Looking Back at 2010

2010. The crisis broke even harder. Budget cuts ran deeper. More and more people lost their jobs, hours, had wages cut, or were furloughed. Many people lost (or almost lost) unemployment benefits. Poverty rates rose. Unemployment rose. Homelessness rose. Obama, a Nobel Peace prize winner, continued the wars in Pakistan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, as more and more US troops were left dead and thousands more innocent civilians were left murdered, without homes, or horribly maimed.

Together, across racial divisions,
towards freedom.

But there were signs of resistance. Foreclosed homes were occupied and evictions were halted. Students continued to resist cuts at their schools through strikes, walkouts, and occupations. In Oakland, people took to the streets and fought the police in some of the most fierce rioting in the United States in years, attacking police cars and looting mostly banks and corporate businesses. Prisoners in Georgia launched the longest prison strike in history, using cell phones bought from guards to coordinate across race and religious lines for better pay and treatment. Also, port workers on the east cost launched a round of wildcat strikes in solidarity with sacked workers. All of these things point towards a new form of resistance. Outside of the political process; not waiting for politicians and Leftist career activists to change things in our lives and in our communities. Taking the power into our own hands and fighting together.

Modesto Anarcho in part of that push. We're only a small group of friends engaging and participating in class struggle in our area, which many have done for years. We don't pretend to be leaders in the struggle against capitalism, only participants with other working class people within it. Listed below is a re-cap of some of the biggest stories of last year on this blog. This site has been getting more and more hits, more feedback, and more engagement. So, don't expect us to let up anytime soon.

Ballin' and occupyin'!

In January, we participated in a one day occupation of a foreclosed house which was successful in halting the eviction. The house belonged to the Central Valley Miwok Tribe (CVMT.) We felt that the occupation was important because it brought together a diverse group of people for the purpose of stopping an eviction, and was successful. Read more about the occupation here.

In February and March, we began producing and handing out literature around the assaults on education in California. We also participated in various attempts at organizing on the Modesto Junior College campus, but due to harassment from campus police and the administration, were largely unsuccessful. However, we did document and publicize the walkouts by students in the Modesto City Schools District in a video and various articles.

'Run Robert, run!'

Also, in April we ran a humorous story of Robert Stanford being run out of Earth Day at Graceada Park for being a snitch. As of late, Robert Stanford has praised MA's work, and even declared that we 'deserve a medal' for standing up to the police. This. Is. Hilarious. Simply put, Robert helped the Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department launch a sting operation against Modesto Needle Exchange. Robert can be seen in videos with Adam Christianson speaking before the Board of Supervisors stating that the parks needed to be cleared of the 'junkies and the anarchists.' Stanford's recent tirades against the police are laughable. He works with the police - he might as well be (and might be) a cop.

BBQ at Paperboy.

During the summer we covered the protests against Sarah Palin and the grand expenses that the police and university went to in order to block protests (and keeping an eye on us!). We also gave light to the ongoing situation with Paperboy Park, a public park that was closed down thanks to a union of business, developer, and political interests. Throughout the summer Modesto Anarcho also held a series of BBQ's in public parks, including Paperboy against the closure. We also held a public graffiti/street art festival, featuring free food and live music.

Rally for Rita in Westside.

In August, we began covering the unfolding murders of James Rivera and others within the Central Valley. In September, the police and Sheriffs in Modesto killed twice, killing Francisco Moran and Rita Elias. Covering both the murders and resistance from family and community members got this site a lot of traffic and we hope it was helpful in the struggle locally against police terror. Also in September, we covered resistance to Christian bigots at the Modesto PRIDE festival for the second year in a row.

In the winter we continued to cover the ongoing resistance to police violence, including the disruption of a police accredation meeting. We also released a series of articles about the police brutality scandal in the wake of released emails from within the police department, as well as the connection between business interests and the gentrification of downtown Modesto.

This is just a wrap up. Feel free to check out the blog and everything in it. Check out the different pages at the top of the site and view videos, download flyers, and read the magazine.

We look forward to the struggle ahead. See you in the streets.

"Santa" delivers Coal to Naughty Fresno Police Union

According to a post on indybay, someone(s) claimed responsibility for busting out the windows of the Fresno Police Union building. The video here shows the damage. The indybay communique left stated: 

Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas! Jacky Parks and the FPOA have been very naughty this year. By greedily taking over half of the city budget they are responsible for lost jobs and cut services. I went to fill his stocking with coal but couldn't find the chimney so the coal was delivered through several of the buildings windows.

          Merry Christmas Fresno!

Looks like some people are tired of
playing nice.

Like Modesto, Fresno police have been involved in numerous brutality cases throughout the year, including the shooting deaths of several unarmed persons. A recent report by Colorlines also exposed how the police force has kept on the payroll repeat brutal cops throughout the years.  

To view police brutality and murder cases throughout the Central Valley, flip through copies of Modesto Anarcho, or check out our police time lines here and here. 

Why Is Downtown Dead?: Homelessness, Development, and Resistance

In the early 2000's, the place for young people to be was one place: Downtown Modesto. The closed off street of 10th and J was not only a home for City Hall, but also the movie theater, upscale restaurants, coffee shops, and fast food places. For many of the pre and post-high school age kids that gathered in the area however, the reason to be downtown was not to buy anything. They came downtown to hang out, meet new people, and be with friends. While many saw this as a chance to be around other youth, the downtown also was a well lit, relatively safe place that was also used by a fair amount of adults. It was a regular sight to see parents dropping kids off in mini-vans, knowing that they were safer there than at a house party. The kids could have been home in front of television, doing drugs and drinking, but instead they were in an open area filled with hundreds of different youth from different neighborhoods, races, and towns. In only a matter of years, this would all be gone.

Go into the Downtown now, and you'll find a very different scene. Instead of young kids, you instead encounter largely young adults, mostly going to clubs and bars. Police have a much larger presence in the area than they did years before; they have a substation, surveillance cameras are everywhere, and police also block off and barricade the streets around 10th and J Street, stopping traffic. But if you aren't interested or because of your age can't go to a club or a bar, there's really nothing for you to do on a Friday or Saturday night. There are hardly any people other than the ones walking to a club or bar. There are certainly not very many young people, especially high school age, left in the downtown. How did an area of the city that was used by large amounts of young people become so dead? Where once public space served as a place for people to gather, laugh, and talk is now - completely devoid of any public life.  


