October 18 - The Utah Supreme Court overturned an injunction that had
barred almost 500 people that Weber County claims are members of a
lumpen organization known as the Ogden Trece from associating with each
other. Members were banned from driving, standing, walking, sitting,
gathering or in any way appearing together anywhere in a 25-square-mile
area that covered most of the city of Ogden. It also imposed a curfew
between 11pm and 5am for these folks. This ban has been in place since
2010.
The Supreme Court threw out the injunction on a legal technicality,
because the county failed to properly serve summons to members of the
organization. The county posted notices on a Utah legal notices website
and in the Ogden Standard Examiner, a local newspaper. The court found
this to be insufficient notice. Members of the organization also
challenged the constitutionality of the injunction in denying their
right to associate, but the Court did not rule on this challenge.
The Deputy Attorney for Weber County made a case for the injunction:
“Case loads on average going from 16 per month on something like
graffiti down to four. So we can show a 75 percent drop in criminal
street gang activity.” This is an interesting definition of “criminal
street gang activity”: acts of graffiti.(1) Clearly the police and
courts are determined to go after this lumpen organization, which they
call a “public nuisance,” civil liberties and rights be damned.
We see a lot of parallels between validation in prison and
identification as a member of a street organization in Ogden. According
to the Ogden Gang Detective Anthony Powers, the police keep a “gang
database” to document who belongs to a street organization. There are
eight possible criteria, and anyone meeting two of them is entered in
the database. A musician in a group that includes people believed to be
Ogden Trece members was included in the injunction because he has been
seen around with these folks.(2)
We only have news of this from the mainstream press, but we regularly
see this same repression of oppressed nations both in prisons and on the
streets. The trick of labeling someone a member of a lumpen organization
is used to lock prisoners in solitary confinement and keep them from
having contact with other prisoners. It’s often used to target
politically active prisoners. On the streets, whether in Utah or any
other state, we are seeing that Amerikans, who are often willing to
suspend constitutional rights for prisoners, are similarly unconcerned
about this same practice on the streets.
What really worries the state is when lumpen organizations come together
for peace and to promote national liberation struggles. This was seen in
California
during the recent hunger strike, in
Florida
during the September 9 Day of Solidarity last year, and in the many
lumpen organizations and representatives signing on to the
United Front for Peace in Prisons.
We know that street organizations, just like prison organizations, are a
natural result of imperialist society in the United $tates. The
oppressed nations are going to come together in self-defense, and in the
absence of revolutionary leadership they will join whatever group meets
their needs. While lumpen organizations are fighting one another and
targeting their people for street crime they are helping the
imperialists. This is why we work so hard to build a United Front and
bring these groups together for the betterment of all oppressed people.
