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Indybay Feature

What I got to say

by Gabe Meyers
It has been a four days since the offical statement by the court that I was free and I have been very humble since then because I know that there are many people who do not share that same freedom. I have realized throughout this ordeal that being an opponenet of injustice can sometimes lead to you being a victim of it. There are many people still locked up in prisons because of their beliefs and their commitment to ending oppression in all forms. They must not be forgotten and we must not take our freedom for granted.
I would like to start by thanking some people who helped me along the way. First of all my lawyer Eric Luce. Job well done! Also Henry Dohering and everyyone else who worked on my case at the SF Public Defenders Office. I would like to thank my legal support team from the Midnight Special Law Collective. Paul, Greg, Sam, Scott, Dan, and Kris, you all did a great job in your own positive contribution. I would like to thank the people over at the National Lawyers Guild, thanks for your support and help in revealing the truth about that night. Mark Vermulhen and Hunter Pyle for their legal advice and I am sorry that I did not attain you as counsel. I would like to thank California Anarchist Prisoner Support and Prisoner Resistance Project for letting me speak at their events. I would like to thank Bill Carpenter and the folks at Indybay for providing media coverage and letting me post articles and court appearances. I would like to thank Josh and Liz Wolf for their support and I hope Josh will get out of jail soon. Hopefully my release will lead to his. I would like to thank Manish Vadiya at Critical Resistance. Maybe we can write an op-ed about my realase. Slingshot newspaper for publishing an article about my case. Grand jury resisters Nadia Winstead and Richard Brown for their courtroom support and all of those who showed up to suppport me in the early hours of the morning at such a cold solemn place such as 850 Bryant street. I know you didn't want to be there as much as me; thanks for coming. If there is anyone I missed, don't worry you are not unappreciated.

For the past 17 months the goverment has kept going throught he court process threatning to take me trial. For that period of time, the truth about what happened has not been made public. If I was to have gone to trial, the truth about what happened would of come out in a court room. This is one of the reasons why they dropped the charges and advoided trial.
But the truth still need to come out. So if you really want to know, the truth is that I was about to go to trial for running out of the way of out of a police car that was recklessly speeding into a crowd of protestors on a dark unlit street, and that I inadvertently stopped them( thank god or peole would of been run over) by dropping a large styrofoam sign to run out of the way of the patrol car. The sign then then fell underneath the wheels of the car.
When I ran out of the road and on to the sidewalk, I was chased to by Officer Michael Wolf, the cop riding in the passenger seat of the car. He takled me to the ground from behind on the sidewalk and held in me down in a choke hold where I was asphixiated by him (as it was made apparent by the photograh and video taken of me and largely ignored by the courts) I never tried to lynch myself. Being arrested that night and going through the court process, I felt that I was the one being lynched. That police officer had no right to of first strangle me and then charge me with a crime. It is he who is a criminal. I am very dissapointed that nothing has been done about him, or his partner for driving unsafely, by the internal affairs divison of the SF Police Department or the SF District Attorneys Office.
There must not be a double standard about the investigation of this protest. The government must acknowldge that there was criminal misconduct by the police if they are going to say that was some from the protestors, and they must acknowledge that the police instigated this by driving into the crowd at a dangerous speed.
I am sorry about how unfortunate the events and the aftermath of that night were. I don't believe that Offier Sheilds should of been hit over the head, it could of killed him, but Officer Sheilds shouldn't of driven into the crowd at that speed, someone could of been killed or hurt badlly by him. He was also reported using his baton on someone, even by his partner in his police report. These sort of actions usually have a tendency to anger people and sometimes they respond with physical force as they did that night.
I am wrapping up this chapter in my life, but events like these continue on a daily basis throughout the world . We must continue to struggle for justice until all are free. No one is free when others are oppressed. What has happened on the 8th of July in 20005 should serve as an example that rights and freedom to dissent can be taken at anytime suh as they have done to Josh Wolf, threatened to do to me, and currently doing to Cody Tarlow. It should also serve as reminder that the state will even result to violence such as running people over, choking individuals, and beating them with batons and clubs. I am glad that things were not as worse than they have been from that night (as they are in other places of this globe), but their were still crimes by the poice that were committed and they must not go unanswered. It is our duty to make sure they don't.

