Working on this new server in php7...
imc indymedia

Los Angeles Indymedia : Activist News

white themeblack themered themetheme help
About Us Contact Us Calendar Publish RSS
Features
latest news
best of news
syndication
commentary


KILLRADIO

VozMob

ABCF LA

A-Infos Radio

Indymedia On Air

Dope-X-Resistance-LA List

LAAMN List




IMC Network:

Original Cities

www.indymedia.org africa: ambazonia canarias estrecho / madiaq kenya nigeria south africa canada: hamilton london, ontario maritimes montreal ontario ottawa quebec thunder bay vancouver victoria windsor winnipeg east asia: burma jakarta japan korea manila qc europe: abruzzo alacant andorra antwerpen armenia athens austria barcelona belarus belgium belgrade bristol brussels bulgaria calabria croatia cyprus emilia-romagna estrecho / madiaq euskal herria galiza germany grenoble hungary ireland istanbul italy la plana liege liguria lille linksunten lombardia london madrid malta marseille nantes napoli netherlands nice northern england norway oost-vlaanderen paris/Île-de-france patras piemonte poland portugal roma romania russia saint-petersburg scotland sverige switzerland thessaloniki torun toscana toulouse ukraine united kingdom valencia latin america: argentina bolivia chiapas chile chile sur cmi brasil colombia ecuador mexico peru puerto rico qollasuyu rosario santiago tijuana uruguay valparaiso venezuela venezuela oceania: adelaide aotearoa brisbane burma darwin jakarta manila melbourne perth qc sydney south asia: india mumbai united states: arizona arkansas asheville atlanta austin baltimore big muddy binghamton boston buffalo charlottesville chicago cleveland colorado columbus dc hawaii houston hudson mohawk kansas city la madison maine miami michigan milwaukee minneapolis/st. paul new hampshire new jersey new mexico new orleans north carolina north texas nyc oklahoma philadelphia pittsburgh portland richmond rochester rogue valley saint louis san diego san francisco san francisco bay area santa barbara santa cruz, ca sarasota seattle tampa bay tennessee urbana-champaign vermont western mass worcester west asia: armenia beirut israel palestine process: fbi/legal updates mailing lists process & imc docs tech volunteer projects: print radio satellite tv video regions: oceania united states topics: biotech

Surviving Cities

www.indymedia.org africa: canada: quebec east asia: japan europe: athens barcelona belgium bristol brussels cyprus germany grenoble ireland istanbul lille linksunten nantes netherlands norway portugal united kingdom latin america: argentina cmi brasil rosario oceania: aotearoa united states: austin big muddy binghamton boston chicago columbus la michigan nyc portland rochester saint louis san diego san francisco bay area santa cruz, ca tennessee urbana-champaign worcester west asia: palestine process: fbi/legal updates process & imc docs projects: radio satellite tv
printable version - js reader version - view hidden posts - tags and related articles


View article without comments

Anarcho-pacifist / Hip-Hop producer accused of hate crime

by William H. Bartlett Monday, Sep. 12, 2005 at 6:46 PM
limbotime@yahoo.com

Promoting critical thought = COINTEL fodder

Please excuse the bad gramer and or mis-spelling... I was blessed to have never finished 8th grade.

My name is William Howard Bartlett,III and I am an activist as well as a Hip-Hop producer and vocalist starting to gain international recognition.
Last year the Bloomington, Indiana Police visited my house and asked me to come with them and submit a handwriting analysis and a DNA sample. They said that they were investigating a hate-crime in which someone was writing threatening letters to various activists in our town and using my house as the return address on the envelope. They said that there was some kind of 'bodily fluid' on these letters as well. That was the excuse for requesting the DNA sample.
I refused because i knew for a fact that no one at our address had done anything like that..so i was immediately suspicious of the police motives. I suspect it is a potential that JTTF had something to do with it, and that something along the line of the old COINTEL program is alive today.

