Victory in Noche Diaz Case

February 1, 2016 | Revolution Newspaper | revcom.us

Noche Diaz.
Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution

Noche Diaz entered Manhattan Criminal Court January 27 facing four criminal charges and several violations arising from New York City protests in August and November 2014 in response to the killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Noche could have been sent to Rikers Island—the huge NYC prison notorious for brutal treatment of prisoners—for up to two years if convicted.
Noche and supporters from the Revolution Club, the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, and other organizations were ready for a trial. Instead, the district attorney dropped all the criminal charges and Noche pleaded guilty to one violation.
When the judge asked him if he wished to speak before sentencing, Noche took the courtroom back to the time in 2014 when cries for justice ringing out from Ferguson shook the earth. He was surrounded by extra court officers gathered behind as he faced the judge, the prosecutors staring at him.
Noche spoke in a loud, clear, firm voice as the full courtroom got quiet: “We have seen dragged into the light a bloody epidemic of police, all over this country, carrying out murder after murder, especially of Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, and other oppressed people. Yet over this same period of time, we still see, all across the land, prosecutors and courts and grand juries refuse to even bring charges or put on trial, let alone convict, the police who carry out this murder.”
His allocution (formal statement by a defendant before a court) lasted several minutes, as people awaiting appearances—almost completely Black and Latino—were murmuring, snapping, yelling “yeah!” As Noche finished, the judge asked, somewhat incredulously, “You’re saying you did not commit a crime?” He replied, “I did not commit a crime. I committed the violation of blocking traffic!”
Applause and some laughter rang out. Although court officers jumped to tell the crowd to be quiet, there was jubilation in the air. Noche would not have to go through a trial, and he had made a defiant statement. People in the room said they had never heard anything like this before in court and felt Noche was speaking for them in calling out police terror and mass incarceration.
Outside the court later, Noche read his allocution. He spoke of others around the country and in the crowd facing trials for protests during #RiseUpOctober and said that “nothing for the oppressed has ever been won without struggle, and that struggle has always had to come up against attacks from the authorities who carry out that oppression. To advance and win anything, that repression is going to have to be met, and more, to actually win anything and put an end to it, people are going to need revolutionary leaders who bring them a real way out. That’s what I’ve been doing ever since I got connected up with Bob Avakian and the science, the strategy, and leadership for an actual revolution to bring this system down... and to replace this system with something that’s emancipatory for people.” He invited everyone to come Sunday, January 31, to the important meeting on the Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA.
Noche was sentenced to 10 days of community service, with no criminal record. For days before this victory, supporters had been writing and calling the district attorney, demanding that the charges be dropped. Many pointed out that the NYPD cop who killed Eric Garner in 2014 has not done a minute in jail, having not even been charged, while Noche has been arrested twice in nonviolent protests against the killing of Garner and Mike Brown.

Noche and supporters outside the court. Photo: Special to revcom.us/Revolution

This outpouring from supporters—including clergy, academics and professionals as well as activists—was part of a struggle lasting 17 months. When thousands of dollars were required to bail him out after the November 2014 arrest, people ran to ATMs to quickly donate enough to keep the court from transferring him to the dangerous jail at Rikers Island. Many showed up for court appearances, signed petitions, and invited Noche to speak as part of politically defending him.
The legal battle went through some twists. As it is a defendant’s right to know what evidence the state has against him, Noche’s lawyers filed motions for discovery, seeking to expose what surveillance by the NYPD or other law enforcement had been carried out on Noche and the political movement to stop police terror. In response, the city quietly dropped some of the charges against Noche, but brought new charges, saying eight months after the fact that he had touched a cop. But they never did answer the discovery motion. Particularly after TheIntercept.com published NYPD documents in August 2015 showing surveillance of the Stop Mass Incarceration Network, it is outrageous that the city, up until the day the trial was scheduled, refused to reveal this information.

January 27, 2016

Allocution to the Court, Noche Diaz:

Looking back to the time of my arrest, August 2014, something very old was giving birth to something new. Michael Brown was another unarmed Black youth gunned down by this system’s authorities, another addition to the body count in the centuries old oppression of Black people in America. But the defiant rebellion of the youth, which would catch fire across the land, ushered in new waves of resistance to this oppression not seen in far too long.
The cries for justice ringing out from a little town called Ferguson shook the earth. It was the responsibility of every person with a moral conscience and heart for justice to make sure they knew their cries were heard. And since this time, we have seen dragged into the light a bloody epidemic of police, all over this country, carrying out murder after murder, especially of Black people, Latinos, Native Americans, and other oppressed people. Yet over this same period of time, we still see, all across the land, prosecutors and courts and grand juries refuse to even bring charges or put on trial, let alone convict, the police who carry out this murder—all while people who protest these injustices face charges and are accused of all sorts of crimes.
I COMMITTED NO CRIME. What I DID do, going back to August 14, 2014, is attend a vigil for Michael Brown. I took silence to defiance when I led a march of hundreds, which became nearly 2,000, into the streets and straight to the heart of Times Square. The normal hustle and bustle which usually marks the passage of “business as usual” was punctuated when I, along with those 2,000 or so, filled the streets of Times Square and brought traffic to a halt, thus blocking traffic.
At this point the judge interjected: “Are you saying you did not commit a crime?”
Noche replied: “I did not commit a crime, I committed the violation of blocking traffic!”