A message from Alan L. Maki concerning my arrest in Grand Rapids, Michigan
on November 1, 2012…
Political repression places a barrier to citizen civic participation in the
decision-making process; civic participation is a hallmark of democracy.
Please distribute this widely:
By now many of you have heard about my arrest on Thursday
evening November 1 and the outrageous, unconstitutional $10,000.00 bond that
was placed on me by corrupt Newaygo County officials in Michigan who executed a
TWENTY-ONE YEAR OLD warrant to
arrest me for “using the telephone to threaten” a right-wing, racist bigot who
punched and shoved my ten-year old son Jeremy because Jeremy was “fishing from
his dock.”
This vicious attack by an adult on my son, a child at the
time, left his lip bleeding and swollen with a black eye and scraped bleeding
knees and a badly bruised chest--- all of which was photographed by the police
I called.
The Newaygo County Sheriff and Michigan State Police refused to arrest Scott
Plants for this vicious and brutal attack on my ten year old son which he
carried out against my son in retaliation for my political views. As Scott Plants
viciously attacked my ten-year old son as he kicked our beagle dog who had
tagged along on Jeremy’s fishing adventure, Scott Plants shouted for all
neighbors within hearing distance--- “go fish in Russia.”
This was one of several vicious attacks on my children in
which right-wing bigots attacked my children in retaliation for my political
views expressed through speeches and writings with my two children having been
targeted by shot-gun toting members of the right-wing hate group Michigan
Militia whose members shot at them as they waited for their school bus--- with
the Michigan State Police capturing these vile culprits only to let them go
with the explanation that “they were only duck hunting.” Duck hunting in the
nesting off-season; illegally duck hunting of spring without even being charged
for that crime?
The State Police of the Newaygo Post laughed this vile
attack on my children off as “right-wing versus left-wing violence” even
thought there was no violence at all from the “left.”
A few years later one of the Michigan State cops who thought it was so funny my
kids were shot at ended up getting killed in a shoot-out with one of the very
same men they apprehended for shooting at my kids… this wasn’t so funny anymore
as these bigoted cops mourned the death of one of their own ilk.
Grand Rapids, Michigan police arrested me on this bogus twenty-one year old warrant
and I was immediately transferred to the hands and jail of the Newaygo County
Sheriff in White Cloud, Michigan.
Newaygo County
is home to some of the worst poverty in the United
States while being a “wilderness” playground for the
extremely wealthy--- many of whom own poverty wage-paying sweatshops in Newaygo County
and around the Midwest.
At the present time a national defense committee is being
established to try to prevent my imprisonment on these bogus charges.
This kind of political repression is on the increase all across the United States
and is sure to intensify no matter if Obama is re-elected or Romney is elected.
Political repression is part and parcel of this corrupt and
rotten system.
We have no national committee against political repression which is directed
against those of us fighting for peace, social and economic injustice.
We have agreed to establish a “National Committee to defend
Alan Maki and All Victims of Political Repression.”
We will mount not only a legal but educational campaign intended to expose how
political repression is carried out by the police, the courts, the political
establishment and employers all working in cahoots seeking to maintain poverty
wages while driving down the standard of living of all working people while punishing
anyone who dares to challenge this corruption intended to shore up this rotten
system which enables the greedy, money-grubbing few to live off the labors of
the many.
For many years, ever since its creation, the FBI has been used to spin a web of
political repression--- attacking those who dare to struggle against
imperialist wars, racism and for the rights of working people.
Politicians created the legislation and “special committees” to enable the FBI
working through its “Red Squads”--- special units led by FBI “Special Agents”
consisting of city, county and state police and now including private
“detective agencies” like Altegrity/USIS and all kinds of union-busting
outfits--- to carry out this political repression.
I, along with tens of thousands of other activists have been targeted by the
FBI and their “Red Squads;” so called because the FBI continues to use the
Communist Control Act as its cover to carry out these dirty deeds.