Thank you everyone for your support and solidarity. I am sure I will see you all at another protest,

Gabriel Mark Meyers
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by a TG person
Those cops also pointed loaded guns at anybody they could....
by cp
Yes - it is really unfair what you were put through. Many witnesses, including total bystanders who weren't participating in the protest saw the unsafe and aggressive maneuver in which the police accelerated towards a group of several dozen people crossing the street who had not gotten to the sidewalk yet.
If you aren't familiar with the whole story here, the police chief essentially reassigned and reprimanded some of the sergeants running things that evening, and we can only guess at the internal nature of the dialog taking place at the police department.
It is important to realize that just about 25 minutes earlier, there were over 100 police or so patrolling the march and doing high levels of crowd control. They kept ordering people stepping off the sidewalk back to the side, and issued tickets for exceeding noise limits with a stereo, and it was very tense. Then most of this patrol seemed to vanish. Except it was key to note that not all the police were gone. As the crowd reassembled at the 16th and Mission BART station (the original meeting point for the march), after a fairly dramatic citation + detention of the guy who brought the loud stereo (up at 19th street or so?), I definitely remember seeing a few police officers standing there. Also, the public works crew was on the scene picking up some trash barrels that a pair of teens had knocked over, so clearly police and city employees were radioing each other about what was going on at some level. I was really perplexed at the time where the main group of 100 police had gone, who had been there a few minutes earlier, and as the protest group started walking up Mission street the second time, I remember turning to crowd members asking what was going on because it almost seemed like a planned action to remove all these officers. After having attended half a dozen+ antiwar protests in San Francisco during the past few years, I hadn't seen anything like this. I wish I knew whether Shields and Wolf were listening to the radio, or had it turned off and somehow had no idea that there was this protest going on Mission street that Sgt. Suhr had devoted dozens of available officers to. on one level it appeared that various police cars were driving around the city not communicating with each other, and deciding on their own what they felt like doing.
by Kitty Kastro
So why didn't you file a complaint after the attack?
Me and Dina Boyer tried to convince the community those cops were brutal that night. And after it happened, we were talking about it openly and trying to figure out what to do, but we had no support from any of the people who attended that rally. Now all of a sudden you want to do something. Me and Dina had the FBI chasing us around demanding footage and pictures, but no one to help us....
in 2005 and when we tried to get help from the Lawyers Guild they were not only mean and nasty they didn't give us any help. Where was the help immediately after it happened?
Why didn't Gabe urge his attorneys to ask Dina for help? She could have filed the complaint.
And no offense it was me and Dina who were on the phone and visiting the DA's office to urge them to drop the charges against Gabe. But no recognition for it. The people you claimed helped you is pretentious. You have become spoiled. How come Dina's(a TG person) name was not mentioned in your thank you letter? She hand delivered letters and talked with the DA about this case alot. Those other people you claimed helped you is a lie. The National Lawyers guild is a joke, and Henrey Doehring is nothing more than a fat lazy lawyer who loves to take advantage of people.
So my advice is get real and get on with your life and learn to recognize who really helped you.....
Next time write you own letters and take you own video footage.
by Gabe Meyers
Sorry about the poor english and grammar. I was at the pizza joint when I was writing the article, and they were rushing me because they wanted to close; didn't really get a chance to edit. Regardless, I think everybody sees what I'm getting at.

See ya' around!

by Gabe
Kitty,
Why are you upset with me? I am sorry that I didn't mention you in the congratulations. I probabaly missed a few people and that doesen't mean that I'm not appreciative. Don't start fights when we should be in solidarity together, especially over personal issues. As for not filing the complaints sooner, I wanted to but was advised not to since I had an open case in court. How about you, why didn't you file a complaint? Give me a break! I don't need anymore hassels. It is stupid.


by kitty kastro
I did not write the comment under my name so who did it and I have to admit some of what was said is true but who the hell is henery and gabe i might know you but do not remember you.

talked to ms. dina she says she did not do it either.....
by a TG person
I think Kitty did write it, she just doesn't remember, but I can tell you she doesn't want to fight with Gabe, of all people....

I am happy Gabe got off those charges, BUT would like to see Josh get some help.
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