SF8 Vets Targeted, Rounded-Up and Jailed!!

[nattyreb]

10/20/05

A Federal Court denied a defense habeas corpus request to release Ray Boudreaux from SF County Jail. He is being held for refusing to cooperate with a State Grand Jury investigating a 30-year old case. Attorney Michael Burt, representing Boudreaux, argued that the limited immunity granted his client was abusive as it compelled potentially self incriminating evidence if Boudreaux were to answer questions posed by the Attorney General in front of the Grand Jury. This investigation is pursuing numerous Black activists that were harassed, arrested and some tortured and attacked by police over 30-years ago during the height of Cointelpro and the FBI-led war against the Black Panther Party and the Black liberation movement. Several of the government 'investigators' are the same cops whose participation in torture, abusive treatment, attacks in the community and other illegal procedures led to the dismissal of charges against several of these same activists in the 1970s.

Ray Boudreaux, Richard Brown, Hank Jones and Harold Taylor remain in state custody in county jails throughout the Bay Area. A hearing for John Bowman is scheduled for Friday at 2:30 pm in State Superior Courtroom 206 in front of the same judge that called for the imprisonment of the others. (Polk and McAllister in Judge Dondero's courtroom)

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org

[Nesayem]

Comrades,
Where ever Afrikans with knowledge of self dwell their will be a threat to white supremacy. People that are active in the liberation of those who are struggling will always be sought out by government agencies. Here's were they went wrong, when you halt a revolutionary organization five more will spring up in it's place. They thought they destroyed the Panthers and look at how many spin-off groups there are. They same would apply to the NOI.

That proverb "each one, teach one" reigns true. Just think of all the lives that have been affected by the work/ organizing that our veteran comrades have done. I have been reading in the newspaper that they are basically going after anyone who is/was known as an organizer, these cases are showing up regularly in the state of CA.

It's amazing how they are treating brother Boudreaux; they will use any tactic they can to make us complacent.

[nattyreb]

From: The Freedom Archives
======================

FYI tonnes of info on the case and on ways to help and support can be found
at www.freemandrum.org, this is the site set up by Gary's family.


Canadian Press: Alleged Black Panther to be extradited

by Colin Perkel
Friday, November 25, 2005

TORONTO -- A man accused of being a militant Black Panther who shot and
paralyzed a Chicago police officer more than 35 years ago was ordered
extradited on Friday but won't be facing American justice anytime soon.

An Ontario judge ruled that Joseph Pannell, a married father of four who has
lived in the Toronto area for more than two decades, must return to the
United States to face charges of attempted murder for the 1969 shooting of police
officer Terrence Knox.

After the ruling, Pannell's wife and four children stood in protest outside
the U.S. Consulate located across the street from the downtown courthouse.

"We all have bleeding hearts right now, but this is not over," said
Pannell's wife, Natercia Coelho.

"He came here because he feared for his life. What happened to him was wrong
in '69, and what happened today is wrong."

Pannell, a former Toronto library worker, spent more than two decades living
quietly in the west-end suburb of Mississauga under the name Gary Freeman.

He was arrested in July 2004 after the U.S. Department of Justice and the
FBI asked Canadian authorities to search for matches to his fingerprints.

Ontario Superior Court Justice David Watt ruled that Pannell's case met the
test for extradition because there was sufficient evidence to have committed
him to trial had Pannell faced the charges in Canada.

However, it is federal Justice Minister Irwin Cotler who must now decide,
based on all the facts of the case, whether to turn him over to the Americans.

"Fight this surrender to the end," lawyer Julian Falconer said Pannell told
his defence team.

Pannell's lawyers now plan to make submissions to the minister, and it will
likely be at least six months before a decision, which can also be
challenged in the Ontario Court of Appeal, is rendered.

Pannell also said he plans to take Watt's ruling to the appeals court based
on the judge's decision to disallow cross-examination of the U.S. prosecutor
who provided a summary of the evidence against him.

