A Call to Attack SB1070 and Prisons everywhere, on and beyond May Day 2010

By Marek A. Edelman

Let us not be melodramatic or ironic, SB1070 is some fascist shit. For years now ICE has been rounding up our fellow workers, stealing them from their families, children, and communities, often regardless of their immigration status. In 2009, 380,000 people were detained in 350 facilities, and the roundups continue. Detainees are held for months, even years, in conditions often worse than prisons built for “citizens” (although many who are “legally” in the US end up there anyway). Along the US-Mexico border, defense contractors have built massive walls at the safest crossing points, forcing migrant workers to make perilous desert crossings. Many will not make it alive.

FRIDAY: Walkouts and march in Denver against SB 1070

This Friday, there will be walkouts and a march on the capitol building in Denver as part of a state-wide and nation-wide action of solidarity with the resistance to SB 1070 in Arizona.

Ya basta! Say no to racist Arizona bill (SB 1070) that was passed into law on Friday, April 23rd @ 1:30pm.

Exactly a week later….WALKOUT in the Denver-metro area this Friday, April 30th (part of a state & nationwide action).

We can’t let history repeat itself!
Not in Arizona…Not anywhere!

1953-56: “Operation Wetback” – Local police and border patrol officials detained and deported EVERYONE they suspected of being undocumented, many of which were actually US citizens. In total, over 2 million were deported from across the US.

April 23, 2010: Passage of SB 1070 in Arizona – Regardless of whether a crime is being committed, police MUST demand proof of citizenship of EVERYONE they suspect is undocumented and arrest those who cannot provide it. This backward and divisive law promotes racial profiling and terrorizes the community.

WALKOUT in the Denver-metro area this Friday, April 30th (part of a state & nationwide action).

In most cases, students will walkout @ 1:30pm (depends on travel time & to be determined at each school…for example: Lincoln @ 12pm)

MARCH TO THE CAPITOL!!!!

Denver meeting spots:

Viking Park (Speer & Federal) @ 2pm
Sunken Gardens (11th & Speer) @ 2pm
City Park @ 2pm
Lincoln HS @ 12pm (will pick up students from Kepner MS & KIPP schools along the way)

AT CAPITOL:

2:30-3:30pm: Entertainment with music, spoken word/poetry, etc:

3:30pm: Rally program starts…community members giving powerful speeches

Pig recounts November shootout with bank robbers

When Westminster police Deputy Chief Tim Carlson sat down to lunch with patrol Officer Matt Rippy in November, he didn’t expect the meal to end in a car chase, a hail of bullets, two dead bank robbers and the closest call of his life.

“I have an office job. I don’t go out on the street,” Carlson said at a news conference Tuesday after the Adams County district attorney last week cleared all officers involved in the bloody gun battle.

On Nov. 19, Christian Benshoof, 35, and Ashley Johnson, 25, walked into a Westminster bank, fanned a gun at customers, hurled threats and demanded cash from tellers before speeding off in a silver Subaru with guns blazing.

Hearing the call, the lawmen jumped in Rippy’s patrol car and sped toward the chase, not knowing the bank robbers had already shot one officer. Moments later, the silver Subaru raced over a Federal Boulevard hill toward the officers, the police report said. As Rippy made a U-turn to pursue, Ashley Johnson pointed her Ruger handgun out the back passenger window.

Anti-SB1070 protest in Denver

A small group of protestors near Coors Field this afternoon handed out flyers protesting Arizona’s new immigration law as the Rockies took on the visiting Diamondbacks.

Under the new Arizona law, officers can stop anyone based on “reasonable suspicion” to determine whether they are “unlawfully present in the United States.”

Woman charged as accessory in March shooting of cop

April 22:  ADAMS COUNTY — Elva Caraveo, 19, was arrested today on charges she was an accessory to the attempted first-degree murder of an Adams County Sheriff’s deputy at an apartment complex on March 13.

Caraveois was arrested at the Village at Coronado Apartments, the same complex where the shooting took place and where Sergio Estrada-Gomez, 25, was arrested and charged as the trigger man on March 15.

She was characterized by the Adams County Sheriff’s Department as Estrada-Gomez’s associate.