As my 50,000 plus page FBI dossier clearly shows, the perverted Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover,
personally assigned the FBI to attack me--- an attack that has been dutifully
carried out by the police and the courts with the permission of both the
Democrats and Republicans with the malicious attack from Minnesota State
Representative Tony Cornish--- who admits to amassing his own personal file on
me--- being the latest and most recent where he designated me in an e-mail he
sent to thousands of politicians across the Midwest, including each and every
state legislator in Minnesota, Wisconsin
and Michigan which obviously emboldened the FBI, Grand Rapids Police
Department, Newaygo County Sheriff, a corrupt prosecutor and judge to execute
this twenty-one year old warrant which was bogus from its very creation with no
other intent than to use the “color of law” to carry out this political
repression which is the government’s response to my outspoken views and
activities for peace, against racism and for social and economic justice.
To understand the nature of this injustice one only has to
ask, and answer, the question:
How many other people in Michigan
are arrested on twenty-one year old warrants alleging such petty offenses?
The terms of this outrageous ten-thousand dollar bond being used to enforce
these fabricated bogus charges against me, restrict me to having to remain in
the State of Michigan--- an obvious attempt to thwart our union organizing
campaign in the Indian Gaming Industry--- which seeks to empower workers
employed in the Indian Gaming Industry at poverty wages forced to work in unhealthy
smoke-filled casinos--- and very conveniently under the terms of the racist
“Compacts”--- intended to use racism to maintain the poverty on Indian
Reservations creating huge pools of cheap labor are all telling.
The Indian Gaming Industry created by these “Compacts” arranged by corrupt
tribal politicians, local, state and federal politicians and the mobsters who
own the slot machines and table games and every other profitable venture
associated with the Indian Gaming Industry, is every bosses dream come true:
legislatively created poverty wages imposed on workers who have NO RIGHTS under
state or federal labor laws.
These racist and anti-labor “Compacts” created by the Democrats with
Republicans looking on smiling with their “bi-partisan” approval are now being
enforced by the private and quasi-governmental detective agency which hires a
bunch of thugs which include former FBI and CIA agents as well as state, county
and local police with the FBI and other police agencies sharing their
“information and files” with Altegrity/USIS and shared the other way around.
Why did these corrupt Newaygo County
officials acting in collusion with the FBI and Grand Rapids Police Department
decide to execute this twenty-one year old fabricated bogus warrant based on
outright lies after twenty-one years?
Because the complainant whose story two Newaygo County Sheriff Deputies and the
Newaygo County Prosecutor prompted by the FBI testimony could not have held up
in court. Only weeks after the death of the complainant are these
law-enforcement officials fully backed by the prosecutor and judge now
executing these warrants claiming I used the telephone to intimidate these
violent bigots.
How convenient; the police will now have free reign to further fabricate more
lies without there being a living complainant or “witness” to these bogus
charges--- another dream come true; this time for the FBI led “Red Squads,” and
quite conveniently for the managements of the Indian Gaming Industry.
The terms and conditions of this outrageous ten-thousand dollar bond include
prohibiting me from participating in demonstrations or entering any
establishment serving alcoholic beverages which means I am prohibited from
entering any casino.
I hope all of you will consider participating in getting involved in our
efforts defending me from these fabricated bogus charges based on lies in
twenty-one year old warrants.
Think about this:
Why would any Judge establish a ten-thousand dollar bond for charges which carry
a maximum penalty of six-months in prison and a $500.00 fine?
Why would any Judge even consider enforcing such twenty-one year old warrants
which could have been served on me at any time over these past twenty-one years?
Something to think about:
Newaygo County Judge Drake was the very prosecutor who authorized these bogus
warrants faced on charges he helped to fabricate twenty-one years.
Does anyone think the execution of these warrants with a ten-thousand dollar
bond being imposed with the undemocratic restrictions imposed by the terms of
the bond has anything to do with “justice?”