"The ruling speaks to the inherent frailties in the system we have for
extradition," Falconer said.

"The question is why a Canadian court is left in the position where our own
system gives us almost no right or opportunity to assess the reliability of
the information by which we're extraditing him."

Pannell, who was 19 at the time of the shooting, has never denied shooting
Knox, who was then 21, but said it happened in self-defence after the police
officer attacked him.

"African-American males in the city of Chicago were under siege by police,"
Falconer said of the political conditions at the time.

Pannell's lawyers argue there are major inconsistencies in Knox's version of
what happened March 7, 1969. They also say much of the evidence has long
been destroyed, and Pannell could not get a fair trial in the U.S.

Canadian Press 2005
=================

http://www.ctv.ca/newsletter


Man who allegedly shot U.S. cop to be extradited
CTV.ca News Staff

A Toronto judge ruled Friday that a man should be extradited to the U.S. to face attempted murder charges for a 35-year-old shooting.

Reputed former Black Panther Joseph Pannell is alleged to have shot and paralyzed Chicago police officer Terrance Knox.

He's been wanted in the U.S. since skipping bail on two occasions, the first time in 1971 and the second in 1973, when he fled to Canada.

Pannell, who went by the name Gary Freeman, had worked as a researcher with the Toronto Public Library for 13 years and had lived in Mississauga, for more than two decades.

After the ruling, his wife and four children held a protest outside the U.S. Consultate, directly across from the court house.

"We all have bleeding hearts right now, but this is not over," said Pannell's wife Natercia Coelho.

"He came here because he feared for his life. What happened to him was wrong in '69, and what happened today is wrong.

"One thing that you learn, we will not surrender."

Pannell's wife and four children had hoped the court would not allow the extradition.

They plan to file an appeal of the court decision.

When the shooting occurred in 1969, Knox was patrolling high school grounds in the Kensington District of Chicago. The officer stopped a 19-year-old on the street to ask him why he wasn't in school.

Pannell allegedly pulled out a 9 mm handgun and fired 13 times. Three shots struck Knox, severing an artery in his arm and leaving him partially paralyzed.

In the summer of 2004 American authorities started to catch-up with the suspected former Black Panther.

Investigators sent Pannell's fingerprints to Canada. After a check, authorities north of the border found a match. It came from a 1983 customs violation where Pannell failed to declare a camera he bought during a trip to the U.S.

It has not been proven that Pannell was a member of the militant black rights group.

The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org

[Moorbey]

Once your name goes out on yt's wire your name can never be removed from that list no way,no how except for death and we all know that thats actually what yt if after. We all know that as warriors that this a life long commitment and we have to take the good wth the bad until this battle is won.

[nattyreb]

Wednesday, December 28, 2005

http://www.afro.com/content/templates/?a=4405&print=yes

Former Black Panthers considered terrorists under Patriot Act

Group wants torture used against American citizens to cease

Undaunted by what they call "unconstitutional" methods used under the guise of the Patriot Act, three former Black Panthers are touring the country to bring awareness to their recent interrogation by anti-terrorist law enforcement.

Former Black Panthers members John Bowman, Hank Jones and Ray Boudreaux held a forum, Dec. 8, at the Washington, D.C. office of Trans-Africa. They have in common the suffering they endured in 1971 under interrogation concerning a police shooting in San Francisco.

They were indicted by a grand jury, but the court rendered a decision stating the methods used to obtain information were unlawful and the Panthers members were freed from jail.

Thirty-four years later Bowman, Jones and Boudreaux along with many Black Panthers members once again faced their interrogators from the '70s who are now serving as agents with the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, a special division formed under the Homeland Security agency to apprehend suspected terrorists.

"I was quite surprised when I opened the door to see the same two detectives involved in beating me [34 years earlier] standing there. It brought back memories that I will never forget," said Bowman, the former Panther organizer. "This is very difficult for me to discuss in public."

