#Red Fawn Fallis

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

Happy Birthday today to Oglala Lakota water protector & #NoDAPL political prisoner Red Fawn Fallis. 

She is imprisoned so far from home You can write to her at this address: RedFawn Fallis, #16358-059, FMC Carswell , P.O.Box 27137 , Ft. Worth TX 76127

Via Mahtowin Munro

[messoamerica]

Native Americans who protested Dakota Access get handed the longest prison sentences

Among the hundreds of people arrested in North Dakota for protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Native Americans faced the most serious charges. More than two years after the protests began, federal judges are now handing down lengthy prison sentences to the protesters. 

One of the Standing Rock activists, Red Fawn Fallis, was sentenced Wednesday for her role in a shooting incident during the protests. As part of a plea deal, the 39-year-old will serve the longest prison term of any Dakota Access protester: four years and nine months in federal prison for one count of civil disorder and one count of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon. 

The legal owner of the gun Red Fawn is alleged to have fired was a paid FBI informant named Heath Harmon, a 46-year-old member of the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota, The Intercept reported last December. 

As Red Fawn was being tackled by police officers, who were attempting to put her in handcuffs, three gunshots allegedly went off alongside her. Deputies allegedly reached for her left hand and grabbed a gun away from her, according to The Intercept. No one was injured in the shooting incident. 

The judge in Red Fawn’s case had forbidden her defense team from mentioning treaty rights or other issues related to her arrest at anti-pipeline protests near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation border. She ended up accepting the plea deal under the assumption that she would not receive a fair trial due to prosecutors allegedly withholding evidence. 

The protesters facing federal charges were among thousands of Native Americans who traveled to North Dakota in 2016 to fight the construction of the oil pipeline. The protest at Standing Rock is believed to be the largest Native American protest in U.S. history.

[doesthendnlive]

From LastRealIndians on Facebook:

Learn, like & share her page & her site https://www.facebook.com/FreeRedFawn/ 

Www.FreeRedFawn.com #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners #FreeRedFawn#DropAllDAPLCharges

[mightymony]

Please take the time to read into this and sign this petition !!

It takes 5 seconds of your time and it’s free !!

https://www.change.org/p/david-d-hagler-drop-the-charges-against-standing-rock-political-prisoner-red-fawn-fallis?recruiter=827009437&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial.combo_new_control_progress_110217winners

[2plan22]

RT @LakotaMan1: Red Fawn Fallis got 57 months in prison for a weapons charge protesting at Standing Rock. Insurrectionist Riley Williams broke into Speaker Pelosi’s office, and stole her laptop, with plans on selling it to Russia. She was released to her mother’s recognizance. https://t.co/52LHIY4B1G 2PLAN22 http://twitter.com/2PLAN22/status/1352684697650946049

Red Fawn Fallis got 57 months in prison for a weapons charge protesting at Standing Rock. Insurrectionist Riley Williams broke into Speaker Pelosi’s office, and stole her laptop, with plans on selling it to Russia. She was released to her mother’s recognizance. pic.twitter.com/52LHIY4B1G

— Lakota Man (@LakotaMan1) January 22, 2021

[t4t4t]

https://waterprotectorlegal.org/red-fawn-fallis/

https://www.freerattlernodapl.com/

https://www.nodaplpoliticalprisoners.org/8-people/3-dion

https://freelittlefeather.org/who-is/

https://www.nodaplpoliticalprisoners.org/8-people/6-james-white

[violetsandshrikes]

Welcoming Red Fawn Home

On September 9, 2020 after 4 years in prison, Red Fawn Fallis returned to Standing Rock to reunite with her loved ones. Red Fawn was sentenced to 57 months in prison for defending the land, water, people, and treaty rights of the Great Sioux Nation during the Dakota Access Pipeline resistance at Standing Rock in 2016.

With the request for funds by Red Fawn’s family to aid in transition, The Red Nation California Freedom Council seeks to amplify their call with collective contributions. 

Donations to the gofundme can be made here!

$1,991 raised of $5,000 goal as of 22/10/2020

Alternatively, you can also direct financial support to:

https://www.paypal.me/RedFawn303 Venmo: @RedFawn-Fallis-1 9851 (last digits of phone if Venmo request) 

[arctic-hands]

TWO WOMEN WHO vandalized the Dakota Access pipeline in an effort to halt construction have been indicted on charges that carry up to 110 years in prison and hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines. They are among the harshest penalties environmental activists have faced in the last decade.

