A Short Interview with Josh Wolf

Josh Wolf had a few minutes to talk by phone on Tuesday, Sept 19, after learning he would be re-imprisoned for refusing to release video footage to a politically manipulated Grand Jury.

He spoke today about the demand he return to the prison.

"I don't see any logical reason to be incarcerated pending decisions to be finalized by the 9th Circuit Court.

"I am not a flight risk. I have not committed a crime."

His next legal options are pending to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals 'en banc', which is a court made up of all the judges. Since the 9th Circuit is a territory from Seattle to Pasadena, gathering all the judges is a unique incident. The other option is the US Supreme Court.

Both venues are extraordinary and expensive.

The case revolves aroung a police car, owned by San Francisco, which may or may not have suffered minimal damage to a tail-light. One account of the incident describes a police car attempting to block marching demonstrators, which came to a stop over a piece of styrofoam. The heat of the engine caused the styrofoam to smoke, but not ignite the car. The police officer rapidly backed up and off of the foam, but it hit a dumpster, or some other hard object, and cracked the tail-light. No damage report was made for the car by the SF Police Department. Other accounts say the police car didn't even sustain a broken tailight.

Apparently a photo of the smoking police car made it's way into the public press and created a larger issue of the incident.

The video footage of the events of that day held by Mr Wolf are said to be boring or not germain to the edited video news story he posted at his news blog. His footage was of an incident which occured nearby, involving a violent arrest.

Large sums of money are being spent by the Bush administration, which prompted the Grand Jury investigation. His jailing and court expenditures have far exceeded the dollar amount of this purported damage. The attempt by the Federal government to have jurisdiction in affairs of a local governmental property is also in question.

Wolf will turn himself in to the Federal prison at Dublin, CA, Wednesday, September 20, at 1PM. There is a press conference sheduled at 11:30AM at the gates of the prison.