CANADIAN ANARCHIST MOVEMENT-CALGARY:

SOLIDARITY WITH 'SPLITTING THE SKY' AND MIKHAIL MILLER:

Things have been hopping this past month up Cowtown way (stampede,stampede). First Georgie Bush's attempt to pad his wallet by a speaking engagement (did this sort of nonsense ever happen before Clinton-Molly), drew an enthusiastic crew of fools willing to shell out an astronomical price to see him stumble through a speech and an equally enthusiastic crew of protesters who thought that he was the war criminal that he is, perish the thought. Then, perhaps emboldened by the visit of what must be one of their heroes, neo-nazis attempted to hold a rally in downtown Calgary a few days after. The inevitable punch-up occurred as the nazis (the Aryan Guard) were confronted by anti-racist protesters who outnumbered them 10 to 1.

Well, as per usual, there were the usual slates of arrests. The following from the Calgary Anarchist Black Cross calls for your solidarity with two of the arrestees.

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support campaigns for splitting the sky and Mikhail Miller:

Calgary ABC is announcing two new support campaigns.
Splitting The Sky

On March 17 Splitting The Sky (also known as John Boncore) was arrested in Calgary for attempting to serve former U.S. President George W. Bush with a warrant for war crimes. He was charged with "obstructing a peace officer" and has been released on a $500 surety. Splitting The Sky intends to fight the charges.

ABC Calgary is committed to helping splitting the sky through acts of solidarity and financial assistance.
More information on splitting the sky can be found on his blog and wikipedia page.
Mikhail Miller

Mikhail Miller is an anti-racism activist who participated in the March 21 Anti-Racist Action demonstration against the Aryan Guard in Calgary. Although Mikhail has not been charged with any crime, he has been issued with $887 in bylaw tickets and fines. It is common practice in Calgary for the police to 'ticket to death' activists they wish to harass. Mikhail is committed to fighting the ticket charges.

ABC Calgary will be assisting Mikhail financially for his lawyer fees to fight his bylaw charges.
For further details on these campaigns or ABC Calgary please contact ABC Calgary at abc-calgary@anarchistservices.ca

SURVEILLANCE--JUST THE FACTS:

The following interesting statistics were recently published on the webpage of the Calgary Anarchist Black Cross. Seems that video surveillance cameras may not make you as "safe" as you think....

*number of surveillance cameras the city of Calgary plans to install as a pilot project to help "reduce crime"
24
*estimated cost of this pilot project to Calgary taxpayers, in dollars
500,000
*rank of Britain amongst the 'most surveilled nations in the world' according to privacy international
1
*number of times the average Londoner is photographed by a closed circuit tv (cctv) surveillance camera in one day
300
*number of Britons for every cctv camera in that country
14
*year in which the British home office commissioned the "gill report" to study the effectiveness of cctv's in reducing crime
2007
*number of the 13 sample areas studied in the gill report that showed a decrease in crime
6
*number of those decreases in crime that was deemed to be statistically significant and attributable to cctvs
1
*number of the 13 sample areas studied in the gill report that showed a increase in crime
7
*number of police surveillance cameras installed by San Francisco in 2006 to help "reduce the murder rate" in that city
68
*cost to taxpayers of the San Francisco surveillance camera program, in us dollars
900,000
*number of convictions secured by surveillance camera footage in San Francisco since 2006
1
*number of those convictions that was for a homicide
0
*year with the highest homicide rate in San Francisco's history
2007
*maximum reduction in crime possible by the installation of cctvs in Britain, according to a 2005 Narco study, in percent
5
maximum reduction in crime possible by the installation of better street lighting, according to the same Narco study

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