“An interrogation is not a harmonious exchange between two individuals. It’s a conflict.
And in this conflict, our ignorance is our strength. Ignorance of the meaning of police work, ignorance of the manipulative techniques used, ignorance of the legal framework and, last but not least, ignorance of our means of defence.
In response to this observation, this book is intended as a tool for self-defense against police interrogation practices of interrogation.”
Preface to the English version
In summer 2022, 2000 copies of this book were printed in French and 2000 in German. The french version is now sold out, and the Publisher «Éditions du Commun» had now reissued the book.
The book was written with the intention of serving as a tool of self-defense against the manipulative interrogation strategies employed by the police. As stated in the introduction, “It addresses readers in various countries in which legislation may differ“. And indeed, we soon received feedback that the content conveyed by the book is equally applicable to countries such as Turkey, Morocco, Serbia, Italy, Denmark, and many more. And soon a number of supportive people were offering to translate the book into other languages. This is what happened with the English version, and we’d like to take this opportunity to warmly thank our translator and proofreader for their fine work.
As a consequence of imperialism and colonization, English is spoken today in contexts as diverse as Kenya, Australia and, of course UK and the USA. So many different places from which you may be reading these words, and where the contexts of repression are very different. Most of what is conveyed in the book applies to all these contexts, but, in case of doubts, it makes sense to keep an eye out for certain elements that differ and check them with your local legal team.
Our network lacks relays in the English-speaking world, so let us take this opportunity to pass on the message that we are looking for a publishing house or a collective that would be interested in printing and distributing the book in its geographical regions.
With these words, we wish you a pleasant reading.
Project-evasions – network of anarchist friendships
This workshop will introduce tools to build emotional skills to further anarchist struggle and insurrection. It is crucial to approach emotional well being, constructive conflict resolution, and personal mental health as something that is not a private matter but a skill foundational to security and resiliency. We can only collaborate together if we can maintain respect for one another long term. Solidarity and affinity are our major weapons as anarchists, and like other skill, they must be honed and maintained with intention, rather than something we attempt to learn at a crisis point or when everyone is too burned out to do well or consistently.
The first half of this workshop series will discuss tools to help us better communicate and make better decisions under pressure and do mental health action support planning for before, during, and after being on the ground, and the second half will give us a structure to practice these skills and practice supporting one another so they are more accessible during times of high pressure. We view our collective emotional well being as a material limitation to deeping of combative anarchy. We seek to develop tools, an ongoing practice, and a constructive culture around addressing the intense conflicts, trauma, and joys which are inevitably part of a serious struggle against domination.
Every year, we raise money for the ABCF Warchest and a single designated political prisoner or organization through our biggest event, Running Down the Walls (RDTW). This year we dedicated the split of proceeds to support on-the-ground mutual aid work in Gaza, but for the first time, we did not announce any specific recipients. Early in our planning, we corresponded with people in Cairo who facilitated evacuations from Gaza, but then Israel seized and closed the Rafah Crossing, rendering this work impossible. Acknowledging that the situation on the ground would likely continue to be fluid and unpredictable, we decided to simply support “mutual aid in Gaza” and choose the specific recipients based on the reality on the ground following the event.
On September 15th, we ran with almost 400 comrades both inside and outside prison walls in the biggest and most financially successful RDTW ever. We’re now thrilled to be able to announce the recipients of the event. We will continue to accept donations and sell t-shirts through November 26th, so if you have not yet contributed to RDTW, or you would like to give a little extra, you can now you can see exactly who your money will be supporting. Since we have already raised record funds for the ABCF Warchest this year, all further funding will go to the following co-recipients in Gaza:
Thamra
Thamra is a new Palestinian organization that promotes food sovereignty in Northern Gaza through restoring water access, building urban food gardens, and providing fresh produce. It was created by farmer Yousef Abu Rabea, whose family has cultivated strawberries in Beit Lahia for generations, and photographer Leena Almadhoun. Yousef managed to hastily collect seeds and seedlings before evacuating his family farm earlier this year amidst heavy IDF shelling. Upon returning to the ruins, he scavenged dried-out peppers and eggplants. He and his brothers began planting anew in rooftop containers, and in the land between their home and a destroyed kindergarten. Once they could provide fresh produce for their family and surrounding community, they began traveling across Northern Gaza, sharing food, seeds, and water, and creating new gardens.
On October 22nd―shortly after we first learned of Yousef and Leena’s work but before we were able to make contact with them―we learned that Yousef had been martyred alongside another team member, Zakaria Abu Sultan, by a targeted IDF airstrike in the Al-Shemaa area. Yousef was 24 and Zakaria was 30. Their work is being continued by Thamra, which means “fruit” in Arabic. We extend our support and solidarity to Thamra in Yousef and Zakaria’s memory.