Not Just a Mob, But a Mob That Doesn't Pay


10th and J Street was a developers dream. It featured a mix of government, retail, shopping, and restaurant property. City workers on the their lunch breaks could buy burritos and get a coffee at Starbucks. Those looking for fine dining could check out the Gallo owned Galleto's restaurant, Dews, wine bars, and a host other upscale eateries. One could take in a film at either the State or Brendan. And, the near by Double Tree Hotel kept the area awash in groups of convention goers, prom attendees, and a host of other possible customers.

A 'target' audience.

There was just one problem. The open area of the downtown itself and it's central location also created a convergence point for much of the cities youth. Once kids learned that they could come downtown, meet other young people, smooze with potential dates, and learn about after hours parties, 10th and J Street became the place to go on the weekends. Soon, upper middle class restaurant goers were having to rub elbows with grubby punk rockers, hip hop kids in tall tees, and metal heads playing yet another version of 'Enter Sandman' on acoustic guitar. What's worse, is that the majority of these kids didn't pay for anything! They weren't there to buy, they were there to hang out, and in doing so used the bathrooms of most of the businesses, put up stickers and graffiti in the area, and provided a nuisance to the 'business community.'

But who would act as a force of protection from the rabble for the business owners in the downtown? Who else, but the police. Soon, by the mid-2000's, police were doing sweeps of the downtown, ticketing young kids for smoking and 'loitering,' and when they could, 'enforcing' curfew laws. This was an attempt by the City Government to respond and cater to the interests of the business owners in the downtown, and also the associations of developers and business interests that were situated inside local government. For them, the community and atmosphere of fun that had been created around the downtown scene was problematic: these kids were taking up space downtown and simply not buying anything. The police, forever at the beckon call of the city and government interests, were quick to use a slew of "quality of life" measures to try and drive the kids out of the area. They could site them for being out past hours or simply for loitering. With this harassment, they could push back against the kids. The developers dream came with a price; it's desire to bring people out to shop had also brought them out to simply hang out. And while the rich used the police against the youth, the kids still had some cards to play.

If the Kids, Are United...


Kids in the downtown faced a serious challenge. The place that they all used to come together and hang out was being threatened from police harassment. Some young people responded at the time by organizing a Copwatch group, which monitored the police and video tapped them during interactions with people in the downtown. In this way, kids tried to create a buffer zone between themselves and the police. It also gave them another tool against harassment. While this caused the police to back off sometimes, in other situations, police issued tickets and turned on the Copwatchers, trying to drive them out of the area. Other times, police simply attempted to interfere with their recording, stepping in front of cameras.

Downtown Modesto.

In one instance, a police officer told a young Copwatcher that, "If they weren't there to buy, they had to leave." The mission of the police and their relationship to the youth downtown was very clear: they were there to make things safe for capital and not people.

Anarchists in the downtown also worked within this tension against the police and helped organize weekend "Anarchist Cafes." These cafes featured live music or a boom box, free food, free literature, newspapers, books to read, films/movies, allowed people to make t-shirts, and in general tried to create a fun and open environment for young people. The cafes, which occurred on Friday and Saturday nights, were often harassed by the police, who attempted to get the young people to pack up their stuff and leave the area. They also attempted to get store owners who the youth were out in front of to complain so they could be kicked out of the downtown. Sadly for the police, this didn't work, and the cafe' space stayed, adding to the push against police evicting and harassing the youth.

The Downtown Explodes

E-40, hyphy music act.

But while the crowds of downtown youth presented a problem to the business interests in the area and thus drew the wrath of the police - the bringing together of so many people in the area also represented a possible point where people could explode into larger rebellion. In 2006, police attacked young people coming out of DJ event for high school age students in the downtown as they were looking for a robbery suspect. Police arrested, beat, and tasered several young people, who according to the police, fought back. Video of the event was recorded, but never released to the public. All charges against those arrested were later dropped, and the police did back flips trying to blame the brutality on the fact that the event was a 'hyphy' music concert. Hyphy they argued, was a form of black music from Oakland, which involved outrageous dancing and car sideshows which often ended in fights against the police. Thus, their attack was warranted because of the threat the genre played to the good citizens of Modesto. Of course, this is all laughable, and was just the police's attempt to use racism to justify their attack. However, with the 'Hyphy Riot,' the point had been made, people could fight back against the police in the downtown.

In 2008, people coming out of bars on St. Patrick's Day fought back against the police trying to move them out of the area. A crowd of over a 1.500 people fought the police, threw bottles, and chanted "Fuck the Police!" More than 100 police from various agencies had to be called out to the area to quell the riot. Political demonstrations also were a continuing headache for police in the downtown. For instance, in 2005, over 100 protesters against Bush marched when he went into office for a 2nd term, taking the street and shutting down traffic. Police attempted to arrest several marchers and drove the people out of the streets. The amount of people simply in the streets during the weekend made the act of harassing various people problematic for the cops. Whenever they attempted to arrest, harass, or move along a group of people, they feared a possible riot.


The Rich Respond 

Another night on the town.

The combination of a bunch of youths in the downtown that were more interested in hanging out than buying things and the periodic eruptions of people taking to the streets and fighting the police drove many of the elites in City Government to come up with solutions to the problem. Those within the City’s Citizens Redevelopment Advisory Commission and Board of Zoning Adjustment in their five year plan of Re-Developing the downtown pointed out several measures that have helped to end many of the problems that the police and elites ran into in the early and mid 2000's. First, a police sub-station was placed in the downtown area, which helped in driving away kids from the downtown. Police were even quoted in the Modesto Bee as stating that the goal of the sub-station was to drive many of the youth away from the downtown. And, for now it seems to have worked. Furthermore, the groups representing developers have helped to put in a system of real time surveillance cameras. These cameras help give the police greater control over downtown and also make it harder for groups of people to amass without the police knowing about it. Lastly, the police have developed a system of blocking cars around 10th and J Street which gives them greater control over traffic in the area and the movement of crowds. Again these are all measures laid out in the downtown re-development plan, which you can read here. 


