It was over six months ago that I found myself led out of a courtroom bound in handcuffs and shackles and taken to a Federal Prison in Dublin. As of today I’ve spent over 168 days in here and given Judge Alsup’s recent ruling it doesn’t seem likely that I’ll be getting out any time soon.
I never thought this would happen. I grew up being taught that the United States was the greatest country on earth. That dissent was not only permitted but encouraged, and that we had a free press that was not encumbered by government interference. This is so longer the case. One night I went to sleep in a free America, but I woke up in a police state. It’s hard to say when this transformation transpired; many would contend that it began shortly after September 11th, some would argue that it wasn’t until lies led us into the War in Iraq, and still others would say we started down this road soon after the American Revolution. I’m not sure who is right, but I do know that the process of waking up to this grim reality has been a painful one.
Many have asked me why I’ve chosen to sacrifice my personal freedom, and there are a multitude of reasons why I have taken the stance that I have. Most pressing is the fact that a free press in a democracy cannot act as an extension of the justice department. This can be summed up nicely with the words of Amy Goodman who recently stated “we’re supposed to be the fourth estate not for the State.”
If the U.S. Attorney can compel journalists to testify about what they’ve learned through their work and to force then to turn over their unpublished materials then not only will the public be unable to trust reporters but journalists themselves will become defacto deputies and investigators–a role few of us want and one I have refused to accept. This is not a new construct, it is one that dates back to the founding of our country and is one that is guaranteed under the First Amendment of our Constitution.
Thomas Jefferson once stated, “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate to prefer the latter,” And with these words I must wonder exactly how he’d feel about the people who took to the street on July 8th, 2005 in protest of a government they fell no longer represents then and how he’d feel about the media that covers their struggle.
The second reason compelling me to refuse to cooperate with the Grand Jury subpoena is that this whole thing is not about what the government would have you believe it to be. This case is not about a videotape, it’s not about identifying suspects of a crime and it’s not about obtaining justice. If it were, then the U.S. Attorney would not have argued against the judge reviewing my outtakes in his chambers and the U.S. Attorney would have been more receptive to the inquires my defense team made.
No, this case is not about a videotape and it’s not about justice. This entire matter is about eroding the rights of privacy and those of a free press. It is about identifying civil dissidents and using members of the news media to actively assist in what is essentially an anarchist witchhunt. This is what I have suspected from the beginning, but it has been brought closer into focus with the government’s recent response to our motion. I will not allow myself to be put in a position of outing anarchists who likely are guilty of nothing more that possessing political beliefs outside the American norm.
How many of the freedoms promised to us in the Bill of Rights are still intact? How many more liberties will be eroded away? The future is uncertain, but at present the military continues to wage war in Iraq in the name of freedom. I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at the tragic irony of it all.
The role of the media is to ask the questions, to point at those inconsistencies, and to demand answers from the powers that be. This is why the media is under attack and this is why it is so urgent that we continue to fight back. Because without a free press we can never be free.
And I’ll conclude with the word of Mario Savio that defined the Free Speech Movement some 40 years ago and still possesses a tremendous vitality today. On December 2, 1964, in the city of Berkeley, Savio stated, “There’s a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part, you can’t even tacitly take part. And you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all.”
Thank you, and I look forward to returning back to San Francisco just as soon as the government comes to its senses and realizes that I will not- that I cannot be coerced.
Thanks again,
Josh Wolf
Josh,
Thank you for standing up for what you believe in. You’re a wonderful human being and inspire us all!
Josh, if you were a journalist, and you filmed a news story…if it was for the public, then the police would have it automatically, right? Instead, you filmed a “snuff” movie of someone destroying property and attacking a police officer. You didn’t release it to the public. Therefore, you are not a journalist, because it was never in your interest to inform the public. Thanks for nothing, and have fun in jail, you bastard.
I keep you in my evening prayers.
Josh,
Don’t let the neo-nazi bastards get you down, however, you might want to reconsider. While you are in jail these nazis have nothing to fear from you. If you are out there taking pictures of them, documenting their behaviour they have something to fear. Do some investigating, such as, who they are, who they associate/work with, who donates money to their cause, what they do to those that are freedom minded, what specific things they do that would be considered “crimes against humanity”. Don’t laugh. It is surprising what a nazi will brazenly do when he thinks he is above the law. Just look at some of the comments you have already received from them…
I understand your principled stance, but there is no sense in getting cut down now for not much. There will be plenty of crap coming down the pipe that you should be preparing to cover, such as mass arrests, torture, zelots (some of whom have already commented above) informing on others. I’m pretty sure you will have all kinds of chances to show that you are a patriot, plus, when the shit really hits the fan and these nazis in power now get to stand trial you can whip out the video… They will get a long drop at the end of a short rope, all thanks to you. Think about it.