Operation Olive Branch’s Family Encampment
Since July, the Operation Olive Branch Family Encampment has faced down evacuation orders and the closure of humanitarian corridors to provide food, water, medical care, and other necessities to 300 residents requiring urgent perinatal care in Gaza. It is currently expanding to provide the same level of support to 1000 residents with disabilities and urgent medical needs. OOB is an international organization that links on-the-ground mutual aid projects with international support. The Family Encampment is coordinated by PAL Humanity, two Palestinian doctors and sisters who provide field visits and distribute medical aid; Palestinian dentist Dr. Zayn Eldeen, who distributes infant formula and hot meals; and Palestinian cook Amani Alkahlout, who cooks for hundreds of families in Rafah and runs supply deliveries.
The Sanabel Team
The Sanabel Team is a Palestinian-led mutual aid initiative launched in 2018 to help families in need in Khan Yunis. It has since expanded to provide food, clean water, and basic needs to families displaced internally in Gaza and externally to Egypt. The Gaza team continues to provide daily hot meals despite constant threat of violence and repeated displacement. On at least on occasion (October 7th), the team has been forced to flee their mobile kitchen under Israeli bombardment. On May 27th, Sanabel worker and video editor Muhammad was martyred during the Israeli bombing of a refugee camp that killed 44 other people and wounded more than 200, most of them women and children. Muhammad was 27. We extend our support and solidarity to Sanabel in Muhammad’s memory.
The Sameer Project’s Refaat Alareer Camp
The Sameer Project is a grassroots aid organization led by four Palestinians in the diaspora. Originating in an informal mutual aid network linking an extended Palestinian family, it expanded as the genocide wore on to coordinate shelter and medical aid in central and South Gaza, and food, water, diapers, and medical aid in north Gaza. We are supporting their most recent initiative, the Refaat Alareer Camp, which will provide shelter in central Gaza for perinatal and neonatal people, children with disabilities, and adults with special needs and mobility issues, war injuries, and chronic diseases. Relocated in early September after an Israeli quadcopter came to the camp and shot two of its children, the new Refaat Alareer Camp will include an independent medical clinic, will supply food, diapers, and formula, and will provide mental health support to traumatized children via a virtual reality tent.
The Sameer Project is named after the father and uncle of two of its organizers. In the words of his niece Hala Sabbah :
[Sameer] passed in Gaza in January. … My uncle was a lover of Palestine, a lover of giving, and so we wanted to honor him.
The Refaat Alareer Camp is named after the professor, writer, and cofounder of the organization, We Are Not Numbers, whose last prophetic poem written to his daughter Shaimaa, “If I Must Die” has become a touchstone of Palestinian resilience both in Gaza and internationally. In December 2023, after months of death threats, Refaat was martyred in a deliberately targeted Israeli airstrike that also killed his brother, sister, and four of his nephews. In April 2024, another Israeli airstrike killed Shaimaa, her husband Mohammed Siyam, and Refaat’s infant grandchild Abdul Rahman in their Gaza City home. We extend our support and solidarity to the Sameer Team in their memory, and in the spirit of Refaat Alareer’s final printed words: “If I must die, / you must live.”
Again, if you have not already done so, please consider donating or buying a t-shirt before November 26th to support Thamra, OOB’S Family Encampment, the Sanabel Team, and the Sameer Project’s Refaat Alareer Camp. As we do every year, we will release a detailed reportback outlining the money in, and the disbursement of funds.
Philly’s long time organizer and radical journalist will address the WSA’s 40th Anniversary Congress, with reflections on group democracy, journalism and anarcha-feminism! Helping us look to our future!
Cara and Celeste were arrested back in October after a mink farm was raided in Pensylvania. They spent a few weeks in jail until the judge agreed to a reduction to 10% on their bail as well as dropping a few other bail conditions, and they were able to come out a few days ago. Whilst a reduction from 150k USD to 15k each for bail is an amazing drop in costs, Cara and Celeste are now facing such massive legal costs that they need all the help they can get.
They are facing multiple charges including felony eco-terrorism, accused of the release of 600+ mink from a fur farm. Their support team is fundraising 75k USD to help cover sots of legal, transportation and other outgoings for the long road ahead.
We have launched our own fundraiser, supported by artists @praxis_vgz, @daisy.lotta, @zerofoursixeight and @steveortiz_art.
Grab yourself a tshirt, a print (or a full collection if you fancy!). If you grab both a collection and a tshirt, we will add some free stickers to your order which have been specially designed for this fundraiser!
This is a pre-order item only. The preorder starts today and it stops 12th December, we will not print any more t-shirts than the ones you order, so please go grab one now, support the initiative. Every single penny in profits will be sent to Philly ABC’s run Cara&Celeste fundraiser.