All of these efforts have resulted in youth leaving the downtown in droves while the area has become more of a hangout for those going to bars and clubs on the weekend. But in doing so, those that direct and control the police forces which are responsible for killing the downtown youth scene have also made the area once again more comfortable for businesses. The abilities of large crowds to also gather in the downtown unless they area attending a large event such as X-Fest which is highly policed and then rioting or holding a rawkus demonstration - is also nil. In July of 2009, when a fight broke out at the Downtown Fat Cat night club, we can see all of these parts of the puzzle coming together, as police responded to the fight which had spilled into the street in full riot gear, pushing and roughing up many within the crowd. Here the police were quick to show the extent to which they would respond to a small disruption of social order. 


Clearing Out the Homeless

Paperboy Park, a public park that Council member Muratore helped close.

Those that have drafted plans to remove the downtown of youth also have similar plans for homeless throughout the downtown. For instance, Vice Mayor Brad Hawn who helped write the 5-year downtown development plan is also a part of the Safety and Communities Committee, which helped push for the closing down of Paperboy Park. The Committee also includes Joe Muratore, the City Council rep for District 4, who also was is involved in the La Loma Association, a anti-homeless homeowners association that has pushed various anti-homeless initiatives in the city. The La Loma Association called for harsher criminalization of the homeless, surveillance cameras in public parks, the criminalization of dumpster diving, and many other measures aimed at street people. Muratore, a Harvard grad, is also a businessman with developer ties and many connections in Real Estate. As regular readers of this blog know, those from within the Committee spear headed a push to close the park after business owners complained that homeless people were using the park to much (IE, sleeping in it and resting there). The City then responded by shutting down the park, only allowing the public access to it from 11am - 1pm, or if a person paid a fee. This is Modesto, where business interests direct government and the rest of us pay the price.  

Closed to the public.

Now, Muratore is starting up a "Blue Ribbon Homeless Commission" in order to 'tackle' the problem of homelessness. The committee, according to the Modesto Bee, will be made up of a "seven-member commission...of representatives from service, business and neighborhood organizations." These of course, are the same people Muratore is already apart of or is a member to! Neighborhood organizations such as the La Loma Association want the homeless gone because they threaten property values and scare upper middle class members of their organization. Business organizations want them gone because the homeless scare away investor capital to the area. 'Service' organizations such as the Gospel Mission or various churches are more interested in 'saving the souls' of homeless than the are of stopping people being on the street. Nor are the churches going to kick up much of a fuss when people start to attack them. And of course, none of these people on the committee will be homeless themselves, nor will any of them have any desire to tackle the problems that cause homelessness in the Central Valley; poverty, foreclosure, unemployment, drug addiction, etc. They will however, have an interest in removing homeless people from the Downtown and continuing to make things safe for business. 


Muratore has stated numerous times that his goal is to 'consolidate' homeless services and get them out of public parks, i.e. out of the downtown. To many people this will seem reasonable. Why shouldn't all the services be located in only a couple places? The problem is that Muratore's drive to do so is not caused by a love for the homeless - it's part of a push to develop and gentrify the downtown and remove undesirable elements from it. Such actions will also do nothing to end homelessness, which in the current crisis is only going to be on the rise, (boom, boom, boo-yah) and everything to do with removing the 'problem' from the area via harassment and force. For instance, senior citizen residents living in the high rise near five points have already been complaining about the homeless that hang out in the park outside of their apartments. When did these people arrive on their doorsteps? Around the same time that Paperboy Park was shut down. Muratore doesn't want to help anyone but those within government and the business community. And, in a time when so many of us are literally one pay check or one eviction notice away from homelessness, are we really going to let rich big-wings like Muratore practice 'business as usual?'

Ghost Town?

Capitalism has destroyed
all adventure; the only adventure left
is to destroy capitalism.

In the end, the 'bourgiefication' of the downtown ultimately means not only gentrification, but - boredom. It means not having people to talk to other than over something that you paid for, watching a film where you are silent, at a city council meeting where people speak to you or for you, or to another worker who is on the clock. It does not mean meeting people randomly in the street, hearing music being played for the hell of it, picking up underground literature like Modesto Anarcho and meeting the people behind it, or simply kicking back with your friends outside without paying a goddamn dime. 

The reason for all of this; the police, the redevelopment plans, pushing people out or parks...of course is simply to make money. By 'cleaning' the downtown of the elements such as youth, the homeless, etc, neighborhood associations like La Loma can stay prestigious and attract new renters and keep their old ones. Businesses in the downtown will not feel threatened and capital looking to invest will not be scared away. City Governments looking to make money off of property and sales tax can be assured that their coffers will be filled. Police also, looking to 'keep the peace' by keeping the rabble off the grass also can find job security as repression becomes a boom industry. 

The people that lose at first are those that are the targets of repression. The youth kicked out of a place to hang out. Homeless people moved out of park. But moreover, those that lose out are all those who are denied access to the places where we can come together and talk, hang out, and organize from.

It's our city, let's take it back.

There are several things to take away from the last decade of life in the downtown. The first is that the police are not neutral. They serve and work for the business and political interests that run this city. Remember the police officer that said, "If you're not here to shop, you have to leave!"? The police know full well who they work for. Second, we can see that the push to attack the homeless, push out youth, and develop and gentrify downtown are not problems of bad policy or 'mean' politicians. They are instead actions of an upper class that seeks our removal so they can make money. Lastly, we can also see that the drive by the ruling forces to stop people from coming together without buying things is not just an economic decision, but also a political one as well. The forces that want us gone because we don't buy things also don't want us coming together in the middle of town, talking, organizing, and resisting together. 

Downtown Modesto, 2010. Parks are shut down. Places where people used to come together weekly now are guarded by police substations, road blocks, and surveillance cameras. This isn't just happening in Modesto. In Arcata, the square that once was filled with travelers and music is now almost silent, as police have cracked down on basic code infractions. In Santa Cruz, it's a crime to smoke on Pacific Ave. To many people these actions by the state are seen as simply poor policy, which is why it's important to understand that these laws are the first wave of an effort in developing and gentrifying an area. They don't care about people smoking! They want a reason to harass people and move them along. They want a reason to get in there and clean up the area for their own purposes. For the past 10 years, the rich have waged on ongoing battle against the poor and working people of Modesto in order to make sure that they get their money and we stay in line. Sadly for us, it appears that many of us aren't in the plans for the future other than as workers, consumers, or people that "used to live here." 

