Move it along, sir!

By | May 14, 2010

Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a Youtube clip of the South Park mall cops, so this will have to suffice.

George Donnelly needs your help.

On Tuesday, George, along with several other liberty lovin’ activists, went up to the Allentown (PA) federal courthouse to hand out pamphlets about jury nullification.  While there, federal glorified rent-a-cops began to hassle Julian Heicklen, a longtime FIJA activist.  When Julian exercised his rights and refused to back down, he was then – according to fellow activist and eyewitness Jim Babb – assaulted by a female officer.  During the chaos, George was tackled and arrested by the above-mentioned rent-a-cops; he then spent almost a full 48 hours in federal lockup.

His crime?

Filming the incident between Dr. Heicklen and the US Marshals.

Look, I don’t give a damn if you think jury nullification is bullshit.  I’m not a big fan of it myself; it’s too close to trying to modify an already screwed up system for my tastes.  I care about the fact that a man was not only arrested, but also treated like a violent criminal for daring to videotape an interaction between government officials and the public.

If this isn’t a case of “respect mah authoritah” styled fascism, I don’t know what is.

I know women who have been raped.  Who have had their homes broken into and been assaulted.  Who have been beaten to bloody pulps by their husbands, boyfriends, lovers, wives, or girlfriends.  Who know, beyond a shadow of a doubt, who their attacker was, but thanks to police incompetence, the people who have brutalized them get to walk free.

But shit, son, videotape a potential bullshit arrest?  Look forward to solitary, bitches!

Luckily, George was released this afternoon (as in the afternoon of May 13th), but like all movie cliches, his release is bittersweet.  George is currently facing some pretty heavy, bullshit charges; I’ve been hearing “assault” because he refused to hand over his video camera.  Technicalities and abusing the law are great and wonderful things!  Additionally, he is currently sitting on house arrest until his trial.

No, I’m not making this up, exaggerating or being dramatic.  Clearly, he is the person I should be afraid of here, not the “cops” who tackled him to the ground, stole his camera, and threw him in prison for 2 days.  Right-o.

As you can imagine, the next few months (or years, however the hell long it is for him) are going to be rough for George and his family.  It’s hard enough being in a “he said-she said” case against a regular person; imagine being in a “he said-she said” against the government with only two libertarians backing you up!  He is going to be under a crazy amount of stress until these charges are (hopefully!) dismissed.

This is where your help is needed.

George needs a good criminal defense attorney who is well versed in first amendment cases and doesn’t mind taking on the federal government.  He will also need a legal defense fund; he’s got a wife and a young son at home, let’s try to help ease the financial pressure on them.  As of right now (Friday, May 14th, 2:46 am EST), George is taking donations through his paypal account (edit: forget to check the link; just go directly to George’s site and you’ll see a Paypal button on the right-hand side, just below his “about the author” blurb).  I will update if I find out anything else regarding a legal defense fund for him.

I know that the internet regularly sucks my will to live, but incidences like these are one of the few times I feel like I can have faith in the ‘tubes.  This whole situation kills me.  Admittedly, it’s in part because even though we haven’t met (yet), George and I run in some of the same circles and have several shared acquaintances/irl friends.  Please help him in whatever way you can; even if you can’t donate money right now, just spread the info around and maybe you know someone who can.

For more info, here’s a dump of blog posts and articles with more information about the situation and George’s outreach work with FIJA:

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