Fly Benzo Gets Probation in San Francisco, April 27th

The restraining order barring DeBray (Fly Benzo) Carpenter from the Cahill construction site and the stay away order barring Fly’s presence at Mendell Plaza are SFPD examples of this nation’s conspiracy to mass incarcerate and control the lives and the deaths of the young, black and male in America. SFPD’S targeting and attempted criminalization of Fly Benzo boiled over when Fly stood up against racist employment and training practices at the Cahill construction site in Bayview-Hunters Point, and stood up against the police murder of Kenneth Harding. In the Cahilll case, SFPD issued a restraining order barring Fly from the site. In the case of Kenneth Harding, SFPD ordered Fly kept under surveillance and videotaped. The attempted pipe line to prison for Fly continued with his unlawful arrest and conviction on false charges of resisting arrest, assault on a police officer and obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duties. Following a large turnout of community supporters at his April 20th sentencing hearing, sentencing was continued to a second date (April 27th) when Fly was sentenced to three years’ probation. Probation conditions included that Fly consent to full searches of his home, car and self, at any time or place, with or without probable cause or warrants; and that he “stay away” from Mendell Plaza and all of Third street between Oakdale Avenue and Quesada. “...probationers and parolees are at increased risk of arrest because their lives are governed by additional rules that do not apply to everyone else. Myriad restrictions on their travel and behavior (such as a prohibition on associating with other felons) as well as various requirements of probation and parole (such as paying fines and meeting with probation officers) create opportunities for arrest… in fact that is what happens a good deal of the time…” from Michelle Alexander; "The New Jim Crow; Mass Incarceration in the Age of Color Blindness."

Probation is a severe penalty for standing up for one’s community rights and videotaping the police. This is what DeBray (Fly Benzo) Carpenter is fighting. It’s not his fight alone. The system of mass incarceration and control threatens, brutalizes and represses us all. Our fight is for Fly Benzo, Kenneth Harding, Kenneth Caruthers, Antoine Thomas, Oscar Grant, James Rivera, Luther Brown, Raheim Brown, Trayvon Martin and the list goes on, and on, and on. If you haven’t felt the sting of runaway police crime in your neighborhood or family yet, then God forbid it will be your husband, father, brother, son or uncle next. We say “rest in peace” to those lives taken, but to the living we say “the struggle continues-the struggle is for you and yours.” A victory for Fly Benzo is a victory for us all. Superior court of California, County of San Francisco 400 McAllister Street Dept. 514, 9a.m. may 30th. Be there. Occupy Fly Benzo’s courtroom for us all. Post this everywhere.