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Activist imprisoned after speaking truth to power

Published Jun 3, 2012 9:19 PM

Many can be found in courtrooms across the country nervous and withdrawn, reluctant to speak their minds. It’s no wonder: they’ve been targeted and victimized their entire lives, many stopped and frisked since they were children.

But this is the year of the activist. This is the year when people are looking to their left and right and seeing others standing up. It’s giving courage to many that before did not recognize their power.

Occupy Wall Street activist Christina Gonzalez embodied just such power and courage when she called Judge John H. Wilson a “racist white pig” after he ordered her arrest in a Brownsville, Brooklyn, courtroom.

Gonzalez was in court for a civil disobedience arrest on Nov. 1, 2011, after protesting New York City’s Stop and Frisk policy. She had been escorted out of the courtroom earlier that day after asking the court clerk a question regarding her lawyer, who was unable to be present that day. Unaware that she was not supposed to reenter, she came back into the courtroom when her case was called.

When Judge Wilson demanded an apology from Gonzalez, she refused, saying that in good conscience she could not apologize. Judge Wilson then held her in contempt of court and ordered her arrest. She served a 10-day sentence at Riker’s Island.

A man recording the incident was also handcuffed, and court employees later deleted the content of the interaction. Gideon Oliver, president of the National Lawyer’s Guild’s New York City chapter, said, “Even if he violated the rule which prohibits filming in the courtroom, unless he consented, or officers had a warrant, it sounds like the court employees were overreaching.” (Gothamist, May 15)

Gonzalez’s comment was not unwarranted. In 2006, Judge Wilson penned an anti-immigration children’s book entitled “Hot House Flowers,” which depicts illegal immigrants as dandelions that use up water, soil and sunlight to the detriment of the native flowers in the hot house. The book claims the dandelions need to be “weeded out.” Critics of “Hot House Flowers” say it teaches xenophobia.

Matthew Swaye, a fellow defendant in the Stop Stop and Frisk cases, describes Judge Wilson as “the face of mass incarceration.”

Gonzalez says she was inspired by Bobby Constantino, who was arrested after protesting a court verdict against Stop and Frisk protesters earlier this month. After Judge Robert Mandelbaum declared all 20 defendants guilty of disorderly conduct, Constantino put his hands behind his head and proclaimed that he did not agree with the decision. He remained in the courtroom until he was arrested. Constantino even spray painted the pillars of City Hall in Manhattan with hands and the words “NYPD Keep Your Hands Off Me.” His full story can be found on his blog at http://cityintrouble.blogspot.com.

On May 17, Gonzalez was released from Riker’s Island, where she says she spent the week with some amazing women. She is still in good spirits while enjoying time with family and loved ones.