Judge dismisses case against Rebel Diaz; tells them “Keep up the good work”.

[Jorge Mujica]

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Jorge Mujica

Judge dismisses case against Rebel Diaz; tells them “Keep up the good work”.

By Jaisal Noor
June 22, 2009 | Posted in IndyBlog | Email this article

“Its a victory for hip-hop, immigrants’ rights movements, immigrant vendors, a victory for the South Bronx” - Rod Starz of Rebel Diaz

On June 18th, presiding Judge Clark unexpectedly granted a pretrial motion for dismissal exactly one year after Rodrigo and Gonzalo ” Venegas, were aggressively arrested for intervening on behalf of an Hunts Point street vendor who, they felt, was being harassed by police officers. Rodrigo “RodStarz” and Gonzalo “G1” are part of the group Rebel Diaz, along with Teresita “Lah Tere” Ayala.

The incident occurred after Rodstarz and G1 offered to translate on behalf of the street vendor who did not speak English. As soon as they asked for the officer’s badge numbers, they were violently arrested. The brothers were originally charged with assaulting a police officer, however, a friend caught the incident on video and was able to quickly put it on Youtube. Within hours, 150 community members had rallied at the local precinct and the NYPD backed down from that charge. The two remaining misdemeanors included obstruction of justice and resisting arrest.

Leah Horowitz is an attorney with the South Bronx Defenders and represented Rodstarz during the case. She filed the motion to dismiss in the interest of justice on March 2, though admittedly did not have much confidence it would be granted. The motion included letters from over thirty members of the South Bronx community and individuals and groups Rebel Diaz had worked with across the country and the globe.

Horowitz told the Indypendent, “It was obvious [the judge] thought very hard about it, and who they are, and the ridiculous nature of the case shone through,” adding, “She’s a good judge, she’s a tough judge, when she says something like that, it’s a tremendous sign of respect.”

She credits Rebel Diaz’s community support, saying it “impressed a court system that isn’t easily impressed. And isn’t easily affected by those sorts of things. I think what it says is that organizing — which is what I’ve always known and believed in — is the way to go.”

“The church I represent is one of the churches that wrote letters of support” said Claudia De La Cruz, a resident of the South Bronx and pastor of San Romeros De Las Americas Church in Washington Heights. She added, “I was there in the court [for the decision] and I feel like it was a victory not just for Rebel Diaz, but a victory for our communities and so it was a happy moment because …justice was actually served. ”

Rodstarz emphasized the importance of the letter writing campaign: “At the end of the day, if we hadn’t had those letters, I don’t think we would have had our case dismissed. People really took their time out of their day to write letters of support and it proved to work.”

The decision came as a surprise to Rebel Diaz’s lawyers, supporters and Rebel Diaz themselves. The judge’s last words also came as somewhat of a shock, “The last words the judge left us with was “keep up the good work,” said G1. “I think it’s keep up the good fight, and that’s what we are doing. We left that courtroom with more conviction in what we do.”

Claudia De La Cruz was also impressed by the judge’s final words. She said, “I think it’s an affirmation and it’s interesting that it’s coming from a judge. I think it has a lot to do with that it was a black judge who said this … even though as a judge she represents the system that is systematically abusing our people, she was able to affirm herself as she affirmed the work that they do.”

Ever since the original incident one year ago, Rebel Diaz has emphasized that the problem was bigger than just their case. They caution against assuming the outcome of their case is typical: “The outcome of the case, it’s really easy to come to the conclusion that the system works,” said G1, adding “I would say it’s not so much that the system works, [but] that the system has cracks. As a community we have to exploit those cracks in the system. We need to find the small spaces of democracy that are left within this police state, whether through technology, through direct action through our communities, within our block.”

Adding that the community was able to rally around the case showed its resilience and defiance to the system, “In the process of fighting the case, we opened up a community center here in the South Bronx four blocks away from the precinct that locked us up,” said G1.

The Rebel Diaz Arts Collective opened in March. Located on 478 Austin Place in the South Bronx, the Collective includes “a performance space, a multimedia studio, a computer lab art gallery, and it’s all been made possible really by contributions from the members of the community,” he added.

Rebel Diaz not only organizes on a local level, but through their music and with fundraisers and benefits to promote awareness and raise money to fight injustice all over the world. On June 17th, the day before the decision, they took part in a concert fundraiser for George Galloway’s 2nd Viva Palestina Convoy trip to Gaza.

Rodstarz said, “I can’t sit here and fight against gentrification in the South Bronx and ignore the situation in Gaza. I can’t sit here and talk about police brutality in Brooklyn or Harlem and not talk about people being assassinated in Oaxaca, because they are being displaced too in Mexico. I can’t talk about Palestine and not talk about independence for Puerto Rico. ” He continued, “If we are not making those connections we are blind. We got to start talking about things in the real landscape; the world is under attack. There’s colonization going on worldwide and gentrification going on worldwide.”

Rodstarz told the Indypendent that the ordeal has left the group even more determined to make a difference in their community, “More than anything we are going to keep up the struggle for immigrant rights, keep fighting youth incarceration, against police profiling young black and brown men in the South Bronx. We are going to keep calling out the powers that be.”

He added “There is gentrification going on in the South Bronx. That is the reason they are doing immigrant street vendor sweeps, that is the reason why they are arresting young people… We are going to keep fighting with more strength than ever.”