Drop the Charges!

From a reader:

Officials of the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago and the Cook County State’s Attorney are continuing to press charges against a videographer simply for videoing Revolution writer Sunsara Taylor as she made a statement at the Society premises on November 1, 2009. In her statement, Taylor protested the Ethical Humanist Society’s shameful withdrawal of their invitation for her to speak. Instead of doing the right thing, the Society’s president called the police, who used brute force to stop the man documenting these events (previously reported in Revolution, available online at http://revcom.us/a/182/news_flash-en.html). The unjust nature of the charges against the videographer is being debated more broadly, but much more is needed.

The Chicago Reader, a free weekly, just published an article about the case (“Party Crashers” at chicagoreader.com), which has made it a bigger issue in the city. The Ad Hoc Committee for Reason & Dropping the Charges has set up a website (dropthecharges.net). The Committee organized an important event on January 20 in Evanston, just north of Chicago, that featured a panel of Bill Ayers (professor of education at the University of Illinois in Chicago), Marc Falkoff (professor of law at Northern Illinois University and lawyer for Guantánamo detainees), and Sunsara Taylor (participating via video conferencing). The three share the common experience of being disinvited from speaking engagements, having their views distorted and maligned, and facing attempts to marginalize their voices. About 50 people attended and dug into questions of evaluating the nature and causes of the “ice sheet” of censorship drawing over this country, the role of the media, what individuals and relatively small forces can and should do in the face of the great challenges facing us, and more. The entire exchange will be available soon on YouTube. A statement from the videographer and a short clip on the importance of fighting the charges are on dropthecharges.net.

The battle now moves to the courtroom on January 28, when responses to subpoenas served by the defense will be argued in court. It is expected that a date for trial will be set at that time. The Committee is calling for people to urge the Ethical Humanist Society of Chicago and its parent organization, the American Ethical Union in New York, to drop the charges. They are requesting that emails be sent to EHSC at office@ethicalhuman.org and to the AEU via a form online at aeu.org/index.php?case=contact; copies to adhoc4reason@gmail and sunsaratour@yahoo.com are appreciated. The Committee asks that donations to the legal defense fund can be made to Scott Frankel, Attorney at Law, 77 W. Washington, Suite 1720, Chicago, IL 60602.

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