C Drew - Street Artist Adventures

Bill would let people record audio of cops

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-eavesdropping-bill-20120113,0,4634735.story

Democratic state representative from Northbrook has filed the bill. “I believe that the existing statute is a significant intrusion into First Amendment rights…this is a problem in need of a swift solution,” Rep. Elaine Nekritz said. In the last few days seven other representatives have signed on as sponsors.

Follow the progress of her bill (HB 3944) at this link:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/billstatus.asp?DocNum=3944&GAID=11&GA=97&DocTypeID=HB&LegID=62774&SessionID=84

Obama administration says Constitution protects cell phone recordings

The Obama administration has told a federal judge that Baltimore police officers violated the First, Fourth, and Fourteenth Amendments by seizing a man’s cell phone and deleting its contents. The deletions were allegedly in retaliation for the man’s use of the phone to record the officers’ arrest of his friend. According to the Maryland ACLU, this is the first time the Obama Justice Department has weighed in on whether the Constitution protects citizens’ right to record the actions of police with their cell phones.

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/news/2012/01/obama-administration-says-constitution-protects-cell-phone-recordings.ars

Tiawanda Moore Sues City

Tiawanda Moore has decided to sue the City of Chicago for her false arrest and malicious prosecution. Thank you Tiawanda! The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office needs badly to be shaken-up for the way they violate citizen’s civil rights with malicious porsecutions like that of Tiawanda Moore’s and myself. On the other hand they let murderers walk free if they are politically connected. This office is corrupt from the top down. They exist to shield the political elete and crush any resistance from the people in the street.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-woman-tiawanda-moore-acquitted-in-eavesdropping-case-against-chicago-police-department-files-lawsuit-20120114,0,6426914.story

Battle to Record Police Around the Nation

Another sad illustration of police trying to violate a citizen’s right to video-record their public misdeeds. In a disturbing note, Youtube apparently participated in censoring the original video. We will be very watchful of Youtube in the future to determine a trend if they repeatedly censor police critical videos.

http://boingboing.net/2012/01/12/sheriff-deputy-punches.html

Beachwood Report Reprints your E-mail from Me

The Beachwood Report started something by printing on-line my recent letter to you explaining our activities. Then I got an e-amil from Ronald Roenigk of Inside Publications asking to publish my letter in the Booster and News Star nieghborhood newspapers. This is a big help because it allows me to tell our story including our dreams for Chicago and reflect our view of the Cities treatment of me that has never been expressed anywhere to date. This should find us some friends once they realize the outrageous nature of this attempted act of censorship by the City and Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. Look for the Booster or the New Star if you are around the northside of Chicago this week. Otherwise check the link below and later expect to see a scanned image of tear-page in the next e-mail.

http://www.beachwoodreporter.com/politics/fighting_for_your_rights_in_20.php

UPDATES

Michael Allison

Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan has filed notice that she will appeal the ruling directly to the state Supreme Court but wants to delay arguments until after a ruling comes down in another eavesdropping case before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The Illinois Supreme Court denied the request to delay the proceedings. They will rule sometime in the coming months.

My (Chris Drew) Next Court Date:

January 24^th - 26^th and California, room 602, Judge Sacks

The State’s Attorney will file their response to our motion to dismiss based on 1^st and 4^th Amendment grounds. We will likely set another date to respond to the issues they respond with. Once we have lodged our response to their arguments then we will set a date for the hearing of oral arguments on the motion. This should bring us into late February or early March.

Nikita Biddle

Nikita ran into trouble when she and her lawyer missed a court appointment. Nikita was jailed initially on a bogus eavesdropping charge, held in jail for 80 days and released only after signing a plea bargain agreement for a class 4 felony. The system has been screwing her around ever since. Read her story here. She just got out of jail on 12/16/11. Her next move is to file a new 1402 (Motion to vacate a plea) to bring into court the issue of her forced plea bargain. She is considering filing a civil suit in U.S. District Court.

Thanks to Nancy Bechtol for use of her photos (all by the last art-patch) from the Milwaukee Avenue Art Fest. She promises to post a video soon which we will link to here once it is up on Youtube.

More to come shortly (15 more photos in this essay).