Plain and simple: This is harassment and political repression taken to the
extreme.
But, this is what political repression in this country looks like and what political
repression has spun.
Like a snowball rolling down a steep long hill on a warm spring day the
campaign of hate and harassment just keeps getting bigger and bigger--- the
intent being to destroy the lives of living, breathing human beings as was demonstrated
by the violent death of my good friend and fellow activist, Native American
trade unionist and human rights activist, Greg Paquin, last spring.
Greg’s death was the direct result of where these campaigns of hate generated by
the FBI’s “Red Squads” ultimately lead. The FBI and local law enforcement
working together with the judiciary and reactionary politicians collaborated to
make Greg Paquin’s life a living hell as they fabricated charges based on
outright lies against him, too.
There is no legitimate reason why human beings should be subjected to these
kinds of vicious hate campaigns instigated by the FBI.
We are going to see what we can do at a grassroots level to
put an end to these kinds of politically motivated campaigns of hate.
I would also note that right-wing bigot Richard Mellon-Scaife has put his
billions of dollars to work in creating several public front groups---
including KeyWiki staffed by, Trevor Loudon, a known pedophile working out of a
cave in New Zealand and Accuracy In Media
staffed by a pervert in an expensive suit, Cliff Kinkaid--- being used to
“expose” “Communists” and it is not coincidental that I have been singled out along
with Minnesota Secretary of State Mark Ritchie whose “crime” is participating
in meetings with Communists--- for outrageous and vicious attacks by both of
these right-wing outfits funded by the nefarious right-wing bigot Richard
Mellon-Scaife. Attacks that just happen to coincide with these recent attacks
by politicians like Minnesota State Representative Tony Cornish who (retired
from law enforcement), instead of apologizing to me for calling me “a very
dangerous person” because I use my constitutionally protected rights to speak
out, write and act in defense of worker’s rights and against racism which are
human rights; Cornish has now proceeded to calling me “one of the most
dangerous men in the world.”
Please consider joining with us to put an end to this officially promoted
bigotry where corrupt politicians working in league with law enforcement,
prosecutors and the judiciary and the nefariously heinous Indian Gaming
Industry which has hired Altegrity/USS to stymie and thwart our union
organizing campaign are trying to stifle and smother our struggles for peace,
social and economic justice.
Today, Newaygo County is a burial ground for democracy but as we have seen,
this could be, and is, Anyplace, U.S.A.--- a country these reactionary
sleaze-balls hiding their wicked reactionary agenda under the “color of law”
proclaim to people everywhere to be “the world’s greatest bastion of
democracy.”
A law suit against, and to halt, these ghastly charges and
undemocratic, unconstitutional behavior is being prepared for the federal
courts.
If you have been targeted for similar political persecution
I would like to hear from you so we can document for the peoples of the world
what is going on here in the United
States.
My next court appearance has been scheduled for November 12, 2012 at 8:30 A.M.
in Newaygo County District Court with Judge Drake presiding.
At the arraignment on November 12 I will be asking these charges be dropped
based on the facts:
1.) The complaining witness is now dead;
2.) These warrants should have been dismissed long ago under
statute of limitations;
3.) These warrants were knowingly bogus at the time based on
lies fabricated by Drake, the police and Karen Plants (Scott Plants was her husband at
the time); bogus from the very time these warrants were issued twenty-one years ago;
4.) The bond is reduced to personal recognizance with no
draconian stipulations;
5.) Judge Drake removes himself from this case for obvious
conflict of interest;
6.) All charges are dropped;
7.) I am fully and completely compensated for this injustice
I am being subjected to.
The Michigan Supreme Court will be asked to intervene by investigating the
judicial misconduct, malfeasance and misfeasance in this case of Judge H. Kevin
Drake with the request that Judge Drake be permanently removed from “the bench”
for participating in this wholly egregious, outrageous judicial misconduct
intentionally carried out to deprive me of my most fundamental and basic
constitutionally protected democratic and human rights.