Civil liberties lawyers say the charges are in line with industry-inspired scare tactics meant to deter citizens from participating in direct-action protests or acts of sabotage against oil and gas companies. As the deadly impacts of carbon emissions grow ever clearer, the fossil fuel industry has increased pressure on lawmakers and government officials to penalize those who would inhibit their projects’ operations.

At the same time, a growing number of activists have demonstrated willingness to break laws in order to highlight the urgency of the climate emergency and other ecological crises. Ruby Montoya and Jessica Reznicek, who stand accused of damaging pipeline valve sites using a welding torch, “tires ignited by fire, and gasoline-soaked rags,” are part of that trend.

The arrests come more than two years after Montoya, 29, and Reznicek, 38, publicly took responsibility for a series of acts of sabotage that they said was necessary to protect the rivers and waterways under which the Dakota Access pipeline passes. Both women had been involved in the Indigenous-led struggle to stop the pipeline, which attracted thousands of people to opposition camps in North Dakota and Iowa in 2016 and 2017.

“We are speaking publicly to empower others to act boldly, with purity of heart, to dismantle the infrastructures which deny us our rights to water, land, and liberty,” Montoya and Reznicek stated at a press conference in July 2017.

They told The Intercept at the time that they planned to use a necessity defense to argue that they had no choice but to act. Civil liberties attorneys said they are not aware of such a defense being accepted in a federal case related to climate change or environmental issues. It has, however, begun to gain traction in lower courts, where a handful of pipeline protesters have successfully argued that they acted out of necessity.

...

“I wish the government would use the same resources to go after the oil companies and pipeline companies, but clearly they’re not interested in that,” said Bill Quigley, an attorney who previously represented Montoya and Reznicek. “They shouldn’t be prosecuted; they should be praised. They’re trying to stop the destruction of the human race.”

...

By the spring of 2017, however, the pipeline company had overcome the water protectors; construction was all but complete and the camps mostly cleared. It was then that a series of above-ground valves along the pipeline route were pierced by welding tools.

In response, the mercenary security company TigerSwan launched a multi-state dragnet in search of the saboteurs, who they referred to as eco-terrorists. Montoya and Reznicek were their primary suspects, but internal reports TigerSwan filed to Energy Transfer Partners also described how security personnel cast suspicion on an array of other activists. They reached out to pipeline opponents’ neighbors and local businesses for help in their search. They surveilled one Native couple’s private home and photographed their property. A TigerSwan contractor posing as a water protector sought information about Montoya and Reznicek from pipeline opponents who believed him to be a friend. The documents show repeated instances of the company attempting to feed information to local and federal investigators.

...

At an energy industry conference in 2018, Kelcy Warren, CEO and board chair of Energy Transfer, mentioned Reznicek and Montoya’s actions. “I think you’re talking about somebody who needs to be removed from the gene pool,” he said.

The oil industry used the acts of sabotage to push for a crackdown on pipeline opponents. In 2017, the American Legislative Exchange Council introduced model legislation that would increase penalties for anyone who interfered with oil industry operations. Iowa and at least seven other states have passed related anti-protest laws. More recently, industry lobbyists, as well as members of the Trump administration, have proposed federal legislation to make it a felony to inhibit pipeline operations. Most of the legislative proposals are broad enough to net individuals who commit no acts of property destruction.

Meanwhile, since it started operating, the Dakota Access pipeline has had at least 10 spills, and this past June, Energy Transfer announced plans to nearly double the pipeline’s capacity. A recent study indicated that current fossil fuel infrastructure leaves humanity with less than a 50 percent chance of avoiding unmanageable climate crises.

Energy Transfer did not respond to a request for comment.

In parallel to industry lobbying, fossil fuel opponents have advanced their own efforts to set legal precedents that protect dissent. “The state of the necessity defense in climate cases is emerging, and it is gaining acceptance in state courts across the country,” said Quigley.

Pipeline protesters in Massachusetts have had the most significant success in mounting the climate necessity defense. In March 2018, a judge found 13 opponents of a Spectra gas pipeline not responsible for civil charges related to their attempts to block construction, because the environmental risk posed by the pipeline made their actions necessary.

...

Meanwhile, the most severe penalties for participants in the movement against the Dakota Access pipeline have been borne by Indigenous opponents. Red Fawn Fallis, for example, faced a potential life sentence after a gun in her possession went off as she was tackled to the ground by police. The Oglala Lakota Sioux water protector is serving a five-year sentence.

...

