Phoenix Anarchism

F6 Worldwide Solidarity With Egyptian Anarchists & Those Fighting For Total Freedom

admin — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 04:16:31 +0000

F6 Worldwide Solidarity With Egyptian Anarchists & Those Fighting For Total Freedom

Wednesday, February 6, 2013
8:00pm

Location: everywhere

Blocade All Power! International Call For Solidarity With Egyptian Anarchists & Those Fighting For Total Freedom

As night falls on February 6th_____

Find your friends, comrades. Head to the centers of power in your area______

The Egyptian state has declared the black bloc illegal, to be hunted down, beaten and arrested_____

We ask state and capital for nothing, their tyranny will never mean freedom____

Every single person on this planet who struggles is a friend____

On February 6th, our solidarity equals strength.

Action List – Please Translate – Send This Everywhere – Announce Actions in comments

Tempe, AZ – 8PM – Mill Avenue Light Rail Station

Anarchist & Friends Potluck Saturday the 13th in Downtown Phoenix

admin — Sun, 07 Oct 2012 21:00:32 +0000

http://www.facebook.com/events/305147812934072 * This is a Valley Anarchist Circle event

On Saturday at Mitchell Park in Downtown Tempe we will be hosting a potluck & party. We encourage you to bring yourself and your friends. More specifically:

- Food + Drinks
- Volleyball / Kickball / Basketball
- Banner/Sign making materials
- Ideas in regards to turning the tide in Arizona, Phoenix and Tempe

This is also right during Oktoberfest, a good time to remember the contributions from the German revolutionary immigrants of times past.

If you are in Downtown Tempe, invite your friends and neighbors.

*We may have a beer permit *There will be an after party

October Calendar is on its way!

Phoenix FreeSkool — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 19:43:00 +0000

Free Skoolers!

The October Calendar has been drawn up, but we are waiting on a high resolution scan to print and distribute official copies. Until then, we'll post up the low res copies on our blog so that you can get a taste of what's available this month! We will update you when the physical posters are printed! (Click on pictures of the calendar to get a larger view)

All knowledge is power! All power to the people!

Exiled Arizona: Vote for Penzone if you want Arizona to Get Worse

admin — Thu, 27 Sep 2012 02:28:31 +0000

An article about the vote for Penzone from our friend over at Exiled Arizona. Voting for Penzone is more of the same failed strategy, in fact it is even worse than the same. Go read the article and consider ideas we could be implementing to further the strategy and fight against the reactionary classes in Phoenix and beyond.

As soon as people realize the Democrats and left have failed, the faster we can leave them behind and create something new.

People are still hanging on to a false hope that somehow the myriad of laws, restriction and regulations can be changed by voting and working within the system.

FEAST TONIGHT!

Phoenix FreeSkool — Sun, 23 Sep 2012 19:13:00 +0000

I know you're thinking "I wish there were a horizontal learning environment where I could teach, learn, and build community. Also, I wish there were food..."

Well... wish no more! TONIGHT, at 6pm, we have our monthly Feast!

One Glendale caught busted for drinking, how many others get a pass from fellow officers?

Jon Riley — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 09:04:00 +0000

An off-duty Glendale police lieutenant was cited on suspicion of DUI early Friday morning in Phoenix, according to Phoenix police.

Lt. Rachael Bousman, 39, of the Glendale Police Department was cited and released by Phoenix police at 1:15 a.m., according to a press release from the Phoenix Police Department.

Phoenix police responded to a call about an impaired driver near Seventh Avenue and Bethany Home Road. A witness reported a car was stuck on a parking block, according to Phoenix police.

Bousman had blood drawn to determine her blood alcohol content, a standard procedure, according to police. That level was not immediately available.

Sgt. Brent Coombs, a spokesman for the Glendale Police Department, said that he is unable to speak about the case until the investigation and any possible appeal have been exhausted.

"All we can say ... right now, is to confirm that it did occur. It is DUI-related, and that an internal investigation is underway," Coombs said.

Bousman is a 14-year veteran of the Glendale Police Department.

She has been placed on administrative leave with pay.

www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2012/09/17/20120917glendale-police-office-accused-dui-phoenix-abrk.html

Write to Branson, doing 30 days in Tent City for anti-ALEC night demo

Jon Riley — Mon, 17 Sep 2012 17:27:00 +0000

Consider taking some time to send a letter/postcard to Branson Brockman, who is serving 30 days in the county's Tent City for allegedly assaulting a Phoenix police officer at the First Friday anti-ALEC demo, the final day of action during the the annual ALEC meeting held in Phoenix last December. Branson was charged with walloping a cop with a skateboard after the cop grabbed ahold of some other person dragging a barricade into the street.

