snitches get stitches

Can you believe this mother-fucking shit?

For the link-lazy, the corporate media has decided to help the cops by publishing photos of those "most wanted" in relation to alleged crimes such as breaking things and hurting policemen during the G20 protests. Notice that, although there is a clear implication of guilt, it is unclear whether they are witnesses or suspects.

I have nothing but hate for Operation Salver, the squad formed to hunt down G20 protestors. "Salver", by the way, comes from a Spanish word that means "make safe" or "to save". It's also a tray for serving food to royalty.

Someone pointed out recently that in Europe (specifically Greece and Holland), there is a direct relationship between actions undertaken against state violence and the institutions created to deal with the aftermath, i.e. the crackdown.

In Greece, he reckons, there would be thousands out on the streets, doing something about this bullshit. But Australia is not Greece. We haven't had the recent history of dictatorship over the wider population that necessitated these structures, but we have had the extreme repression of the minority.

[That is to say, from my observation of what happened at G20, the form of actions from Europe seems to have been imitated without the same content.]

It's interesting that when you look at organisation amongst Australian aboriginals, you see institutions that have helped people cope with 219 years of hardcore violence. The response in relation to the bashing death of Mulrunji Doomadgee on Palm Island points to the weaknesses in organisation amongst libertarians in Melbourne generally. On Palm Island you had a guy who, by all reports, was a bastard. Still, the community defended its own. Do you think cops will bash anyone else to death on Palm Island?

The differences between the two groups are obvious, and there are dangers in homogenising all aboriginal experiences, but I think anarchists could do worse than cherrypick the best aspects of aboriginal organisation and implement it.

As I said elsewhere, the lack of coordination amongst groups was an obvious problem before G20. I don't think anyone would've predicted this level of crap, but now it has happened I wonder how it will change things in the future.

Wow, look at me. I'm so down with the blacks. But seriously, this shit will not stand.

And remember the rules:

1. Shut the fuck up.
   Give a "no comment" interview, even if you haven't done anything. Just give your name and address. No matter how hard the cops ride you, even if they bash you. Over 90% of convictions are made on testimony, and cops are adept at tricking you into saying things that make you look guilty. It's your right to have a lawyer with you before you give a statement. And please morons, there is no such thing as "off the record" when it comes to cops.
   
2. Stick up for your mates.
   Who else is going to stick up for you? If you have a mate in trouble, you help them out. It's that simple.
   
3. There is nothing lower than a scab.
   A scab betrays their class, their humanity and abandons their right to live safely in a civilised society. A close relative of the despised snitch, the scab lives in the boss's pocket and is often seen scurrying about, trying to hide their shame. They are to be shot on sight.

Get familiar with your rights if you suspect you're going to be arrested.


Keeping with the hip-hop tangent, the following story is reproduced from the latest Popbitch newsletter.

Rap legend Slick Rick spent his 41st birthday, January 14th, incarcerated in a Florida immigration detention centre. Back in the 80s Rick was in the charts with Doug E Fresh with The Show but now Rick’s fighting deportation to Britain, his birthplace, from where his family emigrated in 1975.

Rick aka Richard Walters’s career collapsed in the 1990s when he shot his pregnant cousin and her boyfriend in an argument where Walters alleged they were trying to extort money. He served five years and 12 days in jail then saw his comeback album, featuring a who’s who of hip-hop inc Nas, Snoop Dogg, Outkast and Wu-Tang Clan, bomb.

In June 2002, after performing on a Caribbean cruise ship, Rick was arrested in Florida for “deporting himself” and “illegally re-entering the country”. A new 9/11 inspired-law allowed all felons with five years jail time not born in USA to be deported. Walters spent 17 months in jail before being released then was re-incarcerated last year, when the Department of Homeland Security took up the case again. Two months ago a US district court judge ruled that he should not be deported but Rick remains in the detention centre with no official release date.

The US government must think terrorism issues are now so minor that it wants to spend so much time and energy on the security threat posed by an aging black rapper.

Fuck the global poor. Next time I'm at a protest, I'll be doing it for Slick Rick.