According to Bowman, in 1973 he was stripped naked and beaten with blunt objects, wrapped with blankets soaked in boiling hot water, shocked with electric probes in his "anus and other private parts," punched, kicked and slammed into walls by investigators. The process lasted until investigators got the murder confessions they wanted.

"These stories are not available in the public domain. These stories are hidden in the framework of the American justice system. We want to put this in the forefront of the public dialogue and let people hear the truth about what is happening," said actor and human rights activist Danny Glover, who was on hand to stress the importance of exposing the covert tactics being used by the Bush administration to interrogate and arrest law-abiding citizens by labeling them as "terrorists."

"We must talk about the current attempt to reopen these cases against those members of the Black Panther Party who were tortured more than 30 years ago," said Glover, who also serves as chairman of the board, Trans-Africa Forum.

The detectives, Frank McCoy and Edward Erdelatz, retired members of the San Francisco Police Department, now special agents with the Federal Prosecutor's Office, Anti-Terrorist Task Force have repeatedly interrupted the lives of many former Panthers to gain notoriety with the Bush administration by targeting individuals labeled as "terrorists" who were never convicted of wrongdoing.

"Once upon a time, they called me a terrorist, too," explained Boudreaux. "To expedite something in the system, they put a 'terror' tag on it and it gets done. Terror means money. These people [government] have a budget and they are working it."

Bowman said when he watched the World Trade Center towers come down in New York on September 11, somehow he knew the government might approach him as a suspect after listening to the language being used to describe the investigation.

"This is a broad general investigation going on under the current COINTELPRO (Counter Intelligence of the FBI) grown up into the USA Patriot Act, an extension of what was going on back then. The same violations of our human and constitutional rights, totally unjust - done in secret and quietly. We've chosen not to be quiet about this," said Jones. "They are destroying democracy with this Patriot Act. It's not just confined to us. It's other activist organizations as well."

Jones pointed out that under '70s FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover all civil rights organizations were under major surveillance. The Black Panther Party was considered by Hoover as the "greatest threat of national security to the nation."

Trans Africa President Bill Fletcher expressed the forum's concerned about the erosion of civil rights. "It is ironic that instead of having a press conference in which apologies are being offered to the individuals who were tortured and the many other victims of COINTELPRO, instead we are to call attention to the prosecution of people who were freedom fighters and continue to be."

A coalition of well-known intellectuals has also joined the Forum and the defense committee to enlighten the public about the covert activities being used by agents authorized by the Patriot Act.

"We condemn the persecution transpiring against these individuals. We wish to bring it to light when the word "terrorism" is in the air," said Ron Daniels, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights. "The anti-war movement and the civil rights movement had effectively checked the national security state in relationship to surveillance. Many of the forces particularly on the extreme right had been bristling and eager for an opportunity to impose new measures. The Patriot Act had already been on the drawing board. The terrorist attacks provided an opportunity for them to impose them." Daniels adds that "Before former Attorney General Ashcroft left, he issued a broad ranging edict that all the cases that involved any incident where a police officer had been killed and the case had been closed be re-opened...And if these men and women can be indicted or harassed, it sends a chilling effect," said, Daniels.

Professor Charles Ogletree, founder and executive director of Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard law School, said the community should protect the rights of these individuals with their lives.

"These gentlemen, Ray Boudreaux, Hank Jones and others have been victims of the most vicious forms of American terrorism and torture," said Ogletree. "It takes a village to protect its elders. We tell them today, through our presence here and through our commitment that we will provide a protective blanket over them. They will not come in this village and take these elders, except over our dead bodies."

Founded in 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey P. Newton in Oakland, Calif., the Black Panther Party grew to at least 5,000 members with chapters in more than half the country.

{For more information, visit the history section of the Afro American
Newspapers under Black Panther Party at www.afro.com.}


The Freedom Archives
522 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110
(415) 863-9977
www.freedomarchives.org .