As always, our site is not a shop, it is a pay as you feel style donation where we send you cool itemz when you drop some coins, so please if you can afford it donate more than the minimum for tshirts and prints! We’ve set the minimum price at 20 GBP for tshirts, 15GBP for the full print collection and 7GBP for individual prints. If you can donate more, please do!
Prints are A4 size, on thick, recycled luxury paper. The tshirts are printed on NoSweat garments, who run a campaign against sweatshops and produce garments that are organic, eco friendly and only made in cooperative factories.
If you grab other items on the same order, please understand they will all be sent together with the pre-order items, so you might now receive them for a little while.
Please, grab a tee and a print, share it around and spread the word. let’s support folks when they face the system, prisoner support is our biggest weapon!
If you don’t want to buy shit to clutter your wardrobe, please just donate some coins to the legal fundraiser: www.unoffensiveanimal.is/nu2
PS: Please use your head. Cara and Celeste HAVE NOT been found guilty of any crimes. Don’t thank them for crimes, don’t tell them they are heros, being charged does not equate guilt. Do not treat them like they are guilty of a crime they have not been sentenced for. Just support them throguh the fucked up road that is navigating the judiciary system.
skip your boring ass lecture to come meet some rowdy punks ready to challenge the university in its entirety. I promise you we’ll learn more from each other than we ever did in class. leave the classroom – or better yet, drop out – and come join us in clark park near the chess tables @8pm every sunday (beginning dec 1st)
“Drexel is John Fry threading his way thru underpaid Aramark workers in the mot expensive suits money can buy. Penn is the enforcement of exclusionary elitist ideology. Temple is the ongoing gentrification and displacement of Black people in North Philly. The University, all over the globe, is the repression of student dissedents and the proliferation of the capitalist death cult that kills us all.”
This text is addressed to the international anarchist movement, which we’ll define as the sum of individuals fighting for anarchist ideas around the world. This movement is in conflict with its natural enemies — the State, fascist groups, and so on — and must protect itself if it is to survive in this conflict. In this text, we make three proposals for the international anarchist movement to consider in the coming years in order to allow anarchists to continue attacking while limiting their chances of getting caught.
1. Share knowledge internationally
Our enemies organize internationally through cooperation between police and intelligence agencies and new developments in science and technology — the increasing precision of DNA forensics and the proliferation of drones being just two examples. This means that a repressive technique used in one country may soon appear in another where it is not yet being used. It also means that an effective countermeasure used by anarchists in one country may be effective in another. We should therefore share knowledge of repressive techniques and countermeasures on an international level.
Ideally, any experience of repression or experimentation with countermeasures that might be of interest to other anarchists should be written up, translated into several languages, and made public. When anarchists are arrested and brought to trial, we can often obtain court documents that reveal how they were caught: we should exploit this and publish analyses of such documents, bearing in mind that information obtained in this way may be partial or distorted. We should experiment with new countermeasures and write and publish reports on these experiments (except in cases where the State might adapt and weaken the countermeasure by reading the report). We should try to collect information at the source: read police training manuals, steal police files, analyze data leaks from police servers.
A specific feature of the international anarchist movement is its decentralization. We see this not as a weakness but as a strength: in addition to preventing the hierarchies inherent in centralized organizations, it makes it harder for our enemies to target us because they cannot topple the whole movement by disrupting one part of it. However, this decentralization also makes it harder for us to share knowledge across borders. To overcome this, we see two options: developing informal bonds with other anarchists by meeting at international book fairs and other events, and using the Internet. We propose using the No Trace Project as an international platform to share the knowledge that is suited for sharing on the Internet, not as a replacement for informal bonds but as a useful supplement to spread information beyond existing informal networks.
2. Establish a security baseline
Anarchists who carry out direct actions should analyze the risks associated with their actions and take appropriate precautions: dress anonymously, be mindful of video surveillance and DNA traces, and so on. However, this is not enough. If only those who carry out actions take precautions, it is easier for our enemies to target these individuals. This is, firstly, because they stand out: if only a handful of comrades always leave their phones at home, for example, this could be an obvious starting point for an investigation with no other specific leads. And secondly, because our enemies can get information about them through their friends who do not carry out actions: if someone doesn’t use social media but is mentioned on their friends’ social media, for example, an investigation could query their friends’ social media to get information about them. We should therefore establish a security baseline that everyone in anarchist networks agrees to follow, including those who have never carried out direct actions and have no intention of doing so.
