involved with drugs, a depraved killer underneath.
XII. Some people in the hip community--and even more so, some liberal writers in the straight press--have attempted to distinguish Manson from the typical hippie.   Manson, they point out, has a working-class background, a past of petty crime.   He isn't the typical middle class drop-out hippie. This is snobbery.   Is Manson to be comfortably dismissed by us for his working class past, made into a "them, " not us?   Are fucked-up hippies from the suburbs "better" than fucked-up hippies from poor neighborhoods?
the trial AN
thinking about life for her,  she wanted to vote them guilty of everything. More than any other juror, Kay Richards was threatened by the lives' of the defendants.   If they weren't judged criminals, her life as a com-' puter operator would be called into question.   Like an Uncle Tom threatened by black militancy, Kay Richards ards sold out her best instincts for a lackey's security.   Already in Chicago "Kay Richards" is a name being used for a kind of goody-goody young person who wants to stay on the right and respectable side of the authorities, the kind of person who would turn her college roommates in for smoking pot and then say "it was for their own good. "
Before the jury ever returned with a verdict, Judge Hoffman began the unprecedented measure of sentencing the defendants for contempt. Though the trial itself represented a systematic policy of intimidation by the government in hopes of stifling dissent, the contempt citations represent the peculiarity of the Judge's ego.   Hoffman's feelings had been hurt, and the citations were his revenge.   He took particular glee in the fact that the defendants were unprepared;  they expected to be sentenced for contempt after the jury returned with a verdict.
Because of the politics of the case, the defendants were dubious about their chances of getting bailed out of jail on appeal bonds. They wanted to mentally prepare for the isolation of five or more years in jail.   Unfinished political work had to be taken care of, there were friends to tell good-bye, wives and friends to make love with a last time, and maybe eccentric wishes to fulfill, things like drinking your last egg cream.   This was the time to be seized while the jury worked toward a verdict.   Instead, with no notice and just a half-hour lunch break, contempt sentences were meted out and defendants were whisked to jail. Judge Hoffman seemed to take spe-
XIII. Che, Huey, Ho, Mao--they've all talked about the fact that you don't do revolutionary violence because you dig it, you don't do it to build your own ego trip.   Being violent alone, being anti-social alone, doesn't make you a revolutionary. Revolutionaries serve the people; sometimes this using violence against the enemies of the people.   They are trying to build a
new world while bringing down the old. Revolutionary violence comes from the needs of the people for a better life, against those forces that oppress them--because those forces won't give up without a fight.
cial delight in his unsuspected surprise.
- ¢ j?
Of course, when William Kunstler cited the legal prededents which called the Judge's action into serious question and asked for bail pending appeal, he was denied.   Later, after the verdict was returned, the bail appeal met with the same result. If this wasn't a political case, and if the government didn't want to squelch dissent, the legal justifications for appeal and mistrial would be overwhelming.   But of course, if this wasn't a political case, the defendants wouldn't have been indicted in the first place.
To believe that the disruption of the Democratic convention took place because of the cunning of the defendants rather than outrage stemming from the Vietnamese war, racism, and the provocation of the club-swinging Chicago pigs is absurd. The government case:   Pacifist Dave Dellinger spoke at Grant Park - one speech.   Jerry Rubin gave three speeches and threw a sweater at a cop,  etc.    The defendants were guilty of being media-recognized leaders of a generalized rebellion. The Democratic party under Lyndon Johnson - and with the boost of boss Daley - destroyed itself.   Under the prededent of this trial, half the demonstrators in Chicago could be convicted.   The defendants were clearly chosen to be examples.
Establishment observers still persist in discussing bail as a legal rather than political question. One states "the legal system hasn't faced such a challenge in two hundred years. "  Another writes, "The
legal questions posed are complex and distrubing. "  Respectable judgment tells us it's all a matter of adjustment, tinker with the system and it's good for another two hundred years.   Senator Stennis thinks the problems more basic.   Getting down to the political nitty gritty he suggests that disruptive ideological criminals be imprisoned without trial.   It's the modern - if they don't play by the rules, fuck 'em - attitude. Mayor
XIV. So Manson is no revolutionary; he's just fucked up.   Let's face it--some people get into the hip scene, the commune scene, because they're fucked up.   Not every long-hair is a brother; lots of assistant district attorneys smoke pot.   Most important, young women with teased hair and make-up, guys with duck-tails and crew cuts who
work at shitty jobs are our sisters and brothers.   And when we get it together, it won't be because we think sticking forks in people's stomachs is groovy, but because we all feel a common need for a common goal--to fight to bring down an old world and build a new one.
Daley's "shoot to kill" order to Chicago cops dealing with black rioters was the first expression of this sentiment.   Sheriff Madigan arming his men with buckshot and ordering them to shoot the People's Park defenders in Berkeley was another.   While the liberal observers wring their hands about the mechanics of trial procedures,  events in the streets prove the defendants' actions in Chicago tame.   Soon troublesome trials will be avoided by shooting into crowds of riotous demonstrators.
If the Chicago Conspiracy Trial were an aberration, one of a king, the critics would be right in saying it posed legal dilemmas.   But the conspiracy trials and felony charges against people who protest are taking place in every major city in the country.   Freedom of speech and assembly are guaranteed as long as you don't take the idea too seriously and try to change something. Chicago is merely the most striking example, the center ring in a twenty-seven ring circus.   The Chicago defendants will get bail if enough Americans don't want to see their basic freedoms ripped away, and do something about it. . . The question of bail for the defendants, like the question of the preservation of freedom, depends on how much political pressure is applied on the government.
The test posed by this trial is especially significant.   This trial tests whether the government has enough power to punish for thought crimes, for crimes of supposed intent without specified action. Under conspiracy laws or laws against crossing state lines with the intent to incite a riot, no riot has to take place.   It's profoundly significant that in this trial the judge approved of wiretapping of any individuals or organizations deemed by the Attorney General to be threatening to the national security.   Under this ruling, Jerry Rubin, Abbie Hoffman and the Yippies are now officially dangerous to national security.   The liberals' madcaps are the reactionaries madmen.
blue-tail fly
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