Will the places where we live be open and full of life? Will we have public space that is open to all, where music, food, and passion flow freely and we meet new faces, lovers, and friends? Or, are we going to allow our streets and public spaces where we gather to become simply boring, expensive, and heavily policed? The choice is ours. 

Acoustic Set at Firehouse Jan 8th

Modesto Copwatch responds to Jeff Jardine

From: We Are All Oscar Grant Central Valley

Modesto Copwatch.

As participants in the recent protest at the MPD’s re-accreditation meeting Modesto CopWatch members were deeply disturbed (although not very surprised) by the lack of facts, perspective, and, well, anything of value in Jeff Jardine’s column about it, which served as a weak answer to critics who asked why the Bee had not covered the event a week ago.

Mr. Jardine assumed he wouldn’t get a response to his e-mail, why? It merely shows his ignorance of the people involved in the protest. Jardine has the nerve to assume that we wouldn’t engage in conversation with him as he writes his ignorant and obviously bias opinion about us. The truth is, simply, that his message had not been read yet, as soon as it was we immediately began a response.

It is true that the mainstream media (even down to the level of the pathetic Modesto Bee) is useless to us and our cause. It is owned by and serves the interest of businesses and the profits they chase. Rarely do these news sources go against the owners and advertiser business interests. The Bee routinely takes the word of the police as truth while ignoring eye-witness accounts that go against the cop’s story. Reporting that MPD shot a man with a knife when there were plenty of people on the scene that weren’t interviewed is a good example of this. Jeff Jardine’s horrible attempt to cover this protest after the Bee initially ignored it is another example.

From the start Jardine’s column suggests a laughable premise: Modesto was an innocent farm-town but has since lost its innocent because “anarchists” live here. 

Aren’t we the car theft capital of the country? Wasn’t Modesto just judged to be one of the worst cities in the nation due to pollution, drug use, lack of services, jobs, housing, education, and even entertainment? Not to mention that the history of Modesto and the Central Valley is one of blood and struggle from Estanislao to Cesar Chavez (remember the history of Gallo?) and still continues today. Did you miss the 10,000 that marched through town for May Day 2006?

Currently, Modesto’s “good ol’ boy” dusty innocence takes the form of environmental racism/classism where the most harmful chemicals and pollutants are strategically placed in the darkest and poorest parts of the Valley (Covanta, the landfill, pesticides, diesel fumes, etc). It takes the form of continued criminalization of poor youth of color with police and prisons while cutting education and opportunities for young people. Dealing with the homeless, mentally-ill, and addicted like the major causes of our town’s problems as opposed to the symptoms of its failures. It takes the form of deals for developers, big-business, and conservative-elites against the interests of jobs, affordable housing, and even the health of the working-class and poor. 

Guess what we’re trying to say is: Jardine’s pathetic attempt to make his article interesting is written from an extremely narrow point of view and ignores the story of those who have struggled in this area for generations. If someone ever writes “A People’s History of Modesto” get Jeff a copy (RIP Howard Zinn, a great anarchist).

It’s no wonder why Jardine’s article is lacking of any important content, he wasn’t even there. Another Bee reporter was, and she didn’t bother to actually write about what happened. Instead they ignored it until people complained and then they have a columnist write a weak opinion piece to try and make up for their lack of journalism. Then Jardine has to rely on the reporting of Modesto Anarcho to get the real facts of what took place on Monday night. He shows how MA did a better job than his newspaper at covering an event while simultaneously attempting to discredit the group.

The rest of the column’s contents are no better, the “anarchist” focus merely gives Jardine an opportunity to ignore the real who/what/whys of the incident and instead play on the reader’s emotions and fears about anarchism (or at least what they think anarchism is).

Of the dozen or so participants in the protest a few of them are involved in the Modesto Anarcho group, who have been running web-sites, publishing a journal and other literature, and putting on various other community service events and projects (almost monthly) in the area for nearly a decade. The beliefs of Modesto Anarcho have always been available for the public to read for themselves, which they should do before making judgments. 

A few others protesters are part of the Modesto CopWatch network (go to youtube.com/209copwatch to see the videos). Jardine mentions a 20 person protest (that went down despite rain), but not the West Side protest in which 100 attended, free BBQs for the homeless and hungry attended by 50-75 each, and an anti-police abuse Hip-Hop concert on Crows Landing where over 300 gathered for the cause. The Bee wouldn’t know about these events because, in most cases, they didn’t cover them. 
The other protest participants were students, youth workers, and other working-class community members, and a few were friends and immediate family members of Rita Elias and Francisco Moran. The backgrounds, jobs, interests, genders, ages, and ethnicities of the protesters spanned a wide spectrum from teenagers to middle-aged, half were white and half were Latino (the protesters made up ALL of the Spanish-speakers in the room and ALL of the under 30 year olds). Almost all were born and raised in Modesto and all currently live here, despite what Chief Harden says about us “allegedly being part of the community.” How many of our cops are actually from here? Of the other 15 or so people in attendance, all were 40-70 years old, 90% white, 90% male, and most were involved in law enforcement or city government. Was this supposed to be a representation of the population of Modesto?

We did wear masks bearing the faces of Rita and Francisco once we walked into the meeting, but what Jardine fails to report is that we also protested outside of MPD for an hour prior, mostly with no masks, chatting with various passers-by, and receiving numerous encouraging honks from drivers who supported the protest. The Bee was notified about this, but their reporter did not approach any participants or ask any questions about it.

Also, 2 of people from the group that addressed the crowd took off their masks while they spoke, and almost all of us took them off at the end of the meeting. A few approached the assessors and asked, out of all the PDs they’ve assessed, how many have been denied accreditation. Their response was that they couldn’t remember, not even a rough estimate. This shows how much of a mockery the accreditation organization and process is and the protest has given people a chance to see that. As another speaker stated that night, it’s ridiculous to even consider renewing accreditation to a department that is under investigation for corruption and brutality. 