[nattyreb]

This excellent website details the campaign to harrass, torture and jail these elder vets of the BPP. Photos, tons of info, and audio. Be sure to check it out, this is CRUCIAL information!

http://www.cdhrsupport.org/

[BlkSpartacus]

Peace,Blessing and thanks to the ancestors for blessing us with the warrior John Bowman... In a way Im glad that he doesnt have to deal with this racial harrasment built on these devils venegance

[nattyreb]

i don't want to repost everything that many of you already saw, but i definitely want to stress what an ***emergency*** situation these Strong Warrior Bros. are in. Please also visit www.thejerichomovement.com and read their open letter.

Also, if you haven't viewed it yet, i strongly encourage you to take a few moments and view the way the pigs treat our Brothas. There is video of a DNA extraction being taken (in lieu of physical force) from Bro. Jalil Muntaqim at http://www.jerichony.org/jalil.html. We need to see exactly how strong these Bros. are in the face of incredible harrassment. These charges could potentially have a devastating effect on he and Bro. Herman Bell's parole bids.

[nattyreb]

i thought of that, strong Bro., as well. That warrior had a lot of fight in him!, and would have been a tremendous organizer of the young people in the gulag. He's terribly, achingly missed. We still must ensure that his name is cleared of this vile set-up, just as we are doing with Sis. Merle Africa. Asante sana for the feedblack, i'm getting heated just typing about all this.

Originally Posted by BlkSpartacus

Peace,Blessing and thanks to the ancestors for blessing us with the warrior John Bowman... In a way Im glad that he doesnt have to deal with this racial harrasment built on these devils venegance

[nattyreb]

Bail Hearing and Arraignment
Set for Feb. 14, 2007

The first court hearing for the four defendants who live in
California-Richard Brown, Hank Jones, Richard O'Neal, and Ray Boudreaux-was
held in San Francisco Superior Court on January 29, 2007. They are presently
being held on bail of $3 million to $5 million each (!). Their arraignment
and a bail reduction hearing was carried over until February 14 at 9:00 a.m.
The Superior Court is at 850 Bryant Street in SF.

In addition to numerous reporters, thirty or forty supporters of the four
defendants were present in the courtroom. Attorneys for each of the four
spoke to the media after the brief hearing. It will be good if people can
turn out for the arraignment and bail reduction hearing on Valentine's Day.
These men need to get bailed out, which is impossible with the present
absurd bail amounts.

[TheBag]

Wow..i sincerely didn't even know that convictions of black panther party members still existed. That is completely unfortuante, and racist. The government should think of the many different tactics the police used, then, on the black civilians and black panther party members to secure an injust community for all. They should think about all of the murders the police commited upon the black community. I can't believe there's all of this hysteria over one cop...it's ridiculous. This country is so racist, and the worst part of it all is that they try to cover it up...their motives are transparent. It's not a coincidence that the population within the jails are almost 100% black...they should dwell on certain facts like that. I find it completely contradictory how the military and army are praised and viewed as heroes, although they use violence unnecessary, yet as soon as a defenceless group of people, who in actuality DO, and MUST use violence just to live come into the scene, they are suddenly viewed as villains. It's bullshit. BLACK PANTHER PARTY=REVOLUTION=TRUE EQUALITY

[nattyreb]

Absolutely, Sista, these Brothas have been living completely civilian lives and were snatched up for no good reason other than this system's vendetta against anyone or anything that remotely smells of independent thought from the mind-numbing hallucinogens that the puppeteers of George Bush are pushing. They don't care that these Brothas are upwards of 60 years of age (check some of their photos at the site http://www.cdhrsupport.org/ ... one transitioned {died} in December). All their captors care about is their maniacal yen for destruction, cruel and unusual punishment, TORTURE at all costs. Our freedom fighters are hated, feared, and viewed as subhuman "insurgents."

i'm gonna repost portions of something i wrote on the Open Forum, hope you don't mind that, OK?

PP is short for "political prisoner". A political prisoner is what any one of us would become should we be kidnapped and jailed by the pigs while we were doing political work/on the basis of the political work we had done in the past. Jailed for political reasons, they could, in fact, charge us with any sort of b.s. they could come up with. We in the movement would know, however, that this Sis./Bro. was viewed as a threat to them, and that this is the real reason they were yanked off the street.