We can’t say what this baseline should be, as it will depend on each local context, but we can give some ideas. As a bare minimum, everyone should help hide information from our enemies by not speculating about who is involved in an action, not bragging about one’s own participation in an action, not talking to the police, and encrypting any computer or phone used for conversations with other anarchists using a strong password. Discuss sensitive matters exclusively outdoors and without electronic devices, and don’t make it obvious to your social environment who you are having sensitive conversations with (e.g. don’t ask someone to “go for a walk” in front of people who aren’t involved in the project being discussed). In addition, we think everyone should stop using social media (and definitely stop posting photos of other anarchists, even with their consent, because this helps the State map anarchist networks) and leave their phones at home at all times (not just during actions). Carrying your phone with you has security implications for everyone you interact with.
It can be difficult to convince people to follow such a security baseline, especially if they think they have no personal interest in following it. If someone is reluctant, we should remind them that it’s not just their security that’s at stake, but also the security of other anarchists around them who may be carrying out or planning to carry out direct actions. Everyone who wants actions to happen has an interest in making anarchist networks as difficult as possible for the authorities to repress.
3. Explore new horizons
Our enemies evolve over time as they refine their strategies and techniques. We should prepare not for the battles that already took place, but for those yet to come. We should therefore go beyond our current security practices, anticipate the evolution of our enemies, and develop new countermeasures.
Here are three issues we think the international anarchist movement should explore in the coming years.
Drones
Aerial surveillance is rapidly becoming cheaper and more efficient. How should we react to the presence of police drones at riots, anarchist events, and so on? How can we detect or take down drones? Should we prepare for the risk of drones being used for routine aerial patrols, and if so, how?
Facial recognition technologies
In 2023, a journalist tracked down German left-wing militant Daniela Klette, who had been in clandestinity for decades, by using facial recognition technology to match a decades-old photo of her with a recent photo from Facebook taken during a dance class. What can we do against this threat? How can we prepare for the increasing integration of facial recognition technology into public video surveillance systems?
Lack of insight into police activity
Until a few years ago, radio scanners were used by anarchists to monitor police frequencies, for example to learn about nearby police activity while carrying out a direct action. In most contexts, this is now impossible because police communications are encrypted. Can we develop new techniques to functionally replace radio scanners or, more generally, to gain insight into police activity in a given area?
About the authors
We’re the No Trace Project. For the past three years, we’ve been building tools to help anarchists understand the capabilities of their enemies, undermine surveillance efforts, and ultimately act without getting caught. We plan to continue in the years to come. We welcome feedback. You can visit our website at notrace.how, and contact us at notrace@autistici.org.
This text is available as a zine (in Letter and A4 dimensions).
Let’s prepare ourselves, and may luck be on our side.
How do we solve the housing crisis? Two L.A. Tenants Union co-founders wrote Abolish Rent to answer that question, guided by the expertise of LATU members, who are organizing to take back control of their housing, their neighborhoods, and their lives. At Making Worlds, we’ll bring together author Tracy Rosenthal and organizer and scholar Sterling Johnson to reflect on their struggles in their building and citywide, and talk about how our work right now shows us the future of the tenant movement, moderated by Max Fox and co-presented by Pinko Magazine.
SPEAKERS:
Tracy Rosenthal is a cofounder of the L.A. Tenants Union, a frequent contributor to the New Republic, and the author, with Leonardo Vilchis, of Abolish Rent, published by Haymarket Books. They organize with Writers Against the War on Gaza and are now on rent strike in New York City.
twitter & IG: @tracyrosenthal_
Max Fox is a writer, translator, and founding editor of Pinko Magazine.
Sterling Johnson is a doctoral candidate in Geography and Urban Studies at Temple University and organizes with Philadelphia Housing Action.
Sunday, November 24, 2024
4:00 PM 6:00 PM
Making Worlds Bookstore & Social Center210 South 45th StreetPhiladelphia, PA, 19104United States(map)
Northumberland County, PA — An engaged couple from Massachusetts was freed on bail from jail last week after the alleged October 19 release of over 600 mink from the Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. fur farm near Sunbury, off Pennsylvania State Route 890. State prosecutors charged Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano with over a dozen criminal counts — including ecoterrorism and RICO charges — and they face decades in prison.
Originally held on $150,000 bail each, Legere and Mitrano were later allowed by a judge to post 10 percent of the full bail amount.
Legere and Mitrano face identical sets of charges in Pennsylvania state court. In addition to the RICO and ecoterrorism charges, they are also charged with Agricultural Vandalism, Criminal Mischief, Theft, Burglary, Loitering and Prowling at Nighttime, Accidents Involving Damage to Attended Vehicle or Property, Recklessly Endangering Another Person, Cruelty to Animals, Agricultural Trespassing on Posted Land, and Depositing Waste on a Highway — as well as Conspiracy counts related to the Ecoterrorism, Agricultural Vandalism and Burglary charges. (An additional charge of “Conspire in Unwarranted Detention” was withdrawn earlier.)