The cop who attacked the unpermitted street march was one of the usual bike cops patrolling the monthly First Friday in downtown, the thirty officers who swarmed the area in the seconds after the lone officer attacked the march were laying in wait. Directed by the legendary asshole Phoenix cop Mark Schweikert, the dozens of officers flooded that stretch of Roosevelt, with the first cops out of their cars deploying liberal amounts of pepper spray.

As people scattered from the pepper spray, the Phoenix police deployed snatch squads of officers across the arts district, eventually arresting Branson and charging him with assault on an officer.

Branson is due to be released by the 6th of October, in the meantime his friends, comrades, and bandmates are putting the word out to send some love his way. All the relavent info is below, along with the original call out from his friends.

ACAB/FTP!

Here's the info on how to write my homie/bass player of my band, and all around badass motherfucker Branson who is doing 30 days in Tent City for "Assaulting An Officer" with a skateboard at some Phx anti-ALEC demo.

Little destroyer scurried away after the scuffle with them wrangling the shirt off of his back, and when he was caught in some bourgeois art gallery, they threw him in the car and
THEN pepper sprayed him.

Send him some appreciation and shit. Anything helps.

Send METERED (means postage paid, NO STAMPS) POSTCARDS ONLY in BLUE OR BLACK INK ONLY. You can also order him books off of Amazon, and you should.

Tent City
Branson Brockman P901194
2939 W. Durango st
Phoenix AZ 85009
(Then, on the Then on the bottom right corner, write:)
41 house 19 pod N cell 1 bed 3

Burglary suspect shot by deputy in Tempe dies

Jon Riley — Fri, 14 Sep 2012 20:49:00 +0000

A Tempe cop yelling at bystanders to leave

A Maricopa County sheriff's deputy shot and killed a burglary suspect Thursday along the canal that separates Tempe from Guadalupe.

The Sheriff's Office was assisting Tempe police, who were looking for suspects in a burglary in a nearby neighborhood earlier in the morning.

The man who was shot was identified late Thursday afternoon as Joel Smith, 19. Smith was pronounced dead after he was taken to Maricopa Medical Center for treatment.

Deputy Jeff Sprong, a Sheriff's Office spokesman, said Smith was armed with a knife.

Two women who live nearby in Guadalupe said they heard shots and ran outside to see what was happening. They said Smith appeared unarmed as he walked toward the deputy.

"You could tell he had nothing in his hands," said Sandra Reyes, who was worried that her great-grandchildren would be hit by the gunfire. "It looked like he was trying to surrender."

Sabrina Garcia told a similar version, saying, "He wasn't trying to attack the cops."

But Sprong said the women were mistaken and that the shooting was also witnessed by several Tempe police officers.

"The incident as explained to you by neighbors did not happen," Sprong wrote in an e-mail.

"He did threaten our deputy. Our deputy did shoot that individual," Sprong said. "This deputy obviously felt his life was in danger."

Sprong did not release the deputy's name but described the deputy as a "seasoned veteran," adding, "this isn't something he wanted to do."

The burglary occurred about 9 a.m., less than a mile from the shooting scene, along the South Branch Highline Canal, west of Hardy Drive and Guadalupe Road.

http://www.azcentral.com/community/tempe/articles/20120913tempe-shooting-maricopa-county-deputy-involved-abrk.html

Tempe Police and Arizona Anti-Terror Unit are targeting anarchists and indigenous projects in Arizona

Jon Riley — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 07:46:00 +0000

A campaign of political repression is under way against anarchist and indigenous projects in Arizona, spearheaded by the Arizona Counter Terrorism Information Center and the Tempe Police Department Homeland Defense Unit. The Tempe police department’s anti-terror division preemptively shut down the Protect the Peaks solidarity benefit show that was planned for Friday night, using the threat of a fire code violation to ensure that the venue would have to cancel the event. The Homeland Defense Unit acted on an alert they received from Arizona's main counter terrorism information gathering hub, also known as a fusion center, that a benefit show to raise money for the struggle to save the San Francisco Peaks was scheduled to take place in Tempe on Friday night.

The benefit show organizers had contacted a DIY venue/space run out of a warehouse in west Tempe, a well regarded space that has hosted a number of shows over the last year, often receiving coverage in the Phoenix New Times and other media. It is a labor of love for the person who runs it, who has a full time job in addition to hosting the occasional show at the venue. The Protect the Peaks benefit show would have been the first political show to have been hosted at the space, it also put the venue on the radar of Arizona's counter terrorism fusion center.