The Nikita Biddle Story

In 2009 Nikita Biddle was a young courageous single woman struggling to emerge into her adult life. Nikita and her sister stayed in public housing in Kane County. They each had separate apartments. Nikita’s sister became caught up in the tensions of daily life and drawn into a fight with a neighbor on December 2, 2009. Nikita helped to break up this fight. The fight resulted in an eviction action against Nikita’s sister. Despite the fact that Nikita helped to break up the fight, the property manager also initiated an eviction action against Nikita who was never involved in fighting but in making peace. The fact is that criminal charges were never filed against Nikita because the police saw her innocence on video footage of the fight incident and they also informed her landlord of her neutral behavior during the incident.

Nikita was brave enough to fight this unfair eviction action. Her eviction trial on was set for April 28, 2010. Before this court date, the landlord knew that she and the housing authority were going to lose the eviction lawsuit. The property manager appears to have joined forces with two police officers to either set Nikita up or to scare her to pack up and leave her apartment building.

Two policemen who were notorious for abusing tenants and had been on duty at this site for a long time, began a campaign of the harassment of Nikita to try to force her to give up her fight to maintain her public housing because they knew that her innocence would of been proven during her eviction trial date. Joshua Horton, was one of the officers harassing Nikita. He and his partner tried to intimidate Nikita in the stairwell of the building in late January 2010. When they attempted to harass her Nikita called 911 to report them but the dispatcher told her to just come to the station to make a report. The officers not only followed and harassed her on the stairwell, they also followed her off of the stairwell to her sister’s apartment continually trying to instigate a negative and violent response out of her. She did not respond to their attempt to provoke her.

Two weeks after being harassed in the stairwell, the two policemen showed up at her door (Feb 2, 2010) claiming she was under investigation for sending the property manager a threatening letter. She had not sent the property manager a threat and considered this visit to be part of their pattern of intimidation. She asked them to leave her alone and she tried to shut her door but one of the officers put his foot in her door. She told him to remove his foot and get out of her apartment because he didn’t have a warrant.He removed his foot, but then stuck a shim into the gap of the door by the hinges so she couldn’t shut her door. They continued to harass her. On other occasions, as well, they and the property manager made her life miserable in many ways with intimidating acts and statements.

By February 17, 2010 it was apparent to Nikita that she needed some evidence of what the authorities in her building were doing to her so she could fight her eviction in court. She brought an old battery operated tape deck to the lobby of the building to try to openly record the intimidation and threats of the property manager and the officer Joshua Horton, one of the two antagonistic policemen. The Officer immediately arrested Nikita Biddle for eavesdropping. The other officer at the scene wrote a false disorderly conduct complaint along with the property manager for disturbing her peace and the peace of other tenants - none of whom were named in the complaint. She was handcuffed and sent immediately to jail for two days at the Aurora police department.

In her arraignment the misdemeanor charge for disturbing the peace was dropped but the felony charge of eavesdropping was upheld and she was locked up with a bond beyond her ability to pay. She remained in the Kane County jail without bail at the mercy of the court. The court had no mercy.

On April 28, 2010 a correctional officer took her out of her county jail cell and transported her to her eviction trial in another town. She was handcuffed and chained, dressed in an orange jail outfit and transported in a police patty wagon to her eviction trial. She was brought before a judge. The property manager, policemen, and executive director of the housing authority were there and were represented by their AHA lawyer. Nikita was made to sit separately from everyone else and humiliated by her treatment, as if she were a dangerous criminal, when she had only tried to gather evidence in public for this court. This was a bench trial. Nikita defended herself pro SE. The Judge saw on the video and that Nikita wasn’t violently involved. The judge upon hearing that Nikita had been the peace maker and that there was no evidence to back up the claims of the housing authorities – found for Nikita.

Nikita was innocent! All Nikita wanted to do was gather evidence in public for her eviction trial to show how these government authorities were trying to harm her. She won her trial even without this evidence. They then took her back to the Kane county jail on the “eavesdropping charge” because she could not afford bail. This is how some government employees are using your tax money.

She spent a total of 80 days locked up at your expense until she finally agreed to plead guilty to a class 4 felony in order to be released from jail on May 7, 2010. She was fined $4,000, ordered to make monthly payments and placed on probation.

Nikita lost her public housing. She lost her job during the turmoil of this incident. She had a felony hung around her neck that makes looking for work much more difficult. This is how the Illinois eavesdropping law is being used to violate the basic rights of innocent and vulnerable citizens in Illinois who only want to audio-record public officials in public to protect themselves in court.