Pennsylvania’s Ecoterrorism statute became law in 2006, shortly before a similar federal law — the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act — was signed by then-President George W. Bush. Before the PA statute went into effect, the ACLU said that it“violates the First Amendment because it discriminates against certain expressive speech based on the viewpoint of the speaker” and warned that “people who engage in traditional forms of civil disobedience, such as sit-ins, could be treated as terrorists.”
Both the state and federal laws widened the scope of what counts as “terrorism” — a word usually reserved for killing or threatening to kill civilians in order to influence government policy — to include acts intended to “prevent or obstruct” businesses in the agricultural or animal industries.
These laws were part of the post-9/11 “Green Scare” era during which the Earth Liberation Front and Animal Liberation Front were the U.S. government’s top domestic “terror” targets. Industry groups and politicians successfully exploited the political climate after the September 11, 2001 attacks to criminalize direct action movements targeting companies for their harmful and controversial practices — often garnering popular support as animal rights abuses and environmental damages became more widely known.
Chris Carraway, staff attorney at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project, told Unicorn Riot that the case against Legere and Mitrano is “part of a decades-long effort to vilify and persecute animal rights activists.”
“Here, the addition of animal cruelty charges adds insult to injury. A society that protects an industry that gasses and electrocutes animals to turn them into coats, while charging those who allegedly attempt to free those animals with terrorism and cruelty, has utterly lost its moral compass. The true ecoterrorism on this planet comes from corporate industries that destroy habitats, pollute the environment, and slaughter billions of animals for profit.”
Chris Carraway, Staff Attorney, Animal Activist Legal Defense Project
Pennsylvania State Police Complaint Outlines Alleged Mink Release
Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano were both arrested in the early hours of October 19 after the Stahl fur farm’s security system went off and surveillance cameras showed two individuals releasing minks from pens and destroying breeding records, according to a Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) complaint.
The Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
Much of the PSP probable cause affidavits rely on the narrative provided by members of the Stahl family who own and operate the fur farm — Mark, April and John Stahl.
According to the affidavits, Mark Stahl told state troopers that his “camera sensors were activated” and captured two individuals — alleged to be Legere and Mitrano — “inside the enclosed property…wearing dark clothing with head lamps…carrying bags…[with] their hoods up.” They then released 683 mink “and destroyed records on the pens,“ according to an affidavit.
Open air enclosures at the Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. fur farm containing mink cages seen from State Route 890.
April Stahl claims to have photographed a vehicle fleeing the fur farm shortly thereafter. (The prosecution asserts this is the same car Legere and Mitrano were later pulled over in when they were arrested.) April Stahl and John Stahl then turned their own car sideways on a road, blocking it, at which point the vehicle leaving the scene is alleged to have struck the Stahls’ car on its way out; April and John Stahl then reportedly followed the fleeing vehicle. (The exact location alleged in the documents is not clear.)
The defendants allegedly drove away along Airport Road, seen here to the right of the Richard Stahl Sons Inc. mink farm in a Google Maps satellite image.
Before losing sight of the fleeing car, April and John Stahl told police that they “observed a backpack, work glove and dark in color sweatshirt get tossed out the suspect vehicles driver and passenger windows.” The items were reportedly recovered later by Pennsylvania State Troopers.
At around 1:14 AM, Legere and Mitrano were pulled over by Ralpho Township Police Officer Glen Wonsock, who arrested them before handing them over to Pennsylvania state troopers Cody Fischer and Jacob Hook – the authors of the affidavits.
Fischer and Hook wrote in an affidavit that they then obtained search warrants for the defendants’ vehicle as well as a backpack and purse found inside it. The troopers claimed to find items including a “pair of work gloves,” a “lock picking kit,”“two headlamps” and “two orange plastic crowbars.”
However, the Affidavit of Probable Cause also includes items of a political nature within the basis for the criminal case – dovetailing with efforts across the country to criminalize anarchist, antifascist and environmental and animal rights movements.
Items listed by police include “Three stickers that read ‘Officer down!’” depicting a smiling star with thumbs up” as well as “Two stick[ers] that read ‘Policy Proposal‘ depicting a police car on fire”, “Anarchist propaganda” and literature about how to use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) and the Tor browser to privately browse the internet.
Political surveillance and profiling of U.S. citizens by the federal government based on their perceived ideology is also directly involved in the case beyond the purely physical mechanics of an alleged criminal act.
The affidavit signed by Troopers Fischer and Hook indicates that the defendants and their roommates have been monitored by federal authorities prior to being accused of anything in court: “Following the search I made contact with FBI Intelligence. The FBI Source informed my that both Mitrano and Legere are connected with two anarchist Communes in… Massachusetts.”
Affidavit Conflates Post-Arrest Bail Arrangements with A Priori Payment for Crimes
Troopers Fischer and Hook’s signed and sworn probable cause statements, approved by Magisterial District Judge Rachel Wiest-Benner, appear to misrepresent one of the defendant’s attempts to raise bail money, purporting a notion that they were expecting to be paid for raiding the fur farm. (Wiest-Benner won an open judicial seat late in 2023.)
