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Local Iced-Tea Drinker Arrested under PATRIOT Act
Date: Sat, 9 Mar 2002
As we feared (see Regeneration #5), the
PATRIOT Act is now being used to
terrorize people for political reasons here
in Los Angeles. On January 23, FBI agents
and LAPD raided the San Fernando Valley
house where Sherman Austin lives with his
family. He is the 18 year old administrator
of the site raisethefist.org. The FBI had a
search warrant contending that the website
was distributing instructions for building
"weapons of mass destruction." They
searched the house for six hours and seized twelve computers.
They were also very concerned about a collection of empty iced-tea
bottles found near the computer.
Raisethefist.org was a website which allowed anyone to post
articles or information. It was mostly used as a political discussion
forum for young leftist radicals. There was some inflammatory
language used on the site, but certainly nothing that could cause
"mass destruction".
Sherman was not arrested at the time of the raid, even though he
was home at the time. The FBI waited until February 2, when
Sherman was arrested in New York City on charges relating to the
search. The charges were related to a document on the web site on
how to make a Molotov cocktail and the iced-tea bottles found in
Sherman's bedroom. He was also accused of having explosive
fertilizer a la Oklahoma City in his car, which turned out to be mere
potting soil. Neither the iced-tea bottles nor the soil was confiscated
as evidence, indicating some major holes in the government's case.
Even so, while Sherman was in prison for nine days he was kept in
complete isolation in the same block as the US embassy bombers.
He was given one shower during his detention and no warm or
clean clothes in a frigid cell.
The National Lawyers Guild, the ACLU, and internet free speech
advocate groups such as the Electronic Frontier Foundation are
providing free assistance to Sherman and his family. These
organizations are eager to challenge the PATRIOT act.
On February 14, the charges were dropped and Sherman was
released in Oklahoma City while he was in transit to Los Angeles for
trial. The US attorneys gave no reasons for dropping the charges,
and it is possible that he will be re-arrested on more phony charges.
The loose definitions of "terrorism" and "weapons of mass
destruction" in the USA-PATRIOT act provides a perfect excuse for
the government to arrest whomever they want. The government
successfully attacked political movements in the 1960's and 1970's
by arresting a few people and forcing the rest of the movement to
focus its time and energy on legal battles. The arrest of Sherman
happened partly because the government wants to see how far it
can go in squashing dissent.
The government selected Sherman for a reason. The web site was
gaining popularity and many anarchist groups were beginning to use
it as a place to organize. Sherman's only previous charge was a
jaywalking ticket received while at a peaceful environmental
demonstration. It turned out for the government that Sherman had
indeed done nothing wrong and too many people were willing to
stand up for Sherman against their fabricated charges.
Happily, Sherman is back at home, but we can't forget the hundreds
of anonymous foreigners who remain in US prisons, imprisoned
secretly and indefinitely under the PATRIOT act and have no
lawyers and resources available.
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