Defend
Antiracist Free Speech!
Drop the Charge
Against
Robin Alvarez!
On Monday, January 3, at 7:30AM, at the
downtown courthouse in Ann Arbor (Main & Huron), there will be a picket of
the trial of Robin Alvarez. The trial will take place at 8:30AM in Judge
Donald Shelton’s courtroom.
The 20-month long political
witchhunt against antiracists who shut down the May 9, 1998 Ku Klux Klan rally
in Ann Arbor is – like a wounded beast – near finished, but still
dangerous. Of the original 23 charges, the one that remains on track for
trial is the speech only charge against Robin. This charge is a high
felony called "Inciting to Riot".
Robin is a 46-year-old jewelry artist and a long-time
resident of Ann Arbor who has been involved in numerous political efforts,
including acting as a campaign manager in elections. Robin is a thoughtful,
unassuming and thoroughly friendly divorced mother of two sons.
She has been charged with a 10-year felony for SPEECH
ALONE. The police are NOT claiming that Robin touched ANYONE or damaged ANY
property – only that she used her voice.
For the same government that rolled out the red carpet for
the KKK, shelling out $137,000 of public money to stage and protect their
rally – all ostensibly in the name of the Freedom of Speech – to attempt
simultaneously to criminalize antiracist speech is the height of hypocrisy
and political bias. It makes even clearer that the purpose of this
prosecutorial debacle has been to constrain political liberty, to suppress
political dissent in general and antiracist speech in particular.
At the precise time when the prosecution says Robin was
chanting, only dozens of yards away, and under massive government protection,
the Ku Klux Klan was inciting the crowd to commit acts of racist and
anti-Semitic terror and violence. Now, for speech alone, Robin – NOT
THE KKK – faces a 10-year felony.
Contrast
what Robin is accused of saying with what the KKK said in Ann Arbor on
May 9, 1998 and how they were treated by the government.
|
The KKK |
Robin Alvarez |
"To the f*ggots out there…they must be put to death…kill
the n****r… kill the whore…"
"Hate Jews because Jews make hate
necessary."
"N****rs are monkeys."
"It was pleasing to God to kill people from an
interracial marriage…"
"There will be no more black people in the year
2006."
|
"Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take
down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the
fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence.
Take it down, take it down! Take it all the way down! If we do nothing
else, just take down the fence! Take down the fence!"
|
THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE |
To the KKK… |
…to Robin |
- No criminal charges
- $137,000 of public money to stage their rally
- Massive government protection
- Police-chauffeured shuttle to and from rally
- City-powered sound amplification system
- Extensive pronouncements about the importance of Freedom of Speech
|
- 10-year felony charge
- 20-month prosecution
- Threat of years in prison
- Silence from all the politicians who claim to be defenders of civil
liberties
|
Please write, call or fax the Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie and
tell him to drop the charge against Robin.
Washtenaw County Prosecutor
Attn: Brian Mackie
101 E. Huron St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Fax: (734) 994-8584
Phone: (734) 994-2380