Reminder: do not speak to the FBI without a lawyer and a tape recorder present. They will make shit up and perjure themselves to get you charged. This is how their interrogation program is designed. They have one agent interview you, another write down the "official record" and that's it. If their "official record" says you are lying (even on a phone call) then they can charge you with a felony that has a 5 year sentence. This is their primary tactic on getting informants and forcing plea bargains (you plead every crime--even the ones you are innocent of if you want the reduced sentence). Fuck the FBI.
So activists advocating for peace, sound environmental stewardship, civil rights, and community service are a threat to whom? Obviously *somebody's* really concerned about them,
This isn't what I was hoping for when I voted for Obama. Just sayin'. I mean, it's a damn sight better than President McCain (with Palin!) or President Romney, but still. That's not good enough.
@1 Thanks. We need practical advice like that. (And thanks for the post, Brendan.)
And thanks to all working for their community and fighting the good fight, even in the face of police-state persecution.
@3: The problem here is the insane amount of antiterrorism spending. When Obama's long gone, the money's still going to be there. I mean, sure he's complicit. But the budgets aren't going away for any of them without a fight.
Glad they got on to this guy...otherwise the highly effective and revolutionary tactics of the Black Bloc (a bunch of white slackers smashing women's discount apparel stores) may have continued to completely upend the financial underpinnings of America.
By the way, any sentences handed out in the 2012 riots? So how does it work in Seattle..white people can smash stores and smoke drugs in public, and get good press. But everyone else who jaywalks gets punched in the face. Is that how it works?
Oh poop. There's a great harm reductionist working on overdose prevention and syringe exchange in N. Carolina named Robert Childs. Poor dude's just been google ruined.
On a more serious note, what @1 said. And can we please start having a serious conversation about dismantling the security state?
Thank you for this article. I just sent it to people as a must-read. I preach about this stuff, but it is always good for people to read a first-hand account.
Kind of screwed that peeps knew a predator was lurking & didn't tell everyone. Cliquey misogynistic complicity. Patriarchal par for the course. Wonder what else he did to harm others.
"He admitted to us that he was a registered sex offender after we spotted his ankle monitor. We tried to remain neutral as he told us the stories behind his convictions (underage girls, statutory rape, unfairly incarcerated repeatedly for violations of parole, yada yada yada). We were sympathetic to this part of his story for obvious reasons, namely being a community dedicated to prison abolition."
This is the problem in activist communities. How can you by default be sympathetic to this part of his story? What about the women involved in your activist groups?
It appears that Childs' criminal record was his ticket into the activist's group. They invited someone they knew to be a threat to underage girls to family functions. The FBI probably chose Childs knowing that the group would welcome such a fellow because he's proven that he doesn't play by "The Man's" rules.
I might have misread this entirely, but it looks like Brendan Kiley's journalism here consists of reprinting an email from an unnamed anarchist about how they've got to look out for informants in their ranks, and also here's a lot of juicy gossip about an informer who stopped showing up to activist events at least a year and a half ago, and hasn't been seen or heard from since, except somebody maybe thought he might have been one of the clowns at a clown meeting?
You never know who's watching you, anarchists... but always assume it's someone, and probably several someones, and never doubt that anyone you're talking to is trying to get you to say something you won't even know is impugning until it's too late. This is what you get for making yourselves targets by allowing the violence in your midst to go unresponded to. Serves you right.
I was all set to agree with The Stranger on this...and then I read "prison abolition" and "sympathetic to a child abuser". Really? That sounds like something Charles Mudede would say. These activists don't sound so innocent.
This stream-of-consciousness reporting style is driving me crazy. Lord, I wish The Stranger would get an editor - not only for copy editing but more importantly for developmental editing.
@ 17. I read a whole Seattle Times article, too! Don't I get credit for that?
Childs's priors and his profile as an informant are an interesting look at how that kind of thing goes downâbut the strangest part is Duff getting a visit from FBI agents (while disembarking a city bus) the day after Duff publicly criticized the FBI for using these visits as a mode of intimidation.
On those FBI visits: see also: "Welcome to the United States: Discriminated, detained, searched, interrogated (special report)," regarding local environmental activist Chris Eaton, Glenn Greenwald's partner David Miranda, and Cryptocat developer Nadim Kobeissi: http://www.zdnet.com/discriminated-detai…
The comment about the FBI's interrogation technique and the 'official record' is well taken. LEO's routinely commit perjury to 'get the bad guy' (in their mind).