Jardine admits that the actions of local law enforcement “merit serious questioning” and that the type of current internal investigation “is not exactly a magnet for public’s trust.” If this is true then the natural question should be: “Then what are WE going to do about it?” Is the Bee doing anything to question LE or make the process more transparent? Instead of using his position to press the issue and raise awareness of the problem, Jardine takes the easy way out and writes a thin piece passing judgment on a protest based on things he heard second hand and complaining about anarchists.

Jardine says anarchists don’t care to get involved or hold government accountable. On the contrary, anarchists want people to get involved and hold so-called “leaders” accountable in the most powerful ways, directly. Instead of relying on bureaucrats and bosses to do the right thing while in the meantime you continue to suffer, get together with your fellow workers, neighbors, students, families, friends, and/or crews and get $#!+ crackin yourself! Don’t be afraid of the responsibilities that real freedom comes with.

Yes Jeff, there are Anarchists and CopWatchers here, and why would that be? Why, in a place where cops kill people in the streets and in the jails, would we want to protest the police? Why, in a place of horrible pollution and air quality, would people want a world where profits aren’t more important than our environment and health? Why, in a place where home foreclosures and unemployment rates are among the highest, would people want a world where workers aren’t exploited and families aren’t taken advantage of? Why would we want more to be put toward education and our youth and less for police and prisons? Why would we want to replace bosses with worker councils? Why would we want to give excess food to the hungry? Why would we want to put the homeless into empty homes? Why would we want to get rid of a system that is motivated by creating a profit margin?

Jardine says anarchists scorn the first amendment while relying on its freedom. We have nothing against the first amendment, we just wish America followed it. NO LAW establishing a religion but in God We Trust is on our currency, our kids recite One Nation Under God, we say Christian prayers before government meetings, swear on the bible in court, and let religion define who can join the military and our definition of marriage. NO LAW prohibiting or abridging the freedom of speech, but we have gag orders, disturbing the peace laws, censorship of literature and music. Freedom of the press? Printing presses, licenses, TV and radio station all cost big bucks and a small group of the rich own more and more of the media every day. Ask the WikiLeaks guy about freedom of the press. The right to peaceably assemble? Loitering and cruising laws, city curfews, permits that cost money, and privatized parks you have to pay for to even step in. What should be said is that we don’t believe that these rights come from the constitution or the US government, they comes from the birth-right of all people to live free and free of oppression.

Jardine remarks that “the Constitution can't guarantee anyone will take you seriously when you scream profanities in a public setting.” As stated before, the meeting was poorly attended, cops made up most of the crowd, so there was no one to convince to take us seriously. We weren’t speaking TO the community, we were speaking FOR the community, and the community that we know, and work with on a daily basis, tell us constantly that they are “f—king tired of the pigs in Modesto.” What is more profane, saying a “bad word” or shooting someone 7 times for holding a spatula and then lying about it? Individuals in the group also booed and yelled out things like “lies” and “stop killing our people” during Sheriff Christianson’s and District Attorney Fladager’s comments, guess it’s just hard sit back and hold your tongue while people, paid by our tax dollars, lie right in front of us. The other community members who spoke (that weren’t cops) were not interrupted.

Harden tells Jardine that he wasn’t “offended or disturbed” by us, but on the other hand admits he had to threaten arrest. To everyone there it was obvious that the chief was bothered by what members of the group had to say. When a friend of Francisco Moran’s family asked Harden to stop calling and harassing them, his face and bald head turned noticeably red. 

Harden’s comment that the meeting’s purpose was to hear from community members is a complete joke. 1) The meeting was minimally advertised in the community and even less in Spanish and I’m sure not at all to the homeless or mentally-ill. 2) The meeting was at 6pm on a Monday for only one hour. Most people were probably just getting home from work. 3) The meeting was at the police station and was crawling with cops. Most people who live in fear of the police are not going to set foot in that building. When the NAACP held a similar meeting at the King-Kennedy Center over a hundred attended and a dozen shared their stories of police abuse. 4) Although Modesto and the surrounding areas are over 50% Latino, and that is where most of the police abuse occurs, there was no translator for Spanish speakers to participate. 

As for Christianson, to suggest that there is no need to be disruptive, because we can sit down and talk about issues, is ridiculous. When he met with the NAACP and other community members it was brought up by several different people that the Sheriff’s Department does not allow a third party to join a victim of police abuse to the police station when they give a statement. This means if you get beaten by a Stanislaus County Sheriff, in order to make a complaint you need to come in alone for your interview. Even MPD has the decency to allow that. When asked why exactly Christianson wouldn’t allow this basic aspect of the process, he replied it was because they never had done it before and then asked the citizens to drop the subject and move on because he wouldn’t change his mind (you can see the video on youtube). Sitting down with Christianson has proven time and time again to be useless. On the same note, Modesto CopWatch has made several calls to Chief Harden to sit down and talk about the recent officer-involved shootings and he never responded. At the meeting, one protester asked Harden if he would set up an appointment to meet and he replied “no, that’s not going to happen.” 

Jardine states, “I don't believe that shouting ‘cops, pigs and murderers’ did much to advance their cause.” Maybe the 2Pac song should have been called “Wonda Why They Call U Pigs” and explained the history of police terror in our communities. We choose to follow Malcolm X or the Black Panthers, who repeatedly used the term pig, by being brutally honest about the character of those we are dealing with. Cops who murder are pigs, and should be called nothing less. Did we forget Fred Hampton, Rodney King, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Abner Louima, Oscar Grant, and countless others beaten and murdered by police. How about NYPD’s “Hip-Hop Cops” that conducted illegal surveillance on rappers, singers, and DJs or LAPD’s Rampart Division that planted evidence, committed abuse, lied, stole, and sold confiscated drugs? How about the Oakland Riders or the Modesto Road Dog case? Craig Prescott was spilling the truth about the involvement of jail guards in the trafficking of drugs to inmates. We know how that turned out. Can you explain why Chip Huskey got only one year and doesn’t have to register a sex offender? 

Forward to our local revelations of the “beat & release” practices (which is no surprise to most of Modesto’s poor communities and people of color). It was also recently reported that 27 Fresno police officers were involved in 2 or more civilian shootings from 2002-2007 (some had shot 4 different people during that time). In addition we could mention how in his book “Let’s Get Free” Paul Butler states that 90% of officers who took the stand in his cases as a federal prosecutor lied in their testimonies. According to the documentary “After Innocence” of over 200 men who were freed from prison because of new DNA evidence, a fourth of them had been beaten by police and forced to give a false confession. 