POW is short for "prisoner of war". A prisoner of war is what any one of us would become should we be kidnapped while engaging in activities that affirm the reality that WE ARE AT WAR, i.e. being engaged in enemy combatant/defensive situations.

A political exile, as you probably already know, is one who was forced to flee the country in order to stay out of this shitstem's gulags. They live all over the world, but deserve to be able to come home to their families, communities, and comrades. We also fight for their rights to clear their names of bogus charges and to expose assassination attempts made on them by the agents of this system. Queen Assata refers to herself as a "maroon," an escaped slave, whom they hate/fear equally.

i want to once again encourage everyone to take a few minutes and view one of the rare videos we have of a PP being held in the clutches of this system and being forced to submit to their will under threat of extreme punishment. PLEASE just do this. We owe Bro. Jalil Muntaqim at *least* that much. (Please View at http://www.thejerichony.org/jalil.html)

There are over 150 PP's/POW's *recognized* as such being tortured, harrassed, deprived, and imprisoned by this system, some for as long as 42 years!!, many are former members of the BPP/BLA, American Indian Movement, Puerto Rican Independista Movement, white sympathizers with these and other liberation-aimed movements. These Bros/Sis are fast becoming elderly (many in their 60's and 70's) and are literally dying in these jail cells. THIS IS A BLACK MARK OF DISGRACE ON OUR ENTIRE MOVEMENT! Imagine, if you can, going to jail TODAY on behalf of our people's struggle, and never hearing from anyone, ever again! Rotting away, with no hope of release, no hope of even believing that folx know what you have sacrificed on their collective behalfs. What a wretched, tortured existence! WE MUST DO BETTER BY OUR FREEDOM FIGHTERS!

Please visit www.thejerichomovement.com, www.thetalkingdrum.com, and any individual PP/POW sites (such as www.afrikan.net/sundiata). Please check the postings in the PP/POW thread often and respond accordingly. Think about adopting a PP/POW to correspond with as often as you are able, your outside contact could be LIFE-SAVING and LIFE-AFFIRMING. Ongoing communications lets their captors know that someone on the outside is aware of what's going on inside, and may prevent more severe attacks because they know they can no longer do so under cover of darkness. SHINE A LIGHT on our PP's/POW's, they are depending on us for their very survival!!

Thanks again for the question, Sista. Always feel free to communicate!

[nattyreb]

This letter was written as an introduction to the video of the DNA extraction, which we all saw was to be taken by any means necessary and that he was treated as though a wild beast to be beaten down if he refused to comply.

TO: Friends and Supporters
FR: Jalil A. Muntaqim
RE: Snatched from Auburn on June 27, 2006
Dear Friends and Supporters:

Jalil Muntaqim- 6-27-06 DNA extraction <http://www.jerichony.org/jalil.html>You are about to witness what happened to me on *June 27, 2006*, when I was snatched from Auburn at 6:00AM and brought to Downstate Correctional Facility. On this date I was awakened by an Auburn sergeant who told me to get dressed and that I was being taken to *Downstate Correctional Facility*. I thought I was being transferred to another prison, as is often the case, I do not receive any notice before being transferred, and usually moved in the middle of the morning. After getting washing and getting dressed, I was escorted to the arrival/departure area of the prison, where I was stripped searched by three correctional officers. Once I redressed, shackles were placed on my legs, a waist-chain wrapped around my waist, and I was handcuffed to the waist chain with a block box over the handcuffs to further limit movement of the hands in the cuffs. I was then placed in a van with armed correctional's in the front seat with the driver and other in the back seat behind me. They had other armed officers in two chase cars that would escort the van I was in to the designated prison.