Rot
in jail. See that the great thing about America, if you get a SUBPOENA you must comply. Dumb ass.
Josh,
You and your Infoshop/riseup/indybay, bandanna bloc kids aren’t fooling anyone. This has less to do with any actual crime or grievance being committed and more so to do with your 15minutes of fame, book deal, and teen-angst martyrdom. Get over yourself. If your mother truly knew what you kids do, she wouldn’t be protecting your sorry ass.
josh, you poor tool. stay in jail. fight the “good fight” for all your buddies here egging you on with thier words, and for the few that are willing to give up thier pocket change for your legal defense. live the revolution man! this is what it takes to be a martyr for your cause. lucky you live in america instead of one of the leftwing utopias you envy, where the workers are in charge of the details, right?
This Mark guy is either obsessed or on the pay roll…pretty pathetic either way.
Oh, by the way josh, although I am sure it is far from your mind, don’t pay any attention to the pathetic kids in their parents basement writing angry messages on a blog to someone they don’t even know. What a way to live it must be. At night and lonely and averting their eyes from mirrors to not see their reptile face. Sad.
Josh,
Hold your head, hit that commisary up /be easy/etc/etc. You will get out one of these days don’t worry, be calm, maybe sooner than you think. Get with Books Behind Bars if you need some free books. Real people miss & love you.
Great post Len!
Josh, as unfortunate as it is there are too many people out there that still believe that Big Brother is your friend.
You ARE fighting the good fight.
Screw the people who submit to unfair requests from State, they’ll be the first to switch sides when the shit hits the fan.
We have you in our thoughts!!
See this…. Looks Awesome…http://enginepuller.com/
I left this comment on the previous entry but one of the questions was answered already here. So the idea is to identify the protesters. If that is the case why don’t they just use their own videos? I have never been to any demonstration that did not have FBI and Mossad operatives taking pictures and videos of the event.
If you have not seen Terror Storm by Alex Jones then you are really missing something. It is a must see for anyone who thinks the government cares about you. The website is http://www.infowars.com
Peace be unto you,
I have two questions:
What do you think the government is looking for in the unpublished videos or pictures?
If Josh is Jewish, what is the Jewish community doing to assist in his release?
Please post your answers in this comment section. Thanks.
To Achalemoipas,
You said,
on February 7th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
“Hitler was never elected you faux-intellectual.”
I beg to differ with you. Between the end of WWI and 1933, Germany had a democratic government they called the Weimar Republic. This government was never popular with Germans disgruntled from the results of the war and especially frustrated proponents of the Kaiser as well as many others. However, Hitler and his National Socialist German Workers Party did get elected to the Parliament in 1933, but only with a percentage of less than 5% of the popular vote. It wasn’t until Hitler got help from like-thinking industrialist and royalists within the parliament that he was “elected” to become chancellor. From then on he used deceit of the masses (through propaganda), influence (through money provided by the industrialists) and terror (most evident in the Reich’s Pogrom Night on November 7, 1938, when synagogues, Jewish shops and anything else Jewish were destroyed all over Germany) to promote the Nazi agenda.
So Achalemoipas, who is the faux-intellectual?
There are no absolute rights. Free speech, argueably our most precicious, can be abrogated if a judge feels that speech can unfairly influence a person getting a fail trial. In the same way, freedom of the press demands that journalists be able to protect their sources. They do not have to reveal those sources if a prosecutor or a police investigator asks them too. A journalist can argue that the loss of press freedom is more important than the needs of the government. However, in our system of laws, when a judge rules that the needs of the government are greater than the dimunition of press freedom, the discussion is over (absent appeals), and the the journalist must comply. The right is not absolute.
How do I explain the actions of our current administration to my children? Apparently a lack of integrity, morals and ethics is acceptable. We need to decide if our current path is the one we want to follow. I for one, would like to proudly state that I am an American, at this time, that is not possible. Police, Politicians and yes journalists need to realize that they have clouded the boundaries and let us all down. Who do our children look up to? Taking a stand is admirable, it shows strength and principle, but living by principles shows strength of character. Josh, is your stand sincere or a calculated investment in your journalist future?
“MidWesterner said,
on February 7th, 2007 at 9:26 pm
This Mark guy is either obsessed or on the pay roll…pretty pathetic either way.”
