Also in this issue of the Indypendent: Arun Gupta on Israel and the flotilla massacre; Honduras one year after the coup; and an interview with a food justice activist. For all that and much more, see below.

Students Win Last Chance for Diploma || Flotilla Attack Fuels Movement Targeting Israel || Getting Real on Food with Jen Griffith || Out on the Streets: Understanding the Section 8 Crisis || Ticket to Ride: Students Win MetroCard Fight || Honduras on the March || The Victim that is Israel || /a> || Summer Lit Picks || Stage, Screen and Rooftop: Film and Comedy || Community Calendar || Reader Comments

oscar grant On July 8th, 2010, former BART police officer Johannes Mehserle was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter for shooting and killing Oscar Grant on January 1st, 2009 in Oakland, California. Mehserle was led away from the courtroom in handcuffs and is now in custody. His sentencing is expect on Friday, August 6th. Involuntary manslaughter can carry 2, 4, and 6 years, with 10 added for a gun enhancement.

Protests are are taking place in Los Angeles; Oakland; Palo Alto; Fresno; San Diego; Portland, OR; Bloomington, Indiana; and elsewhere.

Before you go out in the streets for any reason after the verdict, write the National Lawyers Guild's Bay Area hotline number on your arm: (415) 285-1011. The NLG will be documenting police abuses in the streets and providing legal support throughout.

Previous coverage: Jury Deliberations Have Begun, Mehserle Verdict Date Unknown

For weeks, as the trial of BART police officer Johannes Mehserle for the murder of Oscar Grant has progressed, city leaders have been stirring up fears of "outside agitators" bringing trouble to Oakland should Mehserle be acquitted or found guilty of a lesser charge of manslaughter rather than the maximum now available, second degree murder. Corporate television stations have been running near daily coverage of Oakland police preparing to quell riots, while local non-profits have been disseminating talking points geared toward "inoculating" Oakland youth.

The Oakland General Assembly for Justice for Oscar Grant held a press conference to forcefully assert the people's right to gather publicly on the day of the verdict in Johannes Mehserle's trial for the murder of Oscar Grant and to confront the distractions and misinformation currently being spread across the city by the Mayor's office, the Oakland police department, and local non-profit organizations. Speakers reiterated that the focus now and on the day of the verdict should be on justice for Oscar Grant and all victims of police violence, not potential property destruction should Mehserle be convicted of something less than second degree murder or acquitted all together. As Karissa Shaw made plain, "Everybody's talking about peace and we're still waiting on our justice."

The date of the verdict announcement is unknown. Jury deliberations will start again from scratch on July 7th as one juror is excused for vacation and an alternate is brought in to join the jury.

Day of Verdict Community Gathering Announcements:
OAKLAND - 6pm, 14th and Broadway: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5
FRESNO - 6pm, Fresno and C
LOS ANGELES - before 5pm, at court house; after 5pm, Liemert Park

Press Conference: Video | Photos & Report | Announcement

See Also: An Open Letter to Those Who Criticize and Attack | Justice or Just Us? Beyond the Hype of the Mehserle Trial | A Friendly and Open Letter to East Bay Clergy, Non-Profit Executives, and Elected Official | Lessons Never Learned: Nonprofits and the State, Redux | Join a Speak-Out or Make Music to Express Yourself If a "Not Guilty" Verdict Comes Down | Message to the Community Regarding the Upcoming Oscar Grant Verdict | To Everybody Coming Out to 14th and Broadway on Verdict Day | Racism Fuels the Possibility of Acquittal and Rebellion : Chronicle of a Riot Foretold | Update: Next Non-Profit Dellums Police Collaboration Meeting | Non-profits and Mayor Dellum's Office meet to prevent "violence" from Mehserle verdict

If you plan to attend a verdict-related event anywhere in the state, publish your own video, photos, and/or reports about your experience to Indybay. The Importance of Radical Activists and Journalists Utilizing Indymedia

Our servers are graciously hosted at Denver Open Media who was approached by Kowalski. Kowalski claimed he had a court order but refused to leave a copy at Denver Open Media. He was told to contact the system administrators in order to obtain the logs as Denver Open Media does not have the ability to consent to a seizure or search of our property.

As of this date, we do not have a copy of the court order if it even exists. It's likely that this was just a bluff as it's well-established that cops, the FBI, and other law enforcement can lie in order to illicit consent and lying about court orders is no exception.

We told the FBI that "Colorado Indymedia does not retain this [identifying] information because we strongly believe in the First Amendment right to free, anonymous speech. Frequently communities outside of our society's mainstream feel more comfortable expressing their views in an anonymous setting. Like all Independent Media Centers, Colorado Indymedia exists to serve these communities, and thus strives to maintain the anonymity of its users."

In particular, the FBI was looking for information that would identify a user(s) who had used the "spamsucks" account. This account's username and password are posted on the main page of our site for users who would like to post and remain anonymous. Given the time period of the logs they were seeking, we believe they are looking to identify the individual(s) who posted the two communiques that claimed responsibility for the recent attacks on Immigrations and Custom Enforcement (ICE) offices. (See "ICE Facility Attacked in Loveland" http://colorado.indymedia.org/no... and "ICE Office Attacked" http://colorado.indymedia.org/no...).

This request is part of an investigation by Federal Protective Services, the agency which is tasked with protecting the security of Federal property (such as buildings). Communiques posted by the same account claiming direct action attacks against other places such as a Wells Fargo branch (http://colorado.indymedia.org/no...) have not attracted similar reactions from the agency. It appears as if the ICE attacks prompted additional attention and heat due to their status as Federal buildings even though the attack on the Wells Fargo branch seems related to their funding of private ICE prisons through the GEO Group.