A lawyer and a tape recorder is moot as any decent attorney will advise you to say nothing--it's not like they're trying to help you or are going to give you a break. But, just so you, et ux, know, EVERY phone call to the federal building, especially the FBI in Seattle is recorded, even though no message announces this. One good reason (legally) is the feds only require single party consent to recording a conversation (phone) while Washington law generally requires two/all. The federal building is governed by exclusive federal jurisdiction (different rules), even though (technically) a legal analysis indicates the laws on BOTH ends of the call must be honored. But the State of Washington isn't going to go after the FBI (it wouldn't do any good) on this one.
What's important for everyone to know is, if a party (such as the FBI) *KNOWS* the call is being recorded/monitored (as they do for calls to that office), there is NO expectation of privacy. Thus, you are not breaking Washington's Privacy Act law if *you* record the call (even without telling them). Still, it's almost always a bad idea to speak with them in the first place. Just hang up if they call, or refuse to talk if they contact you personally.
As to the 'informant', that's a mixed bag...like two scorpions in a bottle: the hate group (@narchists) and the informant for a state sponsored terrorist organization (the FBI). Given the choice (if it is a choice) between a hate group and state sponsored terrorist organizations, we're probably better off (if you can call it that) with the latter. Because of the violence, assaults, thefts, vandalism, and myriad other crimes promoted by black bloc co-conspirators, their anonymity needs to be stripped from them at every opportunity. Anonymity has a long tradition as a shield for pure speech--it inappropriate for it to be used as a cloak for criminal conduct. (A)narchists are terrified (even as they, themselves, attempt to inspire terror in the public/officials) of having that anonymity stripped because it will force them to be responsible and be held accountable for their ACTS. Thus, anyone/everyone who would strip them of that anonymity which they choose to use as a weapon, is labeled a 'snitch'. They often assault and/or label photojournalists (if they don't allow the violent street radicals to have editorial control of the reporting) as 'snitches'. But today, WE are the media.
So, take your pick: Rubbing shoulders with a pervert in the service of a state sponsored terrorist organization (FBI), or characters indistinguishable from those in Lord Of The Flies (@narchists). Is this a great country, or what?! -amicuscuria.com/wordpress-
@ # 32, well...as a matter of fact this isn't the most uncivilized country on the planet...so...Peoples movements can change the state, no matter how poorly the state is functioning. They always have and they always will, and since I don't know who exactly is behind most of the recent hubbub, I can't say the state isn't financing it. Looks to me like there's a lot of evidence piling up proving that's true. My main objection is that the current state, with it's unlimited resources, is using obviously flawed and dangerous criminals to infiltrate certain groups. Big FYI to anybody listening; do yourself a favor and steer clear of the clowns, I mean, if you're not already. I never liked clowns to start with so it's been easy for me
The problem is bigger than just the offender. I am one of his victims, and the reason I wrote the blog was because even though he admitted it, I was shunned from the community based on the profile that I am a pretty white girl. Seattle knows the talk of an activist community but has not figured out how to walk the walk. Even yesterday I was stalked and intimidated by two of his supporters when I came into the city for a private event in a public park. They were asked to leave but not before the intimidation occurred and drama had to happen. They are the reason this movement fails. They are the face of the protests as the circa clowns are in front. That is how they got me. I am handicap and needed to stay at the front of the Monsanto march, so I met the clowns. Where I come from clowns do good for the community. Not in Seattle. Anarchists are supposed to be for the actual good of the community and end oppression, well this group does just the opposite. Since the finding out that he is a level 3offender not a single one that shamed me has come forward to clean it up and several are still stalking me and harassing me. I will be getting restraining orders now. I will say Black Coffee supported me and banned the creep when I came forward. His comrades began their attack because of that. Because Doc has threatened to shoot me in front of all my neighbors, we moved to keep them safe. Seattle clearly is not safe for women anymore.
hmmm... the FBI is um, part of the federal government which ...hmm... Obama is in charge of!!! And YOU GUYS FUCKING VOTED FOR HIM!!!
Does it still not dawn on anyone at the Stranger that the 1%'s "left" fist serves the same corporate police state agenda as it's "right" fist?
That when the end result is the same, like this police state we're seeing unfold before our eyes, that it's time to reject BOTH corporate puppets, regardless of gender or skin color?!!
Jesus Christ, the goddamned irony! Is the Stranger trying to have it both ways here? Whose side are you really on? (Oh, and are you guys gearing up to push Hillary Clinton as the "only realistic option to defeat republicans" bullshit again in 2016?)
Oops! it's a blog (from someone not from the Stranger?), my apologies to the author!
To say the least, sex offenders like this one should not be paid by our tax-dollars to work for the FBI. He, and his supporters, belongs in prison for life! Why our laws don't prioritize putting predator pedophiles in prison above and beyond all other criminals is something I can't live with...
As for the FBI, well, they clearly they go after peaceful activists, officially calling them "terrorists" to justify their persecution of anyone who dares to speak out against corporate rule. American people have got to be the biggest cowards that after all this evidence of Obama's expansion of Bush's ugliest policies, they still refuse move outside the 2 political parties who both agree that this is what the FBI should be doing.
