Sacremento Cops Bust Plot

international | environment | news report Wednesday July 02, 2003 04:05 by Starhawk

Free the Gardeners

Permaculture Raid - Imprisoned on Hunger Strike

Message from Starhawk

Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2003 11:40:23 +0100

Garden Raided at Sacramento Mobilization!

Last night I watched in tears as fifty riot cops surrounded the Ron
Mandella Community Garden, where my friends and permaculture buddies were
locked down. We stood under the harsh lights and waited, knowing they were
locked to each other and being cut apart, hoping and praying they would not
be hurt. Erik, Eileen, Abby, Matt, and others from Sonoma county and our
Earth Activist trainings were among them. Now they are on hunger strike in
jail. As part of the protest against the biotech and corporate agriculture
miniministerial convened here in Sacramento by the USDA and USAID, they
decided to defend the alternative-a community garden confiscated to be
developed for condos.
Earlier in the week, in a raid on the Welcome Center of the Sacramento
Mobilization for Food Sovereignty, Democracy and Justice, police had
confiscated seed balls produced in a permaculture weapons, claiming they
could be used as projectile weapons, and were shown on the night time news
demo. Why is the city of Sacramento portraying organic gardening as a
dangerous and threatening activity-while supporting the poisonous
agriculture practices and dangerous technologies promoted by the
mini-ministerial?
Please make the calls suggested below. Let's free the gardeners and
the garden!
For more infomation on the garden, see www.freethegarden.org.
For more information on the Sacramento Mobilization, see
www.sacmobilization.org.

Please call the District Attorney, Jan Scully, and demand that charges be
dropped and the gardeners be released! 916-874-6218.

Call Steve Westly, the State Controller at (916) 445-2636, and demand that
the state return control of the garden to the people, and end funding for
the Fremont Mews Development.

And call Mayor Heather Fargo and the Sacto City Council. (916) 808-5407,
and tell them that Sacramento needs the Ron Mandella Community Garden.

And please send this message on to other gardeners and permaculturists.
Let's let Sacramento hear from gardeners around the world that we want
them to support small scale, community based agriculture, not profit-driven
toxic ag!

Starhawk
www.starhawk.org