VC
I know you have a lot on your plate, but could you help with the Thomas Mbeki file please . whenever you have the time..thank you. From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dominic Tweedie Sent: 24 May 2011 02:29 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Burn, Baby, Burn! "Burn, Baby, Burn!" Bill Epton Bill Epton being interviewed According to the Wikipedia entry for Bill Epton <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Epton> , he was "the first person convicted of criminal anarchy since the Red Scare of 1919" - reportedly for the crime of uttering three words: "Burn, baby, burn". This was in 1966 and it was the consequence of the July, 1964 "riots" in Harlem, New York, USA, that in turn followed the shooting in cold blood of a young 15-year-old black man, James Powell, by a white policeman, Thomas Gilligan. As in the instance of Cde Faku in Nelson Mandela Bay, the alleged incitement to incendiarism was the essential content of . A furious media stampede preceded Epton's trial and was the prima facie motive for the trial. But the accusation was not sufficiently well founded to secure a conviction. So the prosecutors completed a "bait and switch" manoeuvre. They altered the charge to one of "criminal anarchy". It might as well have been called "unprofessionalism with extreme prejudice" or "generally corrupt relationship" for all the difference it would have made. The jailing of Epton on Rikers Island was the consequence of a media campaign, and not of any fine points of the law. Epton was permitted to make a speech to the Court in which he stressed the nature of real free speech as opposed to the fraudulently overbearing "rights" of the bourgeois mass media. This is the part that is quoted by Wikipedia: "You didn't have to have a trial to "prove" these things. All you had to do was ask me and I would have told you - Yes! There's no problem - There's no secret - whatever we write and publish we sign with our name, address and phone number. We are willing and not afraid to put out ideas in the public view. ... Did you, at any time, think that we would deny what we do and have done? Did you think that we would deny what we hold to be true and what we believe in? Do you think that all people in this country have been so "brain dirtied" and have been so thoroughly corrupted that they are afraid to express an independent thought - to stand up for what they believe and fight for it? Well, there are people in this country who are governed by ideas that do not come out of the pages of the Times and the Daily News, and their numbers grow every day. And I am sure that this so-called "trial" has opened up many more eyes. Whatever we do and whatever we believe in - we do and believe that it is in the interest of the people of this country; And yes - we are proud to have done it and to be doing it and we stand behind our actions four-square!" At the bottom of the Wikipedia entry on Bill Epton there is a link to his Speech to the Court, which I have also transcribed and attached to this message. There seems to be no record of any legal consequences of the murder of James Powell to the policeman Thomas Gilligan. VC -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
<<image001.jpg>>
