Statement From Jesse James

Normal 0 0 1 1087 6196 51 12 7609 11.768 0 0 0 To The Ill-Advised and Digitally Distant of A Matter of Consequence

(And Little People Dressed Up In Words)

Having spent the past 13 months respectfully adhering to court orders and patiently navigating Ramsey County’s criminal justice system, I find myself, now serving a 120 day sentence, ready to speak out.

            I have politely endure this past year of court dates and conditional release, simply requesting my right to a jury trial and enacting my right to remain silent. Now having come out the other side, nearly free of the Ramsey County Courthouse, I must call into question this idea of justice so readily proclaimed by county prosecutor Richard Dusterhoff, handed out by Judge Paulette Flynn and hidden behind by citizens across the board.

            In the name of Justice Dick Dusterhoff argued for this four month incarceration, mainly citing my singular prior conviction and the horrific efforts of the RNC Welcoming Committee. In the name of Justice, Flynn ignored the probation department’s recommendation of a 60 day sentence, as well as the dozens of letters received from all over the country asking for leniency and offering alternatives to jail, and granted the prosecution’s request.

            I have not hidden my previous conviction and under oath testified to the degree it has changed my life. It is something I have accepted responsibility for and learned from, and yet Dusterhoff spoke of it as if it happened yesterday, not three years ago, and completely disregarded all testimony during trial. His repeated efforts to link my case to the Welcoming Committee were clearly ungrounded and an obvious attempt to aid the state’s case against the RNC 8. It is worth stating here, as it was in trial, I had and have no connection to the RNC Welcoming Committee.

            In front of the judge I attested to the hardships of the past year’s proceedings. I described how being on conditional release here in Minnesota, when I am from California, brought intense isolation and difficulty into my life. I suffered a harsh winter of distance, separation and contemplation, struggling to meet basic needs living away from home. It is my belief that we all grow through hardship, and that how we grow defines who we are as people. I have felt how hard it is to be away from my friends, family, and home, from my four year old friends Autumn whom I have helped raise since she was six months old. All I want is to be able to return to my life and retake my place in hers.

            In the past year I struggle to figure out how to live in this exile. At sentencing, Dusterhoff remarked that I was not forced away from home by anything but my actions. I understand and accept my choice to fight my charges and that that instigated the elongated trial process, but I refuse to accept that I am responsible for being forced to live here. I was not given the option of living at home and returning for court dates and Dusterhoff would have everyone ignore this fact.

            Despite this I turned this difficult situation into an opportunity, and ended up volunteering the majority of my time. I helped other arrestees through the Community RNC Arrestee Support Structure. I gave my time distributing organic produce to Minneapolis neighborhoods with Sister’s Camelot, teaching classes with the Experimental College of the Twin Cities, and volunteered weekly at Second Foundation School. I chose not to wait to be a positive member of a community, to live how I want to live, until I was back in Santa Cruz, but sought out beneficial activities here in the Twin Cities. Judge Flynn received letters attesting to this and the hardship my absence back home has created, and heard testimony of this from me and others during trial. There could be no doubt that incarcerating me would negatively impact many lives here and in California.

            I must ask, how is Justice served by my incarceration? The crime I have been found guilty of is breaking an expensive window. Would it not make sense to allow me to return home to the job I have waiting for me so I can begin to pay restitution? Why make the Ramsey County taxpayers pay to keep me here when many people want and need me in California? If I had not just spent the past year in isolation I could understand an argument for jail time, or if I was convicted of a personal, non-property related crime and was deemed a public threat. I simply fail to see who benefits from this situation. Is Justice not what is best for the greatest amount of people? No one wrote Judge Flynn asking for me to be put away. Dusterhoff’s eager attempts to connect me to the RNC Welcoming Committee only serves to highlight political motivations behind my prosecution. It seems that in today’s political climate, breaking windows is one step away from terrorism. Is justice served when politics outweighs the clear sentiment of hundreds of people?

            Incarceration is but one option judges have to choose from, and has been found in Federal Court to not in and of itself constitute proper punishment. Judge Flynn is know for her bias, called by many a “hanging” judge. She has proven to consistently dole out harsh and elongated sentences and stiff bail; in my case early on she voiced her opinion of me calling me “the window breaker” before any evidence had even been argued.

            Dick Dusterhoff’s overzealous prosecution is not unusual, as one takes their job so seriously often forgets the reason their job exists in the first place, who they are working for. Is Dusterhoff acting on behalf of the citizens of Ramsey County? Or Susan Gaertner’s political career? Or is he simply a hard working man who has lost his compassion and concern for life outside the courtroom?

            I will serve my time, apply for appeal, and I will continue to live in ways which have been proven to be meaningful to me and many others. I wonder if Flynn were to be facing some difficult situation across the country in which her character was called into question, would she have an overflowing room of people to stand with her? I will miss the friends I have made in the Twin Cities and will never forget this chapter of my life.

            Here in the Ramsey County Correctional Facility I am surrounded by people whose lives have be redefined by punishment. Potentially healthy and vibrant people being caged, fed depressing food, treated arbitrarily and with disrespect, left to wait as their life’s momentum runs out and they lose much of what they had. This system of incarceration is about avoidance if anything: keeping problems separated without solutions. Without criminals populating these jails, there would be no need for the jails and then there would be nothing to hold over the heads of people, confining them to them to the comfortable ruts our society produces. A majority of people are in here for probation violations, and all of us are simultaneously costing tax payers’ money and justifying the state expenditures on law enforcement rather than housing or education. This system of courts and jails is just stupid and wasting our lives.

I ask for nothing. I am making no demands. These are simply thoughts that felt pertinent to share. I had no faith in this judicial system before this charge, and I have only been given more justification this past 13 months. If we say nothing our silence will be taken as complicity. But I do not wish to only have a voice, but a life. This is how I live: acknowledging that which should not be and creating a way of life that is healthy for me an others and wholly incongruent with this suffering.

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