"The Persecution of Sherman Austin"

Revolutionary Worker #1217, October 26, 2003

It was January 2002 when the government first came
after Sherman Austin because of his political
activism. On September 3, 2003, they locked him up for
it.

Sherman is the first person to be charged under 18
U.S.C. 842(p), a 1997 "anti- terrorism" law authored
by California Senator Dianne Feinstein. This federal
law mandates up to 20 years in prison for anyone
convicted of "distribut[ing] bombmaking information
with the knowledge or intent that the information
will be used to commit a violent federal crime"Distributing such information is not illegal; in fact,
it's widely available through libraries, bookstores,
universities, and the Internet. What is illegal, under
this law, is for someone to pass on such publicly
available information with the "knowledge" or "intent"
that it will be used to commit a "violent federal
crime." But how can someone who runs a website (or a
library or bookstore) possibly know what some
anonymous visitors are going to do with the
information that is available at those locations? Put
plainly, the target of this law is "thought crime."

On August 4, Federal District Court Judge Steven V.
Wilson sentenced Sherman Austin to one year in
federal prison and three years probation. The overtly
political terms of the probation include the
following: Austin cannot possess or access a computer
of any kind without prior approval of his probation
officer; if he gets that approval, the equipment is
subject to monitoring and to search and seizure at any
time, without notice; he must surrender his phone,
DSL, electric, and satellite bills to his probation
officer; and he cannot associate with any person or
group--environmental, social justice, political, or
economic--that seeks to change the government in any
way!

A little background about the political persecution of
Sherman Austin underscores the seriousness of the
situation--for him and for anyone who dares to speak
out against injustice--and the ominous intentions of
a ruling class determined to silence opposition.

Targeted by the Government

Sherman Austin, a young Black anarchist, is probably
best known for the activist anarchist website he
hosted, RaiseTheFist.com. The site was visited by
hundreds of people every day. It had also been
monitored by government agents for at least four years
before they made their move on Sherman.

As a service to the movement, Sherman provided space
on his server to people who wanted free hosting for
their website. This simply means that Sherman allowed
other people to put up links to their website on
RaiseTheFist.com. He did not author, monitor, or
censor any of the sites he hosted.

One of those who took advantage of Austin's free
hosting policy was a suburban white youth from a
well-to-do, politically conservative family. This
person had written something he called "The Reclaim
Guide," which provided crude bomb-making information.
A couple of years ago, this person posted a link to
his "Guide" on Austin's RaiseTheFist.com website.
Government agents had interviewed the author of the
"Guide," so they knew who had actually written it. But
the posting of the link to the "Guide" provided the
pretext for one of the government's first
"anti-terrorism" raids after the passage of the U.S.
Patriot Act--a raid not on the author of the "Guide"
but on Sherman Austin.

On January 24, 2002, the Los Angeles Joint Terrorism
Task Force led a small army of FBI, Secret Service,
LAPD and L.A. Sheriffs in a military-style invasion of
the suburb where Sherman Austin, then 18 years old,
lived with his mother and sister. Brandishing machine
guns, the feds and L.A. police surrounded Austin's
house, barricaded the garage, and approached the front
door with a battering ram. For over six hours they
interrogated Sherman about his friends, his
relationships, and mainly about his politics and his
website. They ransacked Sherman's room and confiscated
all of his political literature, taking everything
from independent newspapers to leaflets announcing
upcoming demonstrations. When they left, they took
with them just about the entire contents of his room
and every computer in the house.

The government's 29-page search warrant--containing
what they claimed to be "evidence" to justify the
raid--was jam-packed with references to Sherman
Austin's politics. The warrant accused
RaiseTheFist.com of containing "anti-government
(primarily the United States), anti-capitalism, and
militant messages that promoted communism." It
described Sherman's participation in protests and
demonstrations and contained information about him
from when he was 14 years old!

Less than two weeks after this raid, Sherman was in
New York City to participate in anti- globalization
protests against the World Economic Forum. On the way
to a rally, he was among a group of demonstrators who
were singled out by the police for attack and arrest.
Two days later, while still in custody, a felony
bench warrant for his arrest under 18 U.S.C. 842(p)
was issued from California. The very next morning,
articles containing inflammatory attacks on Sherman
appeared in the New York Times , New York Post , and
Los Angeles Times.

At a detention hearing later that week, the government
prosecutor openly ignored the constitutional concept
of "innocent until proven guilty" by declaring, "[A]ll
the factors [in this case] inexorably lead to the
conclusion that this defendant will be convicted...."
He characterized Sherman as "a man on a mission" and
listed his previous arrests at political
demonstrations and his possession of "anarchist
literature" as key reasons why he should be detained.