While this may look to many as a run-of-the-mill investigation, there are several things that bring this into question. Firstly, it is a well known and widely publicized policy of Colorado Indymedia that we do not retain logs that can identify individual users. For instance, our privacy policy (http://colorado.indymedia.org/no...), which is linked to twice from our main page, notes that we do not log such information. The FBI is well aware of this policy but still decided to ask us for logs they know we do not keep. This could be a simple "fill in the box" task that has to be completed, but then why not approach DOM's Internet service provider, which almost certainly does retain logs of this nature (as all major Internet Service Providers and the NSA do)? Additionally, the FBI seemed intent on seizing our server when they came to Denver Open Media, indicating their goal may have been the disruption of our service instead of simply identifying users.

Given this, it seems likely that the government is upset that we provide a venue for anonymous speech and is retaliating for this. We allow people who ordinarily cannot speak to tell their story to the world including those who took credit for smashing up the ICE offices. In any democratic society, it's important that all members of society can have as much available information in order to make informed decisions, including decisions about whether to support the actions that these communiques discuss. If places like COIMC did not exist, it could be that nobody would have heard why this office was attacked and people would be forced to make evaluations based on coverage from mainstream media outlets who act as a police mouthpiece. In retaliation for providing this service and working to give everybody a voice, we have been targeted.

This targeting is no surprise and something we expect from law enforcement. Police are a tool of those who are in power who use them to maintain that power through force. Behind every law is a charge, behind every badge is a gun, and behind every subpoena is the possibility of being kidnapped and held hostage for contempt. This type of targeting is done every day against those who assert their right to privacy, who do not have societal privilege, who lack the money to defend themselves in court or conform to society's norms, and who choose to defy and change those norms themselves or challenge the power structures that control society. We are not treated differently than anybody else and the targeting of Colorado Indymedia is business as usual. If the Department of Justice had their way (based on their actions and lobbying efforts), the right to anonymous speech would completely disappear. The services that we provide are a critical part of fostering social change and democratic discourse in this region. For this reason and many others we will not be intimidated into maintaining investigative records on our own users or shutting down our service. As far as we know, we are the only media outlet that has provided coverage on the attacks against ICE offices.

It's important when things like this happen we not internalize this repression and that we let people know we are being bullied. The majority of a bully's power is derived from their ability to keep their victim's silent. This is true whether those bullies are police, rapists, the bully who steals your lunch money, or an abusive parent. This enforced silence keeps the victim feeling powerless and alone. When we are silent, we cannot find others who have faced the same treatment and speak out about it or fight back. Police are a tool of those in power which they use to enforce their rules, laws, social codes, and ultimately maintain their place at the top of the hierarchy. They do not want to hear about people challenging their authority. Most of all, they want to make sure that nobody sees or hears about those actions and chooses to support those individuals or becomes inspired to challenge authority on their own.

You may view our privacy policy at http://colorado.indymedia.org/no... which contractually binds us to protect your information. We would like to thank Denver Open Media (http://denveropenmedia.org) for continuing to host our server and recognizing the importance of the service we provide. We continue to look for people who are willing to help with website/server administration, moderation, legal problems, and other things. Please see http://colorado.indymedia.org/no... for more information. The original letter from the FBI can be found below including our response (with minor formatting changes for your viewing pleasure).

On Friday, April 16th, veteran Indybay reporter David Morse (known to readers as "dave id") moved to quash a search warrant issued for photographs he took at a December 11th protest on the UC Berkeley campus. The photographs were taken while Morse was covering a protest in front of Chancellor Robert Birgeneau's residence for Indybay. Despite clearly identifying himself as a journalist, Morse was arrested along with seven others, had his camera and photographs seized, and was charged with multiple felonies.

After the arrests, UC Berkeley's public relations machine went into overdrive, disseminating sensationalized misinformation about the protest and the eight people arrested that night. Morse spent a weekend at the Santa Rita "mega-jail" and was forced to post a $13,000 bond to secure his release. Within days, charges against the "UC8" were dropped, but Morse had yet to recover the pictures confiscated by police.

Morse writes, "UC had successfully managed to not only silence my eye-witness reporting that would have contradicted many of their press statements as the news broke but to seize my photographs from the scene for their own purposes... I am compelled to stand up for my own right to continue reporting without undue police interference and for the many other journalists who have been or might be mistreated in police attacks on the free press."

The motion to quash the search warrant was filed in Alameda County Superior Court by the nonprofit advocacy group First Amendment Project. It asserted that the search warrant violated the California journalist's shield law. On June 18th at the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse in Oakland, Judge Yolanda Northridge agreed and quashed the warrant, ordering the UC Regents to return the original photographs and all known copies.

Read More | Update on Delays of Hearing for Motion to Quash | UC Regents' Opposition to Motion to Quash Warrant, and Movant Reply | UC Search Warrant Quashed!! | Judge's Order to Quash Warrant, for UC to Return All Photos & Submit Declaration | Press Release: Court Quashes Search Warrant | dave id's Account | First Amendment Project

Related Coverage: Eight Arrested at UC Berkeley After Concert & March

On June 22nd, disability right activists established a tent city they have named "Arnieville" on Adeline at Stewart Street in Berkeley. The ongoing tent was organized to protest the Governor's proposed cuts to In-Home Support Services (IHSS), which enables people to remain in their homes rather than be institutionalized.

Photos: 1 | 2 | Video | Announcement | IHSS Website
May 23rd Protest: 1 | 2