The affidavit filed by state troopers Cody Fischer and Jacob Hook seems to misrepresent a jail phone call about raising bail funds as evidence that the defendants were promised payment to commit the alleged crime. Unicorn Riot redacted language in this portion of the affidavit that misgenders Celeste Legere.
Fischer and Hook’s affidavit notes a recorded jail call by Celeste Legere was discussing their bail being set at $150,000, but claims that Legere saying on the call that she was “already promised $50,000…. illustrates Legere was promised $50,000 dollars prior to coming to Pennsylvania and committing the above crimes.” This seems to extend a national trend of attempting to criminalize raising bail funds for arrested protesters — in Atlanta, a similar line of attack led to money laundering charges against a bail fund supporting ‘Stop Cop City’ activists that collapsed last month.
The state police affidavit also notes that as of October 27, 2024, out of the 683 mink released, 619 had been recovered, 64 had not been recovered and 3 died post-recovery. The source for this claim is not cited in the filing.
The Northumberland County Courthouse in Sunbury, PA.
Judge Skeptical of ‘Terrorism’-Level Bail in November 4 Hearing
A sunny and tranquil afternoon in Sunbury, a central Pennsylvania river town, was the setting for the bail hearing on ecoterrorism and other charges for the two defendants on Monday, November 4, while locals raked leaves and senior citizens strolled the park outside the courthouse.
Watch Unicorn Riot’s dispatch after attending the hearing on Monday, November 4:
[EDITOR’S NOTE: This report was recorded before Judge Paige Rosini made a ruling on the defense’s bail modification request.]
The bail hearing was overseen by Judge Paige Rosini, a former defense attorney elected to the Northumberland County Court of Common Pleas in 2015.
Judge Paige Rosini is the first woman to serve as a Judge in Northumberland County, PA. Photo credit: Danirae Renno/The News-Item
Celeste Legere was represented by Jim Best and Cara Mitrano was represented by Gerald Iwanejko, Jr. — both public defenders.
Mike O’Donnell, the prosecuting attorney in the case, was elected as the Northumberland District Attorney earlier in 2023 after running as the Republican nominee on a ‘tough on crime’ platform.
Northumberland County District Attorney Mike O’Donnell. Photo credit: Mike O’Donnell/Facebook
District Attorney O’Donnell opposed the defense’s bail modification request, claiming Legere and Mitrano were an “extreme flight risk.” He referred to a map of the area surrounding the Stahl mink farm allegedly found on the defendants and began to reference the literature about using VPNs, Tor, burner phones, allegedly found during the defendants’ arrests, but was interrupted by Judge Rosini – “I’ll stop you there, do you have any evidence?” O’Donnell replied by answering “the affidavits,” to which Rosini replied, “affidavits aren’t evidence.”
Celeste Legere told the court that she works as a therapist and volunteers with various community projects such as clothing drives for unhoused people. Cara Mitrano, who told the court she “ran a free pantry out of my home” and helps with a local Earn-A-Bike program, works in medical data analytics. Both defendants testified that they had no prior criminal record and promised to attend any future court dates.
Legere also testified that she was being held in so-called protective custody because she was a trans woman — meaning she had very limited time outside of her cell and had limited access to the commissary; officers had been instructed not to let her have any contact with other inmates. She told the court that “almost every time I am let out of my cell I receive pervasive sexual harassment” as well as “threats of rape” and said she’d been denied any access to her hormone medication since her October 19 arrest.
When the proceedings moved on to the defendants’ home address and housing upon posting bail, District Attorney O’Donnell was extremely eager to zero in on what he alternately described as “anarchist communes” or “compounds” — aka ‘collective houses’ where the defendants live with roommates.
After O’Donnell began this line of questioning, Judge Rosini said he could “ask about specific groups” but that “saying anarchy or anarchist is pretty broad.” O’Donnell also pressed the defendants and witnesses on whether their collective house roommates were involved in “anti-law enforcement activities.”
Defense counsel asked the court to allow their clients to bail out at a lower amount by reminding the court that they were “presumed innocent” and had a “long-term residence” in a “stable location” with phone access and “substantial ties” to a community.
Character witnesses described both Legere and Mitrano with phrases like “reliable and honest,”“kind and thoughtful person.” Others, including several doctors and an attorney, offered to house and employ the defendants upon their release. When questioning one character witness offering to house one of the defendants, O’Donnell pressed them on why they thought bail should be granted. They replied, “because we live in a free country, and I think that’s important.”
Judge Rosini also pushed back on O’Donnell’s claim that the defendants should be denied bail because they weren’t from the area – “living in another state isn’t necessarily a flight risk.”