I got an attorney and went very high-profile to the point of walking around town with a sign that read, "FBI Stop harassing innocent people". I even went to the FBI office in Bloomington and told them what was going on and that i suspected i was being framed and that i was weary to hand over a writing analysis and DNA sample to a corrupt system known for repeat dishonesty and manipulation. I was concerned that this information could be abused and used to fabricate evidence in something greater. I told the FBI that I had nothing to hide, that I was strongly against violent actions as a means of political progression, and if they wanted to ask me anything that I was not afraid of dishonesty. That it is dishonesty which I am very concerned about.

They had me and my family sit in a room for about an hour and then came back and said they did not know anything about our current situation but that I was a 'suspect' in a so-called 'ELF' arson that had occurred the previous year. The sad thing is that this arson gave the FBI a blank check to investigate a good portion of people in the city of Bloomington.. and the investigations continue.

Hate Crime set-up?

There were a few things that clued me into the likelihood of this being directed at me and that it was not a genuine investigation:

1)When the Police came to my house.. they had blocked the street off with orange cones. My neighbor later told me that she was driving home during this episode and that the police had set up a "seatbelt check point" a block in either direction of my house during the 'investigation'.

2)When i opened the door they asked for my ID. I gave it to them and I asked what was going on.. They then told me they were investigating a hate crime.. etc..etc and that the return addresses on the letters were my address, but that the name above my address was 'Richard' ( there was never anyone at my house by the name of Richard ) They said they didn't think whoever sent the letters would have put their real name on it. Why the hell would they put a fake name and a real return address i asked. The police did not answer and then asked me to come downtown and submit a handwriting analysis and a DNA sample.
Now if they were really doing a true investigation wouldn't they have asked if any other adults lived at the house? If they assumed that the name on the letters was false and they checked my ID at the door..wouldn't they also ask if any other people lived at the house? No they simply checked my ID and asked me to come downtown and submit this private information that could be abused. Even though there were 3 other people living at our house.

3)After getting an attorney and turning myself and family into a walking protest ( which was no fun for us and very humiliating ) We started experiencing other forms of harassment such as regular prank phone calls in the middle of the night. Sudden rumors being spread around town that i was doing Crystal Meth, or that I had lost my mind.
It should also be mentioned that this all happened one week before I was to begin training at the local community radio station where i had plans to host a show focusing on critical thinking. Promoting thought and investigation outside of Left and Right wing thought constructs in the face of political dramas and media stimuli.

After a month of hell and fear the police dropped me as a suspect. They told my attourney that they had come to the conclusion that I would have to be 'an idiot to send out the letters with my real address and a fake name.'

I do not know why this all happened and am left to guess as the FBI and police are never transparent.
I have thought that perhaps they needed a regional scape-goat to justify the Homeland Security budget in a City/County where most of the population is opposed to the War, Homeland Security, and run-away capitalism in general.

I worked with Turkish Kurdish refugees in 1995 helping to educate the American Left on the real plight of the Kurds. I have also traveled around the world and to countries like Sri-Lanka, & the Maldives. This all could have easily been used to paint up some kind of picture in the media after i was sitting somewhere with no rights facing fabricated Terrorist Plot charges, or even dead after being an unwilling participant in some scripted explosion. My DNA and handwriting analysis could be used as some form of "evidence" as well.

I know that the above is a horrid thought but nothing made any sense in this experience and it was handled in such a sloppy manner on the part of the police that I have been left to assume, using productive and deductive logic. Either way the police were up to NO GOOD. I do not think I reacted the way they thought, and perhaps that is why the events took a different direction?? I do not know.

These thoughts along with a fear that i would wish upon no person led my wife, children, and self to leave our town and move to a Mennonite Community in rural Illinois where we currently reside.

I just read in the news today that a so-called American member of so-called Al Quaida has released a videotape threatening an attack on L.A. and Melbourne, AU.
This bothers me as i am flying to L.A. in 3 weeks to catch a flight to Australia.
I am going to Australia because i was invited by the organizers of a large music festival happening outside of Sydney in late Sept. to perform and to speak on some discussion panels in relation to underground music production.
I look forward to seeing Australia and meeting fun new people who are into music...