New videos from all over the Central Valley, state, country, and world of police abusing citizens are constantly surfacing. Police corruption rings and cover-ups have been revealed everywhere since the creation of police forces. Cops all over have been arrested or fired for domestic violence, eliciting prostitution, molestation, and substance abuse, just to name a few. MPD (like most other departments in the country) does not give officers random drug tests after their initial hiring. Cops aren’t even tested after they shoot someone, but if you drop a crate off of a forklift you’d immediately get tested for various substances). 

We need to stop thinking of police officers as greater than ourselves, they have problems and make big mistakes and do “morally” wrong things every day, but beyond that and worst of all is their over-all place in society as protectors of the rich and their property and, as I once read, “they back the bosses in every strike. The ones who stand between every hungry person and the grocery shelves stocked with food, between every homeless person and the buildings standing empty, between every immigrant and her family. Police Everywhere, Justice Nowhere.” Even more importantly, we need to start thinking of ways to work directly within your own communities, neighborhoods, families, and crews to keep police from brutalizing and killing us (like CopWatching) and also creating alternatives to the police by making sure we know how to protect ourselves and our communities.

Even right now as we come together to write this we’re reading that four MPD officers just shot and killed another person who was trying to run in a vehicle, it’s even one of the same cops who killed Francisco Moran. The circumstances seem to be almost the same as in the cases of Joey Pinasco (killed by CHP in Escalon in ‘08) and James Rivera (killed by Stockton PD in July). The cops swear the cars came towards them while all other witnesses say the vehicles didn’t move and police just opened fire. Whatever happened to shooting the tires? I guess this ain’t the movies, and this ain’t no dusty little farm town. 

- Modesto CopWatch, some of those knockin the dust off

Stolen Wages? Unmade Repairs? Let's Get Ready To Rumble!

Imagine forcing abusive bosses and slumlords to give you back stolen money and rent - all with the help of your best friends! That's exactly what Seattle Solidarity Network is doing in their area, and they're going on tour to promote it! The Seattle Solidarity Network (SeaSol) uses direct action in order to get workers unjustly fired rehired and wages unpaid forked over. It also fights against slumlords who 'lose' deposits and refuse to make basic repairs. Using group action such as pickets and demonstrations, SeaSol is building a working class movement that succeeds because of the solidarity between all of those involved and their willingness to fight. 

Don't miss this opportunity to discuss with SeaSol members - and more importantly, talk about how we can create like organizations in the Modesto area. The presentation will be followed by a Q+A, and refreshments will be on hand. For more info refer to flyer bellow. The event is free! It all goes down on Thursday, Jan, 27th, 2011, Firehouse 51, 410 James Street.

Location: Firehouse 51


To get on the facebook event, go to: Modesto Anarcho Facebook. 
To print out a poster to distribute to co-workers, neighbors, and friends, go here. 


Check out some of these Seattle Solidarity Videos bellow. Also, you will notice that the ol' Modesto Anarcho site is lookin' pretty spiffy these days. We've been getting lots of hits (the Netherlands loves us more than Canada?!) and due to increased hype from the corporate media, we're making it easier for new people coming onto this site to check us out. If you look up at the top bar bellow the header image, you'll see you can choose different things to do on the site. You can check out back and current issues of the magazine, watch videos, download stickers, posters, and booklets, find out how to contact us, learn about our social center, and check on upcoming events. Enjoy!

A Modesto WikiLeaks? 'Police Insider' Sheds Light on Latest Shooting

According to the muckraker blog 'The Voice of Modesto,' an 'insider from inside the Modesto Police Department' has disclosed information regarding the most recent police killing last weekend, mirroring an anonoymous letter that was sent into the media detailing ongoing police brutality. Jesse Eugene Watson, 36, of San Jose, was shot by police on Saturday night. According to the Modesto Bee, what happened at the shooting:

Authorities said the truck drove erratically and lost control near McHenry Avenue and Patterson Road. It struck a car, injuring the car’s driver, according to officials. Police tried to stop the pickup, the Sheriff’s Department said, by having a patrol car bump the pickup’s rear in an attempt to disable it. The truck drove on until it hit a power pole near Ladd Road and McHenry Avenue, officials said. As the truck came to a stop, officers pulled their patrol cars behind it and got out of their cars. The pickup truck driver then drove in reverse toward the officers and rammed a patrol car, sheriff’s officials said. Four Modesto police officers fired into the pickup’s cab, sheriff’s officials said. The driver of the truck, a man, was struck several times and was pronounced dead. The female passenger also was hit several times and was in serious condition at a Modesto hospital. She was not arrested.

Of course, we have to ask, where is the Modesto Bee getting this information from? Not the injured woman that was hit when police opened fire - no, from the very people investigating the shooting - the Stanislaus County Sheriff Department. That's right folks! From the cops!

Joey P. 

The shooting brings to mind the brutal murder by CHP police of Joey Pinasco in 2008. Joey was shot by a CHP officer who claimed that Joey raced toward him and he was then forced to fire on Joey's truck to stop him. However, after many months of Joey's family demanding that the truck be returned to them, they found that in fact many of the bullets were located on Joey's driver's door. Joey wasn't shot head on, he was murdered as his car was parked. Witnesses backed up the story, and Joey's family still continues to fight for justice. Check out their website here. The latest Modesto murder also brings back memories of the killings of James Rivera in Stockton in July, as well as a Bakersfield teen, Traveon John Avila. In James case, which we covered in this blog months ago, he was shot and killed after police forced his car to crash into a house. According to witnesses that were interviewed by Modesto Copwatch, James was shot by police before he even was able to get out of the car. Sickeningly, James family was warned by police (who were looking for him after he understandably escaped by juvenile hall) that they would be "going to a funeral." In Traveon's case, he was shot and killed when police claim, like in this latest Modesto shooting, that the car he was driving was "trying to hit them." Witnesses who were at the scene however, claim otherwise. One of the cops involved in the Bakersfield shooting, was in fact involved in multiple other shootings and killings in the Bakersfield area. 

