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Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2006 21:48:31 -0500<br>
From: Chuck <chuck@mutualaid.org><br><br>
<br>
Common Ground Collective co-founder Scott Crow Under Investigation
by <br>
FBI<br><br>
Common Ground Collective co-founder Scott Crow has recently come
under<br>
investigation by the FBI as well as the ATF.<br><br>
At around 8:00 am on Wednesday, April 5th, two FBI agents, one of
whom<br>
identified himself as Evan Ray, came knocking on his door in Austin,
TX,<br>
asking many questions including whether Scott was stockpiling
firearms.<br>
Robert King Wilkerson, former political prisoner, Black Panther and<br>
member of the Angola 3
(<a href="http://www.angola3.org/" eudora="autourl">www.angola3.org</a>)
who is a guest at Scott's<br>
house, answered the door and informed the two agents that Scott was
out<br>
of town and refused to answer any of the agent's questions.<br><br>
Several hours later the two agents returned. This time when
Wilkerson<br>
answered the door they knew who he was. The agents pulled out a
binder<br>
filled with pictures of firearms and began flipping through it
asking<br>
Wilkerson if he had seen any of the firearms in the picture. When<br>
Wilkerson declined to answer any questions, the agents asked to speak
to<br>
others in the house, who also refused to answer the agents'
questions.<br>
"When I told them that Scott was out of town they started asking to
talk<br>
to [other people in the house], even though they came looking for<br>
Scott," Wilkerson said. "No one wanted to talk then so they
left their<br>
phone number."<br><br>
While the agents questioned people in Austin, other agents from the
Ft.<br>
Worth office simultaneously visited the shop where Scott had legally<br>
purchased a firearm, asking the owner Eric Robb numerous questions.<br>
This investigation comes only a month after an FBI agent, G. Charles<br>
Rasner, at a presentation at the UT Law School, listed the Austin<br>
braches of Indymedia and Food Not Bombs as well as anarchists in
general<br>
as potential terrorist threats in the Central Texas region.<br>
(<a href="http://austin.indymedia.org/feature/display/26838/index.php" eudora="autourl">
http://austin.indymedia.org/feature/display/26838/index.php</a>)<br>
These events are also amidst a larger wave of recent ongoing
government<br>
repression of various activist groups: the arrests and charges
brought<br>
against environmental and animal rights activists being called the
Green<br>
Scare
(<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Scare" eudora="autourl">
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_Scare</a>), admissions by the NSA<br>
and Defense Department of surveillance and spying on anti-war and
civil<br>
rights groups, the government campaign against Stop Huntington
Animal<br>
Cruelty.<br><br>
Scott has been supplied with a lawyer, Charles Roadman, by the
Austin<br>
People's Legal Collective after tentatively thinking meet with the
FBI<br>
at his lawyer's office under very strict circumstances. The FBI had
on<br>
their visits to the house suggested they "would come back until they
got<br>
some information" and because, according to agent Ray's
conversation<br>
with Mr. Roadman, the refusal of people at the house to talk to the
FBI<br>
was considered "acting suspicious". The FBI also stated
to Mr. Roadman<br>
that this was a "routine gun check", and that the ATF would be
attending<br>
also, which is in contradiction to statements made by dealers in the<br>
firearms industry. One dealer who wished to remain anonymous stated
it<br>
was "very unusual".<br><br>
Crow has decided not talk to the Feds or ATF. "I have acted within
my<br>
rights as a citizen within this country and broken no laws. I feel
this<br>
is unwarranted harassment by agencies on 'fishing expeditions' to<br>
criminalize those who work for change in this country," Crow said.
He<br>
added "I am reminded of the Zapatistas(the EZLN from the
southern<br>
Mexican State of Chiapas -ed.) who say: 'We wish not to seize power,
but<br>
to exercise it.' Let's not forget, these agencies have a long history
of<br>
these scare tactics."<br><br>
Over the years Scott has been a dedicated activist for social
justice,<br>
being involved with a number of local and national groups and
campaigns<br>
around issues of political prisoners, racism, prisons, and the<br>
environment. Recently he has received national attention for work he
did<br>
co-founding the human rights organization Common Ground Collective
in<br>
New Orleans immediately after Hurricane Katrina.<br><br>
The FBI's harassment of those working for change in our world is
meant<br>
to intimidate and isolate. It is important that we step up and stand
in<br>
solidarity with our friends and comrades when the state singles them
out<br>
for harassment. It is also important that we remain uncooperative
with<br>
all law enforcement investigations of our political activities.<br>
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