However i still have fears as a result of last year's nightmare that some authorities may wish that my music career not go any further as i use the Right to speak freely to encourage critical thinking in our age of 'crisis' and not to be led to conclusions but instead to look at the roots of problems instead of reacting to given problems. I observe that the powers that be seem far more concerned with HOW people are thinking as opposed to WHAT people are thinking or doing.

I am very suspicious of the validity surrounding the terrorist attacks that have occurred over the last few years as well as the 'threats' that have been reported. From 9-11 onward i have observed that each attack is used to justify something horrible on the part of the responding government. Be it wars and conquest, or changing domestic policy more and more towards a fear based police state. So everyone that i have talked with who is against the imperialist frenzy of western governments along with globalization in it's current incarnation have all agreed that violent action, or terrorist actions only serve to justify the propaganda machine of the rising police state. Thus the "old" revolutionary tactic of using para-military force, or violent acts of sabotage in defending from or responding to abusive power should be shunned. I also very much agree with this and feel that anyone who commits terrorist attacks is no friend of liberation. That is why i question the validity of some of the attacks that have occurred and threats that the so-called intelligence agencies have reported to the press.

I am posting this in hopes that my concerns may be documented and that if my concerns have any validity that the potential outcome may be changed as a result of this documentation.
I hope that forums like this do not have to become more and more the place for preemptive defense against potential set-ups and police manipulation. Thanks for taking the time to read this..

Our battle is a struggle between fact and fiction, truth and ignorance. It is a struggle to confront within each other the dangerous imaginations of nationalism, capital, class, and hierarchy. And even those are secondary effects of drives. Ours is the struggle to identify those drives in root form within our selves..to understand them..to change them. A search within our selves and a sharing with each other of ideas and solutions. Our battle is not one of force, violence, or destruction. The rulers of imaginary truth are the masters of violence and we can never win that playing field.

Forward motion,
William H. Bartlett
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


Capital and class

by Meyer London Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2005 at 8:25 AM

Capital and class are not products of the imagination. They are very real forces that affect not only everyone in the US, but the world's population. The oil grab in Iraq by Bush and the current talk of rebuilding New Orleans minus the so-called underclass who lived there prior to the hurricane are examples of this. Only people like you who can apparantly afford to move around the country without worrying about a job can pretend that these things are only products of the imagination. It has also been my experience that those who claim to transcend both right and left politics invariably turn out to be reactionaries of one sort or the other, their claims of transcendence notwithstanding.
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


you are not alone

by momarchy Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2005 at 9:39 AM
momarchy@yahoo.com

I have known some people who have gone through what you describe. Sorry, it sounds lame.
By the way, I understand clearly what you mean by humans creating imaginary systems of value and setting up a 'reality' where they become all to real.
Some people identify themselves with a 'class struggle' as opposed to a 'human struggle'. This is sad.
It is interesting that the first reply has a point in that it is people who can afford to ignore the constructs of class and money who can view them as imaginations. This word 'afford' does not always have a 'fianancial' implication, yet to someone who's life is based in a 'class struggle' it can only be seen this way.
Interestingly enough, I do not know many wealthy people but do know plenty of anarchists and squatters who can 'afford' to contimplate human nature and study imaginary constructs transposed onto our social structure.
The generalization that thinking out of the Left and Right dynamic is regulated to a group of reactionaries is also a product of a mind that cannot let go of imaginary thought systems. To bad... this person is reacting to his or her own experiences and projecting them as a general truth. Shame shame.
Hang in there!!
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


in other words

by Narf Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2005 at 9:50 AM

Those that have the freedom from hunger or shelter are allowed to sleep under the bridge with out worrying about such things.
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


Imaginary value in contrast with real value

by William Bartlett Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2005 at 11:17 AM
limbotime@yahoo.com