Less than two weeks later, the federal charges against
Sherman Austin were dropped, and he was released from
custody. At that time, a spokesman for the U.S.
attorney's office stated, "We have opted not to seek
an indictment at this time. We are continuing to
investigate the matter...." Sherman's attorney
responded, "The government arrested him out of the
blue and then reversed themselves out of the blue.
Who knows what they're going to do next?"

About 7 months later, federal prosecutors told
Austin's lawyer that they hadn't found anything on
the computers seized in the raid on Sherman's
house--but they didn't want to "let him off the
hook." So they charged him under 18 U.S.C. 842(p).

The government had no actual evidence that Sherman
Austin had any "knowledge" or "intent" that the
information contained in the "Guide" would be used for
a "violent federal crime." So the government
maintained that Sherman's politics "proved"
intent--both the prosecutor and the judge repeatedly
pointed out that RaiseTheFist.com was critical of
U.S. government policy, police brutality,
globalization, and racism.

In a conscious effort to set him up, the judge, the
prosecutor, the FBI, and the mass media all kept
repeating the lie that Sherman Austin had written "The
Reclaim Guide"-- even though they all knew that it
was not Sherman but someone else who had written it .
This lie was constantly repeated in official court
documents by the judge and the prosecutor, and there
has been a concerted effort by the media to portray
Sherman as the author.

The prosecutor offered a pre-indictment plea bargain
of 1 month in jail, 5 months in a halfway house, and
3 years supervised probation in exchange for a felony
conviction.

Sherman said no. He wanted to fight the case in court
on the basis of his political principles. Then he was
threatened with Patriot Act "enhancements" and told he
could end up with a sentence of 20 years if
convicted. A Black youth without financial resources
to hire a lawyer who'd listen to him and fight for
his interests, Sherman was stuck with a
court-appointed attorney who basically told him that
there was no way he could win this case and that it
would be best for him to accept the plea bargain.

Sherman didn't want to accept any plea bargain, so he
tried to get guidance from other sources he thought
he could rely on for good legal advice--sources who'd
tell him how he could stand up and fight these bogus
and obviously political charges. Instead, he was told
again that the best thing he could do was keep quiet
and accept the plea bargain. It was not explained to
him that a plea bargain would set a very bad and
dangerous precedent for the entire resistance
movement.

Sherman knew he was being framed, but he was under
extreme pressure to cop a plea. When it seemed to him
that there was no other way to go, he went to court to
enter the plea bargain. But Judge Wilson rejected
it--on the grounds that the punishment was too
light--and set a trial date.

Then Austin, his lawyer, and the federal prosecutor
agreed to a second plea bargain of 4 months in jail,
4 months in a halfway house, and 3 years probation. On
the day of the rescheduled sentencing hearing,
Attorney General Ashcroft released a memo telling
federal prosecutors to monitor which judges imposed
lenient sentences, so that they could be put on a
watch list! When Sherman went to court, his name had
mysteriously disappeared from the court's docket, and
his hearing had to be rescheduled.

Returning to court the next week, Austin's attorney
began making his appeal for the new plea agreement.
Judge Wilson interrupted him: "I must tell you I see
this case differently. I'm rather surprised the
government hasn't taken this case more seriously."

The judge then demanded to know from the prosecutor,
"Has your recommendation been cleared with the
Justice Department?" Surprised, the prosecutor began,
"I don't need their approval..." The judge
interrupted the prosecutor and announced that he was
postponing sentencing and ordering the prosecutor to
contact the head of the Justice Department and FBI
Director Robert S. Mueller for their recommendations
about Sherman's sentence. Telling the courtroom that
Austin's case has "national and international
overtones," the judge said that he wanted to make an
example of Sherman. He asked what kind of message
would four months in jail send to "some other
revolutionary who wants to change the world."

A Dangerous Precedent

It's clear that the government's intent from the
beginning of this case has been to get a conviction
under an "anti-terrorism" law--and they were
determined to get Sherman to plead guilty rather than
fight the bogus charges against him in open court. To
a certain extent, the length of the sentence imposed
on Sherman was not their main concern, because they
had another agenda. Federal prosecutors called Austin
a "man on a mission." In fact, the government had a
sinister mission-- to set up a precedent of a
conviction under a law which allows the government to
go after people for thought crimes.
Shortly after Sherman's sentencing, Senator Feinstein
wrote a letter to Attorney General John Ashcroft
pushing for more prosecutions using the same law: "I
was pleased to learn recently that Sherman Austin was
sentenced earlier this month.... However ... [i]t is
dismaying that there has only been one conviction
under section 842(p) in the four years that the law
has been on the books.... I write to request your
assistance in ensuring that [Department of Justice]
personnel know about 842(p) and are aggressively
enforcing it."