It’s unclear why the investigation took more than two years, but a possible historical parallel can be found in a string of arrests in the mid-2000s, during a period known as the Green Scare. Law enforcement officers arrested environmental activists accused of involvement in arsons, years after they committed the alleged crimes. The FBI had used that time to build cases against an array of actors. “Based on past experience and based on some of the other clues that I’m seeing, I certainly have a concern that there may be more than two defendants, but that is real speculation,” said Regan, who represented many Green Scare defendants.

The indictment against Reznicek and Montoya claims that the acts were carried out “with other persons known and unknown by the Grand Jury.” In an interview shortly after their confession, Reznicek told The Intercept, “At no point was anyone else involved in these activities. Not even in consultation. Not in anything.”

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Southern District of Iowa declined to comment.

Regan called the charges against Reznicek and Montoya evidence that the industry’s legislative initiatives are a public relations stunt. “What these charges indicate to me is that the state does not need any of these gifts to the fossil fuel industry. The existing crimes are more than adequate, because obviously ‘malicious use of fire’ is not a crime that was drafted by ALEC,” Regan said.

Montoya remains in jail in Arizona, awaiting a hearing, while Reznicek was released on bail Tuesday, on house arrest with an ankle monitor. Her trial is scheduled for December 2.

[fuckyeahmarxismleninism]

#NoDAPL water protectors sent to jail

By Chris Fry

Following the directions of Big Oil’s Dakota Access Pipeline company, North Dakota Judge Thomas Merrick on Oct. 19 convicted and sentenced two water protectors to jail for their role in the protest at Standing Rock last year. Even the prosecution had not recommended jail time. Neither activist has any prior criminal record.

Retired environmental biologist Mary Redway, 64, was sentenced to six days in jail for disorderly conduct, while school teacher Alexander Simon, 27, was sentenced to 18 days in jail for “physical obstruction” and disorderly conduct. The judge placed them in custody immediately, denying them time to make personal arrangements. They were the first Standing Rock activists sentenced to jail.

Three more water protectors — Red Fawn Fallis, Little Feather and Dion Ortiz — remain in jail awaiting trial on felony charges that could imprison them for 15 years to life. More than 850 people were arrested during the months of protests. Hundreds of activists await trial.

Not coincidentally, the Dakota Access LCC “gifted” the state of North Dakota $15 million, as well as another million to North Dakota, Iowa and Illinois police agencies, which, along with company goons, brutally suppressed the DAPL protesters with clubs, pepper spray, tear gas and fire hoses.

[antoine-roquentin]

The two women were part of the 2016 Dakota Access Pipeline protests, and are the latest targets in a national effort to punish more environmental activists—especially indigenous peoples—for protesting and taking direct action against fossil fuel projects that they believe sacrifice the future of their water, lands, and planet.

Jessica Reznicek and Ruby Montoya weren’t arrested then, however. They stood in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which was spearheading the resistance, by damaging the crude oil pipeline along its Iowa route. The DOJ announced their charges—which include conspiracy to damage an energy facility, use of fire in the commission of a felony, and malicious use of fire—Wednesday. The women claimed these crimes years ago, though, so it’s unclear why the DOJ is charging them now.

In July 2017, Reznicek and Montoya stood before the Iowa Utilities Board office and described burning parts of the pipeline and pieces of equipment along the route of the Dakota Access Pipeline. This was all illegal as hell, but the activists wanted to see the project delayed by any means necessary.

“With DAPL, we have seen incredible issues regarding the rule of law, indigenous sovereignty, land seizures, state-sanctioned brutality, as well as corporate protections and pardons for their wrongdoings,” Reznicek said during that summer day in Iowa some two years ago, per the Des Moines Register.

Now, Reznicek and Montoya face up to 110 years in prison for these alleged crimes. If convicted, they would be the latest to go to jail for protesting the pipeline. All of the other individuals have been incarcerated are indigenous, Carl Williams, the executive director of the Water Protector Legal Collective, which is representing them in court, told Earther. There were 761 arrests made during the protests, but only five individuals have served time. Some are still in prison, but others are out on parole and, as Williams put it, “still under the control of the federal government.”

Among those still in jail is is Red Fawn Fallis who is serving nearly a five-year sentence for illegally possessing a gun and shooting it during a protest. Her case, in particular, received some media attention after The Intercept reported that the gun in question belonged to her romantic partner at the time, Heath Harmon, who was also working undercover for the FBI as an informant. However, the rest of the individuals who have been incarcerated due to the indigenous uprising at Standing Rock have received little attention. They include Michael “Little Feather” Giron who was released last week after serving more than two years in prison for blocking a highway law enforcement was trying to access at the height of the protests. Michael “Rattler” Markus is still serving a three-year sentence.

