Social Control – Dark Nights

Opening Arguments and Testimony from Alvarado Officer at Center of Prairieland Case Marks First Day of Landmark Trial Against Nine Defendants (USA)

Posted on 2026/02/25 by darknights

Testimony of Lt. Thomas Gross Undermined Government Arguments that the Noise Protest on July 4, 2025 Was an “Ambush” and “Planned Attack”

FORT WORTH, TX – Opening arguments and testimony from the Alvarado police officer at the center of the controversial Prairieland ICE Detention Center case marked the first day of trial yesterday against nine defendants. The federal government offered no new or compelling arguments in their opening statement and relied heavily on First Amendment-protected activity to make their case. However, during cross-examination, Alvarado police officer Lt. Thomas Gross revealed information that undermines the government’s narrative that the noise demonstration on July 4, 2025 was an “ambush” and that police were the targets of a “planned attack.”

During today’s proceedings, the defense team was able to cross-examine Lt. Gross, who was injured at the scene. This is the first time Gross has spoken publicly since the incident. He described a hectic scene with few details, claiming to see only a small handful of male individuals, despite multiple women defendants in the case.

On cross-examination, Lt. Gross said he spent between 2-4 hours in the hospital before being released, and could not explain why he appears to have been shot from the back despite also claiming to have been facing the person who the government alleges fired at him. Gross could not say who drew their weapon first, but he admitted drawing his weapon without any obvious threat. Gross stated that when he arrived on the scene, there was no alleged criminal activity being committed more serious than “criminal mischief.” In response to questions from defense attorney Phillip Hayes, Gross admitted that he was pointing his firearm at a fleeing person’s back, before encountering the individual holding a rifle. This testimony seemed to contradict the government’s claim that the police were ambushed.
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Jury Selection Begins Monday After Judge Declared Mistrial Last Week in Widely Watched Federal Prairieland ICE Protest Trial (USA)

Posted on 2026/02/23 by darknights

Concerns Grow Over Whether the Prairieland Defendants Can Receive a Fair Trial, Based on Severe Trial Restrictions, Prejudicial Statements at Highest Levels of Government—Press Conference Monday at 8am

FORT WORTH, TX – Nine defendants will proceed to federal trial on Monday in a widely watched case that stems from a July 4, 2025 noise demonstration in support of detained immigrants at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Following a mistrial declared last week by presiding U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman for a defense attorney’s attire featuring civil rights leaders, jury selection is scheduled to begin again on Monday, February 23. The trial is expected to last at least three weeks. Defendants Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Daniel “Des” Rolando Sanchez Estrada, Benjamin “Champagne” Song, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto were indicted in November on a variety of charges including riot, discharging a firearm, attempted murder, material support for terrorism, and conspiracy to conceal documents.

A press conference will be held at the southeast corner of Burke Burnett Park, across the street from the courthouse, on Monday, February 23 at 8am.

Continue reading “Jury Selection Begins Monday After Judge Declared Mistrial Last Week in Widely Watched Federal Prairieland ICE Protest Trial (USA)” →

Repression in Yogyakarta (Indonesia)

Posted on 2026/02/18 by darknights

https://www.gofundme.com/f/PATM-housing-support

Hi, my name is Joe Hill and I’m raising money to help my good friends and comrades in Java, who have been forced from their homes due to their decolonial political and community work – publishing anarchist literature, running anti domestic violence workshops and supporting farmers in land rights struggles.

From PATM Indonesia:

In December 2025, an anarchist organizer and publisher based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, was subjected to intimidation, surveillance, and forced displacement following a series of false accusations spread by involving Indonesian police and immigrationnt authorities. The publisher, PATM (Page Against the Machine), is an independent publisher dedicated to translating Indonesian anarchist and decolonial texts into English for a wider global audience. The latest release, Anarchy in Alifuru: The History of Stateless Societies in the Maluku Islands (written by Bima Satria Putra), was published in the UK on August 2025 by Minor Compositions. Another 3 titles are currently in process, the success of which depends on stability of work and home.

