News from the liberterrain…
Two Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA) activists are still under the thumbs of the "justice" system at this writing, their status only vaguely known.
Jim Babb, who has worked closely with both George Donnelly and Julian Heicklen, two fellow libertarians arrested while distributing jury rights literature on public property, contacted the Libertarian News Examiner with his updated information.
Political prisoners George Donnelly (left)
and Julian Heicklen worked together on
several FIJA outreach efforts but were
arrested during separate incidents.
(photo courtesy George Donnelly)
Babb first learned from fellow libertarian Brad Spangler's Facebook page that Spangler had attempted to get public info on the arrest of Julian Heicklen "from the NYPD Department of Corrections automated info line" but could only confirm that Heicklen was in the system under his own name, had been assigned state ID and case numbers and was listed as being in custody at "an unknown location."
Babb later discovered that Heicklen was being held at the Bellevue Hospital Prison Ward but has been remanded on bail with a court date scheduled for June 8th.
Heicklen was taken into custody on Tuesday while handing out jury rights pamphlets at the US District Courthouse in Manhattan, as reported in "NY cops still manhandling peaceful activists."
Meanwhile George Donnelly, according to a court order, has had the charges against him "cancelled based on the Governments Representation that the Complaint & Warrant will be withdrawn" even while he unaccountably remains incommunicado under house arrest.
The original charges, believed but never confirmed to be "assaulting a police officer" stemmed from a May 11 incident in Allentown, Pennsylvania, during which Donnelly was aggressively manhandled by US Marshals while he was attempting to video a confrontation between Heicklen and another officer during a peaceful FIJA literature distribution effort.
The Libertarian News Examiner article, "Fed marshals violently arrest FIJA activist, violate DHS policy" chronicled both the attack on Donnelly as well as the breach of the Department of Homeland Security's own policy that specifies how officials are required to deal with photographers on federal property.
At this writing George Donnelly is still under house arrest. To support, speak out, and help with his defense visit these sites:
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Comments
The government hasn't operated within its legal limits in such a very long time. Never forget that The State is the bad guy here, and in every case.
I've got all the public info I could find on Julian posted over at goo.gl/gbxH
I don't know if Heicklen is in or out. "Remanded" doesn't necessarily mean he got bail and made it; and from what is posted at blogofbile and from what I see on the Corrections website his status still is "inside". And my thanks to blogofbile for posting that info, I'll be able to get on it asking some questions now. Everyone should bear in mind that it is possible that even if Heicklen is "out" he might be under fairly harsh "do not talk to most people you know" instructions...like in the Donnelly case. As for the "warrant"I'm thinking that means the arrest was planned beforehand. Food for thought for those who think it wise to publicize dates and times on public fora...I'm not saying don't do that, I'm just suggesting that sometimes you don't want to do that as it gives the bad guys the heads up we don't want them to have.
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