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Please help our good friend's fight against injustice!

Our dear friend and comrade Rene has been aggressively harassed by the Chicago Police Department for over two months and is currently fighting a criminal case based on unfounded accusations. He is being targeted for refusing to cooperate with Chicago Narcotics officer as an informant by setting up sting operations.

Rene was picked up at work by Chicago Police in early November (handcuffed and transported without being officially arrested) on allegations of being “associated” with the sale of drugs. Narcotics officers transported him to Chicago's notorious Homan Square ‘black site’ (read more here ) wherein they refused him access to speak with an attorney or to make a phone call. Narcotics officers proceeded to search all of his belongings, including the content of his cell phone for “important people” with ties to “the sale of serious narcotics” - they conducted this search with zero probable cause and with no warrant. After failing to find any incriminating or relevant information, the officers informed Rene that because his charges were not serious, they would release him on the conditions that he set up narcotics purchases with a police officer in his company, but if he refused to comply, he would be charged and arrested.

Despite verbally refusing to cooperate and insisting that he has zero information relevant to the Police, the Narcotics officers continued to harass Rene for 3 weeks, calling him on a daily basis– for these 3 weeks CPD was unaware that Rene had retained the services of a civil rights and criminal attorney, who assured him that CPD’s tactics were well known and blatantly infringing on his basic rights, but that typically they would leave victims alone after a few weeks. After 3 weeks, Rene informed the officers that they must direct any future communications to his attorney – the narcotics officers began another episode of intimidation and harassment, refusing to believe his attorney was licensed and threatening to arrest him.

Police came back to his work and arrested him two days before Christmas – they held him with no access to an attorney at Homan Square for another 3 hours before finally booking him at a formal precinct. After being held overnight and transported to Cook County Jail, he was charged with three counts of marijuana sale, an allegation the police have failed to support with any credible evidence. He was released on bond at 10pm on December 24 th after having his cell phone confiscated as “evidence.” - it is clear and apparent the motivation for this was to conceal the records of his phone calls with the police officer. Despite his attorney’s reassurance due the now legal status of Marijuana in the State of Illinois, and the mandatory expungements of low level cannabis crimes being carried out by the State Attorney, the state is proceeding with the charges in criminal court.

Because of the lack of credibility to the charges made against him, we believe Rene was originally targeted because of his Mexican ethnicity and his subsequent refusal to cooperate with the corrupt and racist Chicago Police Department. It is well documented that Chicago Police harass and falsely incriminate thousands of persons of color on a yearly basis. The court system and State Attorney’s office have only continued this unjust and hypocritical persecution in their efforts to support the capitalist entities in the lucrative and newly legal cannabis industry.

Rene is in a very precarious situation and cannot afford his legal fees. His attorney is no longer working pro-bono as it has turned into a criminal case. Please help us raise $4000 for Rene's legal defense against the corrupt courts and judicial system. His first payment of $600 is due on February 5 th , please donate and share!