Colorado Springs, CO: #DefendJ20

July 20-27th is the International Week of Solidarity with the J20 defendants. On Inauguration Day, anti-Trump protesters were kettled and mass-arrested in Washington D.C. Many of those mass arrestees are facing multiple felony charges and up to 75 years in prison simply for showing up to a protest and being in the vicinity of a black bloc. These mass arrests and heavy sentences are a show of force by the state, with the intent of chilling political protest.

July 25th is also the International Day of Solidarity with Antifascist prisoners. We stand in solidarity with and commend the actions of people like Dane Powell, a J20 protester who plead guilty and took a plea deal when faced with what is functionally a life sentence for protesting.

These examples of state-overreach and excessive policing are not limited to Inauguration Day protests. We in Colorado Springs have also experienced harassment by Law Enforcement due to our political activism. We’ve reported on the infiltrators “Mark Jackson” and “Aimee Walter,” but recent information released as part of an ongoing legal battle between the Colorado Springs Socialists and the City of Colorado Springs reveals that Mark Jackson and Aimee Walter were in fact paid law enforcement officers. We assumed they were militia jerk-offs due to the fact that their roles as infiltrators were discovered rather early, and by the socialists. All shit-talking aside, while we appreciate their efforts to end capitalism the Colorado Springs Socialists are not exactly counter-intelligence experts. If the Socialists could figure out that those folks were under cover officers they might want to consider another line of work. To that end, here are some pictures of “Mark Jackson” during his staged arrest:

ACAB

While it’s not surprising that law enforcement would target a leftist political group, it is surprising they chose to target one in Colorado Springs, Colorado. We’re not Washington D.C. or New York. The bulk of our activities have been relatively benign. As much as it pains us to admit it, we haven’t smashed any windows or set any trash cans on fire.

So why are law enforcement agencies expending time and tax payer money to infiltrate political groups? During Jackson’s arrest the officer on the body cam admits that Jackson is not a local CSPD officer, but could be from the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office. The same Sherrif’s Office that has had quite a few legal issues recently. How much effort is being put forth by local law enforcement to infiltrate the right-wing extremist groups we’ve mentioned on this page? How can they afford to plant at least two undercover officers in what is essentially a Marxist student reading group? What did the state of Colorado possibly gain from that short-lived venture? Why did law enforcement spend so much effort going after commies and antifa, but it took them over a month to act on information about white supremacist William Scott Planer (our post ran June 17th, 2017, Planer was arrested just last week)? What efforts are being made to infiltrate the armed and explicitly anti-government groups like the III%ers?

None, obviously. But they’re spending tax dollars on salary and overtime for under cover officers to track down socialists and anti-fascists. On a national level they’re protecting white supremacists at rallies and events. They’re murdering people of color, and getting away with it. All this while the government spends ridiculous sums of money on terrible foreign policy, barely functional airplanes, and attempts at repealing and replacing the sad, shitty excuse for healthcare we were barely able to wring from the hands of the last liberal president. All this while oil companies violate treaties with indigenous people, ignore the will of local residents, and even kill citizens. All this while Flint, Michigan STILL doesn’t have clean drinking water. For that matter, neither does Fountain or Security just south of Colorado Springs.

Fuck the state and those who support it. We stand in Solidarity not only with the J20 defendants, but with antifascist prisoners everywhere.