{"id":3451,"date":"2026-07-06T04:26:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3451"},"modified":"2026-07-06T04:26:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-06T08:26:32","slug":"show-trial-a-punishment-for-solidarity-itself","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/?p=3451","title":{"rendered":"Show Trial: A Punishment For Solidarity Itself"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/p>\n

In an act deemed \u201cgoing apeshit against enemies of the Reich,\u201d <\/em>two judges just levied brutal prison sentences of 30 to 100 years<\/em>, a combined penance of 450 years, on eight anti-ICE members of a scary if imaginary \u201cNorth Texas Antifa cell\u201d convicted of terrorist-abetting \u201ccrimes\u201d like protesting, lighting fireworks and moving a box of zines. The case, widely seen as a test of regime efforts to criminalize dissent or any unwelcome speech, moved one defendant to muse, \u201cWhat kind of people are not against fascism<\/a>?\u201d<\/p>\n

The grievous injustice against the group, dubbed The Prairieland Defendants for the ICE concentration camp they were protesting, comes amidst almost daily court victories elsewhere against the regime. Last week, three key rulings<\/a> in federal district courts saw judges strike down administration election meddling, abuses against immigrants and, in a blistering <\/a>29-page decision, \u201cblatantly unlawful and unethical use\u201d of a grand-jury subpoena targeting Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz<\/a>. To date, there have been at least 272 wins <\/a>against Trump, several from judges he appointed; after one especially irksome loss, Stephen Goebbels memorably whined, <\/a>\u201cJudge Sparkle (sic) decrees that America belongs to any random alien on Planet Earth.\u201d <\/p>\n

Faced with mounting losses in other endeavors – wars, pools, polls – more regime lackeys are also getting testy. Newly back from having a baby but still hyper-toxic, Press Barbie went on Hannity to shriek<\/a> about \u201cderanged leftists desecrating our federal monuments\u201d with algae: \u201cOnly the Democrats could hate beautifying our Capitol.\u201d Of six people arrested for \u201cvandalism\u201d – more than for raping minors – many are \u201clongtime donors to the Democrat Party,\u201d who \u201ccompletely destroyed our country,\u201d also to \u201cBarack Hussein Obama\u201d and, gasp, ACTBlue. <\/em>With fear-mongering truly all they\u2019ve got, Hannity joined in on Dem \u201cradicals…You\u2019ve got Mr. Nazi Tattoo Platner, and six-gender, God-is-non-binary Talarico, and Pocahontas, and Mamdani…\u201d<\/p>\n

Amidst a \u201crolling coup\u201c<\/a> in an increasingly fascist America, where threats from the left have always loomed larger than on the right and today\u2019s despots cling frantically to a power they somehow know is illegitimate, it\u2019s little wonder principled citizens protesting vulnerable brown people being locked up in concentration camps have become<\/a> \u201dthe new Red Scare.\u201c It\u2019s helpful to remember that everything earlier autocrats did – Hitler, Stalin, Pinochet – was legal; they just changed the rules to do it. \u201dThis is Soviet shit,\u201c wrote one observer, summoning the terror of Stalin\u2019s staged show trials in the 1930s to eliminate most of Lenin\u2019s staff and other \u201dsaboteurs,\u201c from Bukharin to, via pickaxe, Trotsky exiled in Mexico; in the end, only \u201dStalin the Executioner\u201c remained.<\/p>\n

The \u201clegal,\u201d in Trump\u2019s case, was last year\u2019s menacing national security directive \u201cNSPM-7: Countering Domestic Terrorism and Organized Political Violence,\u201d which explicitly declared<\/u><\/a> a fictional Antifa – in fact any American who opposes fascism, supports the rule of law<\/a> and uses their First Amendment<\/a> rights to defend it – a \u201cMAJOR TERRORIST ORGANIZATION\u201d and \u201cSICK, DANGEROUS, RADICAL LEFT DISASTER,\u201d whether \u201cit exists <\/a>or not.\u201d Prairieland, the first case successfully brought under NSPM-7, tests the state\u2019s ability to quell dissent by perceived \u201cenemies,\u201d and could shape a future playbook<\/u><\/a> for using the Antifa label – and \u201ccreative and highly theoretical claims by the state\u201d – as \u201ca catchall designation to criminalize activists writ large.\u201d<\/p>\n

