DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD PICARIELLO!

Richard Picariello Court Appearance Friday 12/03



The next hearing in Richard's case will be:



Friday, December 3, 2004 9:00 am

Boston Municipal Court 90 Devenshire St.

(Near Govt Ctr T stop, entrance is in post office sq.)



DROP ALL CHARGES AGAINST RICHARD PICARIELLO!



On Friday, December 3, anti-war activist Richard Picariello will

appear for a pre-trial hearing in Boston Municipal Court. Please

come out in support and to be with Richard in court.



Richard's case is reflective of the increased police harrassment

against the expression of free speech rights and anti-war opposition

in the current period. He was arrested in April after being threatened

by a right wing provocateur while distributing anti-war literature

at Park Street station. And he was arrested again a week later at

the protest against the Bush fundraiser at the Park Plaza hotel in

Boston, simply for being there. When under arrest in the first

instance, the police attempted to interrogate Richard about organizing

for protests against the Democratic National Convention in July.



The case against Richard, a well-known activist with A.N.S.W.E.R

and other anti-war and progressive organizations in the Boston area,

is pure political harrassment and an attempt to chill anti-war

organizing and free speech. It is part of a pattern that has seen

the arrest of Aimee Smith of the Mass. Green-Rainbow Party and the

New England Committee to Defend Palestine at MIT  for distributing

flyers at the MIT graduation against the plans for the B.U.

Bioterrorism lab (peoples' action and solidarity has since resulted

in Aimee's charges being dropped); the arrests of the Lafayette 8

while working on a neighborhood cleanup of a lot at Lafayette Square

in Cambridge that had been promised to be developed as a park; the

arrests of the DNC 2, who appear in Boston Municipal Court on

Thursday, December 2; the continued detentions of Arabs, Muslims

and others, and the repressive use of the U.S.A. Patriot Act.



Drop the Charges Against Richard Picariello NOW!