Mmmmm hiiiii <3
Last I wrote, I had recently been charged with two felonies: conspiracy to commit felony littering, and aiding and abetting felony littering, both connected to an art-based protest in December 2021.
I have often thought how very time it was to send an update, and just as often, decided it made more sense to wait for whatever next news article to come out, or the discovery to get released, or the next court date.
The thing about a police department targeting a group of 16 very sweet people with absurd charges is that the punishment is the process of dealing with it all, and so they really do try and draggggggg it out, and here we are in December of 2022, and it’s time to say hi.
The most newsy news is that we all had court on Monday, during which we rejected the state’s plea offers, and learned that at our next court date, January 23, we will be assigned trial dates. Lawyers think February or March are likely for trials. If you are like “how are they gonna try all those people??” well we have no idea and we are pretty sure they don’t either.
Some other things that have happened:
In May, a candidate for District Attorney mentioned us (supportively) on her campaign door-hanger which was…a funny door-hanger to find on my own door. And she really, really very nearly won but sadly it’s still the nincompoop.
In June, a very thorough article came out about us. The legal process stuff is out of date but the picture it paints of the context is still very accurate and I hope you will read it. Plus you get to see my backyard and my adorable overalls. (This article and all other press about us is findable on our website)
In July, we received the first round of discovery, the “evidence” the state is amassing. At the time there were 800 pages (it’s lots more now) and looking through those I thought I was going to throw up. It detailed SO MUCH SURVEILLANCE, including that in trying to figure out my identity, cops hid inside a Parks and Recreation building, watched me hand out tents and sleeping pads at our regular weekend food and gear distribution, and then followed me to my house. It also contained basically nothing relevant to our actual littering charges, and was just a damning account of APD pretending they are on CSI, spending just incredible amounts of public money trying to find evidence that a bunch of marshmallows who hand out tents and sandwiches are secretly an organized crime ring. I still can’t think of it without feeling nauseous and like I want to laugh and scream in someone’s face.
In August, we were indicted, meaning by a grand jury, and our case moved from District Court to Superior Court, and everyone’s charges got changed to just felony littering.
That’s more or less been it, though peppered through these months are multiple useless court dates, where what happens is it just all gets continued, meaning nothing at all happens, so the state got to make us take off work or school, sit for hours in a deliberately dehumanizing courtroom, for what ends up being no reason at all, and then say “oh actually come back and do that again in a month.”
Still: we are hanging in! We’ve been able to connect with some really great movement lawyers and other organizers facing similar police tactics in other cities, and this has helped a lot. When badass constitutional lawyers who have taken on Big Oil say things like “just so you know: the fact that they are going to these absurd lengths means that what y’all were doing was working,” or “you are facing the coercive power of the state and it just is going to take a toll, it is designed to,” when other organizers know just what we mean by how hard it’s been for our sweet little group to do much more than hold each other tight and keep each other afloat, and we can remind ourselves that it’s enough that we do that, it’s a miracle to do that…these conversations are balms, and fuel. We have local supporters who stay active in advocating for us and are so ready to show up when we need them, and as trials approach, it feels really good to keep hearing that from them, that they’ve got us. I believe them.
We are often asked what people can do to help, and it can be hard to say because it’s all so slow, but these charges have made employment, housing, school, and mental well-being a lot more precarious for a lot of our group, and funds can help with those; you can venmo @avldefendantfund or send me a check and I will get it where it needs to go. If you know people in national media, we need that! So many folks even in City government know this is wrong, and acknowledge that to us, but nothing will change unless there is national-level embarrassing attention that threatens Asheville’s reputation as a progressive city and thus threatens tourism. Finally, if you are reading this as someone who knows me personally, and you and I haven’t yet connected about it, maybe send me a text or an email to say you know about it, you’re out there, you’re in our corner—that matters, maybe more than you think <3
with love,
Sarah
In your corner. <3