To state it clearly:
The wealthy can afford to do other things besides dedicating 80% of life to fullfilling the expectations of surviving in society ( paying bills, house payments,rent, etc. ) The opposite of that spectrum is the homeless. Campers, or squatters, who have created a system of accessing biological needs like food, water, shelter outside of State provision are also not concerned about paying bills. This obviously does not apply to the average homeless person who may suffer from dispair or addiction and may not have been introduced to an alternative and empowering lifestyle. However, there are plenty of people who are. It is this lot who also can afford to dedicate a large percentage of life to understanding themselves, social dynamics, and uncovering the root motivations behind the ideas we have mistaken as truth ( class, capital, political or religious ideas etc. )
The 'Top' and the 'Bottom'. One in either of these groups has a great deal more freedom to observe natural events within and outside of human nature. One in the bottom group may not see 'money' as a sense of real value, as it is clearly an invention of the human mind. And while one is not running on the hamster wheel of human imagination, it may become clear that the real and true values in life are ' bettering the human life experience' or 'reducing and easing suffering'. It becomes clear that these are the 'real' value drives which are the under currents of 'imaginary' value systems. Without the real value to better life experience and reduce suffering, imaginary value like capital could not exist. The imaginary system attaches itself to the real, and thus holds them for ransom, lest we suffer a 'less then better human life experience'. This is how capitalism holds our biological needs hostage and forces us to acknowledge the construct. Lets face it... life experience is the universal value.
Now it is difficult for the good majority of the lower and middle class to think about these things as most mental and material energy is devoted to fullfilling biological needs through the rules of an imaginary system.

Reactionism, Left and Right

I try very hard not to react. It happens though as i assume most humans do from time to time or on a regular basis ( including the person who made the generalization ).
However, part of the reason why it is important not to react within the construct of 'Left' and 'Right' thought systems is that percieving stimuli through these 'dagmas' can distort one's ability to process information objectively. In other words we close our selves off to learning new information if it does not conform to the standards of a pre-existing idea. How can we find new solutions to ancient problems or advance as a society or species, let alone as indiciduals, if we are basing all of our projections of advancement through a crystaline thought structure. We simply reject new information if it does not fit in within the known structure. This is how religious extremists, and dialectical materialsts are much closer to each other then either would like to believe. Not close in WHAT they are thinking but nearly identical in HOW they are thinking. The same gripes that can be made about those pushing for a theocracy can be made about most political ideaologies. Though the details are different, the thinking behind them is the same. And it is HOW we are thinking which will make or break us, free or enslave us.
How we are thinking will determine the difference between accepting other ways of life without imposing our own, and the belief that cultural hemogony are the answer to the human crisis. There is room for theism, atheism, various political ideas and social, or cultural lifestyles - even those that seem to oppose each other - the only ideolgical event that humans need to unilaterally conform to is that the drive to dominate must be understood and transformed through the common will to live in peace. We cannot deny that the current incarnation of both Left and Right wing thought constructs are reaction based and becoming more and more closed minded and dogma based.
On that note, it is one of my life duties not to be a reactionist.
Critical thought is very underrated in the liberation movements even within the 'anarchist' millue which is supposed to think outside of these dogmatic limitations.

Again sorry for bad grammer and misspellings. I never finished 8th grade.

Forward motion
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


freedom from right and left

by Meyer London Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2005 at 12:26 PM

I'm sorry if I am being unfair, but the first thing that flashed through my mind when I read your last post was "he's a trust fund baby who knew he didn't have to finish the 8th grade." Honestly, though, it has really been my experience in life that those who think that left and right don't matter are mostly those who never have to worry about things like rent, insurance co-payments, dental bills, the danger of being laid off, help for aged parents, shoes for children, or bill collectors. And those people are, for the most part, not the homeless or bohemians but people who have received every privelege in life that upper middle class or wealthy status can give, and can't understand why people who haven't received those priveleges don't think the same way they do.
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


Think discourse

by Yaya Tuesday, Sep. 13, 2005 at 1:05 PM
ezam@mandae.zzn.com

Good to read about the religious and secular materialst thinking the same. So true.
It is time to reevaluate.
Report this post as:
Share on: Twitter, Facebook, Google+

add your comments


© 2000-2018 Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Unless otherwise stated by the author, all content is free for non-commercial reuse, reprint, and rebroadcast, on the net and elsewhere. Opinions are those of the contributors and are not necessarily endorsed by the Los Angeles Independent Media Center. Running sf-active v0.9.4 Disclaimer | Privacy