Drop the Charges on the Puerto Rican People’s Parade 7!
Hands Off the Revolution Club
| revcom.us
Seven members of the Revolution Club are facing trial from an illegitimate mass arrest by the Chicago Police Department at the 2018 Puerto Rican People’s Parade. They were surrounded and violently arrested as part of a pattern of arrests and harassment by Chicago police against constitutionally-protected free speech activity of the Revolution Club. All seven are charged with interfering with a police officer, a misdemeanor charge that carries possibly a year in jail. Noche Diaz, part of the National Get Organized for an ACTUAL Revolution Tour, is also charged with a sound ordinance violation and disorderly conduct, which carry hundreds of dollars in fines.
The Revolution Club was on the side of the parade route with signs and a literature table talking to people and passing out flyers before the arrival of the parade. They spoke over a bullhorn (which the ACLU has affirmed their right to do), about how this system is responsible for the deaths in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, the U.S.-backed bombing of Yemen, and the ripping away of immigrant children from their parents as well as the terror and brutality of the police right here. They brought out a way out of this madness through revolution and the new communism of Bob Avakian. After two hours, a group of at least 12 police officers including several commanders, came up and surrounded 7 Revolution Club members, grabbed them, threw them to the ground and arrested them.
Between July 2016 and September 2019, members of the Revolution Club were arrested or ticketed on 14 different occasions and nearly arrested or harassed an additional 20 times. These arrests are blatant political repression of a message the CPD—and their political higher-ups—don’t want connecting with the people they want to keep in line. And while Chicago’s Democratic administrations try to silence revolutionaries who envision and fight for a world free of all oppression, the fascist regime in the White House lashes out and gains strength in its ability to crush all dissent. This needs to be fought back against and these charges defeated, with the demand that all the charges on the seven defendants be dropped, and that the attacks on the Revolution Club stop.
Revolution Club Chicago ∙ 312.804.9121 ∙ FB/IG/Twitter @revclubchi revclub.chi@gmail.com
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The Puerto Rican Parade 7
Drop the Charges Day
Thursday, February 27
12 pm: Rally at Kim Foxx’s Office
69 W. Washington
All Day: Call Kim Foxx’s Office, (312) 603-1880,
to ask charges be dropped on 7 Revolution Club members arrested at the 2018 Puerto Rican People’s Parade for constitutionally-protected free speech activity.
Pack the Courtroom Pre-Trial Hearing
Friday, February 28, 9am
555 W. Harrison, Room 303
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