Hi YPP folks, check out these updates on the June 13 arrests. This first article summarizes accounts from the Daily News, City Paper, and Phawker blog, and will appear in my newspaper to be released on July 4. Also pasted below is an account of an arrestee.

If you're not busy, please come and check out our event Wednesday, June 25, 7pm, at The A-Space, 4722 Baltimore Avenue. (Parking nearby and also accessible via the #34 Trolley) Author J. Patrick O'Connor will be in town to speak about "The Framing of Mumia Abu-Jamal" and to sign copies of his new book for the audience. This event is a fundraiser for Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal, currently raising money to print the next issue of the newspaper, to be released on July 4. There will be books available for purchase, from which all proceeds will go towards the fundraiser.

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Police Critics Illegally Arrested, Home Seized

By Jeff Rousset, Abu-Jamal-News.com

On the morning of Friday, June 13, 2008, police entered a home in North Philadelphia without warrant and illegally arrested its four residents, who had been petitioning against police brutality and new police surveillance cameras in their community. The residents were held without charges for and permanently kicked out of their home the next day.

Daniel Moffat, 28, who co-owns the house on the 1600 block of Ridge Avenue, was detained along with his three housemates, who have been living there up to four years, after police entered their home without a warrant.

While handcuffed in the backseat of a police cruiser on one of the hottest days of the year Moffat says when he asked 9th Police District Captain Dennis Wilson what he was accused of, the Captain responded: "You're not being charged, you're being investigated." He says Wilson told him sarcastically to "call it a kidnapping."

According to police, the house was initially targeted because they suspected trespassing. The Department of Homeland Security, Housing Authority, Licensing & Inspections, and PA State Police were all called to investigate the scene.

Drumming up Charges?

Wilson, who led police, told the City Paper: "They're a hate group. We're trying to drum up charges against them, but unfortunately we'll probably have to let them go."

Police on the scene claimed there was anti-government and anti-police literature inside which was a cause for concern.

Police spokesman Lt. Frank Vanore said police suspected a bunker was being built on the roof, “similar to what we saw on Osage Avenue,” referring to the home of the MOVE organization, which was bombed by a police helicopter on May 13th, 1985, killing six adults and five children, and started a fire that burned down over 60 homes. The “bunker” on Ridge Avenue is actually a greenhouse which the roommates use to grow produce which they give away to homeless people.

The housemates reported spending hours in the car before Wilson told them, "We're going to do you a favor. It's a very hot day, and we're going to bring you down the district and put you in a cell so you don't overheat."

Gathering Their Belongings

After spending about twelve hours in jail the housemates were released, still without charges. Shortly afterward they were given two hours under police escort to collect whatever belongings they could from their house, before it was boarded up and condemned as unfit to live in.

"When I got to my room, it had been thoroughly searched," Moffat said. "All my photographs on the floor, all my filing cabinets emptied. It was a wreck.” He says things were missing like phone number lists and notebooks. His laptop was also confiscated by police for investigation.

"This leaves me homeless, without access to things I need. My whole life is disrupted," said Moffat.
The house is near the rapidly gentrifying areas of Fairmount and Spring Garden. Others have been kicked out of their homes nearby here and around Philly to make way for developers and more expensive housing.

Community Activism

Moffat and his housemates are active in their community. They give out free food regularly to people in need, help maintain a local garden, and give away free plants to neighbors.

Edna Williams runs the Mary Jane Home Enrichment Center on the same block as the group and has been serving homeless and needy people in the neighborhood for over thirty years. She has been publicly recognized for her good work and is a well respected, veteran community leader.

Williams strongly defended Moffat and his friends. "You need to get that out there," she said, "these are good kids." They helped her paint the exterior of her community center, and regularly give her food they grow to distribute to the hungry.

Moffat and his roommates had recently been circulating a petition calling for further investigations into the now infamous incident which took place earlier this month, when over a dozen Philadelphia Police officers were filmed by a Fox helicopter brutally beating 3 unarmed men. They were also petitioning against newly installed police surveillance cameras in their neighborhood.

The residents were never contacted regarding the alleged unsafe condition of their building, although Moffat admits he was missing some permits and the house was being fixed up.

