The video above was recorded by Brian and myself yesterday when we decided that it was in our overall best interest to head back to Indiana and turn ourselves into the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Department for our outstanding warrants. Our decision to face these outlandish charges, of criminal mischief, are not due to guilt, or more accurately, that we believe we did any ‘wrong.’ No, we don’t believe that and we’ll both chalk police stations again in the future, that’s for sure.
We’re turning ourselves in simply to end this ordeal as fast as possible and not have to worry about men with guns holding us in cages while the state actors who issued these warrants decide if they’ll come and get us. Hopefully logic will prevail and a judge will drop our case immediately. Or maybe we’ll get lucky and James Baldwin will wake up and drop the charges himself. It doesn’t seem like anyone – us, the city or any of the state actors – are going to “win” anything here. Like most situations with the government it’s a lose, lose scenario. All these public officials (SHOULD) have more important things to do and I know we do, yet, it seems that James and his buddies are willing to let Brian and I occupy up two of the county’s “House of Corrections” beds for as long as six months.
Obviously that’s not exactly what we want to do with our time either, yet, it’s exactly what we’re prepared to do. Our other choice is to bail out but we don’t want to give the state any (more) money. The “court” could let us out on PR bond but then we’d be required to come back periodically for court hearings and be subjected to bail conditions. None of that is appealing to us either especially since we’re in the middle of a cross country tour. So for us it’s simple, since we’re dealing with psychopaths who feel they can cage us at whimp whenever we have an interaction with Law Enforcement, we’re going to take their power away from them. If they really feel that chalk – liquid chalk or otherwise – is what jails were built for and is the best use of taxpayer resources, than I pity them.
We have no desire to dance for the king’s men or provide ourselves with false hopes that “justice” will even be considered, let alone a logical outcome, from today’s “justice system.” Anyone can see that this is not about getting $400 back – because the city was paying those workers anyways and the chalk DIDN’T HAVE to be removed (they choose to remove it because they didn’t like the words) – or that this is holding us accountable for property damaged (after all, it only took WATER to get rid of it) so it has to be about punishing us. And not by bringing us to court in Hamilton County but by having the ability to cage us at whim in the middle of the MAC Tour, which would disrupt our schedule.
We’re not going to let that happen and have decided to simply pause the MAC Tour until the state actors come to their senses. At the most we’ll be in jail for 6 months – max sentence – and as soon as we’re out we’ll not only continue the Tour but kick it back off by chalking the Noblesville Police Department. Until then, feel free to call James Baldwin, the Judge in our case or (if you really want to let them know you disapprove) visit the Noblesville Police Department and exercise your first amendment right with some chalk. You never know, you might even be lucky enough to join us in a jail.
James Baldwin: (317) 776-8595
Hamilton County Jail: (317) 776-9800
We aren’t seeking donations for this caging, yet, if you’d like to support us you can do so by donating to the MAC Tour via the CopBlock.org Store below. We look forward to ending this ordeal as fast as possible and getting back on the road! Until then, remember that “Badges Don’t Grant Extra Rights.”
Get Caught Up on How Chalking Lead to Warrants – See Videos Below
Source Article from http://www.copblock.org/144610/mactour-crew-jail/
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