The Green Party represents a legitimate alternative. Yet, few people are helping it organize. We need Green Party candidates, seriously. When it comes to the heavy lifting, where are the activists? -amicuscuria.com/wordpress-
This isn't what I was hoping for when I voted for Obama. Just sayin'. I mean, it's a damn sight better than President McCain (with Palin!) or President Romney, but still. That's not good enough.
@1 Thanks. We need practical advice like that. (And thanks for the post, Brendan.)
And thanks to all working for their community and fighting the good fight, even in the face of police-state persecution.
By the way, any sentences handed out in the 2012 riots? So how does it work in Seattle..white people can smash stores and smoke drugs in public, and get good press. But everyone else who jaywalks gets punched in the face. Is that how it works?
On a more serious note, what @1 said. And can we please start having a serious conversation about dismantling the security state?
Fuck.
This is the problem in activist communities. How can you by default be sympathetic to this part of his story? What about the women involved in your activist groups?
Check this out: http://inciteblog.wordpress.com/2010/07/…
Childs's priors and his profile as an informant are an interesting look at how that kind of thing goes downâbut the strangest part is Duff getting a visit from FBI agents (while disembarking a city bus) the day after Duff publicly criticized the FBI for using these visits as a mode of intimidation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9pKr1WuL…
A lawyer and a tape recorder is moot as any decent attorney will advise you to say nothing--it's not like they're trying to help you or are going to give you a break. But, just so you, et ux, know, EVERY phone call to the federal building, especially the FBI in Seattle is recorded, even though no message announces this. One good reason (legally) is the feds only require single party consent to recording a conversation (phone) while Washington law generally requires two/all. The federal building is governed by exclusive federal jurisdiction (different rules), even though (technically) a legal analysis indicates the laws on BOTH ends of the call must be honored. But the State of Washington isn't going to go after the FBI (it wouldn't do any good) on this one.
What's important for everyone to know is, if a party (such as the FBI) *KNOWS* the call is being recorded/monitored (as they do for calls to that office), there is NO expectation of privacy. Thus, you are not breaking Washington's Privacy Act law if *you* record the call (even without telling them). Still, it's almost always a bad idea to speak with them in the first place. Just hang up if they call, or refuse to talk if they contact you personally.
As to the 'informant', that's a mixed bag...like two scorpions in a bottle: the hate group (@narchists) and the informant for a state sponsored terrorist organization (the FBI). Given the choice (if it is a choice) between a hate group and state sponsored terrorist organizations, we're probably better off (if you can call it that) with the latter. Because of the violence, assaults, thefts, vandalism, and myriad other crimes promoted by black bloc co-conspirators, their anonymity needs to be stripped from them at every opportunity. Anonymity has a long tradition as a shield for pure speech--it inappropriate for it to be used as a cloak for criminal conduct. (A)narchists are terrified (even as they, themselves, attempt to inspire terror in the public/officials) of having that anonymity stripped because it will force them to be responsible and be held accountable for their ACTS. Thus, anyone/everyone who would strip them of that anonymity which they choose to use as a weapon, is labeled a 'snitch'. They often assault and/or label photojournalists (if they don't allow the violent street radicals to have editorial control of the reporting) as 'snitches'. But today, WE are the media.
So, take your pick: Rubbing shoulders with a pervert in the service of a state sponsored terrorist organization (FBI), or characters indistinguishable from those in Lord Of The Flies (@narchists). Is this a great country, or what?!
-amicuscuria.com/wordpress-
Does it still not dawn on anyone at the Stranger that the 1%'s "left" fist serves the same corporate police state agenda as it's "right" fist?
That when the end result is the same, like this police state we're seeing unfold before our eyes, that it's time to reject BOTH corporate puppets, regardless of gender or skin color?!!
Jesus Christ, the goddamned irony! Is the Stranger trying to have it both ways here? Whose side are you really on? (Oh, and are you guys gearing up to push Hillary Clinton as the "only realistic option to defeat republicans" bullshit again in 2016?)
To say the least, sex offenders like this one should not be paid by our tax-dollars to work for the FBI. He, and his supporters, belongs in prison for life! Why our laws don't prioritize putting predator pedophiles in prison above and beyond all other criminals is something I can't live with...
As for the FBI, well, they clearly they go after peaceful activists, officially calling them "terrorists" to justify their persecution of anyone who dares to speak out against corporate rule. American people have got to be the biggest cowards that after all this evidence of Obama's expansion of Bush's ugliest policies, they still refuse move outside the 2 political parties who both agree that this is what the FBI should be doing.
-amicuscuria.com/wordpress-