No
Evidence — NO CASE!
Produce the Fence Or Drop the Charges!
Fighting Racism Is Not a Crime!
On July 16 the people of Ann Arbor will have an opportunity to put an end to
the disgraceful political witchhunt launched by their city government one year
ago against antiracists who protested the May 9, 1998 Ku Klux Klan rally.
On Friday, July 16, at 12Noon, there will be an antiracist
picket at the courthouse in downtown Ann Arbor. At 1PM, an evidentiary hearing
for ten antiracist defendants will take place in Judge Ann Mattson’s
courtroom.
In the wake of the acquittal of Ryan Lang (see box) the Ann
Arbor city government’s witchhunt against antiracists is beginning to fall
apart. This hearing is an opportunity to deliver what would likely be a
decisive blow to the more than a year old witchhunt. Getting the ten
misdemeanor charges dismissed on the heels of the powerful victory against the
felony "riot" charge in Ryan’s case could well finish off these
prosecutions altogether.
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Victory!
On Friday, June 4, just after 7PM, an all-white six
person jury found 16-year-old antiracist Ryan Lang not guilty of
"Riot" and all other charges. The jury deliberated for less
than an hour after the three-day trial. The jury refused to even convict
Ryan of the frivolous lesser included misdemeanor "Disturbing the
Peace". The verdict drew a burst of applause from the crowded
courtroom gallery as it was read.
One juror, immediately following the not guilty
verdict said: "I can put it in a nutshell for you. They had no
evidence – no evidence at all."
In sharp contrast to the prosecution case (which made
up for having what jurors called "no evidence at all" with an
effort as relentless as it was ineffective to convict Ryan on the basis
of guilt-by-association) the defense case was truthful and compelling. A
long and diverse series of witnesses all testified to the central
proposition of the defense: there was no riot on May
9, 1998. |
All antiracists and all who care about civil liberties
should attend.
The ten defendants are some of the hundreds of
antiracists who protested the Ku Klux Klan rally in Ann Arbor on May 9,
1998. They are accused of having damaged the chain link rental fence erected
by the city government as part of its $137,000 project to protect and stage
the KKK’s rally. The charge is a misdemeanor called "Malicious
Destruction of Property Under $100".
Given that the only physical evidence in these cases
– the chain link fence itself – was destroyed with the authorization of
the police, the evidentiary hearing to determine whether and if so,
when, how, where and by whom the fence was damaged should prove very
difficult for the prosecution. Among the defendants are prominent
antiracists and leaders of the movement to defend affirmative action and the
Defend Affirmative Action Party at the University of Michigan.
NO EVIDENCE – NO RECORD
The police and prosecutor’s office are claiming that the
fence was damaged, but the police department never made any assessment
of the condition of the fence. The fence company made a casual
and entirely cursory assessment of the fence. Knowing they had a standard
blank-check insurance policy from the city for any assessment of material loss
– they had a financial incentive to bend the stick in the direction of
assessing damage. No record was ever made of the alleged damage by either the
police or the fence company.
The police then allowed the basis of these charges to be
scrapped and melted down, leaving only the bill from the fence company as
"evidence" of damage.
This bill is now the lynchpin of ten misdemeanor charges.
The fence company, of course, could have no notion that the bill they wrote up
on the basis of this cursory assessment of the condition of the fence would
later be the central piece of evidence in criminal charges against ten people.
The company has a vested interest in maintaining the position that the fence
was damaged.
Police photographs of the fence after the rally, still
images secured from police video, eyewitness affidavits of neutral observers,
including several Peace Team members, an expert witness affidavit from the
owner/operator of a fence company who viewed the fence in question on multiple
police videos all indicate that there was no damage done to the rental fence. In
fact, the Peace Team re-erected the fence subsequent to it being pulled from
the poles by the counter-demonstrators.
Below is a quote from the introduction to the defendants’
Motion to Dismiss the Charges.
* * *
"There is, however, an even more weighty obstacle to
proceeding with these cases than the demonstrable innocence of the accused.
There is no evidence.
The police authorized the removal and allowed the
destruction of the decisive and the only piece of physical evidence -- the
subject of the alleged crime itself -- the chain link fence. Without
the fence there is no case.
The police made no record of the damage they allege; no
video, no still photographs, not so much as a leaf from a police notebook is
to be found in the police reports that document the damage that defendants are
alleged to have caused.
It is bad faith for the police to pay the fence company to
remove and destroy the very subject of charges and yet continue to pursue
prosecution. […]
Not only does the nonexistence of the physical evidence
make genuine, searching evaluation impossible for a future jury, it makes
independent investigation impossible for the defendants.
Justice, common sense and law dictate the impossibility of
proceeding without this evidence."
Please attend this evidentiary hearing and help make
sure justice is done.
Picket and Attend the Evidentiary Hearing!
Friday, July 16, 12 Noon
Downtown Courthouse
(Main & Huron, Ann Arbor)