Dan, another of Laxton's victims. 

Like the Traveon case in Bakersfeild, Modesto Police officers responsible for the shooting were involved in past murders as well. One officer involved, Robert Laxton, has been involved in two incidents that readers of Modesto Anarcho should know about quite well, the murder of Franscico Moran and the attack on Harry "Dan" Tessien. Franscico Moran was shot and killed in his home by Laxton and other officer when they responded to a fight between Moran and a family member. According to witnesses and family members, Moran had a wooden spoon at the time of his death in his waste line (this is information that we have gotten talking to family members directly who were there) and when told to lie down, was shot repeatedly and died. Police then later claimed that Moran had a knife, and 'lunged' at them. Dan's case goes back to 2007, when he was stopped by MPD because they mistook his car for matching a description. Dan, who is deaf, was ordered to get out of his car. When Dan did not reply, his windows were shot out with bean bags and he was hit with other projectiles. All the while he was reported to be screaming, "I'm deaf! I'm deaf!" So, already we have an sketchy situation brewing with a known killer Modesto cops. But according to 
the insider known as "BlueBaton," the problems go much deeper, as they discuss the chase and killing that night: 

Mainly because at best the crime committed by the bad guy was a no jail misdemeanor vandalism. This was known about 2 minutes into the chase when an officer went to the scene and reported to all that there was no entry…therefore no burglary or attempted burglary.

A good supervisor would have ended it there. It happens all the time. And when the bad guy started ramming PD vehicles (which does justify a response of deadly force), shots were fired by cops who didn’t have a clear field of fire resulting in friendly fire hits to 2 police cars (with one round going into the head rest of a cop who had just exited his vehicle) and a bystanders vehicle which was occupied by a woman and her daughter.

Bottom line this should never have happened. All that...for a misdemeanor?

This is a predictable scary result for the now infamous 5B shift that that has been out of control for over 2 years and will soon be investigated by the out of town lawyer hired by the city. 

We can also see the limits of the 'BlueBaton' insider. In their eyes, it was 'okay to get the bad guy,' even though as they stated, this was all over a misdemeanor. Sorry, but we aren't going to lose any sleep over some broken windows of a business owned by someone on the City Council. We aren't writing this off as a revolutionary deed; we simply have no tears for the rich our their property - they certainly have none for us.

Furthermore, this 'case' illustrates our point. Police, in the act of chasing down and murdering someone who attempted to steal something also almost killed the woman in the car with him. They almost killed or seriously injured another police officer. And, they almost killed a women and her daughter who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Are the police going after NUMMI or Hershey fatcats who sell us out and lay us off? Are they there to stop banks from taking people's homes? Are they there to stop the government from shutting down schools or stopping social programs that we all need and use? No! The police are there to make sure you get evicted. They are there to make sure that the family is broken apart when a father is arrested on a raid at a slaughterhouse and found to be 'without papers.' The police are there to make sure that the picket line outside of the factory doesn't turn into an occupation or full on revolt. The police are there to make sure that if you dare to steal the property of the rich you might just end up dead.

Because of this reality, 'BlueBaton's' calls for a restructuring of the MPD with a 'new chief' sadly are just asking for a new face on the same old system. No amount of protection can stop us from getting screwed by the long dick of the law. It's time to stand up and fight back.

A Response to Jeff Jardine - As the Modesto Police Kill Again

This post is a response to a Modesto Bee columnist's piece, 'Modesto: A sleepy little burg — with anarchists?' His article was in response to our blog post detailing the protest at the police station last week. Read that article here. This response is a collective effort and represents various individual contributions. Expect further written responses in the near future.  

A protester takes the mike wearing a mask of Francisco Moran.

Most of us in this ‘burg’ haven’t got much sleep for some time, Jeff.

In Modesto, we are on the front lines of the current crisis, facing off against budget cuts, job lay offs, fee increases, environmental pollution, home foreclosures, anti-social crime and drug addiction, and especially now, police brutality. It comes as no surprise that as we write this, the Modesto Police Department has killed yet another person. Some of the officers involved in the most recent shooting were also involved in the September shooting death of Francisco Moran. This latest killing is the third in only 4 months. Also, as this response is written, the family of Craig Prescott, who was killed by guards in Stanislaus County Jail, is still releasing information detailing his death. Prescott is the 6th person in the past year to die in the jail.

Despite these glaring atrocities, Jardine paints the image of Modesto as a "sleepy little town" before “the anarchists got here.” However, the Central Valley is no stranger to social struggle. Perhaps the next time Jardine is on a lunch break, he would do well to take in the statue that stands on 11th and I Street, that of Estanislao, who this county is named after. Rarely taught in the history books, he was a Yokut leader of an indigenous rebellion against the mission system and the colonization of what is now California. Was there calm then, during colonization which left millions dead or during resistance to it? Was it calm when thousands of union strikers in the United Farm Workers (UFW) marched on Modesto decades ago against the Gallo wine company, as they fought for better working conditions in California fields? Or perhaps there was nothing but tranquility when in 2006, tens of thousands of young people and workers walked off their jobs and out of their schools against legislation that would criminalize immigrants, shutting down streets and blocking traffic. We draw lessons, inspiration, and context from this history of resistance, which all sought to rattle the false illusion of “calm” within capitalism that Jardine helps give air to.

Furthermore, if Jardine wants to be the first to claim that anarchists are among us in Modesto, he’s a little late. Anarchists have been spilling ink for years in the Modesto Bee. The anarchist collective Direct Action Anti-Authoritarians (DAAA) existed from 2003 – 2006, graced the pages of the Bee numerous times, largely for work against homelessness and poverty, such as the weekly Food Not Bombs meals. The group was also involved in many other local campaigns covered by the Bee, such as the struggle to shut down the Modesto Tallow Plant. Modesto Anarcho was given front page news in January of 2009, when the group put on the ‘People’s Bailout,’ which featured free groceries and workshops on foreclosure. The group also organized a large BBQ against the closure of PaperBoy Park this summer, in which the Bee only showed up to take pictures for. This is not to mention the wide distribution we’ve given to our magazine, Modesto Anarcho, for close to 4 years now. We mention this not because we expect or even desire coverage in the Modesto Bee, which has never served as a voice for the people — we simply wish to point out that Jardine has failed to do his homework.

