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Posted by Ame WHAT TO DO --
on 6/30/2006, 6:56 pm
61.68.250.67
From: "Don E Wirtshafter"
Subject: Help Stop Government Repression
Date: Sun, Jun 25, 2006 07:55 PM
RIGHTS CRISIS IN COLORADO --
At this writing Forest Service law enforcement has
issued over 500 tickets to the early arrivals at the gathering in Colorado. They have blocked the road and have prevented food and water from reaching those who managed to get into the gathering before the police roadblock was set up. The 500 people with tickets are being herded into trials like none anyone has seen before in America. These pseudo trials are prototypes for what Homeland Security will use in the cases of insurrection or even a plague. Defendants lose the right to a public hearing (this year these hearings are being held behind closed doors in a firehouse garage near the site. Attorneys and legal observers have been denied
the right to even view these trials. The defendants are not explained their rights nor afforded the right to an attorney, the right to summon witnesses, the right to a jury trial, etc. Defendants ordered to appear each day at 9:00 a.m. and sit in the hot sun without water or sanitary facilities until their trials. Some have now been waiting for several days. These abbreviated trials only take a few minutes. Last year I tried to help a string of defendants defend themselves in these "trials" but felt helpless to do much as the system
was clearly stacked against them. This year is
especially frustrating to me as I have to watch this come down from 6000 miles away. Right now I am in Hungary at a medical conference for my employment. I am flying home on Thursday and plan on being in court Saturday, July 1st, to defend some of my best friends who got a ticket for "illegally gathering" as they drove down a public highway.
The confrontation this year is getting more intense by the minute, which is why I am asking for your help. The only way to stop a massive conflagration in Colorado in the next few days is to get thousands of people to contact their political representatives as well as the responsible administrators at the
Forest Service to demand that this repression stop
immediately. Please, even if you can never conceive of yourself at a Rainbow Gathering, you must understand that if these citizens lose their constitutional right to gather, we all lose such
rights. This year the Rainbow Gathering is being
used to set precedents that will be turned against
drug policy, civil liberty, anti-war or other
activists in the near future. Following are some
instructions on who to write and/or call. We hope to start flooding the Department of Agriculture and the Forest Service with complaints starting Monday morning and not stopping until harassment stops. It is especially important that we get a
few Congressional representative and Senators
concerned enough to write the Forest Service for an explanation of why so much money is being spent to keep people from camping in the National Forest set aside for exactly that purpose. Please keep the pressure on these bureaucrats until we are able to spread the word that the government has backed off and that the gathering can proceed unhindered. If you do not know the contact information for your
Congressman or Senator, you can find this here. You can call your representative at 212-224-3121.
Besides your representatives in Washington, please
call and write the following people to voice your
protest to this harsh treatment of people who just
want to go on a camping trip in the woods. Keep the calls coming until word is passed around that the government has called off their dogs. Please forward this letter to your friends and feel free to re-post it on any listserv or website you wish. Email me if you have any questions.
Don E Wirtshafter
Attorney at Law
Box 18 Guysville, OH 45735
740 662 5297
don@hempery.com
USDA, Natural Resources & Environment
Mark Rey, USDA Undersecretary
1400 Independence Ave. SW, # 217-E
Washington, DC 20250
202-720-7173 Fax: 202-720-0632
mark.rey@usda.gov
Kathleen Gause, Director 202-205-8534
USDA Forest Service
Civil Rights Staff
Stop Code 1142
1400 Independence Ave., S.W.
Washington., DC 20250-1142
Tel (202) 205-1585
Office of the Chief
NetZero Message Center 06/26/2006 01:52 AM
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http://www.csindy.com/csindy/2006-06-22/cover.html
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