Att’n: Nevada friends, ALLies and rabble-rousers! (Or, anyone who happens to be passing through the Vegas Valley on the evening of June 5 ….) Here’s some great news from Vegas ALLy and A-Café-er Kelly Patterson: Vegas (A)s have organized a visit and a talk from scott crow of Common Ground Collective, Ecology Action of Texas, etc. etc. etc., based on stories from his book Black Flags and Windmills. The presentation will be in Beam Hall on UNLV campus, on Wednesday, June 5.

• WHO: Everyone’s invited!
• WHEN: Wednesday, June 5, 2013, 6:00 – 8:00pm.
• WHERE: Frank and Estella Beam Hall, Room 105 @ UNLV. Las Vegas, Nevada.
• WHAT: Talk by Organizer/Author Scott Crow of the Common Ground Collective

Here’s the Facebook event page; or Las Vegas Anarchy Meetup event page if you prefer. Either way, the copy’s the same:

Scott Crow co-founder of the Common Ground Collective, an anarchist inspired grassroots relief in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina, will be in Las Vegas to give a presentation. crow uses his book as a foundation for a visual, fast moving and engaging presentation of stories to show what ordinary people can do to change their own worlds and create power from below without governments. The presentation seeks through a collection of stories to show how the philosophy of anarchism has shaped and changed modern political movements. Anarchism's influence on organization and actions has allowed spaces for projects like the Common Ground Collective, the largest anarchist organization in modern US history to come into existence after Hurricane Katrina, the Occupy uprisings, and the environmental climate change movements across the US. The presentation which is equal parts personal story, radical history and organizing philosophies asks questions about how we engage in social change, the real and perceived challenges presented by the state and dares us to rethink our grassroots movements in how we engage for the future.

This talk will be of interest for anyone that has been involved in grassroots organizing and community related planning from a decentralized, member based perspective.

scott crow bio:

scott crow has spent his varied life as an underground musician, coop business owner, political organizer, trainer, strategist, consultant, ‘green collar’ worker, writer and speaker advocating the philosophy and practices of anarchism for social, cultural, environmental, and economic aims.

Over the last two decades scott has worked for a number of national organizations like Greenpeace, A.C.O.R.N. and Ruckus Society and co-founded a number of varied projects, businesses and organizations including Lesson Seven (political industrial band), Red Square (coop art gallery), Century Modern (antique cooperative), Treasure City Thrift (volunteer/worker cooperative) and the Common Ground Collective in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina (the largest anarchist inspired organization in modern US history). He is the author of the book Black Flags and Windmills (PM Press 2011), appeared in What Lies Beneath: Katrina, Race and the State of the Nation (South end Press) and co-produced the film Angola 3: Black Panthers and the Last Slave Plantation (PM Press). He has appeared in international media as both a writer and subject including the NY Times, Democracy Now, CNN and NPR as well as the documentaries Welcome to New Orleans, Better this World, and Informant.

NPR's This American Life called him a living legend among anarchists and the New York Times characterized him as anarchist and veteran organizer . . . that comes across as more amiable than combative . . .. Currently scott splits his time speaking and consulting nationally and organizing locally.

Here is some moderately good news about a ridiculously awful story, from Occupied Las Vegas:

Three years after a confrontation between Las Vegas police and a costumed street performer in front of The Venetian spawned a lawsuit, the Police Department has agreed to settle with Zorro for $105,000.

Jason Perez-Morciglio, who performs as Zorro on Las Vegas streets, and his brother, Sebastian Perez-Morciglio, sued in June 2010 after they said Venetian security officers kidnapped and detained them for more than an hour on Jan. 15, 2010, before kicking them off the property. The brothers also alleged that Las Vegas police officers illegally handcuffed and searched them at the resort.

These security guards handcuffed the brothers, searched their persons and belongings, demanded identification, and photographed them, the lawsuit documents said.