The incident began when a visiting foreign friend, legally present in Indonesia, briefly documented a public mural event commemorating International Human Rights Day. Although the event was not a demonstration—therefore he was having no involvement in any protest—and no laws were violated, he was accused of participating in a “demonstration” and labeled as part of an “international anarchist network.” His passport was confiscated, and both he and his host were subjected to prolonged interrogations by immigration authorities. No allegations were substantiated, and the passport was eventually returned after a couple of days. Continue reading “Repression in Yogyakarta (Indonesia)” →

Italy: “Operation City”, a crackdown on the mobilization against 41bis prison regime in Italy and in solidarity with anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito

Posted on 2026/02/16 - 2026/02/16 by darknights

“Operation City”, a crackdown on the mobilization against 41bis prison regime in Italy and in solidarity with anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito

From October 2022 to April 2023, a strong solidarity movement accompanied the hunger strike of Alfredo Cospito, an anarchist prisoner in 41-bis, the most afflictive prison regime in the Italian penitentiary system, a regime of extreme harshness and isolation, a tomb where one spends 22 hours in a cell, with hardly any possibility to communicate with the outside world (censorship on all communications and with only a one-hour visit per month with a family member or a ten-minute phone call, also a month).

Initiatives, demonstrations, direct actions have marked in Italy, and in many other parts of the globe, the steps of a heterogeneous movement that has grown to give strength to Alfredo’s protest. A protest which not only called for the transfer of Alfredo himself from the 41bis regime but also demanded the abolition of this legalized torture together with that of ostensive life imprisonment i.e., life sentences without the possibility of access to parole or benefits, with which the Italian State as of today condemns almost 1300 prisoners to die in prison.

A government that is strongly characterizing its policy on the tightening and embitterment of laws and sentences, obviously had no problem ignoring, and sometimes mystifying, that struggle that highlighted the State’s torturer’s true face and it certainly would not have given in, if Alfredo, after 6 months of struggle, had not interrupted his hunger strike. But the objectives of protest and mobilization remain on the table of causes worth fighting for. Obviously that same government, which probably would have left our comrade to die of hunger, did not delay in presenting the bill with investigations and trials in various territories and cities where the solidarity mobilizations of those months spread like wildfire. Continue reading “Italy: “Operation City”, a crackdown on the mobilization against 41bis prison regime in Italy and in solidarity with anarchist comrade Alfredo Cospito” →

News from the Trial of the Comrades in Bandung (Indonesia)

Posted on 2026/02/10 - 2026/02/10 by darknights

NEWS FROM THE TRIAL OF THE COMRADES IN BANDUNG

Six comrades from the Political Expression Hunting Cluster (also often referred to as the Chaos Star Case) have undergone sentencing today. The outcome of the trial is that comrades AD and MNT were sentenced by the prosecutor to 3 years in prison. Meanwhile, comrades RFK, TAP, MJF, and RS were sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison.

A few words from a letter sent by a comrade involved in the Chaos Star case:

“We are particles of an entity called disorder, which is supposed to exist within the spectrum of defiance as our wild instinct, as unique and lazy individuals!”

No one is free until everyone is free.

Going Underground/F.A.A.F

Pre-Trial Motions Hearings Set for Tuesday and Thursday in Landmark Federal Prairieland ICE Protest Case (USA)

Posted on 2026/02/10 - 2026/02/10 by darknights

Just Days Before the Federal Trial Begins, Defense Motions Seek to Suppress Evidence, Exclude Codefendant Statements at Trial

FORT WORTH, TX – Days before a widely watched federal trial is set to begin in the Prairieland ICE protest case, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman ordered pretrial motions hearings for Tuesday, February 10 and Thursday, February 12. Nine defendants—Savanna Batten, Zachary Evetts, Autumn Hill, Meagan Morris, Maricela Rueda, Daniel “Des” Rolando Sanchez Estrada, Benjamin “Champagne” Song, Elizabeth Soto, and Ines Soto—who were indicted in November on a variety of charges including riot, discharging a firearm, attempted murder, material support for terrorism, and conspiracy to conceal documents will start their federal trial next week with jury selection on Tuesday, February 17.

On Tuesday, February 10 at 10am, Judge Pittman will hear arguments on a motion to suppress evidence against Prairieland defendant Elizabeth Soto, and a motion filed by Prairieland defendant Autumn Hill to exclude statements of codefendant Meagan Morris. A third motion filed on behalf of Daniel Rolando Sanchez Estrada, which is currently being withheld from the public record, will be heard on Thursday, February 12 at 2pm. The Prairieland case stems from a July 4, 2025 noise demonstration in support of detained immigrants at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center in Alvarado, Texas. Continue reading “Pre-Trial Motions Hearings Set for Tuesday and Thursday in Landmark Federal Prairieland ICE Protest Case (USA)” →

Supporters of Prairieland Defendants Release Statement Raising Serious Concerns About Actions of Judge in Upcoming Federal Trial (USA)

Posted on 2026/01/21 - 2026/01/22 by darknights

+ Defendant in Prairieland ICE Detention Center Protest Case Moves to Dismiss State Indictment in Pretrial Hearing

FORT WORTH, TX — A federal judge in the Prairieland ICE Detention Center case fined three defense lawyers five hundred dollars each last week for a mistake in a routine motion to compel discovery. In a Show Cause hearing on January 14, U.S. District Court Judge Mark Pittman admonished lawyers representing Prairieland defendant Zachary Evetts, calling the motion “frivolous.”