True, MidWesterner. I actually am on the payroll of the Starbuck’s/McDonald’s/Neocon/SFPD conglomerate. They’ve got all of us working overtime to try to stamp out democracy, starting with the most obvious place: Josh Wolf. I don’t like working overtime (I prefer to outsource the really tough stuff to third world children), but hey, Josh Wolf is the focal point of democracy in the modern world, and something must be done!
Follow your heart… And only you can do that…
You have to wonder about a so-called “journalist” anarchist who claims to be violating the law because of some imaginary “Constitutional” rights to refuse to cooperate with a Grand Jury.
No one else sees the irony in an anarchist looking to supposed government protections for support?
Stay strong, the world is watching and happy to see that not all Americans support “their” state blindly.
Greetings from Amsterdam
Good thing is – people in prison have a VERY low chance of impregnating anybody. I’m glad you’re in there, it’s protecting the gene pool of our future from self-important blowhards who never really made it so pretended that they had.
For Palestine Eternal
Because this isn’t about investigating a crime or getting evidence on it. It’s about identifying kids so that they can build a case against a fictitious organization called the “Black Block”. I believe the grand jury wants to screen the tape in Josh’s presence and then ask him to identify various people depicted on it including names, phone numbers, etc. They believe Josh knows these kids and can provide that information.
I don’t know. Is Josh Jewish? His grandmother’s mother was put in a camp during the Holocaust, as I remember. But his grandmother was a unitarian in terms of religion, not Jewish. His Mom doesn’t follow Judaism nor does Josh. His Mom was a Buddhist and is now a Christian. Josh has been a Christian and resonates somewhat with Buddhism. I can’t say what, if any, religion he holds now. As I understand, had his grandmother, his mother, and himself remained within Judaism, he would be considered Jewish by the state of Israel and he would be eligible for immigration and automatic citizenship. Had they also simply stopped practicing their religion or become atheists, it would have been the same thing. Adopting another religion voids that, as I understand it. I’m Josh’s Dad and I’m not Jewish, but that makes no difference whatsoever, since this is determined by who your mother is.
I don’t know of any particular support for Josh coming from the Jewish community because he is Jewish, but I don’t know everything that’s going on. I hesitate to speak for Josh, and this is my guess, not his position, but I doubt that he identifies as Jewish in any other sense than some of his ancestors were.
I think there are many people who have responded to this that do not fully understand what is going on here. I will start with a few of the basics, and move on to the issues.
In the beginning, God created man. Man then created Government. Government destroyed God. Government has attempted to become god.
“We the People” is not just a phrase, it is a whole statement; a statement with an undeniable meaning of power and authority. We, the people of this planet, more specifically, this country are the ultimate authority. Our government exists for one purpose and one purpose only; it is an extension, a group of delegates, of the power and authority of the people. The government is supposed to act in the best interest of the people that it represents.
In this day, my view is considered an idealistic or unrealistic view of government.
Each of us, each individual is a Sovereign Entity. We are the beginning and the end of the law within our country. To this end, we realized that we cannot all be a country to ourselves, so we enlisted representatives to gather and create a grouping of laws, rules, regulations, policies, codes, and guidelines that everyone could agree upon. Then we gave them power to enforce these laws, rules, regulations, policies, codes, and guidelines upon the population.
It is important to note here that the government didn’t spring out of nothing and take over. The government is a tool designed and created for the express purpose of maintaining peace, of maintaining commerce and friendly political relations between the several states. Each state is a grouping of citizens, cities, and counties. Each state is essentially its own country, with a constitution and a government. The Union, or this United conglomeration of states is an agreement between the states to maintain a bond of unity.
The only way this might be achieved is via a united government. When you start at the basic unit, and build it up, it makes sense:
*The Individual with all the rights inherent in creation and free will.
*The Community, a grouping of like minded individuals, or individuals with wants and needs in common.
*The State, a grouping of smaller communities, communities that are working in tandem for the benefit of the whole.
*The Union, a grouping of states – also working in tandem for the benefit of the whole
The only item in this list that has RIGHTS and PRIVILEGES is the INDIVIDUAL. All other items in this list have powers and authorities that are delegated or derived from the individual.
“State’s Rights” is a misnomer. It is actually the act that allows citizens of a state to NOT LOOSE their rights to the federal government. It isn’t a right the state can exercise, but it is a right that the state can RESERVE to the citizens.