Anyone who has ever read the United States Constitution and Bill of Rights
along with the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then
considering these bogus warrants can recognize the injustice in progress in
this case.
My Defense Committee will make this case a focus of the upcoming December 10
Anniversary of the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The foundation-funded outfits whose finances are derived from the donations of
the very “philanthropists” who profit from the injustices of working people
refuse to take on these cases so grassroots efforts like ours are required.
Many people have called to ask me what they can do.
As a first step, please circulate and distribute this as
widely as possible since education and informing a wide circle of friends is
the first step.
Second write a letter to Judge H. Kevin Drake.
Your suggestions are encouraged and welcome.
We realize everyone is very busy on a variety of issues but
we request you find a way to fit this into your busy schedule.
Thanking you in advance for you involvement and participation.
I appreciate the concern from everyone--- the calls, visits and e-mails.
While it is helpful for people to call Newaygo County District Court Judge
Drake; it is even more important to place your thoughts in writing and send to:
Judge H.
Kevin Drake
78th District Court
1092 Newell
St.
White
Cloud, Michigan 49349
Telephone Number: 231-689-7257
The stated offense I am being accused of is:
“Telephone use for harassment.”
My case has been assigned Case Number: 9014391SM
Please document any
phone calls by getting the name of the person spoken to, the date and time of
the call and a description of what transpired in the conversation.
My next court
appearance is scheduled for:
Monday, November
12, 2012 at 8:30 A.M. at the above address.
Please send a copy of any letters written to:
In my more than 45 years as an activist struggling for
worker’s rights and in defense of worker’s livelihoods, for peace, against
racism and poverty I have never used a telephone or any other method to
“harass” anyone.
In fact, J. Edgar Hoover once lamented during a Congressional hearing that
included investigating me that I am such a model citizen that it made “getting
me” difficult. As a result, this is the kind of dirty deed these dirty birds
have to stoop to in order to “get me.”
Republican Gerald Ford always referred to me as “a true
gentleman” even though our discussions, often over breakfast, lunch or dinner,
were often very heated with the two of us at odds on just about every single
issue.
I challenge anyone to step forward claiming I ever
“harassed” them.
The harassment obviously is the other way around as this
present arrest on such frivolous allegations based on a warrant over twenty-one
years old with the setting of a ten-thousand dollar bond proves.
A number of people have asked me what motivated this
campaign against me and my family in Newaygo
County.
Several things that I was involved in motivated this vicious and malicious
vendetta:
First; I was the lead Plaintiff in a lawsuit in the federal
courts in which the ACLU took the case.
This case was about getting Bible Clubs operated by a local
group of right wing zealots out of our public elementary school.
United States Federal District Court Judge Richard A. Enslen
ruled these Bible unconstitutional and ordered them to end.
The case rose to national and international prominence with
the like of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson attacking me.
Second; I signed and distributed a leaflet with the picture
of Croton Township Supervisor/Assessor William R. Miller’s home--- a
multi-million dollar estate on a prime piece of river front property which he
under-assessed at around $30,000.00 asking the very simple question:
“How does your property tax assessment compare
to this?”
I went on to suggest that this corruption amounted to gross misfeasance and
malfeasance.
The Newaygo County Prosecutor refused to proceed with action against Miller.
I then took the issue to state officials.
State officials agreed with me and removed William R. Miller
from his position as Assessor but not before William R. Miller “responded” to
my accusations in the leaflet which were distributed to every single home-owner
in Croton Township by running huge, expensive
advertisements in newspapers declaring:
“I want everyone to know Alan L. Maki is a card-carrying
communist.
Signed,
William R. Miller
Croton
Township Supervisor”
These huge, expensive advertisements were later found to have been paid for out
of tax-payer funds by the Croton Township Treasurer.
