[Submission from the Pittsburgh National Lawyers Guild received on 05.28.21]

---

Over 60 people have been charged with felonies in Pittsburgh for last summer’s protests.

Most of them aren’t famous. Most of them don’t have hundreds of Instagram followers, or on-line fundraising campaigns, or the backing of large activist organizations. Many of them are facing years in prison for the first and only protest they ever attended. Six of them are confined in Allegheny County Jail. An unknown number are also facing federal charges.

Some of them have private lawyers, but most are dependent on public defenders or the office of conflict counsel. A few have reached plea deals, some more favorable than others. Every one of them took the streets to express their anger and outrage at the police murder of George Floyd, and the vast majority are facing life-shattering consequences as a result.

Elsewhere the things are little different. A year after the George Floyd uprising, prosecutors across the country are still throwing the book at every protester they could get their hands on, aided by a virtual media blackout and the silence of liberal nonprofits.

To raise awareness of this situation, the National Lawyers Guild is circulating a petition (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/drop-the-charges-blm) to drop all federal charges against Black Lives Matter demonstrators. We ask for organizations and individuals to sign it, and encourage their networks to do the same. In addition the Pittsburgh NLG chapter is raising money for legal support of all local protesters facing felony charges. Please donate at https://www.gofundme.com/f/pittsburgh-nlg-felony-defense-fund

---

---

You can send your report-backs, zine submissions, critiques, graffiti/action photos, demo tapes, hate mail, & memes to…

Filler_PGH@protonmail.com

We’ll try to publish your report // promote your content // reply in a reasonable amount of punk time.

Send reports in email form, as an attachment, or better yet, on an easy to use (and free) Riseup Pad or CryptPad.

---

*update: gofundme got taken down & all donations are being refunded, new fundrazr is linked below*

DONATE HERE

CLICK HERE TO DONATE

The National Lawyers Guild of Pittsburgh is hosting this fundraiser to provide  badly needed financial support to protesters in our city who are being charged and in some cases held in the Allegheny County Jail on unsubstantiated felony charges. In some cases, protestors are being held with exorbitant bail demands designed to keep them in holding, and at times, denied bail all together. We believe that these severe and unprovoked charges are being used to intimidate with the intention of repressing protests against police brutality in our city. 100% of funds raised will be used directly for the legal defense and expenses of these individuals. It will also provide much needed commissary funds while they are in jail.

While there is some legal support being provided to protestors in Pittsburgh, those facing the most serious charges and have the greatest needs are unfortunately the least likely to receive pro-bono legal defense. There are upwards of 30 (and counting) protestors and organizers who have been targeted,  sought out, and charged by local and in some cases federal authorities — sometimes days or weeks after the protest in question has occurred, and usually without any tangible evidence. We hope to raise as much as we possibly can to offset the insurmountable financial burden they are facing, and appreciate your support through donating and/or sharing this link far and wide. Unfortunately, it will require a great deal of money to ensure the protestors being charged with felonies receive the legal defense they truly need to fight back.

The NLG is dedicated to the need for basic change in the structure of our political and economic system. The NLG anti-imperialist and anti-racist and we strive to bring in anti-oppressive practices to all aspects of our organization. The Guild is best known for our work defending the rights of protesters through our Mass Defense and Legal Observer Programs , which have been providing legal support for movements for social justice for 50 years. Guild lawyers, law students, and legal workers observe police actions during protests, provide Know Your Rights training, track arrestees through the legal system, and provide free attorneys for protest-related cases.

photo credit: Phil Henry

---

---

---

---

You can send your report-backs, zine submissions, critiques, graffiti/action photos, demo tapes, hate mail, & memes to…

Filler_PGH@protonmail.com

We’ll try to promote your content // reply in a reasonable amount of punk time.

Send reports in email form, as an attachment, or better yet, on an easy to use (and free) Riseup Pad or CryptPad.

Originally published by Torchlight: Anarchist News from Pittsburgh

---

---

The Tilted Scales Collective is coming to The Big Idea Bookstore on July 19 at 7pm for community discussions based on their new book, A Tilted Guide to Being a Defendant.

With increasing confrontations with the far right, cops, FBI, ICE, capitalism, the Trump administration, and the systems of oppression that seek to keep us down, the importance of resistance is crystal clear.

And so too are the costs and risks of our resistance. Since the inauguration, there have been hundreds of new felony charges filed against us across Turtle Island. Our book aspires to be a resource for radical left struggle to help us all figure out ways to deal with serious criminal charges so we can strengthen our organizing and fight for liberation more strategically.

The defendant’s guide presents a goal-setting framework to help us be clear on our needs, priorities, and vulnerabilities as we figure out how to combat state repression and come out stronger as a result. This framework is based on two guiding principles: criminal charges are part of revolutionary struggle and we need to treat them as such; and we can handle our charges in ways that don’t help the State lock people in cages.

In these discussions, we’ll talk about how setting legal, personal, and political goals for criminal charges can help us deal with them in ways that benefit our movements; offer case studies about defendants from years and decades past who handled their cases in beneficial ways; and foster security-conscious conversations about being in solidarity with targets of state repression locally and nationally.

Tilted Scales Collective is a small collective of legal support organizers who have spent years supporting and fighting for defendants and prisoners across Turtle Island. The defendant‘s guide draws on the wisdom of dozens of people who have weathered the challenges of trials and incarceration, including many former and current political prisoners/prisoners of war.

In the spirit of solidarity and mutual aid, a portion of proceeds from our book will benefit Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC), a prison abolitionist collective that produces a free resource directory that is mailed to prisoners nationwide upon request.

---

DONATE HERE to support and welcome back our friends Maxx and Shea.
Click HERE or HERE to read the report-backs from the action and subsequent arrests.

DONATE HERE to support the ACJ 10.

DONATE HERE to support Pittsburghers arrested on J20 at the intersection of L&12th streets. 

DONATE HERE to support Victoria and Phil, two comrades arrested during an action at the University of Pittsburgh.