The Story (So Far) of the Trayvon 2.

1) The Trayvon 2, Hannibal Shakur (Lamar Caldwell) and Tanzeen Doha are two local activists being prosecuted for protests last July against the George Zimmerman not-guilty verdict in the murder of Trayvon Martin. According to the San Jose Mercury News, they are the only two people being prosecuted in relation to the July protests.

2) They are being railroaded through the judicial system on false charges of felony vandalism of a window. Why? Because they are Muslim and they speak out against racist injustice, and because of their past activism against racism and imperialism. Tanzeen worked actively on questions of race, religion, and colonialism at UC Davis and other universities like San Francisco State and San Jose State. Hannibal was active in the protests around Oscar Grant’s 2009 murder by BART police.
3) The case against them is full of irregularities already and they are still just in the pre-trial phase. Hannibal and Tanzeen were initially charged separately, Tanzeen only with a misdemeanor. Oddly, they were made co-defendants well after the arrest. They were arrested on the spurious charge of felony vandalism.

4) The state has been dragging its feet since August on these totally false charges, maximizing the impact of this lengthy prosecution on the lives of Tanzeen (who is a husband and father) and Hannibal (who is battling cancer). One week, the prosecution even forgot the court date!

5) The state is acting like it has something to hide. And at the last court date, they asked for another continuance because the arresting officer has not responded to repeated subpoena attempts. Then, something really unusual happened: The judge had to issue a warrant for the arresting officer.

These young men are entitled to a speedy trial and they should not be prosecuted on such flimsy evidence. Why is the state dragging this out? Why is the state avoiding presenting its evidence? Why won’t the officer answer the subpoenas? The police and prosecutor are trying to stretch this out to maximize the level of inconvenience and the problems these two men face.

The Trayvon 2 are being charged with felony vandalism of a window, an outrageous charge designed to arrest activists found anywhere near a broken window. Clearly, the DA is using the threat of non-existent evidence to force these young activists to admit to something they did not do.

We’ve seen the state targeting activists in this way before.The only reason the state and its white supremacist allies have failed is because the resolve of oppressed people has been stronger than the resolve of the oppressive state.