We will likely learn the identity of two more Austin Police Department undercover officers, but meanwhile the Gulf Port 7 still face serious state prison sentences thanks to felony “criminal instrument charges” — and these charges are now spreading to activists at the Tar Sands Blockade. From my report on Firedoglake:
The seven activists, who came from Occupy groups in Austin, Dallas and Houston, linked their bodies with lockboxes (or ‘sleeping dragons’). As a result, they were charged with using a criminal instrument, an obscure state felony unused since the days of Deep Throat (the pornography, not the informant) when it was invented to prosecute projectionists. The pre-trial hearing continues October 31st, where the names of the two Austin Police Department officers that worked alongside Detective Shannon G Dowell are expected to be revealed. Although the Occupy movment will be better informed about its infiltrators and their methods, seven of its members face prison time in one of the country’s worst state prisons.