Nikita is a young woman who now is tagged for life unless she is some how able to challenge this miscarriage of justice in Illinois. She is presently bravely attempting a pro-SE challenge of her conviction. This young person spends her time on the Internet at a local college learning how to legally fight for her freedom.

Freedom is something we take for granted until we find it taken from us. The Illinois eavesdropping law, as it is being applied to innocent people who audio-record public servants in public, is a violation of everyone’s rights and we do not find out about that until we try to stand up for our rights. Nikita is standing up for her rights in Illinois. By fighting for her rights against this unjust law she is helping to fight for your rights, as well. Is there anyone with legal knowledge willing to help her by e-mail with this daunting process? How can we tolerate these violations of our rights and still sing our national anthem? Nikita is brave and is struggling to be free in America. Who else is willing to help her work for freedom? Nikita Biddle may be contacted at queenniki88@gmail.com

Sponsored by Chicago Women’s Caucus for Art , The Ad Hoc Committee for Reason,
World Can’t Wait — Chicago & Evanston Chapters , Endorsed by Chicago Coalition Against War and Racism

Latest Court Developments
a Free Speech Artists’ Movement Newsletter

http://community.icontact.com/p/community1112/newsletters/blog/posts/latest-court-developments

Teachers, nurses, firefighters, students, police officers and others protesting in Wisconsin have occupied the Capitol building and streets of Madison for the past eleven days.

Yesterday, on Saturday at noon, their protest went national. In cities across the nation, including every state capital, we came together to stand in solidarity with the people of Wisconsin.

This time the Republicans have gone too far in their attempts to bust unions, slash state budgets, and give tax breaks to their wealthy friends.

So Saturday we stood up in Chicago to say that we’re sick of the attacks on workers’ rights. That we’re sick of an economy that showers corporate executives with bonuses while squeezing middle-class families. That we still believe in the American Dream. And that we’re willing to fight for it.

John Sheehan was out at the MoveOn.org’s rally to show solidarity for the workers in Wisconsin who are struggling to maintain their bargaining rights in the face of a right wing attack by conservative Governer Walker. Walker is a puppet for the Koch energy billionaire whose goal is to destroy worker’s rights to organize and bargain for a fair wage in America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ylzCTW8OtUc

John Shot this video of me while I was printing at the rally and posted it to allow me to tell the world about our fight for freedom in Illinois. It is illegal to audio-record a policeman in public in Illinois. In fact, I have been charged with a class 1 felony for this act while being arrested for the misdemeanor of selling art for $1 on State Street in Chicago.

I brought my art patch screen made for this occasion to the rally to spread the knowledge of our fight to other activists. The battle is on across this country. The TeaParty which is funded by Koch and a few wealthy corporate industrialists have a plan. They intend to use this depression and their money to manipulate the anger of those hurt by the hard times to turn working people on working people.

We must work together to create a new awareness and movement for freedom. The issues of people fighting at the grass roots level are many and varied but can help us band together to support each other. We are all a part of a whole. We can change this nation.

I gave away all the patches I pre-printed and all the patches I printed on the spot. The people came to me to get the patches as I printed them. By the end of the rally very few patches were left. The People united will never be defeated.

The latest Free Speech Artists’ Movement E-mail is posted at
http://community.icontact.com/p/community1112/newsletters/blog/posts/illinois-viewed-from-egypt

I wrote:
"I watched a TV drama on Rosa Parks tonight. It is very good to be reminded about the real heros here in America. The risks and trials we take and live under are small compared to what they dared do. I remain humble in comparison but certain it is my duty to be truthful to this cause and my duty to be the best test case for your right to audio-record police in public. And to defend artists’ rights to sell their art in public."