Apparently, the house was never a problem until the people inside the house became a problem to the police. Looking at the MOVE bombing, this new incident, and uncounted others, reveals the consistent dedication of the Philadelphia Police Department to squash dissent by any means necessary. As an increasing number of people are kicked out of their homes in Philadelphia and across the United States, an increasing number of police officers patrol the streets and assert the power of the State over individuals.

SOURCES: Daily News, City Paper, and Phawker blog.

--Jeff Rousset is a freelance writer and member of Philly Students for a Democratic Society. This essay appears in the new issue of the Journalists for Mumia newspaper: Abu-Jamal News, whose website is Abu-Jamal-News.com.

THIS IS AN ACCOUNT FROM A RESIDENT OF THE HOUSE:

Date: Wednesday, June 18, 2008, 2:25 PM

by Jen Rock

dear friends,

this is something that i want to communicate to as many people as i know, and as many people as they know. please forward this widely.

on the morning of friday june 13th, three plain cloths cops and captian wilson of the ninth district of philadelphia came to my front door. they said they were responding to a complaint about "trespassing in an abandoned building". we have lived in our home for almost 4 years. we are curious about the origin of this "complaint." after one house mate answered the door, asked for a warrant and refused to let the police in they arrested him and stole his keys. they broke in. there was no warrant. they arrested myself and my two other roommates. when asked if there was a warrant they informed us that they didn't need one. we were also informed that we weren't arrested, but were detained...and under investigation.

fortunately, we called our incredible network of friends when we realized what was happening to our first house mate and they started to show up as witnesses. although the police were threatening to arrest folks who were trying to photograph the scene, seeing so much support made the cops squirm. it speaks to our power. and to their criminal behavior.

we were brought to the ninth district jail. we were not processed because there were no charges, but taken directly to two separate jail cells. we spent the next 14 hours asking for our phone call and information about charges. no one working in the jail seemed to have information or understand what was going on.

while were were being held in this basement cell, a whole host of police, detectives, crime scene investigators, the department of homeland security, state troopers, the housing authority and department of license and inspection (l & i) among others trespassed into our owned property...our home. after hours and hours of investigation nothing was found! we were released from jail, but were informed that l & i found heaps of code violation and were going to seal the building the next day.

i was released from jail at 3:30 on saturday morning. i then learned that in 6 and 1/2 hours (at 10 am) we would have 2 hours to move out of our home. in those two hours, we would only be allowed in to our home one at a time, under the supervision of police escorts. after 2 hours of collecting what we thought we would need for the next indeterminable amount of time l & i boarded all of our windows, and locked the front gate to our home. we are homeless, staying with friends, and trying to understand what happened.

some of you are not unfamiliar with experiences of unlawful arrest. it is important to recognize that police harassment is not unusual for people in our neighborhood, francisville. what happened to our home is an extreme case, but not an isolated incident. we live in a neighborhood that is predominantly poor and black. there is violence, crime, no grocery store, and few resources for the kids. we also sit between two areas that have experienced rapid economic development and transformed demographically. we are the last standing ghetto amongst all this development.

the city is transforming, and folks who don't fit into the agenda of that transformation are targeted by the police, who are employed by the developers. philadelphia is experiencing something mayor nutter calls "a crime emergency." it is a tool to justify marshal law, to suspend civil liberties more than ever. it is a tactic of repression. we talk to our neighbors, have community gardens, and give out free food weekly. and we were targeted. many folks are targeted not for choices they make, but rather the inability to make choices at all. poverty and race are the reasons they are targeted.

we want to go home. we want that home to be a place safe from police harassment. we want to hold the responsible parties accountable for their crimes. but beyond all those things we want to employ to voices of those who are so rarely heard. to call attention to the sources of the problems and not the symptoms. mayor nutter has responded to the needs of philadelphia by dramatically expanding the philadelphia police department. we are skeptical. we want to see real support for the communities that need it.

fortunately, we have the ability, for whatever reason, to reach out and ask for help. we have a phenomenal network of friends, activists, and community organizers. if you have skills, resources, questions, or suggestions please don't hesitate to respond. we have a lot of needs, and as they become more clear it will help to know who we can and should contact. thank you so much for taking the time to hear this story...please pass it along.

-jenrock