On Monday, The Metropolitan Police Department's Fiscal Affairs Committee agreed to pay the brothers $105,000, something that Clark County Commissioner Steve Sisolak, who sits on the committee, thinks was the best option to avoid negative exposure for the department. The potential cost could have been significantly more, Sisolak said. . . .

For the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, which provided general counsel for the brothers in the lawsuit, the impact of the settlement transcended monetary value.

The main thing in the case is that it was never about the money. It was about verifying again that the sidewalks in front of the hotels are a public forum, and the people have a right to First Amendment activity there, said Allen Lichtenstein, general counsel for the ACLU of Nevada.

According to Sisolak, accompanying the settlement was what he called a clearer and more definitive policy on how officers will handle street performers on the public sidewalks.

— Colton Lochhead, Las Vegas police settle lawsuit with street performer,
Las Vegas Review-Journal (April 22, 2013)

Also.

• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2013-03-07: War on the Informal Sector (Cont’d) — Neutron Bomb Urbanism and the State of Illinois vs. Square
• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2009-02-28: War on the Informal Sector (Cont’d) — Resale Roundup and local government vs. unfettered flea markets
• Charles Johnson (December 2007), Scratching By: How Government Creates Poverty As We Know It
• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2007-09-15: Free Riders
• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2009-02-19: How local government in Las Vegas and Clark County deals with the worst joblessness crisis in a generation
• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2010-02-04: Against legalization (cont’d)
• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2010-03-30: Scratching By (cont’d): The Government Land Cartel Vs. Costs Savings and Urban Living
• Charles Johnson, Rad Geek People’s Daily 2012-09-19: Well then I suppose they will lose their waffle cones as well as their principal.

Remember back when Barack Obama made a big announcement that his Immigrations and Custom Enforcement agency wasn’t going to be detaining or deporting undocumented immigrants who were brought to the United States as children? When he made the announcement, I was happy, but very cautiously so — as long as it holds up, that will at least help some people out. But I wondered whether the promise would last even a few months after election season, or whether it would promptly go the same way as his promises about Guantanamo and his promises about ending DEA raids on medical marijuana dispensaries. This was too optimistic of me. The answer is that it never even lasted through campaign season, and was broken within weeks.

This is appalling. From my friend Evelyn in Las Vegas:

Another DREAMer Detained! Alfonso Is Being Denied Shoes While In Detention. Let Him Free!

President Obama stated that, as of June 15, DREAMers^[1] will no longer be detained or deported. Alfonso was detained one month after the announcement and he has yet to be released! Why is DREAMer Alfonso still being detained?

On July 26 at 6 a.m., Alfonso was walking out of his apartment to head to work when ICE officials detained him. He has been held at Henderson Detention Center in Nevada ever since. Alfonso has a 14-month old baby and a fiancee who need him home! Please call and sign the petition so he can be released.

Make a Phone Call

1. Call ICE – John Morton (202.732.3000)

Sample Script: “I am calling to urge you to release DREAMer Alfonso Perez (A# 205-151-137) from Henderson Detention Center in Nevada and stop his deportation. Alfonso has been living in the U.S. for 20 years. **He has a 14-month old daughter and a fiancee who are suffering without him. Alfonso is a DREAM Act youth and, according to President Obama, should have never been detained. Release Alfonso from detention!”

Please help us raise funds with your contribution to help Alfonso and his family: Help Free DREAMer Alfonso Perez!

— Dream Activist.org: Alfonso Perez

Please:

• Share this story with your friends, family and compa?@c3;b1;er@s.
• Call ICE to demand Alfonso Perez’s release. Every call helps.
• Sign a petition to John Morton and Janet Napolitano at Dream Activist.org, also calling for his release.
• If you can, you can also make a donation to Alfonmso Perez’s legal defense at IndieGoGo.com.