Kami Wrote:
You’re in good company with Rosa Parks as a humble civil rights fighter, Chris. I think we’re all in sync with each other working on this critical issue and watching the history happening in Egypt and Haiti. I’ve been hearing some interviews on Democracy, Now — have we talked about that show before?? It airs on NPR but it’s also featured on the liberal radio station out here (Green960am) in San Francisco and it’s on free podcast in itunes for both the audio and video feed of the podcasts. I’ve been glued to their coverage but they’ve also had some great recent interviews with Noam Chomsky and Harry Belafonte, in the shadow of the unrest and Obama’s tepid State of the Union speech, reminding us to stay radical and keep our politicians and judges honest and sensitive to what’s going on with the common people. Hearing their voices is so healing and inspiring. It’s too easy to distract and numb ourselves to the truth of what’s going on and not see the connection we have to the injustices and horrors in Haiti and Egypt as well as our own cities and all across the states. Your case is a major civil rights issue for this new tech era we’re living in. How many Egyptian protesters have had the crap beaten out of them by pro-Mubarek goons for carrying tape recorders, cameras and video recorders?? What would it have been like for you if you had been all alone on State street that day and encountered some of the more unsavory variety of bullying, abusive Chicago cops?? Your fight is our fight, Chris. You’re making history for every artist in this country.

much love,

Fifty Degrees on New Year’s Eve

I was late getting together for the Critical Mass here in Chicago on 12/31/2010 so I left my bike at the “L” Train at Howard at the end of the Red Line and brought only my screen printing supplies fitted into my brown leather carryall bag.

Because New Year’s Eve parties were flourishing everywhere around Chicago the crowd for the December Critical Mass was small, even though it had stopped raining, the sky had cleared and the temperature was abnormally above fifty degrees. This might not happen again on New Year’s Eve in Chicago for another 100 years or longer. I couldn’t help remembering a week earlier handing out art-patches in the snow and cold on December 21 when Nancy Bechtol shot her video of our Winter solstice Art Patch Project art give away.

I sat down next to the city government building of the Picasso Plaza and laid out Art Patch Project art-patches on my scarf. I taped a "Free Art-Patches" sign to the plaza stone. I began to print the art patch from my arrest that I had created from a frame-grab from Nancy Bechtol’s video of my arrest. It is the image of my hands in cuffs shot just before they whisked me away. Bicyclists milled around watching me print.

It was not long before someone stopped by to ask how my case was going. I kept printing as I prepared to answer his question. It has been thirteen months that I’ve been fighting this 1st class felony for audio-recording my own arrest for selling art for $1 on State Street while attempting to challenge the constitutionality of Chicago’s peddlers license law. In Chicago many elected officials have no shame and no respect for the First Amendment.

The answer to the man’s question about how my case is going can be found in the oral arguments from our October 22 motion to suppress the evidence from my audio-recorder which we just published on our website ( art-teez.org/free-speech.htm ). In this 148 page document Mr. Jeff Allen, the Assistant State’s Attorney on behalf of the State’s Attorney of Cook County, laid out his plan to convict me of 1st class felony eavesdropping.

This is a multiple assault on the First Amendment. To begin with it is a transparent attempt to silence a cultural critic for his support for the rights of artists to express themselves in public by selling art on the sidewalks and in the parks of their city. Of equal importance the State is using this high profile case to establish a law that takes away the right of citizens to gather audio evidence of what police say to us in public. This retards our ability to perform our democratic duty of overseeing our public servant’s (police) actions in public. This same law prevents us from gathering the evidence we need to bring to court to protect ourselves and others from abuse by police officers by audio-recording what they say to us in public while they arrest or interrogate us. These rights fall under the First and Fourth Amendments. Thus, this case is more about your rights and less about me. This is an attack on everyone with a cell phone who could use it to record a questionable police action in public.

Mr. Jeff Allen plans to attack your rights by claiming I am a terrorist type seeking to bug the Homeland Security apparatus of the Chicago Police Department. It may sound like a stretch to pick-up a harmless artist for selling art for $1 on the street and then claim he is a terrorist and worthy of a 1st class felony, one step below attempted murder. However, in Chicago where the Cook County State’s Attorney has no shame and few ethical limitations, it is possible.

People stopped by and looked through the Art Patch Project art. New people picked up art-patches they liked. Critical Masser’s who know me and my work found new art-patches from artists whose work was recently submitted by the artist and printed to be given away to the public.

Now to the evidence which suggests the State’s Attorney’s strategy. Mr. Allen begins in his opening statement of the motion describing the arresting officer as doing a terrorism/counter-terrorism walk looking for terrorist activity when he encounters me (page 10-11). Mr. Allen then fast forwards to the police station where in my red poncho, in a cellophane sandwich bag the inventorying officer finds a digital audio recorder and notes that a red light indicates it is on and recording. Mr. Allen continues to suggest my devious intent is to spy on the Chicago Police Department by stressing that this recorder has captured the secret sounds of the arresting officer’s hand radio during the arrest and now is a bug in the tactical office where police planning for undercover activities takes place. Thus, I am said to be spying on the head of the Homeland Security team leader and planting a bug in the tactical unit office of the Chicago Police Department, the State’s Attorney, Jeff Allen, claims.