Amidst his final remarks arguing against the bail modification request, the District Attorney O’ Donnell again started to cite the internet privacy literature allegedly found during Legere and Mitrano’s arrest the defense quickly objected to this, and the Judge sustained the objection.
O’Donnell insisted that the higher bail amount should remain in place because “they came here to commit a crime,” adding, “they did ram Mr. Stahl’s car in order to leave,” and that they employed “well thought-out, sophisticated tactics. He told Judge Rosini that “it doesn’t matter if they’ve injured someone or not,” to which she replied “that’s one of the conditions.” O’Donnell also failed to offer any substantiation for his claim that the defendants were in “an organization” when Judge Rosini asked, “do you have proof of that organization?”
“The commonwealth hasn’t presented an iota of evidence to support the claims made by Mr. O’Donnell.”
James Best, Sunbury attorney representing defendant Celeste Legere
The Monday afternoon ended on a slightly hopeful note for the defendants and their supporters as some of Judge Rosini’s final remarks seemed to cast doubt on the prosecution’s demonization of the two women as violent threats who could strike again at any time if let out of jail:
“This is exponentially more than is set for people who hurt people… How is $150,000 a reasonable bail for someone who hasn’t hurt people?…This is a property crime…. Who are they at risk of hurting?”
Judge Paige Rosini at November 4, 2024 bail hearing for Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano
The hearing ended with Judge Rosini saying she would read additional letters of support for the defendants that had been submitted and make a decision in the coming days. Later that week, Legere and Mitrano were each allowed to post 10 percent cash of their $150,000 bail – an option not available prior to Judge Rosini’s decision after the bail hearing.
Both were released without GPS monitoring or home confinement conditions, and allowed to leave Pennsylvania on the condition that they check in with Northumberland County probation twice a month. Rosini also nullified a no-contact order between the defendants, another request by the defense made on the grounds that they need to coordinate a mutual defense and are engaged.
“My client is grateful to the court for recognizing that she is not a danger,” Legere’s attorney James Best told the Daily Item. “She looks forward to returning to her community while she fights these charges.” District Attorney O’Donnell complained that Rosini’s decision “downplays the nature of this crime.” Fur Commission USA, an industry lobby group paying close attention to the case, circulated a statement claiming that “granting reduced bail”“only emboldens extremist activists.”
Stahl & Sons Fur Farm Previously Targeted by Animal Liberation Front
Located in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, just off of State Route 890, the Richard H. Stahl & Sons mink farm was founded in 1955 and currently has 7 employees with an annual revenue of $298,790, according to business directory information. The October 19 incident for which Legere and Mitrano are charged is not the first time the Stahl family’s mink pelt facility been targeted — it was previously raided in 2023 by animal liberationists who freed between 6,000 and 8,000 mink.
While the exact details of Stahl & Sons’ operations are not public, it’s estimated to kill thousands of mink each year. Mink raised for fur generally do not live to see their first birthday and are typically killed one of three ways — being gassed with carbon dioxide, getting beaten to death and/or having their neck snapped, or being electrocuted.
The Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
Images of the facility taken on November 4, 2024 show that in addition to the dozen or so large pens containing mink cages, numerous additional new rows of pens are under construction.
The Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. mink fur farm as seen from PA State Route 890.
Local media has repeatedly quoted statements branding Legere, Mitrano and the wider animal rights movement as “terrorists” and “domestic extremists” by the Fur Commission USA, a 501(c)6 nonprofit that pushes the mink industry’s interests. Corporate-owned news in Northumberland County and Pennsylvania has thus far failed to note a conflict of interest regarding the entity’s advocacy in this case: Mark Stahl of the Richard H. Stahl Sons Inc. mink farm is the Secretary of Fur Commission USA, according to 2024 IRS records.
Fur Industry In Decline
Mink farming has long been a priority target of the Animal Liberation Front as well as those seeking more humane treatment of animals generally. Banned in 20 countries but not in the USA, fur farms confine mink — semi-solitary aquatic predators who roam miles in a day in the wild — to crowded rows of small, often unhygienic cages not much larger than the size of their body. Mink routinely injure themselves in confinement by fighting with each other or biting and scratching on their cages until they bleed and their teeth and claws break.
“Fur farming takes place in a high-density animal environment that allows for rapid spread of viruses with pandemic potential—and for virus adaptation to animals that would be unlikely to occur in nature. This is particularly true for normally solitary, undomesticated carnivores, such as mink… mink, more so than any other farmed species, pose a risk for the emergence of future disease outbreaks and the evolution of future pandemics.”
Between 2017 and 2022 over half the fur farms in the US closed and the value of mink pelts declined by 68 percent, according to the Humane Society. Some fur farmers hope that these strong downturns will be offset by increased demand for furs from Russia and China.