On Thursday, September 6^th the venue operator received an unannounced visit at his workplace from an officer assigned to the city’s Homeland Defense Unit. The officer, Detective Derek Pittam, threatened to have the venue shut down for fire code violations if the Protect the Peaks show wasn’t canceled immediately. Detective Pittam informed the person that he was aware that the venue regularly held shows and made it clear that under no circumstances would this benefit show be held at the venue. The venue's future is now up in the air due to the threats of the Homeland Defense Unit, even though Detective Pittam admitted to the venue operator that he was aware that there had never been one call to police or reports of any illegal activity at that location.

Detective Derek Pittam of the Tempe Police Homeland Defense Unit

At least one officer working in the Homeland Defense Unit spent last week locating the DIY venue, identifying the operator of the venue, finding his cell phone number, and where he works his full time job so that he could be harassed by Detective Pittam. They had also decided that their anti-terror unit was going to manufacture a fire code violation as pretext to shut down the show, unless the Homeland Defense unit is regularly enforcing code violations in Tempe.

I've learned that during the workplace visit, Pittam specifically identified support for the "Save the Peaks" as a concern for the authorities. Throughout his visit Detective Pittam made it clear, the issue is with the benefit show not the venue, however the venue would face the consequences for allowing a radical, anarchist, and indigenous themed event.

I've also learned that the venue operator was again contacted on his cell phone Friday night by a Tempe police commander who wanted the venue's permission as the primary property manager to arrest individuals (who may not even know the show was canceled) for trespass on site. The venue operator declined, and was then asked by the commander for the landlord's phone number, which he also declined to provide to the Tempe Police. A friend who drove by the venue Friday evening observed one marked police vehicle on the property where the venue was located, and another vehicle parked near by.

In the short time since word got around about the show being canceled, many people involved with various projects are shocked and outraged over this show of state repression. I was able to chat with Alex Soto, a Tohono O'odham MC from the hip hop group Shining Soul, one of the acts that was scheduled to perform on Friday. In addition to his music, Alex has organized against border militarization on his traditional land, the Tohono O'odham nation, a land divided by the US/Mexico border wall and militarized by the border patrol.

He had this to say about the cancelling of the show:

"The show itself is an example of the solidarity between indigenous people, the Diné and O'odham, and anarchist people who are supportive, it also means that the authorities are afraid of us acting in collaboration, collectively. They’re afraid of all of us coming together, it’s not new, it’s happened before at past demonstrations where we’re targeted, we’re marked for oppression, mainly just by being ourselves and being there.

It doesn't matter to them whether it's an action or protest, or in this case with our talents and our musical gifts to bring people together, the state doesn’t respect that. This act of repression by the police further motivates myself and everyone else involved to push forward and to have another benefit or show, because we know this will be effective, and all we’re doing now is picking up mics and guitars.

In addition, I’d like to express that as a Tohono O'odham person, I have solidarity with other indigenous people in this area, in this case it’s Diné people and the other 12 tribes that hold the San Francisco Peaks as a sacred site. This act by Tempe police, and all the entities involved is an attack on who I am and who we are as indigenous people, it verifies to me that we’re doing our role, in this case by standing in solidarity with the peaks, or when we oppose the loop 202 freeway or oppose the border and militarization because this is what solidarity and healthy communities look like. When we stand together, fight alongside each other, or in this case sing together to defend who we are and what we hold sacred, then fuck the Tempe PD, fuck Phoenix PD, fuck DPS, and any entity that tries to stop this energy that’s building here in Arizona."

When the authorities act to intimidate or threaten dissident voices and movements, it causes a chilling effect, in this case the Tempe police were willing to let a fire inspector poke around in the venue until any little violation could be found that would shut the show down. We also know that they wanted to arrest anyone who came to the property expecting to see a show. This is a direct attack on the ability of people to freely gather, communicate, and organize without the potential of arrest or physical injury by police, in addition to the potential for serious financial problems for the venue operator.

More information will be coming this week.

The September Class Calendar is Out Now!

Phoenix FreeSkool — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 18:09:00 +0000

September is upon us and that means a new calendar of free skool classes! We've got an art class, a journalism class, two language classes, and a bunch more all for free! Take a look at the current calendar and see what cool skill shares, classes, and groups are happening this month.

As always, we are looking for people who are interested in sharing their knowledge and skills. We are looking forward to potentially adding more sections on to the blog including a resources section.

Right now, we have a few class proposals that are looking for a space. These include a home repair class and a survivalist class. Check out potential classes to see more information and if you might be able to help out.

Remember, folks: All knowledge is power. All power to the people!