“I tell people there are still people in prison, and they’re shocked,” said Williams. “All of it should receive more attention than it does.”

The world’s reliance on fossil fuels needs to end real soon if we’re going to avoid a worst-case scenario of what climate change may look like and leave a world hospitable enough for future generations. That’s made a growing number of people turn to direct action. In New Hampshire earlier this month, activists tried to steal coal from a power plant to highlight the need to stop burning coal in light of the climate crisis. Nearly 70 people were arrested.

[notsoterriblymisanthropic]

Btw, have people seen the latest Standing Rock stuff? Red Fawn Fallis is facing the heaviest charges out of any Standing Rock defendants for two gun charges, and it now turns out that the gun at the centre of the case was supplied by an undercover FBI informant who’d started a relationship with her.

“As law enforcement officers advanced in a U-shaped sweep line down North Dakota Highway 1806 last October, pushing back Dakota Access opponents from a camp in the pipeline’s path, two sheriff’s deputies broke formation to tackle a 37-year-old Oglala Sioux woman named Red Fawn Fallis. As Fallis struggled under the weight of her arresting officers, who were attempting to put her in handcuffs, three gunshots allegedly went off alongside her. According to the arrest affidavit, deputies lunged toward her left hand and wrested a gun away from her.

Well before that moment, Fallis had been caught in a sprawling intelligence operation that sought to disrupt and discredit opponents of the pipeline. The Intercept has learned that the legal owner of the gun Fallis is alleged to have fired was a paid FBI informant named Heath Harmon, a 46-year-old member of the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota. For at least two months, Harmon took part in the daily life of DAPL resistance camps and gained access to movement participants, even becoming Fallis’s romantic partner several weeks prior to the alleged shooting on October 27, 2016.

In an interview with agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the North Dakota Bureau of Criminal Investigation, a recording of which was obtained by The Intercept, Harmon reported that his work for the FBI involved monitoring the Standing Rock camps for evidence of “bomb-making materials, stuff like that.” Asked what he discovered, Harmon made no mention of protesters harboring dangerous weapons, but he acknowledged storing his own weapon in a trailer at the water protectors’ Rosebud Camp: the same .38 revolver Fallis is accused of firing.”

Like, in some ways it’s nothing surprising because it’s the state doing exactly what it always does and what we should expect it to do, but it’s so fucked, all the same. Also you can donate to her legal fund here, and see here for updates on other water protector prisoners.

[longform]

Love, purpose, and prison on the Dakota Prairie.

Elizabeth Flock | The Atavist Magazine | Apr 2019

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt:

Among the hundreds of people arrested in North Dakota for protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Native Americans faced the most serious charges. More than two years after the protests began, federal judges are now handing down lengthy prison sentences to the protesters.

One of the Standing Rock activists, Red Fawn Fallis, was sentenced Wednesday for her role in a shooting incident during the protests. As part of a plea deal, the 39-year-old will serve the longest prison term of any Dakota Access protester: four years and nine months in federal prison for one count of civil disorder and one count of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon.

The judge in Red Fawn’s case had forbidden her defense team from mentioning treaty rights or other issues related to her arrest at anti-pipeline protests near the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe’s reservation border. She ended up accepting the plea deal under the assumption that she would not receive a fair trial due to prosecutors allegedly withholding evidence.

The protesters facing federal charges were among thousands of Native Americans who traveled to North Dakota in 2016 to fight the construction of the oil pipeline. The protest at Standing Rock is believed to be the largest Native American protestin U.S. history.

The vast majority of the protesters who were arrested faced criminal charges in North Dakota state court, not at the federal level. A total of 835 state criminal cases were brought against protesters. The state has concluded 670 cases against the protesters; 333 had their cases dismissed and only 17 were convicted at state trial.

Activists viewed the federal charges brought against Red Fawn and other Native Americans as an attempt by the government to exert a chilling effect on indigenous-led resistance to resource extraction and fossil fuel infrastructure.

So far, the only other protester to receive a lengthy prison sentence is Michael “Little Feather” Giron. In late May, the 45-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison. He had already spent 15 months in jail, time for which he was credited. His lawyers believe he could be released to a halfway house by next spring.

[theadibaspot]

This is an incredible story.

[the-yaadihla-girls]

Art by Isaac Murdoch

Water Protector, Red Fawn Fallis has been sentenced to 57 months (nearly 5 years) in federal prison. Please pray for our sister!

 https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/jul/11/red-fawn-fallis-standing-rock-activist-prison-officer-shooting