After a 4 hour ride I arrived at Downstate Correctional Facility and the van parked in the parking lot. There I stayed in the van shackled and cuffed for another 2 hours waiting to learn why I was brought to the prison. I was told that I would not be permitted to enter the prison, they didn't want me inside the prison, and would have to wait in the parking lot until I was to be seen. After a 2 hour wait, I was taken to the arrival/departure driveway of the prison hospital, where I was met by the prison "GOON SQUAD" or Ninja Turtles as they are often referred by prisoners when brutally assaulted by these guards.

I was forcible removed from the van, while complaining that they should take it easy, that I was getting out of the van. The guard on the left immediately seized my thumb and started twisting it in an effort to intimidate me and take control of the situation. As is seen, I was taken into the hospital and there informed I was brought to the facility in order for police officials to extract DNA from me. The court order stated they would use whatever force necessary to extract the DNA, either by swabbing my mouth or from taking blood through a hypodermic needle. Of course, I demanded my lawyer to be present for the entire proceedings and refused to give my name and number to identify myself for the proceedings.

Knowing New York State already has my DNA on record, it didn't seem prudent to resist, however, it was important to learn who were the major players in the proceeding. At that point I began to ask specific people questions to learn more about this unusual proceeding. You will learn exactly why I was snatched from Auburn and brought to Downstate Correctional Facility.

As many of you know, Homeland Security has provided various local police departments exorbitant amounts of money to open and attempt to solve cold cases. As you will leam, I was brought to the prison subject to such an investigation of a 35 year old case. But what is significant about the specific case is that *I was already in jail when the incident happened*. So, if I was already in jail, there is no way possible for me to have been a part of the incident being investigated or have *DNA at the scene of the incident*. Nonetheless, after the swab was taken, I was place back into the van and brought back to Aubum and allowed to retum to the cell, as if was a normal day doing time in the Big House!

It is obvious that Homeland Security and police departments are wasting millions of tax payer dollars, especially in efforts to intimidate and harass political prisoners. In over 35 years of imprisonment, I have leamed the state will conjure, manufacture, intimidate and torture innocent political prisoners and deny any semblance of human rights in order to establish their authority. In situations like this, activists should always demand to see, speak to, or have their attorney available. They should attempt to leam the names and official rank/position of all the players involved, and should never enter into dialogue or conversation about whatever is being investigated without the advise of your attomey. Remember - We Are Our Own Liberators!

[nattyreb]

For Immediate Release February 13, 2007
Lawyers Guild Condemns Racist Arrests of Black Panthers
Evidence Against Men Obtained Through Torture

San Francisco The National Lawyers Guild of the
San Francisco Bay Area (NLGSF) condemns the
arrests and prosecution of eight men believed to
be former members of the Black Liberation Army as
an attempt to validate political repression,
retaliation and state torture. A court hearing
is scheduled for February 14 at 9:00 a.m. at the
Superior Court, 850 Bryant Street in San Francisco.

The alleged crime, the killing of San Francisco
police officer John V. Young, took place nearly
three decades ago. In purposely removing the
trial from the context of its time, the
prosecution seeks to capitalize on the change in
public consciousness surrounding the Civil Rights
and Black Power movements and cast the defendants
as violent militants. ?There has never been any
reliable evidence connecting these men to the
alleged crime, but times have changed and
prosecutors may believe this is the best shot
they have,? said Carlos Villarreal, Executive
Director of the NLGSF. ?At the time people were
more aware of the violence committed by law
enforcement against African Americans and radical political movements.?

The state is also attempting to deny its
involvement in torturing several of the
defendants. As Stuart Hanlon, the attorney for
one of the defendants, emphasizes, ?people have
to understand this is actual torture with cattle
prods by New Orleans policemen, where San
Francisco policemen were sitting outside the
room, obviously knowing what was going on to get
information? torture doesn't lead to the truth.
It leads to what the torturers want to hear.?

The Guild also sees the prosecution of these men
as part of a renewed crackdown on activists that
comes as law enforcement goes after environmental
activists, animal rights activists, and real or
perceived anarchists who rarely pose a threat to anyone.

