whereby the default for a misdemeanor arrest is cite and release. BART argues that Hartwig’s decision to not cite and release Plaintiff was nevertheless consistent with this policy because Plaintiff fell within an exception to that policy; namely, “[t]here was a reasonable likelihood that the offense(s) would continue or resume.” (Id. at Ex. B at “BART 019355.”) Hartwig testified that such a custodial arrest was necessary because Plaintiff and Cantor were “the reason for the emotion and passion” and once they were removed, “the center of that inner circle went silent to the point I stepped inside and they all sat down.”

Maryland’s ACLU takes Baltimore’s Police Dept. to the cleaner$!

Baltimore, MD — Concerned that the Baltimore City Police Department routinely violates the First Amendment by threatening citizens who try to photograph or record police encounters, the ACLU of Maryland on August 4, 2011 informed BPD that the organization is prepared to sue on behalf of Christopher Sharp, a man whose personal videos, including many of his young son, were deleted after he filmed Baltimore police officers roughing up a female friend of his in the Clubhouse at the 2010 Preakness Stakes.

The following Video taken of the beating by another observer shows Baltimore City cops using excessive force, the girl laying on the ground did nothing but mouth off and in return got clocked three times and laid in a pool of blood……

The ACLU asserts that after Sharp recorded the police beating, he was detained and harangued by police officers, demanding that he surrender his cellphone as “evidence”. Sharp politely declined, but police continued to demand that he give up his phone. Fearing arrest, he finally handed over the phone to an officer who assured him he would simply download the videos for evidentiary purposes, then return the phone to Sharp. Instead, police destroyed the police encounter videos and all other videos it contained — about two dozen in all — before returning the phone to Sharp.

But, Maryland hardly has a monopoly on police corruption and brutality.

by Larry Hohol

Pennsylvania — The above Dashcam of the BRUTAL beatings of Robert Leone by cops after stopping the wrong man is as bad as or worse than the Rodney King beating. The State’s judicial system charged with doing justice by ALL the parties turns its back on the victim. Pennsylvania State Police pursued Robert for a MINOR traffic violation that he apparently DID NOT commit. While Robert was detained he was nearly killed by the police while they executed their form of street justice. He suffered through 11 hours of multiple beatings. He was tasered at least 10 times. He was also chemically maced. He spent more than 2 1/2 years in JAIL. Robert was charged with felony assault on a police officer because the officer broke his hand when he punched Robert in the head with his fist while he was being detained! This is part of a BIGGER story of police brutality, corruption, and official coverup throughout the Pennsylvania judicial system. This video is chapter one of this story – visit http://worsethanrodneyking.com to watch this story unfold and to participate in the discussion.

After I released this video it quickly went viral. The reaction to this video has been a public firestorm of protests and demands for investigations – and yet the police involved are still on the street. They have NOT been punished in any way. Sadly, not a single politician has taken a stand by publicly speaking up.

Herr Cronce has pronounced civility the order of the day during citizen comment periods at Shelton’s City Council meetings. He avers how they ‘love’ public comments, though a quick glance at their posting of the videos from these sessions reveals comments on Youtube are CLOSED! In fact, the Mayor is so interested in public comments from citizens, he can’t take his eyes off the stop watch he keeps to make sure they don’t exceed 3 minutes. The irony slides off him like water off a Dynasty Duck’s back.

This is the guy who took point while the City defended against an onslaught, a veritable army of bikini barristas, female breasts, and [get this!] ANAL CLEAVAGES. The City is now safe from these slippery slopes to perdition while it does nothing about its own dirty laundry including a ‘C’ street public dump (never closed), a harbor, and an environment heavily tainted by Dioxin. Moreover, the City wants to allow a grade school built next to the Dioxin contaminated dump as part of the Hall Equities development, deeming it (although Cronce almost can’t recall how to spell the acronym–FEIS) environmentally insignificant. That’s right–the City has concluded that exposing our families, our small children to the worst mutagenic, carcinogenic, immunogenic, bio-accumulative, cognition disabling chemical known to man–so dangerous that even the smallest measurable amounts (in parts per trillion) are hazardous and will leave a thalidomide like legacy for generations–is ‘environmentally insignificant’. This heaving, still breathing, sweating anachronism is what City residents have to depend on for the community’s welfare and its children’s health. Good luck with that…don’t forget to be civil and smile at this excuse for an elected public official.

Perhaps some activist or citizen Robin Hood might bring a large scoop of the Dioxin tainted soil from the ‘C’ street dump for the final reading of the environmental death warrant
@ 6:00pm on 3-17-14 in the City Council scheduled meeting? They might/could dump it on the table which the Commissioners are sitting at while taking their full 3-minutes to explain just what it is they’re inhaling and inviting them to take it home to their children and grandchildren! Sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. Clearly this Mayor and the City Council simply don’t get it…or don’t care. It’s up to citizens to MAKE them care!

Some Ignorant/Greedy residents can be heard pleading growth for growth’s sake, pleading Jobs, Jobs, Jobs while ignoring the health consequences to our children and mothers in the following video. Crimes against humanity are still the order of the day in Shelton as it’s Mayor fiddles while its future burns. Though ‘Jobs’ are obviously needed to achieve a healthy economy, every responsible parent, given the choice, would rather struggle for his child’s next meal than watch that child struggle for its next breath, or witness the birth of children with horrible birth defects resulting from the kinds of toxins they were exposed to by corporate criminals aided and abetted by elected toadies more interested in profits than the health of families in the community. Terry Thomson points out the obvious: It’s all connected–the aquifers, the air, the soils, our mutual interdependence, future generations and our legacy in how we protected what’s left of our environment. The weak argument that Hall Equities’ proposed development of 604 acres has no duty to anyone but itself as defined by its real estate holdings is blatantly incorrect. Environmental Impact studies do not (properly) stop at artificial property boundaries because the harm does not limit itself to those boundaries. If I have poisoned the soil and the underlying aquifers (as is evident in this instance), a community well should not be permitted on the next parcel over simply because a property boundary exists between my holdings (and toxic waste dump) and my neighbor’s. If the City had been more aggressive in holding the proper parties accountable, it would not be holding the bag today. First things first–clean up the environment before considering developing it and exposing our children to the contamination. It’s not only in the soil, but the water, the air and even the food chain. Dioxin is evil, worse than lethal, insidious, bio-accumulative and persistent.

Oakland Bay & ‘C’ Street City Dump: Shellfish nursery & Hotbed of DIOXIN contamination

Studies of Dioxin’s effects in Vietnam

WA State Dept of Ecology declares Oakland Bay Dioxin contaminated shellfish safe

Dioxin fallout accumulates in food chain

2 cars in every garage, 3 eyes for every fish

Health Effects in Animals Exposed to DIOXIN

How to transfer domains away from GoDaddy

by anon

It’s Super Bowl Sunday, a day I particularly enjoy transferring domain names out of GoDaddy, the registrar that once tempted me with low prices but now mostly just annoys me. Here’s how to move your domains to a new registrar quickly, easily and without fouling anything up (you don’t want your website to disappear!) in the process.

Aside: I happen to be transferring domains to FYNE.com, a company I’ve been using for many years that offers great pro features at good value. One thing that’s nice is that they anonymize your domain record for free, so your name and address aren’t crawled by a million spiders (many registrars like the aforementioned GoDaddy charge extra for that “privacy”). If you’re transferring to a new registrar that’s not FYNE.com, don’t worry, these are generic directions and all about how to transfer away from the night mare that is GoDaddy.

1. Make sure your domain is at least 90 days old
GoDaddy fabulously won’t let you transfer a domain name you just registered. (OK, there are some ICANN regulations at work, too.) Of course, if you’re about saving money, you’ll probably wait until your domain is close to expiring before you transfer it – you’ve already paid your year’s rent.

2. Change your GoDaddy settings and get your auth code
In the GoDaddy Domain Manager, find the domain you want to transfer and click it’s lock icon to unlock it (if it’s already unlocked, you can just click on the domain name to manage the domain).

– Make sure that “Privacy” and “Domain Ownership Protection” are Off and that the domain is unlocked (if you just did this, it will still show up as “Locked” as in the screenshot, but don’t worry, if you just unlocked it, then it’s unlocked – GoDaddy is just really slow to update its control panel with recent modifications made).

– Make sure your email address is correct in the administrative contact, because GoDaddy will be emailing your transfer authorization code (Email!?!?! What is this, 1995? @%&*$#@ GoDaddy!)

– DNS settings: Chances are, you’re using GoDaddy’s free DNS service (ns23.domaincontrol.com etc means GoDaddy). If you’re already using your own name servers or some other 3rd party DNS servers, you don’t need to do anything and can skip to the next step.

The important thing to know here is that this setting is part of your domain record, and will transfer over to the new registrar (i.e, it won’t automagically switch to your new registrar’s DNS servers, because there’s nothing about being a domain host that says you also provide DNS), so if you are using GoDaddy’s servers you need to change these now, before you transfer the domain! If you’re using GoDaddy’s DNS and you transfer the domain with the record still pointing to ns.domaincontrol.com, then your site will go dark because ns.domaincontrol.com will start telling folks it’s never heard of your domain.

So, if you’re using GoDaddy’s free DNS service, here’s what you need to do:

– Easy: If you’ve just got a parked domain or you’re only using the domain name for a website – you only care about example.com and www.example.com (and you’re not using subdomains like mail.example.com for your email) – just change these to your new registrar or DNS host’s nameservers. For FYNE, these are ns1.shopco.com and ns2.shopco.com.

– Hard: If you do have special DNS records (like mail.example.com or ones you’ve manually created), you need to load these into your new registrar/DNS host before you change the nameservers. Unfortunately, some big registrars like Network Solutions have crappy systems and won’t let you start setting DNS records on a domain until after you’ve transferred the domain – so if you’re in a situation like this you can either half-ass it and just live with a few hours of downtime while you scurry to reinput your DNS records, or you can use a “real” DNS host like UltraDNS or run your own DNS (which you could just do temporarily – just for a few days and then change nameservers to your new registrar’s free DNS once you’re registered with them). Anyway, once you’ve got your special DNS records set up with your new nameservers (or have decided to half-ass it), follow the directions above in “Easy” to update your domain record with the new nameservers.

– Click “Send by Email” and GoDaddy will email you the transfer authorization code you need to give to your new registrar

3. Transfer the name into your new registrar
Your new domain name registrar’s website will walk you through this. You’ll need to give them the auth code that GoDaddy just sent you.

Once your new registrar has verified the auth code with GoDaddy, it may ask you to confirm the transfer. The new registrar usually does the verification in a few seconds, then sends you an email with a link you have to click to confirm.

4. Wait (Or, go back to GoDaddy Domain Manager and confirm)
You’re done! After you complete the previous step, GoDaddy will send you an email written by someone barely proficient in English to say that the domain transfer is approved and the domain will automatically transfer over in 5 days.

So, you legally don’t have to do anything more at this point. BUT if you’re totally OCD, GoDaddy has created one excess step for you to follow to reassure yourself: you can go back to GoDaddy’s Domain Manager, select Pending Transfers, check the checkbox next to your name(s) and use the Accept/Decline button to Accept the transfer. Naturally, GoDaddy has intentionally worded this to confuse you, so on the confirmation screen I think you actually have to select “Cancel” as in “Cancel this domain from my GoDaddy account” to “Accept” the transfer. So, just don’t get caught by their trap and accidentally cancel the transfer, or you’ll really feel like an idiot. Enjoy your newfound freedom once the transfer is complete. Rinse and repeat.