The leaflet brought out hundreds of people to the Annual Croton Township
Meeting, the largest crowd in the history of Croton Township,
who demanded the resignation of William R. Miller and when Miller refused to
resign the majority of people present voted on my motion to reduce Miller’s
salary to $1.00 a year and not pay any expenses associated with the
Supervisor’s duties at which time Miller declared the assembled crowd to be
“disorderly” and dozens of riot-equipped police were called in to shut the
meeting down.
It would, quite literally, require writing a book of several
hundred pages to describe the living hell right wing bigots, including the head
of the Newaygo County Republican Party, a self-avowed member of the John Birch
Society, Roger Geitzen, who ran the public relations department for Consumers
Power Company who lived three houses up the road from us, subjected our family
to as they focused on bringing physical harm to our two very young children and
our two dogs and two cats.
Geitzen admitted in Newaygo County Court during a trial in
which I was accused of assaulting him after I took his pellet gun away from him
and smashed it against a cement retaining wall, that he shot our little beagle’s
eye out with his pellet gun and then he shot me with it as he called me a
“dirty Jew” and “Commie.”
The charges against me were later dropped after the Michigan
Supreme court found the Newaygo County Judge to be “biased” and appointed a
visiting judge to hear the case.
Our kids walked out the door to go to school one morning and
found our cat lying dead in a pool of blood on the porch with a bullet through
its head, a note attached: “Maki, you are next.”
The role of the FBI in making these right wing bigots and
public officials along with law enforcement think they could get away with this
kind of hate campaign was very sinister. FBI agents went door-to-door asking
neighbors, “what can you tell us about Alan Maki’s dangerous Communist views?”
Is it coincidental that Minnesota Republican State Representative, today, has
decided to issue a statement calling me “a dangerous man?” “Dangerous” based on
what; letters to the editor I write, blog posts I write, speeches I make, the
organizing of casino workers aimed at creating a safe and healthy workplace
with real living wages accompanied with the same state and federal protections
all other workers enjoy and a voice at work?
J. Edgar Hoover once placed my picture on a chart with about fifty other
activists declaring me to be “dangerous.” When Senator Frank Church asked Hoover, “What makes this
Alan Maki so dangerous?” Hoover responded, “Maki is a Communist. We believe he
is the link to Moscow
to the youth protesting the Vietnam War.” Senator
Church asked Hoover
to back up this characterization of me being some kind of link to Moscow. Hoover responded, “Our investigation is in
progress.”
“Dangerous.” We see how this government deals with those it
deems to be “dangerous.”
Anyone who questions poverty and the wars making all of us
poor is conveniently deemed to be, “dangerous.”
Michigan Attorney General Frank Kelly proclaimed more than 55,000 people to be
so “dangerous” because of their advocacy for peace, social and economic justice
he kept “Red Squad Files” on them.
The time has come to determine how much this political
repression is costing us in terms of dollars and wasted time as well as how
this political repression has affected our democracy.
These chicken-shit, two-bit, half-assed fascist bastards
don’t dare to publicly debate my views but instead choose the route of
instigating these kinds of campaigns of hate using all these dirty forms of
harassment--- and then these dirty birds have the unmitigated gall to call what
they have created using intimidation and harassment a “democracy.”
I am willing to publicly debate Republican State Representative Tony Cornish---
or anyone else--- anytime, anyplace, anywhere.
Political repression places a barrier to citizen civic
participation in the decision-making process; civic participation is a hallmark
of democracy.
I need your help in getting this information out to
thousands of people. Please consider passing this information along to family,
friends and fellow activists.
Thanks for your support.
Yours in the struggle,
Alan L. Maki
Director of Organizing,
Midwest Casino Workers Organizing Council
Contact info: 651-587-5541
Address:
Alan L. Maki
1850 4th Street N.W.
Grand Rapids, Michigan 49504