The surreal sentences inflicted<\/a> this week on eight mostly non-violent Prairieland activists came three months after their convictions <\/a>on terrorism and other charges stemming from last year’s July 4 protest at the for-profit Prairieland Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. The action began as a noise demonstration, a typically safe, festive event where fireworks are set off “to remind people inside they are not forgotten.” That day, it devolved into vandalism – of cars, a guard shack, a security camera – by several protesters. Some brought guns – a red flag to many activists, but common in open-carry Texas where queer or trans people can face armed counter-protesters. When one cop drew his weapon, a protester in the nearby woods shot him in the shoulder.<\/p>\n

At trial, eight defendants – Autumn Hill, Zachary Evetts, Benjamin Hanil Song, Savanna Batten, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Elizabeth Soto, and Daniel Rolando Sanchez-Estrada – were convicted<\/a> of rioting and explosive charges, and “providing material support to terrorists.” They are much like protesters anywhere: teachers, engineers, tattoo artists, animal-lovers, anti-ICE advocates, parents, straight, queer, trans, vegan. Some had organized the action together, some produced anarchist zines and belonged to a book club named for anarchist Emma Goldman, who 99 years ago this month was arrested on conspiracy charges<\/a> for organizing against the First World War draft; some were members of a Socialist gun club; some weren’t even at the protest. <\/p>\n

From the outset, the regime played hardball. The DOJ called them \u201cmembers of a North Texas Antifa cell\u201c; the indictment said <\/a>Antifa “is a militant enterprise made up of networks of individuals and small groups primarily ascribed to a revolutionary anarchist or autonomous Marxist ideology.\u201d They were held on multimillion-dollar bonds in squalid jail cells, denied medical care, frequently strip-searched; two trans women were held – unsafely, illegally<\/a> – in men’s facilities. State agents ransacked homes, detained children, used flash-bang grenades to intimidate, went after anyone in their political orbit, often unearthing new charges. It was, one defendant said, “a nightmare<\/a> made real…seeing the prosecution jump from lie to lie,” abuse to abuse.<\/p>\n

The case became a sinister “laboratory”<\/a> where constitutionally protected free speech and civil disobedience became “rioting” and solidarity became “conspiracy.” Fireworks were \u201cexplosives,” a home where friends gathered a “staging area,” black clothing and the use of encrypted Signal a way “to aid and abet those engaged in illegal acts.” A home printer became “a printing press” producing<\/a> “insurrectionary materials” – anti-fascist zines, handouts of “8 Things You Can Do To Stop ICE,” packets of vegetable seeds, poems, patches, bumper stickers of swastikas X-ed out and \u201cZines Are Not A Crime.” A teacher had home-made first aid kits he used to bring to school in case of a shooting; feds used their presence as evidence protesters had planned violence.<\/p>\n

The shocking sentencing hearings were held by two judges, one each appointed by Bush and Trump, in two Fort Worth courtrooms. They were inexplicably scheduled even before either judge heard long-filed motions<\/a> to overturn convictions in a trial, lawyers argued, “saturated with evidence designed to evoke fear, political bias, and guilt by association” and widely deemed “untethered from credible evidence or witness testimony.” Prosecutors folded <\/a>into the case people who didn’t help plan the protest, weren’t there, or left when police asked them to. An attorney for Hill cited no evidence they believed in violence; Hill was so conscientious they stayed after the fireworks went off to pick up trash left behind; she still got a 50-year sentence.<\/p>\n

The case ostensibly centered on the alleged attempted murder of the cop shot in the shoulder. Marine Corps reservist Benjamin “Champagne” Song said they were in the woods and fired “a warning shot” to distract the cop when he drew his gun on another protester; citing Renee Good and Alex Pretti, Song said, \u201cI never want to see good people, standing for what they believe in, gunned down.” Song charges the state is imposing “collective punishment, guilt by association” on other activists, and the facts of the shooting remain unclear; feds first said<\/a> there were multiple shooters and rounds fired, then said<\/a> they have no medical records from the hospital where the cop was reportedly quickly released. Still, Song was given<\/a> a 100-year sentence.<\/p>\n

Batten, Evetts, Hill, Morris, and Soto each got 50 years for rioting, providing support to terrorists, and conspiracy to use an explosive ie: attending a loud protest. Said Soto, trying to laugh, “I guess they didn’t like my book club.” Rueda was sentenced to 70 years for also conspiring to “conceal documents” by asking her husband Sanchez-Estrada, not at the protest, to remove a box of zines from their house. “Being guilty of possessing literature is a concept fundamentally incompatible with a free society,” said <\/a>one advocate. “We don\u2019t need a constitutional right to possess only what the government likes.” Sanchez-Estrada got a 30-year sentence for moving the box. “I am a father, a husband, a teacher, a poet,” he told the judge. “I am many things, Your Honor, but I am not a terrorist.”<\/p>\n

