If you’re not yet aware, Ian Kramer was arrested in August 2019 regarding a skirmish with Antifa on May Day. He’s still in jail awaiting trial as of this post. His public defender, Jason Steen, is in name only. He never gets to talk to him, and Steen’s only suggestion is to plead guilty.
Meanwhile, as a working class defendant, he does not have the means to hire an attorney of his own. Crowdfunding sites will not host a legal defense fund campaign for him either. Antifa militants enforce this embargo, claiming he is a member of a hate group.
He is left coordinating with me, a friend of his going back 25 years, to find some semblance of justice in a city that now seems to be ruled by Antifa paramilitary. The following was written by him January 13, 2020. For more information, check out the Gateway Pundit article, justiceforian.com or reach us at our contact page.
The right to peaceably assemble is under threat – and I am a test case
Peaceable gatherings, no matter how out of vogue or under fire they have become, are a guaranteed right under the Constitution. This also includes, but not limited to, the right not to be physically assaulted while peaceably gathering, protesting or political speech.
Despite the embracing of this new, or rather, old form of discrimination of political rivals by people of power and privilege in this country, the fact remains: discrimination against a group pf people based on their political beliefs remains illegal in the United States under the protection of the Constitution.
Despite what “special interest” groups and other outside influences have on contemporary political trends (like social media), you cannot silence and attack your political rivals in this illegal fashion. Continuing to allow people to act in this destructive fashion strikes at the very heart of the legal framework of the founding of this country. The potential political implications of this will be a domino effect on the future of free speech and the first amendment as a constitutional guarantee.
On May 1st, 2019, a small group of people and myself were peaceably protesting when this group and myself ran into a group of people known as Antifa. The police, although present on the scene in various forms including uniformed, plainclothes and helicopter, did not intervene, which resulted in an escalation of violence. The violence was incited by Antifa, who threw liquid or solid objects/projectiles, as well as spitting on the peaceable assembly. Antifa were drunk and belligerent, having been served alcoholic beverages for the past two or more hours by Abram Goldman-Armstrong at his now defunct tavern “Cider Riot” – a well known meeting place for leftist groups. It has in the past been used by Antifa to train in hand to hand street combat.
The police knew about the fighting but chose not to intervene. The film footage clearly shows Antifa was the aggressor. Antifa, by being drunk and belligerent and acting in this irresponsible manner, set off a chain reaction that led to several violent altercations that day. But because Portland mayor Ted Wheeler and his political allies are sympathetic to Antifa, the police chose to arrest the peaceable group and myself (nearly three months after the fact) instead of any of the instigators of the violence that are Antifa. In a nutshell, I was put in jail for defending myself using nothing more than the tactics that Antifa themselves were using to attack with. I WENT TO JAIL. THEY WENT FREE.
I am presently being denied my procedural due process and I have a liberty interest at stake which was violated when I was arrested. The police, through their dereliction of duty allowed me to be exposed to serious harm. Their actions turned into deliberate indifference and dereliction of duty the minute they failed do enforce the law and protect me. They chose not to act. Officials knew about my exposure to harm and my serious need for intervention from the police and did nothing. Any layperson can recognize the necessity for police intervention in these matters.
In lieu of normal court procedure, and since I’ve been declared a political adversary and persona non grata in the city of Portland, or as judge Angel Lopez deemed me, “a danger to the public” (even though this is my first offense), I find my rights to due process being violated and I also find myself suffering a significant hardship despite my stunning lack of any significant criminal record. The exaggerated response to my detainment and subsequent lack of legal representation, as well as my inability to acquire basic legal motions such as a bail reduction, ankle monitor, etc., shows I’m being singled out for special punishment.
Under equal protection, I should be afforded these rights, or at least be allowed to have someone competently advocate on my behalf for them. But because of the political feeling in Portland at this time, my equal protection and right to due process is under attack by those who cannot see the long term ramifications of their unconstitutional actions and instead are rushing to judgment in the hope of political gain at the cost of their own liberty. In addition to having my equal protection clause violated, the authorities and powers that be have found it fit to not extend my “special punishment” to Antifa by arresting and prosecuting them for their multitude of assaults, battery, destruction of property, etc. they perpetrated on the day of May 1st, 2019. If and when this happens you begin to see this street violence in the form of civil unrest, riot, etc. disappear.
The police failure to intervene contributed to and resulted in deliberate injury and infliction of pain. I was engaging in protected conduct. It is a federal crime for he police to knowingly refuse to intercede between rival factions in the event of a civil disturbance, disorder or riot. The police are obliged to act before the fact and not afterwards. They failed to perform.
The police not having body armor or batons is no excuse to not respond to an emergency situation. And I quote ORS 131.675 Dispersal of Riotous Assemblages:
When any five persons, whether armed or not, are unlawfully assembled in any county, city, town or village, the sheriff of the county and the deputies of the sheriff, the mayor of the city, town or village, or chief executive officer or officers thereof and the justice of the peace of the district where the assemblage takes place or such of them as can forthwith be collected, shall go among the persons assembled, or as near to them as they can with safety, and command them in the name of the State of Oregon to disperse. If so commanded, and they do not immediately disperse, the officers must arrest them or cause them to be arrested; and they may be punished according to the law.
The decision by local, powerful members of government to ignore the legal rights of some of its citizens left unchecked will have long term legal and political ramifications. What the people who are so ready to violate the constitutional rights of a particular class of people fail to realize is this: if they continue down this path of deliberate indifference and willful neglect of the law, it may one day be themselves who are left without due process, constitutional rights or police protection.
My constitutional rights are your constitutional rights. When you rob me of my rights you are condemning yourself to a not so distant future wherein you yourself will become the disenfranchised class given time.
