Ä [16] TALK.POLITICS.DRUGS (1:375/48) ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ TALK.POLITICS.DRUGS Ä Msg : #5705 [240] From : The S.F. Go Club 1:2613/335 Thu 05 May 94 19:57 To : (crosspost 1) All Subj : Armed Self-Defense in San Francisco ÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄÄ From: sfgoclub@netcom.com (The S.F. Go Club) Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest) Last October 27th two strangers attacked me as I was driving a munipal bus in San Francisco. One, a young man of 21 who was built like a boxer, struck me repeatedly in the face with his fists. Fortunately my glasses fell out of the way and I escaped serious injury. He and his partner left the bus and walked away briskly into Golden Gate Park. I stepped out the front door to get some fresh air and to clear my head. My attacker, who was about 45 yards away, turned and shouted, "Oh, so you want some more, huh ?" He ran back with the evident intention of jumping me again. When he got close I pulled out of my hip pocket a .25 caliber Beretta 'Jet- fire' and showed it to him, pointing the barrel to the side. He replied, "Shoot me!" and kept on coming while tugging with his left hand on a four foot long dog chain hanging around his neck. I put one round into the ground by his left foot, which he ignored. I then shot him twice near his right knee. This stopped his attack almost instantly; he felt his leg; yelped, "I'm shot!" and ran away vigorously. Since he was still mobile and his partner still in the area I decided to move my bus with its fifteen or so passengers out of the danger zone. I proceeded east on Fulton Street and used the radio telephone to notify Central Control of the fracas. The police arrived soon, arresting me at gun-point and then held me for a couple of hours with my hands cuffed behind me in a squad car until they transferred me to the County Jail. Eighteen hours later a local union officer made the $ 15,000 bail for me. Since then the Municipal Railway, where I have worked as a transit operator since 1981 on diesels, electric trolleys, and metro trains, is trying to fire me and District Attorney Arlo Smith is trying to put me in jail for six months and fine me $ 1000. The regional news media publicized the case heavily. Despite their generally slanderous slant, e.g. KCBS radio's version that 'the operator followed the fleeing passenger off the bus and shot him,' many people called in to offer their support, which I certainly appreciate. I gave a three hour interview to a reporter from the major newspaper, the CHRONICLE, which published on the following Saturday a front page story with only two major errors. I sent them a letter of correction. In the meantime they had apparently suffered some editorial intervention on the issue since they suppressed the letter and instead ran a smear based on unnamed sources. The CHRONICLE has long been notorious as a major embarrassment to the City of San Francisco. I had on several previous occasions denounced its support for the war crimes of the United States Government in Central America and the Middle East. The previous July one of its columnists, a Herbert Caen, had called on its readers to "go beat the MUNI. With a club, if necessary !" Having previous experience with this deceitful, irresponsible hack I protested in writing at that time directly to his employer, one Richard Thieriot, who suppressed the letter. His family shortly thereafter removed Mr. Thieriot from his position as publisher. I had started carrying the pistol in 1982 after a similar attack on the bus which caused me a permanent partial loss of vision in my left eye. The assailant in that case was 6'4" tall, weighed 230 lbs., and was built like an ocean swimmer. I held him for the police and rode the D.A.'s office on the case until the judge gave him six months. The Saturday before last Fall's attack I had gone to the Green Apple Bookstore on Clement Street to hear the famous author & botannist Terence McKenna read from his latest work, TRUE HALLUCINATIONS. I was familiar with his earlier book FOOD OF THE GODS. He had an audience of about fifty, which the staff said was the largest there ever. During the Q&A I pointed out that we in this country are holding about 300,000 people behind bars on dope charges and proposed that we form a Freedom League to establish freedom of diet, abolish neo-Prohibition, free the prisoners and compensate them for their unlawful persecution at the rate of $ 100,000 per year of time served [ 100k p.y. ]. I asked the speaker would he meet with us if enough of the audience were interested in pursuing this project. He agreed and a dozen people signed up and gave their contact data. The next Tuesday I phoned all of them to announce the founding meeting of the Freedom League at New College on Thursday. On Wednesday at noon I faxed Mr. McKenna two pages of plans for the creation of the League, saying that we had an opportune moment for attacking and routing the D.E.A. and its allied repressive forces. Six hours later Mr. Dallas Johnson started swinging. By way of further background I will mention that the previous Winter I had discussed the notion of the League with a neighbor and old friend name Mark Pickens, a militant member of the Libertarian Party and sometime candidate for office on their ticket. In June Mark had started working with the well-known activist Denis Peron to start up a group called Residents Against Prohibition ( "RAP" ) in order to counter a group sponsored by the secret police [ hereafter, "sepo" ] in the neighborhood of Haight & Ashbury Streets called Residents Against Druggies ( "RAD" ) . In 1991 Denis had put on the ballot in San Francisco a measure favoring the medical use of marijuana ( Proposition P ) which had passed with 79% of the vote. Mark thought he was being discreet, staying in the background, keeping his name off the literature and helping with clerical chores like the mailing list. Then one morning in July the CHRONICLE columnist Herbert Caen denounced him by name, saying that he was a nasty fellow and that no one should help him. That same afternoon the vice-squad put a battering ram to his front door, trashed his house, seized both his computers with the mailing list and charged him with possession of marijuana for sale. Another related incident in this pattern took place in early December when Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders responded in public to a question from NORML by saying that perhaps the nation should study the advisability of legalizing drugs [sic] as a way of reducing crime. Within a few days the sepo arrested her son on charges of trafficking in cocaine. Incidentally, as part of the media flap surrounding this remark the second San Francisco paper, the EXAMINER, announced on the front page a call-in survey on the question "Do you favor legalizing drugs [sic] as a way of reducing crime ?" The next day ( 12/10 ) on page 21 they reported the results: In favor 3,149 or 86% and opposed 503 or 14%. Meanwhile the New York TIMES pushes the neo- Prohibitionist line, calling 'legalization' an obvious political impossibility. Somewhere chutzpah crosses over into madness. To come to the present moment, I am still facing jail and the loss of my job . My court-appointed attorney seems to sympathize with the D.A. Can anyone recommend a competent criminal defense lawyer in this area who believes in the right of self-defense ? The first posting of this statement disappeared within two hours, as have several previous efforts of mine. Can anyone advise me on this problem ? -- Hal Womack: Speaking for myself only unless otherwise noted. Contact data= Snail mail to Box 640113/ San FRancisco, CA 94164/ U.S.A. eml to sfgoclub@netcom.com /// tel. 415/ 923 1507. Student of Diego Rivera, Ho Chi Minh, Paul Robeson, Naguib Mahfouz, Shusaku, Madonna & Sgt. York. --- * Origin: COBRUS - Usenet-to-Fidonet Distribution System (1:2613/335.0)