Many observers noted all<\/em> the sentences were far harsher <\/a>than those handed down to Jan. 6 rioters – who were then pardoned – or even the longest <\/a>sentences for murder or rape – this, though prosecutors offered almost no evidence of the alleged crimes. And despite their obsession with the lethal threat posed by imaginary Antifa forces, even the judges questioned the need to mention “antifa” to jurors, who in turn seemed to reject Judge Reed O\u2019Connor’s narrative of “an ambush” and “assault on democracy” by acquitting everyone but Song of attempted murder. One legal expert said that fortuitous rejection underscored how easily prosecutors can fashion or twist the law to create a “conspiracy”; said one attorney, \u201cPeople should be scared.”<\/p>\n

In total, 22 people have been charged in connection with the Prairieland protest. Five others took<\/a> plea deals, another five have state charges pending, three more were indicted last month. Regime lackeys have gleefully touted their rare victory, with a hyperbolic DOJ press release blaring, “Leader of Antifa Cell Members Sentenced to 100 Years in Prison for Terrorist Attack on ICE Facility.” After the trial, Pam Bondi gloated <\/a>they’d taken down “Antifa” – repeated 16 times – to “finally halt their violence on America’s streets.” After sentencing, Todd Blanche celebrated <\/a>the regime’s “swift and uncompromising justice.” Of villainous Antifa, he crowed, “Their violent extremism has no place in our country,” presumably because only the fascist kind <\/a>does.<\/p>\n

As young activists mull lives stolen – and tenuously bank on appeals or pardons – their family, friends, supporters <\/a>voice horror at \u201cthe absolute travesty\u201d of the lies that led to their convictions and sentences. \u201cWe\u2019ve fallen so far so fast it\u2019s nose-bleed inducing,\u201d said one. Another insisted, “The outcome of this trial is not the end. It is the beginning.” Autumn Hill\u2019s wife Lydia Koza said she is “livid <\/a>in the face of this grotesque distortion of anything that could ever have called itself due process…There is no \u2018appropriate\u2019 sentence for a wholly fictitious crime.” On their loved ones “being thrown away for the rest of their lives,” one noted the regime’s own actions “have proved the righteousness of their actions…This sentencing is a punishment for solidarity itself.”<\/p>\n

Finally, from Flying Penguin,<\/a> a grim reminder the Prairieland fates mirror that of too many in a nation and world whose history is rife with ‘other righteous “crimes”: BLM protesters, Black Panthers, AIM activists, civil rights<\/a> marchers, union workers<\/a>, \u201cyour huddled masses yearning to breathe free.\u201d To wit: “Today\u2019s news is Andrew Jackson,<\/a> ordering Congress to criminalize antislavery speech. Today\u2019s news is Stalin\u2019s Article 58<\/a>, where \u2018anti-Soviet agitation\u2019 was a crime that meant whatever it needed to. Today’s news is the McCarthy-era ruling<\/a> that upheld the conviction of Americans for organizing and teaching political theory.Today’s news is South Africa\u2019s 1967 Terrorism Act, <\/a>making terrorism anything that endangers ‘law and order.’ Today\u2019s news is Trump and a white police state.” Warns Sanchez-Estrada, “People need to be aware – it\u2019s not just the defendants on trial.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ClockwDefendants Defendants clockwise from top left: Estrada-Sanchez; Song and Gibson; Hill and Koza; Batten; Sanchez; Elizabeth and Ines Soto; Morris and Hill <\/small>Composite Image from Dallas-Fort Worth Support Committee <\/small><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In an act deemed \u201cgoing apeshit against enemies of the Reich,\u201d two judges just levied brutal prison sentences of 30 to 100 years, a combined penance of 450 years, on eight anti-ICE members of a scary if imaginary \u201cNorth Texas Antifa cell\u201d convicted of terrorist-abetting \u201ccrimes\u201d like protesting, lighting fireworks and moving a box of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"registered_only","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45],"tags":[742],"class_list":["post-3451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ciencia-y-tecnologia","tag-vr-news-net"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3451\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vr-news.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}