Alfonso Perez was brought to the United States by his grandmother at four years of age (when his parents abandoned him in Mexico). After twenty years of living in this country, he was detained by I.C.E. on Thursday, July 26th, 2012 at 6:00 a.m. when he walked outside of his apartment to go to work.

He is currently detained at the Henderson Detention Center and has not been provided with shoes, nor has our family been allowed to provide any for him. We need your help to release him, reunite our family, apply for Obama's DREAM deferred action, and fulfill his dream of attending college.

His lifetime calling is to become a Registered Nurse and help heal his community. In fact, he has a track record of working with elderly and disabled people since the age of sixteen. He DREAMs of finishing college and dedicate his life to provide for his family and care for those people who are most in need.

Alfonso is a dedicated father to his fourteen month old baby and a loving partner to his fiancé. He is the sole financial provider for his family and works 10 hours a day, 6 days a week as a landscaper in Las Vegas, Nevada. His family is distraught by his incarceration and his baby misses him a lot.

— Help Free DREAMer Alfonso Perez @ IndieGoGo.com

1. ^[1][Undocumented immigrants who would have been eligible for a path to citizenship under the DREAM Act — i.e., people who were brought to the United States as children and have lived and gone to school within the U.S. –CJ.]↩

From Rikki Cheese and Spencer Lubitz at ABC 13 Action News:

Civil rights advocates want those treated unfairly by police to speak out

Las Vegas, NV (KTNV) — A group of civil rights advocates want to hear from people who feel they’ve been mistreated by Metro police.

People have been shot, beaten and tasered by Metro officers across the department’s jurisdiction. Civil rights groups hope airing those stories in public forums could help change police behavior.

Mitchell Crooks was beaten by a cop for videotaping a burglary investigation across the street from his home near Desert Inn and Maryland Parkway. Erik Scott was shot and killed at a Costco in Summerlin. Both Caucasian men. Civil rights advocates say they’re not Metro’s usual suspects in officer-involved shootings, or accusations of excessive use of force.

I can’t say whether there’s a conscious racial bias, but certainly the evidence reveals a disproportionate impact on minority populations, and that’s just brought out by the data, Staci Pratt with the ACLU said.

Pratt says 2010 census data shows the largest proportion of officer-involved shooting occur in African-American and Hispanic neighborhoods in Clark County.

Advocacy groups also want to hear from people who feel they’ve been mistreated by law enforcement in all ways, and who feel their complaints have not been heard.

Pratt applauds Metro’s recent changes in their use of force policy and for accepting recommendations from the ACLU and NAACP but says officers need to be more sensitive to the people they police.

That may not be a conscious thing on Metro’s part, Pratt said. But it certainly is an issue that needs to be raised and addressed.

It is good that they are doing this. Legal reforms and use of force policies don’t do a damn thing, but here and elsewhere they may be reflections of, and concessions to, something much more poewrful. The only thing that is ever going to restrain police abuse is a culture of popular resistance, public exposure and social accountability for abusive cops, and hard driving community activism.

Support your neighborhood CopWatch.

See also:

• GT 2011-10-10: Your constitutional rights have nothing to do with the law.
• GT 2009-09-16: The Police Beat: Shot in the Back
• GT 2009-02-23: The Metro Police Beat
• GT 2008-12-05: Don’t turn your back on the Wolfpack
• Nevada CopBlock: Keeping Police Accountable in Nevada

Via Las Vegas May Day Coalition, via FW Kelly Patterson.

1º Mayo 2012 – Nos reuniremos a las 4:30pm en Commercial Center (entre Commercial Center Dr. y E. Sahara Ave.). La marcha empezará a las 5:30pm. Terminaremos en la Corte Federal.

Para más informaci?@c3;b3;n visite: Maydaylasvegas.blogspot.com.

May 1 2012 – Meet at 4:30pm at the Commercial Center (between Commercial Center Dr. and E. Sahara Ave.). March will begin at 5:30pm. Ending at the Federal Court House.

For more information visit: Maydaylasvegas.blogspot.com.