AG Jerry Brown, the San Francisco 8, and The Big Chill – Represent Our Resistance

Keep in mind that, as Ron Jacobs in The Case of the San Francisco 8 reports, the “federal court ruled in 1974 that both San Francisco and New Orleans police had engaged in torture to extract a confession (see the Legacy of Torture video), and a San Francisco judge dismissed charges against three men in 1975 based on that ruling.”

But then came 2007 and Jerry Brown was sworn in as Attorney General of California. Round-e-up Jerry Brown has no qualms with confessions obtained through torture in 1971. He’s all about law and order in the new era of COINTELPRO. The case of the San Francisco 8 is “green-lighted,” said Claude Marks, Committee for the Defense of Human Rights. According to an affidavit from the AG’s office, Brown threw his weight behind a multi-taskforce comprised of the San Francisco Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, California Bureau of Investigation, and the United States Attorney’s Office, and ordered the arrest of Richard Brown, 65, Ray Boudreaux, 64, Hank Jones, 70, Richard O’Neal, 58, Harold Taylor, 58, and Francisco Torres, 58, on January 23, 2007. Herman Bell, 59, and Jalil Muntaqim, 55, already in prison for the last 30 years, were re-arrested for this case. The men arrested were held until recently because they refused to cooperate with these Kangaroo kourt proceedings – still with no new evidence. According to Steve Zelter, San Francisco Labor Planning Committee member, “if this case were up to the city of San Francisco, this wouldn’t happen.” Brown’s office, Zelter added, is “going along with the Federal government” on this case. The man who was a “vessel of protest against big-money politics” is on the side of “big-money politics” now and against those willing to protest injustice and inequality.