DA Hallinan adopts Bush's "Anti-Terrorism" Crusade

District Attorney Terence Hallinan has explicitly adopted "War" Bush's anti-terrorism crusade in an outrageous attempt to frame ACTUP-SF members David Pasquarelli and Michael Petrelis on felony charges for misdemeanor phone nuisance calls so as to further his political career. Considering an injury to one is an injury to all, and as Rev. Niemoller said of the Nazis, first they come for one group, then they come for anyone else, it is imperative that the entire progressive community protest this electioneering loudly and clearly NOW.

As the excellent article by Michael Bellefountaine at http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/01/113721.php states:

"What is most troubling about all of this is that the felony charges are coupled with penal code violation 1192.7 (c)(38). When this section of the penal code is applied, the DA's office is precluded from making any form of plea bargain. Though it is meant for violent crimes, this statute is attached to all of David and Michael's felonies. This means they will be unable to plead to lesser charges, even if they chose to do so."

This horrifying action is just the latest reminder to the progressive community of San Francisco that Terence Hallinan is not carrying on in the tradition of his late, wonderful, socialist parents, Vince and Vivian Hallinan. He proudly ran for re-election as having been endorsed by the reactionary Democratic Party central committee. He is just another Democratic Party politician engaging in electioneering and this must stop now.

It is very clear from Bellefountaine's excellent brief for the defense that Pasquarelli and Petrelis have done nothing more than make misdemeanor nuisance phone calls and since they are not going anywhere, their bail should be reduced to zero immediately.

There are some things that can be asked of ACTUP-SF:
1. Please stop the phone call routine. I think they have figured that out, but it needs to be said.

2. Please put the demand for a national health care system on your program, which program is listed in the article by Bellefountaine.

3. Concentrate your energies on written and public informational exposes of the AIDS charity rackets, as has been done at http://www.accountabilityproject.com

Unlike the rest of the industrialized world, the United States has no national healthcare system because labor is very weak and we pay for a military, not healthcare. That is, we pay for guns instead of butter, to the detriment of all our lives. In such an atmosphere, the AIDS charity rackets have been able to survive like the parasites they are. As ACTUP -SF notes in another article,
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/01/113724.php, the AIDS charity rackets are finally being exposed for being the thievery they are by definition. All of the tampering with figures on syphilis and HIV have been done to promote the AIDS charity rackets, and now that the money is gone in the current economic depression, that little game is over and the charity rackets are falling apart.

It is long overdue that the progressive community loudly and clearly condemn the frame-up by DA Hallinan and his Democratic Party friends of Petrelis and Pasquarelli on felonies which Hallinan has clearly fixed so as these two young men cannot plead to misdemeanors instead. If this were any other district attorney, we would see a massive outcry from the progressive community. The silence is totally unacceptable. The San Francisco Bay Guardian has spoken out, in its December 26, 2001 article by A.C. Thompson, "Are These Guys Really Terrorists?" See http://www.sfbg.com Many individuals have also spoken out in condemning Hallinan's promotion of Bush's anti-terrorism witchhunt and using it against these two young men, all at the expense of us taxpayers.

It is now mandatory that every serious progressive organization loudly and clearly condemn this frame up of Pasquarelli and Petrelis. demand that their bail be reduced to zero now and ask that ACTUP-SF join in the call for a national healthcare system now.