Ruby Montoya is doing whatever she can to lighten her punishment after publicly admitting to a string of arson and sabotage attacks against the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) in 2017, including potentially cooperating with the FBI. unicornriot.ninja/2021/ruby-mont…
According to a recent article in The Economist, “Montoya agreed to cooperate with the FBI” in fall 2020. During such FBI debriefs, agents typically attempt to solicit information on other activists and pressure co-defendants to testify against each other.
Since summer 2021, Montoya’s lawyer, Daphne Silverman, has repeatedly filed motions on her behalf asking the court to allow her to file documents under seal.

A practice typically avoided by those facing political charges in an effort to be transparent.
Silverman struck a blow against movement lawyering in August when she filed a motion seeking to withdraw Montoya’s guilty plea and accusing Montoya’s former attorney, Lauren Regan, of a conflict of interest stemming from her commitment to concepts like “solidarity.”
In the motion, Silverman claimed that rather than approach the case with her client’s best interest in mind, Regan had coerced Montoya into accepting the plea for political reasons.
The National Lawyers Guild Federal Repression Taskforce condemned Silverman, who is a Guild member, for her attacks on movement lawyering and called for her expulsion from the Guild.
Over four years later, as Montoya continues to deny responsibility for the actions she took, a fragmented climate justice movement seeks to define its values.
In the crucible of state repression, where concepts like “movement lawyering” and “solidarity” can define futures, the Montoya case may now be laying the groundwork for what’s to come. Read more here: unicornriot.ninja/2021/ruby-mont…

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More from @UR_Ninja

1 Jan
On NYE last year, prison abolition advocates from across #Colorado demonstrated outside Englewood Federal Correctional Institution, joining in the int'l annual tradition of bringing cheer to prisoners inside and ringing in the new year with them. unicornriot.ninja/2020/prison-ab…
FCI Englewood had one of the highest outbreaks of Covid-19 per capita in the federal prison system, 13% of the inmates were infected as of December 30, 2020 (118 inmates), and over 100 prison staff were also infected.
Political prisoner #EricKing was one of the inmates who was infected. Local advocates highlighted the outbreak, while also showing solidarity for all those inside, particularly King.
Read 15 tweets
30 Dec 21
#NEW: A pastor is leading the charge of reclaiming an abandoned school and creating a community-and-trades center on the east side of Indianapolis.

Evolve Education Center: Abandoned Indianapolis School Reclaimed >> unicornriot.ninja/2021/evolve-ed… <<
Pastor Denell Howard’s vision of The Evolve Education Center is slowly coming to fruition after years of planning, praying & a community effort to fix the building up. The center needs the broader community to generate enough resources together to open. unicornriot.ninja/2021/evolve-ed…
A volunteer named Stan, who spent months cleaning up an abandoned school, gave Unicorn Riot a tour of the reclaimed building in July 2021. We heard from Stan & Pastor Howard about their vision for the Evolve Center & the work they’ve done up to that point.
Read 20 tweets
30 Dec 21
Since spring 2020, the #Winnemucca Indian Colony, mostly comprised of Paiute and Shoshone elders, has been under threat of eviction. The tribal council passed a motion and hired contractors to spur “economic development.”
unicornriot.ninja/2021/winnemucc…
The land the colony is on was granted to displaced Indigenous people by federal executive order in 1917. The full allotment is 340 acres.
In November, Elisa Dick got an unexpected call at work. Her housemate told her to get home quickly because men with front end loaders were preparing to level her home. “When I got here, they were here with the machines and they told me I had 10 minutes to get all of my things.”
Read 11 tweets
22 Dec 21
No verdict has been reached after the 2nd day of deliberation in the #KimPotterTrial. However, court was briefly in session around 4 p.m. on December 21 for Judge Chu to answer two questions from the jury who had deliberated over 13 hours at that point. 🧵 unicornriot.ninja/kim-potter-tri…
12 jurors, who need to come to a unanimous decision, are deliberating to decide whether or not ex-police officer Kim Potter is guilty of manslaughter in the 1st &/or 2nd degree manslaughter.

Nine of the jurors are white, two are Asian, & one is Black. 6 are women, 6 are men. 🧵 Image
The 1st of 2 questions asked by the jury after 13 hours of deliberation in the #KimPotterTrial was about consensus:

"If the jury cannot reach consensus, what is the guidance around how long and what steps should be taken?"

The judge repeated an instruction previously given. Screenshot from article Kim...
Read 5 tweets
20 Dec 21
"Indigenous people, we get treated like shit and this is just a prime example. Look at these elders' homes being bulldozed and leaving them nowhere to go. That's genocide, that's part of the erasure of our people." - Nenookaasi, supporter of the Winnemucca Indian Colony Residents
On November 2, 2021, contractors began bulldozing elders' homes on the Winnemucca Indian Colony in Humboldt County, NV. The Colony is federally designated Native land that was granted to displaced Indigenous people in 1917.
In early November 2021, an interim tribal council made up of people who do not live on the colony began restricting access for residents, preventing them from coming or going freely and denying access to visitors.
Read 5 tweets
6 Dec 21
Three years ago on December 6 [2018] we reported from #Athens as heavy clashes occurred between many thousands of police & anti-authoritarians took place on the 10-year anniversary of 15y/o #AlexisGrigoropoulos being killed by Greek police in #Exarcheia: unicornriot.ninja/2018/major-cla…
On December 6, 2008, Alexis Grigoropoulos was with his friends when Epaminondas Korkoneas, a special guard member of the Greek police, fatally shot Alexis. Intense riots ensued for weeks. In his 1st trial, Korkoneas was found guilty of culpable homicide & given a life sentence.
Korkoneas, the ex-special police guard of the Greek police who shot #AlexisGrigoropoulos, had his life sentence overturned in July 2019. An appeals court found him guilty for the murder but reduced his sentence to 13 years. He was released that same day. unicornriot.ninja/2019/life-sent…
Read 4 tweets

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