Despite the escalating legal repression of animal rights activists in the post-9/11 era, activists who support direct action against the fur industry believe that they can push it further towards collapse. While it remains to be seen if the allegations against Celeste Legere and Cara Mitrano will hold up in court, their supporters say they are dedicated to helping them beat the case and stay free.
Cover image composition, photography and additional contributions by Dan Feidt. Mink element in cover via Dzīvnieku brīvība on YouTube.
“Fuck this shit”
Seen on an ad for The Linden, a Luxury Apartment building located across the street from Clark Park in West Philadelphia. Majority of the units and every store are currently vacant because the monthly rent is triple what the rest of the neighborhood is. No one in this neighborhood could afford to live here..it is also located right next door to a low income public health clinic.
Early this morning, 17 windows were smashed and messages were left.
📣We are calling for artists and culture workers for our upcoming Artist Town Hall on Monday, November 18! This seasonal program has invited many artists in our community to come together to share their latest projects, make a pitch, and exchange resources. This iteration of the Town Hall invites BIPOC, Palestinian, and SWANA artists whose practice or current projects engage restorative justice and anti-oppression efforts.
Artists that join the Town Hall will share their work alongside two invited presenters, including Tafari Robertson (@tafaridiop) from the Memory Workers’ Guild (MWG) and theater director Zaina Yasmin Dana (@zainaydana). We hope to spark conversation and collaboration of artists and culture workers across anti-apartheid, abolition, and restorative justice movements.
Check out the link in our bio to learn more about this event and sign up to pitch your work 🔗 @asianartsphilly
Cara and Celeste, “the Northumberland 2”, were arrested after a mink raid at a fur farm. They were held on multiple charges, including felony eco-terrorism. On the 9th of November, their bail review changed as the judge accepted 10% bail (from 150k each to 15k each) and they are both out of jail after 3 weeks locked up. Despite the reduction of bail conditions, they are still facing multiple charges including felonies, which will ensure a lot of court dates ahead.
They are going to need a lot of support, even now when they are out of jail. The legal costs will start piling up very fast, and it is only through solidarity that we can ensure Cara and Celeste are supported and have the best chance at remaining free.
We have an art fundraiser in the pipeline, but for now, please head to Philly ABC’s donor box and donate a couple of coins to support them through the legal battle!
We see a lot of people celebrating when anonymous reports are published. It is time now to be as loud as possible about support. Regardless of their innocence, showing up for anyone who is facing the law means we are telling everybody the movement has their back if they ever get into trouble.
Anarcho-Feminist Tech group meeting up at O.R.C.A. Monday 11/18 7-10pm
Data Care is a coworking group that comes together to independently work on deleting files, tightening digital security, troubleshooting & researching. Bring your own project, spitball with other nerds.
A few of us will be working on deleting extraneous internet accounts & burning gmail.
Cara and Celeste are out of jail! Thanks to the support of many friends around the world, they each received dozens of letters and books while incarcerated. Despite a significant reduction in bail restrictions, they are still facing 14 charges including multiple felonies and have many court dates ahead.
There is a long legal battle ahead which will require funds for attorney costs, travel to court, possible fines or court fees, and many other expenses. If you can, please donate and share with friends. Thank you for all your support so far!
From Northumberland 2 Defense Committee:
Two friends have been arrested and are being held on multiple felony and misdemeanor charges. Cara and Celeste are being held on $150,000 bail each. We are fundraising to pay their bail, for lawyers and legal fees including the cost of their ankle monitors, housing, transportation and other associated unanticipated costs related to legal repression.
Our two friends are accused of freeing hundreds of minks from a fur farm in PA. This farm kills tens of thousands of minks every season. The Fur Commission USA has launched an aggressive media campaign targeting and doxing our friends. One of our friends is being targeted with transphobic violence in jail. They are being held in solitary confinement, subjected to transphobic threats, and restricted from accessing phone except during limited hours.
Cara and Celeste are deeply caring people who frequently volunteer distributing food, clothing, and supplies to their communities. Cara also volunteers for a bike cooperative in MA, supporting people who need access to transportation in getting free bikes.
West Philadelphia, PA – An event at the OneArt community center is raising funds to assist with medical costs for Dhrouba Bin Wahad. Formerly a leader in the Black Panther Party who also co-founded the Black Liberation Army (BLA), Wahad was convicted in 1973 for his alleged role in the attempted murder of two NYPD officers in Harlem in 1971. In 1975, evidence emerged that he was a target of the FBI’s COINTELPRO program, which targeted many Black radical leaders, among others, across the US. Wahad’s conviction would be overturned in 1990 by the New York Supreme Court when it emerged that the prosecution in his case had hidden exculpatory evidence that could have helped his defense at trial.
Catch Unicorn Riot’s livestream of the event below:
