update on anti-war court case, and report from speak out against injustice

NO DEAL!
My Statement On Refusing the Plea Deal
Upcoming events
Report from the Speak Out
Appreciation to Supporters

Hi everyone, I want to say again thank you for all the support. I want to give a update on what happened the last two days. In court, right off the bat, they dropped the Riot and Incite to Riot, Unlawful Assembly, and 5 of the 6 Disorderly conducts because the charges were unfounded and baseless to the point of being totally and completely un-provable, they should have dropped all of the charges. My co-defendants charges were all dismissed besides on violation trespass. I and my co-defendants were offered a package deal where co-defendants would receive an ACD (adjournment in contemplation of dismissal) if I plead to a Class B Misdemeanor, a very significant decrease from 5 Misdemeanors and 6 Violations. The alleged and supposedly damning M&T surveillance footage which NFTA has boasted of in the press clearly does not exist, as the prosecution only referred to the Youtube cell phone footage as evidence.
All of this shows that they clearly have no case and do not want to take it to trial. It also shows the power of the people united and community support. Even the mainstream media has shown an unusual amount of sympathy in this case, because it is so undeniable and there is much community support. I and my co-defendants are not in this alone and will not be silenced, bullied or intimidated. I denied the plea deal, without hesitation, and am ready and excited to fight this out in court!
Next court date is scheduled for June 2nd – mark your calendars!

Thanks so much to Ron Douglas, who made a very short film highlighting the case you can send it far and wide. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhN9RlrENJs&feature=youtu.be

For more of Ron’s work you can check out- http://www.alchemicalmedia.com/home.html

Also, much appreciation to Maura for drafting the Open Letter to Kimberly Minkel, Director of the NFTA, which can be found at: http://buffalo.indymedia.org/content/open-letter-kimberly-minkel-directo...

upcoming event-

Come support Political Prisoner- Rev. Joy Powell in court for her struggle for justice.- This Monday the 9th of May leave Buffalo at 8 am all day please contact me if you want to come buckleynate@yahoo.com more info at http://www.freejoypowell.org/

The Community Speak Out Against Injustice in the Courts and in the Streets went great. The main driving force behind it was that I completely mistreated, wronged and it completely wrong, but for sure would have been worse if my skin color was different and had no resources and support. Many in the community have gone through much worse and without video and support. Based on the fact I feel not privileged with “better” treatment from a unjust system but even more angry and outraged from what goes on and demand for justice for everyone regardless of race, class, sex, nationality, religion etc. It is real important to know my case is just one of many. Many of these following cases are horrendous and have received no justice to this day. It is important for the community to support each other not stop each one incident but to change the fundamental system that has and continues to perpetrate injustice and exceptionally more frequent and to a worse degree to minorities, women, and working class and poor. To brief on the other cases I will, I am not quoting any of the speakers and just giving my summary of what was talked about.

John Walker spoke of his wrongful conviction and how together with his co-defendants spent a total of almost three quarters a century in jail innocent, and still is on life time parole. I would write more but this Link to article is directly from the event in the Buffalo News- http://www.buffalonews.com/city/communities/buffalo/article413777.ece

Carol Horne spoke of her situation being targeted for years, as a Buffalo Police Officer. The story of her intervening on Office Kwiatowski choking a detained Neal Mack, and being hit in the face and shoulder dislocated and then subsequently fired 2 weeks away from receiving her pension. Mean while Office Kwiatowski was forced to retire with multiple pending excessive force allegations with full pension. This next excerpt is from an article written about the case in 2007

“If white police officers don’t respect the community most black officers come from, how then can they respect black officers? That is the question that essentially defines the case of Cariol ‘‘Carol’’ Horne. Imagine what would happen if a Black officer was caught beating and choking a white male and a white female officer attempts to intervene by pulling the male cop’s arm away from around the beating victim’s neck. Now imagine the black male officer delivering a hard punch to the white female officer’s face. Picture the response from other officers toward the black officer; picture the outrage from internal affairs (IA) and the resulting actions from them and his precinct.”

