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State prison plans: mental therapy or torture?
‘Progressive’ City Council abuses vulnerable persons—and free speech
East Cambridge Property
Ten Lessons from the Criminalization of Dissent
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Lafayette 8 motion to dismiss to be heard Sept. 6
Wednesday, July 12— The prosecution today turned down a judge's request to drop the charges in the case of the Lafayette Eight. A dozen supporters waited all day outside a Cambridge courtroom with six young men who were arrested at gunpoint more than two years ago at the site of an abandoned gas station in Lafayette Square. The judge was set to hear pretrial motions and could either dismiss charges or set a trial date.
Instead, defense attorney Daniel Beck's motion to dismiss must be heard on Wednesday, September 6. The defense has complained repeatedly about the prosecution's refusal to comply with discovery and denial of a speedy trial for his clients. Judge Brandt made clear his displeasure with the way in which the District Attorney was pursuing the case.
In a bizarre sidebar, a fire broke out in the fifteen-story building sometime before 2 PM. The fire was apparently located on the prison level, but the smell of electrical fire was also in the air. The elevators were shut down. There was no alert or order to evacuate, but persons leaving the building were not allowed back in, despite a drenching rain outside.
Green-Rainbow solidarity statement
The Green-Rainbow Party of Massachusetts has joined others in calling on Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley and presiding judge John Brandt to drop all charges against the six remaining defendants in the Lafayette 8 case.
The cases of two minors who were involved have already been settled.
In 2004 the Lafayette 8 were members of Homes Not Jails, who worked with Green-Rainbow on the Cambridge leg of that year’s March To Abolish Poverty.
The March to Abolish Poverty rallied in Lafayette Square on April 3, 2004 to dramatize how poverty is ignored and covered up by government.
The City of Cambridge plans to build a barrier park in Lafayette Square. Its purpose is to shield MIT’s University Park development from the city’s lowest-income neighborhood.
After the City took the site by eminent domain in 1997, it turned into an informal dump site.
On April 14, 2004, eight young activists were arrested at gunpoint as they worked at an on-going community cleanup operation that they had begun with the Abolish Poverty rally.
The DA’s office has admitted that local police were collaborating with Federal authorities in ongoing surveillance of the activists. The Cambridge City Government refuses to investigate whether the Cambridge Police were enforcing the USA PATRIOT Act in contravention of the Cambridge City Council's resolution of 2002.
The case against the six adult defendants is still pending after two years because the DA will not comply with defense discovery motions.
The Lafayette case reveals a pattern that has become familiar in recent years. By tying up political activists in court for two or three years, dissenting free speech is effectively stifled even though convictions are rarely obtained.
"We are calling for courtroom support and solidarity with the Lafayette 8 against the growing intrusion of police and surveillance agencies in our lives," says Green-Rainbow Party Secretary David Rolde.