In summary, the State’s Attorney’s plan to prosecute me appears as follows. The arresting officer is on a terrorist watch walk. He encounters a possible suspect breaking the law. The suspect is seeking to be arrested with the intent of spying on the officer who is the head of the Homeland Security detail and of spying on the Chicago Police Department by secreting a bug in his leather bag to smuggle the bug in his bag into the tactical office of the Chicago Police Department to undermine their efforts to protect the public from terrorists. This crime deserves the 1st class felony charge, one step below attempted murder, to deter terrorists from attacking the security apparatus of the United States of America in this manner. Mr. Allen is saving your lives by prosecuting this dangerous artist!

As I said, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office has no shame. They are cynical and calculating. They do not believe the people of Illinois are watching them. Innocence or justice do not figure into their power calculations. Can they get away with this without political damage is the only question they ask. That part is up to you. Do you care about your rights? If so, you must fight.

I will admit, I did not know about the extent to which the Illinois eavesdropping law takes our rights away before I was charged with this 1st class felony. I read for years about how artists in New York City used their First Amendment right to record video and audio of what police who harassed them said to them in public. The artists in New York regularly go to court with audio recordings of police ticketing them for selling art in public in violation of the city codes. When the police are shown by the video and audio to be wrong about the statutes or abusive the artists will win the case. If it shows the police are correct the artist loses. That is only fair.

New York City artist/organizer Robert Lederman stresses the importance of video and audio in successfully defending one’s right to sell art in public. Until after my arrest I could not imagine not having this right in America but to my surprise, Illinois does not support that American First Amendment right. We have lost our tool to defend ourselves with audio evidence in Illinois since 1994 when an ex-policeman injected unconstitutional language into our State’s eavesdropping law. Now – unlike 48 other States where audio recording is perfectly legal - we do not have that freedom to defend ourselves. That’s why this is about you as much as it is about me.

Most people in Illinois do not realize any more than I did that this right has been taken away and will only find out when they open up their cell phone to record a public official in public who is stepping out of bounds. Then they will find out, like me, that it is a 1st class felony, one step below attempted murder, to defend yourself or your loved ones by gathering audio evidence in public. That is why the ACLU is suing Anita Alvarez, the Cook County State’s Attorney for prosecuting me and seven other unsuspecting citizens in Illinois. The best you can do in this state is your word against the policeman’s word and in an Illinois court you lose.

The State’s Attorney’s application of this law is ridiculous. My case is still pending before the court. That makes this is your best opportunity to speak out about this law and to change it before someone you know and love is threatened by 4-15 years in prison for exercising their First Amendment right to defend themselves in court with audio evidence gathered in public of police abuse. “What can I do?” the man listening to me talk asked.

“Spread the word.” I said. Just then someone blew a horn and the Chicago Critical Mass came together. I began to collect the art-patches I had printed as I talked about my case. As they rode off I looked across Clark Street at the Channel 2 News Room. Their huge video screen displayed above the showcased news room at street level played to the expansive plaza. I had some thoughts for them, as well.

Public officials who prosecute people like me with this law depend on you, the media, to be distracted or compliant. This law reduces the public’s ability to gather information in public on how public officials act in public and limits their ability to provide that evidence to you for your stories. Your profession is limited by this law. Your right and ability to gather information in public is directly affected, as well. Defend yourselves by covering this issue fairly and thoroughly. Not to do so is a conflict of interest.

The Picasso Plaza was deserted as I piled up the last of my freshly printed art-patches. I packed every thing into my leather bag and walked to the “L” train. This rare December 31st weather emphasized the uniqueness of every day, every moment. I am on a road that could put me behind bars for up to 15 years. This could be the last free New Year’s Eve of my life. I am betting your involvement and love of your rights against the cruelty of the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office. I am putting my faith in God and my hope in you. Your voices are powerful. Talk about this, please. Link to this page, please. Re-post this page, please. Fight for your rights.