Sheila Hayes spoke on her Husband Robert “Seth” Hayes being one of the longest held political prisoners in the world now for over 39 years from an original 25 to life sentence. Seth has been on the honor block (a privilege for those who have clean behavioral records inside) for decades, has went to college behind bars, great work history behind bars and is involved in so many programs and community projects I can’t list. Sheila herself and others write letters to the parole board giving Seth places to stay and support in the community when released. He is a perfect candidate based on their guidelines to be paroled. All this and Seth has been hit at the parole board every two years now for a total of 7 times. Every time he is hit at the parole board he is told the exact same excuse because “Serios Nature of Crime”. Seth was is an decorated Vietnam Vet, also a member Black Panther Party, and Black Liberation Army. Seth was a victim of FBI program COINTEL PRO while he was working for the community. To learn more of COINTEL PRO you can read more and order a movie “COINTEL PRO 101”- at http://www.freedomarchives.org/Cointelpro.html

Karima Amin spoke of her path in life leading her from an English Teacher to a Story Teller and now still continuing story telling but starting the organization Prisoners are People Too and Erie County Prisoner Rights Coalition. Prisoners are People Too has a monthly meeting usually with a film and local community speaker dealing with issues of incarceration since 2005. Karima explained the Prison system is a business not a justice system. Erie County Prisoners Rights Coalition (ERPRC) is a coalition trying to bring a stop to abuse at the Erie County Holding Center. Some of the abuses include, neglect, theft of inmate commissary funds, beatings, and the list goes on. This group protests in front of the Erie County Holding Center at Delaware and Church every Wednesday at 5 pm to 6 pm. Prisoners Are People Too meet on the last Monday of every month at 630 in the Pratt Willert Community Center 422 Pratt st. Buffalo. The following is an excerpt from the website on ERPRC- http://www.eriecountyprisonersrightscoalition.jigsy.com/
Prisoners are People Too- http://www.prp2.org/

“ Since the time of the publication of this report, it has also come to light that, according the the Erie County Comptroller, over $1,000,000 of prisoner's commissary money has been "misallocated" from the Commissary account to pay for unrelated budget items. This money is required by law to be spent on inmates welfare and rehabilitation - programs like education and reentry assistance which not only serve the prison population, but serve all of us who need the prison system to act in some way to rehabilitate prisoners, so they are not forced back into crime when they reenter society. “

Enoch Cook, 64 who was also roughed up by the NFTA police last summer at the bus station for using the bathroom was in Presence. It was Officer Brodsky who roughed this man up, the same officer who maced, clubbed and tackled me with his Velcro name tag removed. Enoch was at the speak out and spoke of his experience in solidarity calling for the removal of the office from our streets. Enoch spoke of the racism against people of color inherent in the system of “justice”, and he stated there no justice there is only “just us”.

Amy Upham spoke of the injustice in the Mental Health system. She spoke of the abuses inside hospitals with forced drugging, locked wards, the dehumanizing effect of labeled mentally ill. Amy drew connections between the mental health system and the prison system how both don’t help the fundamental problem just label the victim and make the situation worse for the most part. Another similarity is how many alternatives there are to drugs and hospitals but are not used because they are not profitable enough, same as in alternatives to Prison.

I spoke on my case and how all of this hardship in so many different arenas of our lives, being brutalized, wrongly convicted, labeled mentally ill, fired for standing up, mismanagement of our tax dollars, the list goes on while in the words of MLK The United States Is "The Greatest Purveyor of Violence in the World Today". These men who murder by literally the millions, steal in literally the trillions run the world and are rewarded with wealth beyond imagination and status and power. I hope people can see that all these situations are not isolated or random. The system of injustice, wars abroad, bank bailouts, no health insurance, are not pieces of a broken system. They are pieces of a well oiled system working perfectly for the rich and those in power. It is only through fear and force we allow them to continue.

They mis-treated me at that protest to send the message to the rest of the crowd. It could have been any one. Any of these situations can happen to anyone. That is why it is so important to stand together It is a pattern in all the above cases that the injustice done to every individual was not just aimed at them but at the society as a whole. The message is stand up or in some cases just be alive and we will brutalize you, send you to jail, fire you, label you mental. This is meant not just to the individual but to scare the rest of the society into staying in line. Well I will not stay in line. And I do not fear the consequences, because that is when they win. They do not win with sending someone to jail, or brutalizing someone they win when we stop fighting for a better world. They can’t beat, mace, kill, jail or drug away our spirit or our determination for a just world. Seth Hayes, John Walker and Carol Horne all have the same message this is a long haul, so don’t give up, give in and prepare for the long struggle to victory!

Nate buckley