?The government is attempting to prosecute
these innocent men for crimes they did not commit
on the basis of their political beliefs. We see
this as part of a larger government campaign
targeting social justice activists on the false
premise of combating ?domestic
terrorism.? Organizing against racism and police
brutality should not make one vulnerable to state
retaliation.? Said Mel Campagna, Chair of the
National Lawyers Guild Anti-Racism Committee.

The National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area
has nearly 1,000 lawyer, law student, and legal
worker members from Sacramento to San Jose. We
seek to unite the lawyers, law students, legal
workers, and jailhouse lawyers of America in an
organization which shall function as an effective
political and social force in the service of the
people, to the end that human rights shall be
regarded as more sacred than property
interests. Find out more at www.nlgsf.org.

###

[nattyreb]

http://freethesf8.org/

Bail News: Six Out but Prosecutor Moves to Revoke One
Latest news: Judge rules to keep Harold Taylor free on bail

On December 20, a hearing was held on the motion by Attorney General David Druliner requesting that Harold Taylor's bail be increased to $7 million or that he be held without bail. Druliner's stated reason for the request is Harold's arrest the previous week in Florida for "attempted purchase of cocaine." At the hearing Judge Philip Moscone said that "while it is a violation of bail conditions [to purchase controlled substances]," Harold Taylor's bail will remain the same at this point.

In front of a large turnout of supporters in the courtroom, Judge Moscone decided that issues relating to the Florida arrest would be revisited in January after it is determined what Florida courts will do – charges have not even been filed yet. Harold Taylor is scheduled to appear again on January 17 on that matter in Florida.

The judge was clear that he does not consider these issues to affect public safety or Harold Taylor's intentions to appear in hearings for the San Francisco 8.

It is clear from the arrest and all the surrounding circumstances that the charge against Harold in Florida is totally baseless. A thorough search of his person and his van resulted in NO seizure of any substances, legal or illegal. Further, NO allegation is even made that any money was produced. Harold was swept up in a sting operation in which numerous individuals were arrested. All except Harold were alleged to have actually made a purchase. None of them were with him when he was arrested. He has NO drug history! In short, Harold was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He had gone to this neighborhood to thank some of the people who had written letters of support for him when he was seeking release on bail in San Francisco.

News of his arrest spread quickly and he was bailed out shortly after he appeared in a Florida court.

Just days earlier he had appeared on "Democracy Now" with host Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, and attended a press conference held by the World Council of Churches at Riverside Church announcing international support for the SF8 launched by Archbishop Desmond Tutu and other Nobel Laureates.

Harold has made all of his court appearances and has every intention of fighting the charges in San Francisco and Florida. In light of the torture he suffered in New Orleans in 1973, his strength and character in the face of this latest ordeal are amazing. The stress this has caused for him and his family is overwhelming.
Future hearings

The next hearing for all of the SF 8 is on Thursday, January 10 at 9:30 a.m. in Department 23, 850 Bryant Street. Several motions to dismiss one of the counts will be heard. The brothers will be also be entering their Not-Guilty pleas. The prosecution's motion to revoke or raise Harold Taylor's bail will also be revisited.

On April 21, the preliminary hearing will begin. Defense arguments will suggest that issues of double jeopardy exist as statements obtained under torture and being put forward as "evidence" by the prosecution were already at issue (and thrown out) in other 1970s cases which led to acquittal.
September: Six out on bail

Francisco Torres was freed on bail September 21, the last of those eligible for bail. Hank Jones was released on bail September 18, Harold Taylor on 12, and Ray Boudreaux on September 11.

Richard O'Neal was freed on bail August 29 and Richard Brown on August 30.

Neither Herman Bell nor Jalil Muntaqim is eligible for bail even though they are both parole-eligible in New York State. Both have served over 30 years in various prisons for their political ideas, commitments and their participation in the Black Liberation Struggle.

Committee for the Defense of Human Rights
P.O. Box 90221
Pasadena, CA 91109

(415) 226-1120
E-mail: freethesf8@riseup.net