anarchist collective TORTUGA raided by anti-terrorism cops (US, new york)

(en) US, new york statement: anarchist collective TORTUGA raided
Date Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:53:04 +0200


When They Kick Out Your Front Door, How You Gonna Come? ---- On October 1st, 2009, at
6:00am, the Joint Terrorism Task Force (a union of local police departments and the FBI),
kicked out the front door to our home — an anarchist collective house in Queens, NY,
affectionately known as Tortuga. The first crashes of the battering ram were quickly
followed by more upstairs, as the police broke in on 3 sleeping people, destroying bedroom
doors that were unlocked. ---- Three more people, awoken by the most unpleasant means of
bounding footsteps, splintering wood, and shouting voices, waited in the basement — their
turn at drawn guns and blinding lights came quickly. ---- We put our hands out where they
could see them. They ordered us out of bed. They wouldn’t let us dress, but they did put a
random assortment of clothes on some people.

We were handcuffed, and although the upstairs and
downstairs groups were kept separate initially, we were soon all together,
sitting in the living room, positioned like dolls on the couches and
chairs. We were in handcuffs for several hours, and we were helpless as
our little bird, a Finch we had rescued and were rehabilitating, flew out
the open door to certain death, after his cage had been battered by the
cops in their zeal to open the upstairs bedroom doors by force. We shouted
at them, but they stood there and watched.

And they stood and watched us for hours and hours and hours. 16 hours to
be precise, 16 hours of the NYPD and FBI traipsing through our house,
confiscating our lives in a fishing expedition related to the G20 protests
of September 24th and 25th. The search warrant, when we were finally
allowed to read it, mentioned violation of federal rioting laws and was
vague enough to allow the entire house to be searched. They kept repeating
that we were not arrested, that we were free to go. But being free meant
being watched by the FBI, monitored while using the bathroom, not allowed
to make phone calls for hours or to observe them ransacking our rooms.
Being free meant they took two of us away on bullshit summonses, and even
though this was our house, where we lived, if we left, we could not
re-enter.

Three of us stayed to the bitter end. Three of us stayed to watch the
hazmat team come in to investigate a child’s chemistry set, to see them
search the garage on an additional warrant, to sign vouchers for all the
things they confiscated as “evidence”—Curious George plush toys, artwork,
correspondence with political prisoner Daniel McGowan, birth certificates,
passports, the entire video archive of a local media collective, tax
records, books, computers, storage devices, cell phones, Buffy the Vampire
Slayer DVDs, flags, banners, posters, photographs and more than can be
recounted here.

The apparent impetus for this raid came over a week ago, when two members
of our household were arrested, once again at gunpoint, in the suburbs of
Pittsburgh. They are accused of being devious masterminds, of “directing”
the rollicking G-20 protests, of using technology such as Twitter to
“hinder apprehension” of protesters. The two were held on bail, one
fetching the ridiculous amount of $30,000 cash, and released 36 hours
later after the bond was posted. As of this moment, no additional charges
have been levied against the two, nor against any other housemates in the
aftermath of the raid.

As anarchists, we are under no illusions about what the State is capable
of. We are not the first anarchists to have our house raided, and
unfortunately as long as the State remains, we will not be the last. We
are, along with other targeted individuals like David Japenga, the outlets
for the impotent rage the authorities feel when they lose control, as they
did during the G-20 in Pittsburgh. We, that beautiful we, that include
Tortuga House and all who find affinity with us, refuse the rigid forms
the authorities try and cram a world bursting with infinite possibilities
into — He is not a leader, she did not act alone, they are not being
directed. Repression is a strategy that the state uses to put us on the
defensive, to divert our energies from being a proactive force and instead
deal with the terms it has set. We will not lie and say this has not left
us reeling, but as time and our dizziness pass, we know that friends
surround us. Our resolve is strengthened by this solidarity, and we will
not be deterred by this state aggression.

We wish to thank all of our friends and comrades who have stood by us in
these difficult few days. Our lawyer filed an injunction on the raid the
next morning (October 2nd) that was surprisingly granted- it forbids the
authorities from fishing through our belongings until we head back to
court on the 16th. In the weeks and months to come we will do our best to
share developments as they occur. If you want to keep in touch or find out
how you can help please email us at: tortugadefense@gmail.com.

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