Estrada-Gomez is suspected of shooting Deputy Alexander Kondos three times: in his left ankle, right thigh and chest. The bullet that hit Kondos’ chest struck a bulletproof vest.

Kondos, who was on foot patrol at the time of the assault, was treated and released from Denver Health Medical Center after the shooting.

Caraveois was booked into the Adams County Detention Facility on a $10,000 bond.

Denver woman poisoned cop husband

Two years ago…

A suburban Denver woman has pleaded guilty to reduced charges after authorities say she tried to poison her sheriff’s deputy husband by spiking his salad with a lethal plant.

Forty-two-year-old Lisa Leigh Allen was accused of trying to poison her husband, a Jefferson County sheriff’s deputy, with the decorative garden plant foxglove.

The man was hospitalized in the summer of 2008 after eating a spaghetti dinner and bitter-tasting salad served by his wife.

Tests showed he’d eaten foxglove, which can be fatal if consumed. Lisa Allen was charged with attempted murder. She pleaded guilty to felony assault, KMGH-TV in Denver reported Tuesday.

Sentencing is scheduled for May 14.

Accountant stole nearly 200 grand from Glenwood hotel

GLENWOOD SPRINGS — A former Hotel Colorado accountant, accused of stealing close to $192,000 from the hotel over a 16-year period, was sentenced to probation on Tuesday.

The case, which prosecutor Anne Kirkpatrick called “a whopper of a theft,” brought an end to one part of this bizarre trial.

Nina Marie Trujillo, 37, pleaded guilty to one felony count of theft between $1,000 and $20,000, and one count of misdemeanor theft between $500 and $1,000. She was sentenced to four years of supervised probation and 150 hours of useful public service.

Littleton prole lifts arsenal of weapons from workplace

A 21-year-old gun store employee has been indicted by the federal grand jury in Denver for stealing guns from his employer and possessing machine guns and “destructive devices”.

Officials searched the Littleton home where he lived with his mother and sister and found a green hand grenade, three “destructive devices”, 10 rifles, four pistols, approximately 30 boxes or cans of ammunition which included .50-caliber shells.

Agents also recovered a bullet-proof vest, and more than half a dozen samples of an “unknown powder.”

The man, Andrew Thomas Gunzner, was stopped by Denver police on March 17, after they saw him driving a silver Jeep Cherokee with red overhead emergency lights and siren activated, according to a search warrant filed in Denver District Court.

During a search of the Jeep, Denver officers found various guns, including a Heckler and Koch 9mm machine gun, a Taurus .4-5/410 revolver, a Norinco AK-47 and an FHN 5.7×28 semiautomatic pistol.

They also found numerous pistol magazines, ammunition, handcuffs, an expandable baton, knives, holsters, a flashlight, and flash suppressor and a scope/sight.

During the subsequent investigation, officers discovered that some of the firearms were allegedly stolen by Gunzner from his employer, Littleton-based Prairie Arms Manufacturing.

Hand-grenade bank robbery in Denver

An SUV which authorities believe was used as a getaway car by a hand-grenade-toting bank robber has been found, the FBI said today.

FBI spokesman Dave Joly said the vehicle was recovered late Monday morning but was not searched by a bomb squad until Monday afternoon when a search warrant was obtained.

No hand grenades were recovered.

Joly also said the FBI believes they know who the robber is and are currently looking for him.

“We have focused the investigation on one individual,” said Joly.

The robber entered the Bank of the West, 7310 E. Arapahoe Road, about 9:40 a.m. Monday.

He showed the teller what appeared to be a green hand grenade and also gave the teller a note, which he later retrieved.

Joly said that a bank robber with a hand grenade is “not the norm for what we investigate in the Denver division of the FBI,” said Joly.

Teenaged serial bank robber taken captive in Durango

A 19-year-old Fort Lewis College student is facing charges as a serial bank robber in Durango, police said today.

Durango police and the FBI arrested Chase Bryant Gardner at his Durango home today on suspicion of four hold-ups since December, including two on April 1.

Records show Gardner’s current address is on the Fort Lewis Campus, but he previously lived on Ken Caryl Avenue in Littleton.

Gardner is being held without bond in La Plata County Jail.