Stephen Rohde, a constitutional law attorney and past
president of the ACLU of Southern California, told
the RW : "I think the prosecution and conviction of
Sherman Austin is very dangerous.... There is a
statute, the Communications Act of 1996, which
actually creates an immunity for a web provider when
they are not involved in creating or developing in
full or in part the content that is the subject of the
charge or the civil liability. Sherman didn't create
the content that was linked to the site.... It's such
a dangerous precedent because you are criminalizing
...someone's intent rather than their conduct, rather
than anything they actually did.... The notion that
the circulation of information by itself without any
other criminal activity can itself be a crime is a
very dangerous precedent...." Rohde added that the law
is also dangerous because it is "about cataloguing
someone's political beliefs and then making those
evidence of a crime...."

"This Is Not JustAbout Sherman"

Sherman Austin began serving his sentence on September
3. About 50 people came out to show him their love
and give him a fitting send-off. Jennifer Martin
Ruggiero, Sherman's mother, shared her thoughts with
the RW : "This has been a very eye-opening experience
for me, to see the injustices in our justice
system.... If they can lie and cheat and steal and
misconstrue and create these elastic conditions and
twist things around, if they can do this, what the
hell are they doing in Iraq?! What are they doing in
Afghanistan? What are they doing with all the
political prisoners in Guantánamo Bay? This is a very
global thing. This is not just about Sherman, and I
want to make that very clear to everybody. I'm
passionate about this not just because it's my son,
but because it's an extreme injustice that needs to
be corrected.

"And I want to say to Middle America, `Wake the fuck
up!' If this can happen to me, it can happen to
anybody. I'm a schoolteacher. I'm a single parent. I
pay my taxes. I vote. I've never committed a crime in
my life. If you think you are so far removed from
something like this happening to one of your kids, or
that even you could say the `wrong' thing at the wrong
time, think about it.... Don't turn your back on
this, because it could happen to you."

When it was time for Sherman to turn himself in,
Jennifer told the crowd, "I sit and wonder how a
justice system, my justice system, could commit such
acts of violence by sending an innocent young man to
prison.... And then I remember. I remember the
pictures of the Iraqi children, their bodies maimed
and bleeding, and I recall the bombing and murder of
thousands of Afghani families in the name of freedom,
the round-up and deportation of thousands of
immigrants in the name of national security. I see
the looks on their faces, the look of fear and
rejection, the look of great wanting for basic
needs...."

Sherman told the RW he wanted to send a message to the
people: "I want to tell people that...they can come
down on me as much as they want, but I'm not gonna
stay silent, they're not going to stop me from what
I'm doing. My message to people is this: don't be
discouraged and don't be intimidated. Just keep on
fighting, do whatever it takes."

Sherman was sent to a facility in San Bernardino known
to house many members of the Aryan Brotherhood. On
September 6, Sherman was placed in protective custody
(isolation) because of death threats being made
against him in jail by white supremacists after the
Aryan Brotherhood put a price on his head. Deluged by
phone calls, emails, faxes, and messages of support
for Sherman, the prison authorities announced that
they were transferring him to a safer facility. And
then he disappeared--his family and friends did not
know where the authorities had taken him.

Two weeks later, Sherman's girlfriend received a
letter from a jail in Oklahoma. He said he'd been
thrown into segregation for no reason, was not being
allowed to call his lawyer, and could make only one
phone call every 30 days. As of early October, the
word is that he's being transferred to a federal
prison closer to home.

A response to Feinstein's letter to Ashcroft is in the
works--in the form of a letter of support for Sherman
Austin which is being circulated broadly for
signatures. Several legal and advocacy groups are
closely examining the case. Sherman is considering all
his legal options.

The prosecution of Sherman Austin has taught all
activists and social justice advocates some hard
lessons. As Jennifer Martin said, "Sherman was
railroaded into that plea. Basically, we were told to
keep quiet, don't talk to reporters, don't go public,
don't fight it. That's the wrong strategy! I'd never
do it that way again. Their agenda is to do
everything behind closed doors so no one will know
what's going on. My advice is, don't remain silent!
We have to challenge the system!"