In response to this and other actions taken by Judge Pittman in the Prairieland case, the DFW Support Committee—a group of family and loved ones of the defendants—published a statement today. “As the Prairieland defendants’ federal trial approaches, a pattern of concerning activity by the presiding judge, Mark Pittman, has emerged,” reads the statement. “The fate of the defendants—and the result of this trial—will have enormous impacts on the legal terrain for those resisting ICE terror and the course of the rising authoritarianism in the U.S. As such, the fairness of this trial should be an acute concern for all.”

“Judge Pittman is showing a clear disdain for the defendants,” said Irina Popova, who attended the Show Cause hearing. “Zachary’s lawyer was doing his job by asking the court to make sure he gets all the relevant evidence. The judge compared him to a five-year-old child, and bullied him into agreeing that his request was frivolous, which is deeply disturbing, and forebodes an unfair trial.” Continue reading “Supporters of Prairieland Defendants Release Statement Raising Serious Concerns About Actions of Judge in Upcoming Federal Trial (USA)” →

Infiltrators Database

Posted on 2026/01/19 by darknights

https://www.notrace.how/infiltrators/

Searchable database of cases of long-term infiltrators who have targeted groups engaged in subversive activities in the 21st century. The goal is to help anarchists and other rebels understand how infiltrators operate.

Italia: FUORI DAL VORTICE qualche parola su una nuova operazione repressiva a Genova

Posted on 2026/01/08 - 2026/01/08 by darknights

PDF: FUORI DAL VORTICE- operazione repressiva a genova

Il 5 maggio 2024 un partecipato ed energico corteo ha attraversato le vie del centro storico di Genova in solidarietà a 8 compagne e compagni arrestati fuori dallo spazio occupato Ex Latteria. Un corteo nato per rispondere a un intervento brutale in cui i carabinieri, con uno spropositato dispiegamento di forze, l’uso di teaser e spray urticanti, hanno compiuto l’ennesimo atto di superflua repressione in cui quotidianamente è possibile imbattersi se si abbandonano le vie patinate dello shopping e ci si spinge tra chi non è perfetta- mente assimilabile dal sistema, non è conforme o esprime dissenso.
La partecipazione incondizionata, la determinazione e la rabbia di quel corteo hanno provato a ribadire l’inconciliabilità con un presente opprimente e tutti gli apparati che lo sorreggono. Continue reading “Italia: FUORI DAL VORTICE qualche parola su una nuova operazione repressiva a Genova” →

Weatherford, Texas Woman Arrested in Connection to Prairieland Case (USA)

Posted on 2026/01/08 - 2026/01/08 by darknights

Lucy Fowlkes Arrested Yesterday and Charged with Hindering Prosecution of Terrorism in What Supporters Say is an Effort to Pressure Her to Cooperate With the State

January 6, 2026

CLEBURNE, TX – Police arrested Lucy Fowlkes at her family home in Weatherford, TX, yesterday. They took her into custody at Johnson County Jail. Agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation accompanied local police during the arrest on Monday evening, though she was charged under state, not federal law. Johnson County prosecutors have charged Fowlkes with Hindering the Prosecution of Terrorism and have set bond at $5 million. Similar to Daniel Estrada Sanchez, Janette Goering, and Dario Sanchez, Fowlkes is not known to have participated in the July 4, 2025 protest at the Prairieland ICE Detention Center.

Lucy Fowlkes faces charges in another ongoing case stemming from an incident at a drag brunch in 2023, where she was charged alongside Chris Guillot and Meghan Grant. In that case, authorities allege that Fowlkes and others unlawfully defended the family event from violent antagonists.

Supporters of Ms. Fowlkes say in the weeks prior to her arrest she had been approached by law enforcement encouraging her to engage in an interview regarding the July 4th protest. “The extension of this charge, ‘hindering the prosecution of terrorism’, to more and more defendants is increasingly absurd. I can only assume that this is some sort of wildly unacceptable intimidation tactic,” said Lydia Koza, friend of the defendant. Continue reading “Weatherford, Texas Woman Arrested in Connection to Prairieland Case (USA)” →