First off, we should state that Bee reporters were called to the meeting at the station by protesters, however the newspaper told them that they were not covering the event because the issue was “unfolding.” However, that night, when the story hit the internet, it caused quite a stir on the Modesto Bee’s ‘The Hive’ blog site, as well as up on our site, www.modestoanarcho.org. Many people began to ask why the Bee was not there to record the story? Another columnist, Judy Sly, however, responded to the protesters in passing, writing a rant about how anonymous internet posters were on the same level as those who covered their faces that night. So, in fact the Bee did have people at the meeting – they were simply choosing not to run anything on the story. If Modesto is truly as “sleepy” as Jeff says it is, doesn’t it then make sense for the Bee to run an article on what happened at a meeting regarding a police department that is under investigation for corruption and brutality – and also seeking accreditation? Aren’t we supposed to expect ‘fair and balanced’ reporting from the mass media? Of course, we all know this to be false, but it’s interesting when it’s right out in front of our faces. So then, what storyline is the Bee hoping that we do swallow? Pardon us, as we spit.

We then arrive at Jardine’s article. Either pushed to write an opinion piece about the meeting disruption by an editor, or deciding to do one himself, the piece has the same effect. It takes the issue away from that of police brutality and also from the fact that a group of people actually stood up to the police and instead points the spot light on Modesto Anarcho. It’s ironic, but while Jardine blasts MA, without its reporting on the issue, he wouldn’t have much of a story at all! And while we enjoy the free link to our website, we must point out that those at the meeting came from a variety of groups, including some from families murdered by the police. We did receive an email from Jeff, which we opened on the day that his story came out. It simply asked us to call him, although it did not detail what the conversation would be about.

Jeff Jardine of Modesto Bee.

In the end, Jardine’s article simply serves as a smokescreen from the real issues that are being discussed. Issues of police brutality that people have fought tooth and nail to get into the Bee for years, only to have the newspaper slander, demonize, and belittle them. On the 6th, when a group of people did stand up, to denounce the police and sheriffs to their face, the Bee was there as it always is to make sure that the story didn’t get out. When they couldn’t accomplish that, it made sure that a lid was put on the opposition.

According to Jardine, our problem is not only in our delivery, but because we “…set out to disrupt government, not to help solve its problems." To Jardine, our position of organizing against the police is problematic because we reject the activist model of pressuring and asking those in power to change. This also doesn’t mean that we think the alternative is U-Hauls full of fertilizer at the Federal Building. We don’t want to work with the political structure, not because we don’t want change, but because we want to build power in our communities, streets, and workplaces outside and against the government and the economy that it protects.

We have no interest in working with the police as groups like the NAACP have done throughout the years. The NAACP, which has hosted forums on police brutality cases and had the police out to speak in churches after recent murders, have done nothing but give the cops a chance to explain to those they exploit, abuse, and murder why they have the power and authority to do so. Stopping police violence has to come from within working class communities themselves; as people get organized to not only stop harassment, but also deal with other problems such as home invasions, heavy drug dealing, and assaults.

Jardine, unsurprisingly, bases most of his arguments on the fact that many Modesto Bee readers will have no idea as to what anarchism actually means or stands for. In this way, he joins the scores of politicians, bureaucrats, journalists, and police, who have used the term ‘anarchist’ as slander without having the faintest idea what it even means. This attack has come from the Left as well as the Right, against those that would confront and attack injustice, as well as those that reject the rigid and authoritarian nature of Left parties and politics. Thus, Jardine, having never read a copy of Modesto Anarcho, can make major assumptions about what it is and what we stand for.

So what then, does anarchism stand for? Anarchism is not chaos. Nor is it terrorism. It comes from a Greek word meaning without hierarchy. Anarchists believe that all governments exist to protect the divisions between rich and poor and achieve this through violence and coercion. Anarchists believe that capitalism is a system that exploits and oppresses us and will never benefit the majority of those who make and create the wealth of this world. Instead of decisions and power coming from the top down, anarchists believe that decisions should be made from the ground up, in our neighborhoods, in our communities, and where we produce the things that we all need to survive. Likewise, anarchists believe that the work that we do should go towards human needs, not profits, and the means of existence should be shared in common, not owned by bosses and corporations. Furthermore, anarchism proposes that we must struggle to create a new world outside of the political process. Instead, we promote direct action and community organizing. Members of Modesto Anarcho, for instance, have helped occupy foreclosed homes in order to stop evictions. We have hosted BBQs in order to bring people together and stop anti-social crime. We help run a social center for community groups to meet and organize around issues that affect them. Most recently, we have found ourselves engaged in a variety of struggles against police brutality, often in the wake of vicious killings by local law enforcement.

Modesto Anarcho magazine.

When we decry the police, we do so because we understand that their violence comes from their function within a society divided by class and broken apart by race. It is not the starters of wars, the bankers who evict, and the corporations who exploit that the police imprison, beat, and murder, it is us. The police are a force of class rule. Thus, we do not believe that an ever growing power of the police and the creation of more prisons creates a freer world – far from it. We think that justice must come from people having their needs met and out of the bonds that are created when people have real and true communities and can govern themselves. We work towards a world without police and without prisons, where peace and freedom are created and maintained by communities of people together, without an outside force of the state mitigating “justice.”

In many ways, the disruption of the meeting on the 6th and the threats of arrest from the chief of police crystallize the tension that has been ongoing between law enforcement and the larger community for some time now. Many of the people protesting at the meeting that night, who were indeed born and raised in the Central Valley, have grown up in a town where they still remember the police murder of Alberto Sepulveda in 2000 and Sammy Galvan in 2004, among many others. They remember police brutally beating young children coming out of a downtown concert and then blaming it on Bay Area black culture in 2006. For all of us, the recent atrocities in 2010 have pushed us again into action against police terror. Regardless of what Jardine, or anyone in the mass media writes — it is up to all of us to write and produce our own media for our own struggles. We must create and maintain lines of communication between each other, because we know that papers like the Modesto Bee will forever sway to the side of power, wealth, and the police.

As the bodies pile up, we must ask again… How many more must die before we all stand up and stop this?