[Mitai-announce] 7/13 Support anti-war activist Richard Picariello in Court (fwd)

[Anton F Van Der Ven]

7/13 Support anti-war activist Richard Picariello in Court

8:30 am
Boston Municipal Court
90 Devenshire St.
(Near Govt Ctr T stop, entrance is in post office sq.)

DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD PICARIELLO!

On Tuesday, July 13, anti-war activist Richard Picariello will appear for a 
pre-trial hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Please come out in support, 
starting at 8:30 a.m. and to be with Richard in court.

Richard's case is reflective of the increased police harrassment against the 
expression of free speech rights and anti-war opposition in the current 
period. He was arrested in April after being threatened by a right wing 
provocateur while distributing anti-war literature at Park Street station. And 
he was arrested again a week later at the protest against the Bush fundraiser 
at the Park Plaza hotel in Boston, simply for being there. When under arrest 
in the first instance, the police attempted to interrogate Richard about 
organizing for protests against the Democratic National Convention in July.

The case against Richard, a well-known activist with A.N.S.W.E.R and other 
anti-war and progressive organizations in the Boston area, is pure political 
harrassment and an attempt to chill anti-war organizing and free speech. It is 
part of a pattern that has seen the arrest of Aimee Smith of the Mass. 
Green-Rainbow Party and the New England Committee to Defend Palestine at MIT  
for distributing flyers at the MIT graduation against the plans for the B.U. 
Bioterrorism lab (peoples' action and solidarity has since resulted in Aimee's 
charges being dropped); the arrests of the Lafayette 8 while working on a 
neighborhood cleanup of a lot at Lafayette Square in Cambridge that had been 
promised to be developed as a park; the continued detentions of Arabs, Muslims 
and others, and the repressive use of the U.S.A. Patriot Act.

Drop the Charges Against Richard Picariello NOW! 

________________________________________________________________
This email was bcc'd to peace-announce, greens-announce, nowar-announce, aclu, 
mitai-announce