The seven who were caught with paint could possibly face LIFE IN PRISON for it.
The reactionaries love to crawl out from their rat holes and say "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." But I can't help but think who will be winning the stupid prize by the end of this. They are turning survival into a fucking game, stripping all of the rules and norms away from the simple process of providing food for a family's children. If they think they can take away an entire lifetime for some paint, just wait until they get a taste of the justice we have in mind.
Edit: This probably pales in comparison, but when I was at Occupy Wall Street in Zucotti Park, the NYPD arrested a few of our comrades for the simple crime of drawing with sidewalk chalk. The rest of us held our remaining pieces of chalk high in the air as an act of defiance. This probably had much less to do with getting their cases dismissed than the assistance we had from the National Lawyers Guild, but it was a pretty powerful moment. These motherfuckers will try to ruin our lives with any excuse they can scratch together. We need to look out for one another, and we especially need to make sure these gestapo tactics don't strike indecisiveness and fear into our hearts. Again. If they want to turn this into a fucking game, they will regret where that takes us.
My fear is that Bozeman is small enough that this will break the back of the protests here instead of galvanizing others to protest more, but we'll see.
My fear is this happens a lot more than not. People never hear about anything unless it actually matters and changes things. So many people get wiped away before that can happen. It is going to shock a lot of people no matter what, but it won't drive everyone to quit. It very well might drive a change of tactics though.
The reactionaries love to crawl out from their rat holes and say "play stupid games, win stupid prizes." But I can't help but think who will be winning the stupid prize by the end of this. They are turning survival into a fucking game, stripping all of the rules and norms away from the simple process of providing food for a family's children. If they think they can take away an entire lifetime for some paint, just wait until they get a taste of the justice we have in mind.
Edit: This probably pales in comparison, but when I was at Occupy Wall Street in Zucotti Park, the NYPD arrested a few of our comrades for the simple crime of drawing with sidewalk chalk. The rest of us held our remaining pieces of chalk high in the air as an act of defiance. This probably had much less to do with getting their cases dismissed than the assistance we had from the National Lawyers Guild, but it was a pretty powerful moment. These motherfuckers will try to ruin our lives with any excuse they can scratch together. We need to look out for one another, and we especially need to make sure these gestapo tactics don't strike indecisiveness and fear into our hearts. Again. If they want to turn this into a fucking game, they will regret where that takes us.
My fear is that Bozeman is small enough that this will break the back of the protests here instead of galvanizing others to protest more, but we'll see.
My fear is this happens a lot more than not. People never hear about anything unless it actually matters and changes things. So many people get wiped away before that can happen. It is going to shock a lot of people no matter what, but it won't drive everyone to quit. It very well might drive a change of tactics though.
When out time comes, we will not make excuses for the terror.