Yesterday, four comrades were arrested at the sentencing hearing of Jack Rusk in Oakland, California. Witnesses say that police tasered onlookers and comrades after the courtroom was cleared. During the hearing, anarchists heckled the court with chants of “Fuck the Police!” and “Fuck the courts!”. Apparently, the pigs did not take kindly to the jeers and insults and peacefully detained a couple of the criminals using necessary violent force. After all, who cares about upholding the First Amendment in a court of law? A friend of mine who is apart of the community in Oakland informed me that three comrades were jumped, beaten and tasered outside the Courthouse by undercover swine after the hearing. However, the bad news does not end there. Jack Rusk was sentenced to a year in prison–he accepted a plea bargain for a better deal–for defending himself against a brute with a gun. (Though the official charge was felony assault.)

Nobody need write or analyze the oppressive nature of police in a revolutionary movement. Anarchists are already fully aware of their coercive deeds, arrogant demeanor, and half-cocked attitude. For us whose goal it is to resist all unjustified authority, the police express no mercy nor sympathy. For those of us who cannot help but scoff when a pig is “fatally wounded in the line of duty”, society restrains no wrath. How dare we not respect those who keep us safe from the bad guys? How dare we mock the men and women who risk their lives to protect us? How dare we minimize the tragedy of a shooting in which a police officer takes six bullets to the chest? And so on, and so on.

If you are ever in the mood to experience total and irrevocable social ostracism–you should publicly and unapologetically profess the following statement: FUCK THE TROOPS… then sit back and watch as family and friends break ties with you. Behind your back (or to your face depending on your social structure) you will be called a wide array of insulting terms including terrorist, anti-American, communist, etc. (Incidentally, I would take no offense to holding any of those titles.) Depending on the political severity of your geographic enclave, you may be harassed, beaten, abused, occupationally terminated, bullied and investigated on suspicion of terrorist activities. The troops, after all, are our heroes.

As a culture of civilization, we are indoctrinated from birth to believe, say and do things that are supportive of our masters. In our cribs, we internalize the sense of patriotism and nationalism that surrounds our lives from the television that plays in the corner to the flag that is adorned on walls, poles and bumper stickers. The majority of us are smuggled into the arms of religious pontification, Sunday School, where we are taught that our Earthly suffering is apart of God’s plan, and if we simply obey his authority, we will experience divine salvation for our strife. As children we are kidnapped and forced into re-education camps, wherein the little remaining aspect of our brains that still had the capacity to think for itself is stomped out by meaningless memorization and unquestioning respect for superiors. We learn then to live according to a strict schedule. We eat when they say we eat. We play when they say we play. We shit when they say we shit.

All things considered, the degree to which the civilized glorify murderers like soldiers and cops is entirely predictable and not the least bit surprising. After all, murder in the name of economic expansion isn’t murder at all–it is protecting our freedom! Raping a land base of all its natural resources and causing it to become uninhabitable isn’t rape at all–it is industrialization! We can repeat and recount the myriads of accounts of police brutality, abuse of authority, and corruption of power over and over again. We can write long, overly-detailed books about the horrific actions of soldiers at home and abroad. We can craft especially articulate essays about the instability of authority and how the police do not exist to protect citizens, but in fact are merely an embodiment of state-power. The truth is…most people view policemen as good guys and soldiers as heroes.

Heroes kill innocent babies, right? They bomb indigenous villages, right? A hero always puts money before the survival of life on Earth, right?

If you have never played Call of Duty, you should. You really should. That is not a sarcastic request. Play the game. If nothing else, watch videos of others playing the game on YouTube. Never in my life have I seen a more heroic game. Behind a thin veil of violence, mind-numbing racism, and countless “Faggot!”‘s being uttered around every corner, there is something uniquely disturbing about Call of Duty. The solider, generally depicted as an American, is the hero. After 6 or 7 hours of playtime and untold amounts of death and despair, a child or young teenager will set his controller down after having simulated genocide and ecocide feeling a sense of accomplishment.

As anarchists (if that is the label we who oppose hierarchy, statism, capitalism, and civilization choose to go by) we must be wary of choosing the most appropriate method of resistance. We are, after all, waging a war against the entire industrial world. The importance of understanding the bourgeois modes of control is paramount to our very survival. It is not required to hate every solider–but you must know that all soldiers who stand by their country are our enemies in combat. It is not necessary to hate all police officers–but when they come for us and lock our friends down and brutalize us and interrogate us and force us to testify against each other, they must be our enemies in action. If we do not stand in solidarity against those who daily attempt to break our resolve, there is little hope for real action.

The NW Grand Jury will be locking down at least one more anarchist as of yesterday. Her name is Kerry Cunneen and she refused to testify against her comrades when subpoenaed–and we all know what happens after that. Unlike a certain snitch, Kerry will face a harsh punishment and go to prison for the safety of her comrades. She is putting her freedom, autonomy, and life at risk so that the actions of her local commune may be unfettered–never fearing the possibility of being ratted out. That loyalty should be honored by all of us. The loyalty of Matt, Maddy and Kteeo is equal, and is expressed every day that they refuse to testify against their comrades.

Unlike soldiers, Grand Jury Resisters are not payed for their heroism. They are not glorified or given badges and medals for their courage. The evidence of their heroism is subtle and undying. It lives on in the ferocity of our resistance. While they sit locked up in a cage, we are motivated by their example of commitment, and organize more effectively. Their sacrifice makes our conflict more real and tangible. Matt, Maddy, Kteeo and Kerry are each one of our comrades. We write to them, and they write back to as many of us as possible. They fight on, struggling merely to survive each day. It was revealed that at least one of them was taken into isolated custody, which is a tormenting form of psychological torture that most soldiers could not even endure. And we, the resistance, cannot allow their suffering to be in vain.

Cops and soldiers can have their Hollywood movies and socially constructed respect. They are shells of people–cogs in the State-Capitalist mechanism. The willingness to imprison yourself for the freedom of others, against all odds of revolutionary success; the simple diligence of placing the planet before your own happiness; the extraordinary impact they have on each and every one of us–that is special. They, the grand jury resisters, are the True Heroes.

Please, do not be sparing in your letters to Kerry, Matt, Maddy, Kteeo, and Jack. It is our external contact with them that invigorates their spirit–and without us, they cannot go on. Here are the addresses for Matt and Kteeo. Maddy has yet to have been given an address for mail, and the same goes for both Jack and Kerry (who has not yet been found in contempt of court.)

Katherine Olejnik #42592-086

FDC SeaTac,

P.O. Box 13900

Seattle, WA 98198

Matthew Kyle Duran #42565-086

FDC SeaTac

P.O. Box 13900

Seattle, WA 98198

Much solidarity

Keep fighting, comrades!