Since some time in the 1940′s we have been loosing our government, or control of our government. This government today is the result of years of loosing a little control each year over the years. The government now controls itself without thought or concern for the people that it once represented. It is a group of people who are nothing more than a bunch of “professionals”, and our system of government wasn’t intended to be run by “them”, but by “we the people”…
People in politics are rich. There is no room in government for the poor. Because of this, there are MILLIONS of Citizens that will be unrepresented or under represented in the current government. Roosevelt called this a Plutocracy, or a rule of the rich. Our government has been overrun by special interest groups, which are also not a representation of the people, but a representation of some minority faction. The Rich get Richer…
The PUBLIC SERVANTS have now become the MASTERS by writing their own ticket. They give themselves raises…but they are rich, they don’t need the income, but it isn’t the money, it is the principal of it…
While they get paid in the 100-200K range, the AVERAGE American is making 40K. Instead of the public servants abiding by the same rules we, the masters, are bound to, they give themselves special treatments…they have their own retirement plans which make my 401K look like a my daughter’s penny filled piggy bank. They have their own medicare(ish) program…etc.
So the Rich continue to get even richer…
Since when did any servant get better pay and better benefits than their master?
So, here is the current situation we find ourselves. A government not bound by the will of the people, a government that can exist for its own sake, not for the benefit of the citizens and states of the Union it was formed to protect.
Along come people like Josh. People who believe in their freedoms, people who believe in their sovereignty…only, the government doesn’t see it that way…currently we are subjects, not sovereign citizens.
Instead of “innocent until proven guilty”, instead of providing compelling reasons and sound law, they simply say, “give us what we want, or pay the price”. Only, this isn’t how the system was designed, this isn’t the purpose of the system…
The Justice system wasn’t intended to be a political tool, nor was it intended to be used against a citizen that has not transgressed the common law or violated another’s sovereign rights.
If the government wants what Josh has, they have to provide compelling proof of its need, of the rights of the people to have what Josh has…they would have to prove that Josh is violating some law or the rights of some citizens. But, again, my views are considered idealistic…
Instead of this, the government can now hold people indefinitely as “suspected” terrorists; no proof, no trial, no defense…
The government can withhold evidence; no way to defend yourself…
The government can deny liability and culpability; immunity from prosecution for violation of a sovereign citizen’s rights…
Over-criminalization is the order of the day. If we can be prosecuted for the government’s failure to do it’s job, and negative proof can be used to send innocent people to jail, and secret courts and secret evidence is enough to lock someone up, and requiring citizens to prove their own innocence…if these can come to be, and they have, how are we to remain free?
The answer is, we aren’t free. Freedom in this country is an illusion. People believe they are free only because they aren’t in jail (yet). People believe they are free only because someone hasn’t told them they are really some kind of slave. Working to pay taxes to make the rich in the government even richer…working for corporate America who is getting rich on the backs of the laborer, while the common man struggles to make ends meet. No more is the day of paying a fair price for a product of service…we must pay what the price is, or suffer without. Look at the CEO of Microsoft, Enron, Exxon, and many other corporations, the scandals of ripping off our retirement and getting unreasonable pay and pay increases.
Guess what, America…we are all slaves. Slaves to a system that we have let get out of control. We are victims of our own complacency.
So, Josh, when the Government provides sound reasoning, based on precedent, based on constitutional law, for you to turn over your materials, I would suggest you do so. Until then, hold on. As a sovereign citizen, you have the right to your property, your privacy, and your free speech. (c)
The founding fathers of this great country would have been called criminal activists and terrorists. They would have railed against leaders who pretend to believe in freedom, but destroy it every chance they get.
Cool, I didn’t know that Mario Savio quote. It reminds me of a Henry David Thoreau quote:
“But when the friction comes to have its machine, and oppression and robbery are organized, I say, let us not have such a machine any longer. In other words, when a sixth of the population of a nation which has undertaken to be the refuge of liberty are slaves, and a whole country is unjustly overrun and conquered by a foreign army, and subjected to military law, I think that it is not too soon for honest men to rebel and revolutionize. What makes this duty the more urgent is the fact that the country so overrun is not our own, but ours is the invading army.”
I commend you on standing up for what you believe in and standing up for your rights against those who seek to control us. I am sorry you must endure that jail and all that must happen on a daily basis.Jails are for criminals.
Hold your head high and be strong!!May god protect you and quickly take you out of that place!!
Transportation Mini Umzug Kleinumzug mit Möbeltaxi Berlin
Document most certainly succumb to which usually group young ladies this kind of tool buy this approach clothes wherever, any place!