Stop the Witchhunt—No. 11

Defend Antiracist Free Speech!

Drop the Charge Against 
Robin Alvarez!

 
On Monday, January 3, at 7:30AM, at the downtown courthouse in Ann Arbor (Main & Huron), there will be a picket of the trial of Robin Alvarez. The trial will take place at 8:30AM in Judge Donald Shelton’s courtroom.

The 20-month long political witchhunt against antiracists who shut down the May 9, 1998 Ku Klux Klan rally in Ann Arbor is – like a wounded beast – near finished, but still dangerous. Of the original 23 charges, the one that remains on track for trial is the speech only charge against Robin. This charge is a high felony called "Inciting to Riot".

Robin is a 46-year-old jewelry artist and a long-time resident of Ann Arbor who has been involved in numerous political efforts, including acting as a campaign manager in elections. Robin is a thoughtful, unassuming and thoroughly friendly divorced mother of two sons.

She has been charged with a 10-year felony for SPEECH ALONE. The police are NOT claiming that Robin touched ANYONE or damaged ANY property – only that she used her voice.

For the same government that rolled out the red carpet for the KKK, shelling out $137,000 of public money to stage and protect their rally – all ostensibly in the name of the Freedom of Speech – to attempt simultaneously to criminalize antiracist speech is the height of hypocrisy and political bias. It makes even clearer that the purpose of this prosecutorial debacle has been to constrain political liberty, to suppress political dissent in general and antiracist speech in particular.

At the precise time when the prosecution says Robin was chanting, only dozens of yards away, and under massive government protection, the Ku Klux Klan was inciting the crowd to commit acts of racist and anti-Semitic terror and violence. Now, for speech alone, Robin – NOT THE KKK – faces a 10-year felony.
 

Contrast what Robin is accused of saying with what the KKK said in Ann Arbor on May 9, 1998 and how they were treated by the government.

The KKK

Robin Alvarez

"To the f*ggots out there…they must be put to deathkill the n****r… kill the whore…"

"Hate Jews because Jews make hate necessary."

"N****rs are monkeys."

"It was pleasing to God to kill people from an interracial marriage…"

"There will be no more black people in the year 2006."

 

"Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take down the fence. Take it down, take it down! Take it all the way down! If we do nothing else, just take down the fence! Take down the fence!"

 

 

THE GOVERNMENT’S RESPONSE

To the KKK…

…to Robin

  • No criminal charges
  • $137,000 of public money to stage their rally
  • Massive government protection
  • Police-chauffeured shuttle to and from rally
  • City-powered sound amplification system
  • Extensive pronouncements about the importance of Freedom of Speech
  • 10-year felony charge
  • 20-month prosecution
  • Threat of years in prison
  • Silence from all the politicians who claim to be defenders of civil liberties

 
Please write, call or fax the Washtenaw County Prosecutor Brian Mackie and tell him to drop the charge against Robin.

Washtenaw County Prosecutor
Attn: Brian Mackie
101 E. Huron St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
Fax: (734) 994-8584
Phone: (734) 994-2380
 

Stop the Witchhunt — Fighting Racism Is Not a Crime

Ann Arbor Antiracist Defense Campaign & the National Women’s Rights Organizing Coalition (NWROC) 

1999.12 

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Ann Arbor Antiracist Defense Campaign
National Women’s Rights Organizing Coalition

PO Box 1092 Penobscot Station, Detroit, MI. 48231  (313) 730-3577

www.umich.edu/~nwroc * nwroc@umich.edu