On July 25 2012, Leah-Lynn Plante, a natural-born citizen of the United States and a committed anarchist activist, was arrested and interrogated. When she refused to co-operate with investigators, she was charged with contempt.
The activist group Because We Must videographed a statement by her, in which she talked about her readyness to go to prison, and released it on October 9. It was titled "Statement from a Resister." Plante was charged with refusal to cooperate on October 10, and went to prison. Her final comments before entering prison were filmed by Because We Must, and released.
On October 17, Plante was released. Information about her release, or about her since her release, has proven difficult to obtain.
There's a public discussion of the few known facts of her release at The Dissenter. Those commenting on the situation often agree on two points:
- Leah-Lynn Plante appears to have co-operated with the Federal authorities, causing her release.
- Leah-Lynn Plante is a young person who felt the full weight of the Federal government crashing down on her. Her capitulation is understandable, and she should be left alone.
At Unlikely Stories: Episode IV, we have sympathy for the latter point, and feel uncomfortable reproducing her name here. However:
On November 24, 2012, we found "Statement from a Resister" on Vimeo, along with a statement that she was "a 24 year old political prisoner currently serving time at FDC Seatac." Our Political Editor, Joseph Rose, had read about Plante before on various activist blogs, and was interested in her case. He wrote to Because We Must and asked for permission to reprint the video. Because We Must gave permission. We published the video at this address on November 30, 2012.
Late that night, Joseph found the article at The Dissenter discussing Plante's release. On December 1, he wrote to Because We Must to inquire as to Plante's current status.
The video appears to be old news, made inaccurate by changing circumstances. We have decided to pull it from the site and remove its front-page link (although, as you can see, we've linked to it above if you are interested in this story). We await response from Because We Must. We are leaving comments open on this page.
—Jonathan Penton and Joseph Rose, December 2, 2012, 19h30 UTC
UPDATE
Because We Must has answered our questions forthrightly and adequately (full text of their message follows). This has been an interesting experience for us, one that we'll probably discuss in a future update.
FROM: Because We Must
TO: Joseph Rose
December 2, 2012
Hey! Here ya go.
Corrections.
Leah was never 'arrested'. She was subpoenaed to show up in court to either snitch on her community, or possibly go to prison. She plead the 5th her first two appearances and was excused to leave, but was re-subpoenaed to come back. She was due back on October 10th, but was given immunity (it takes away your right to plead the 5th), so she was likely to go to prison. We filmed the first video with her, and had it set to post around the time she was expected to be taken into custody for refusing to testify.
Updates.
As you know, Leah was released on October 17th after spending a week in prison. It sounds like she asked her lawyer to schedule another Grand Jury hearing because she wanted out of prison. She showed up and talked/cooperated and they let her go. We have NO idea what was said or discussed, and Leah has not been helpful or forthcoming with updating anyone. From the sound of it, she skipped town, and no one knows her whereabouts. Since her release, Maddy in Olympia, Wa has been subpoenaed to testify before the same grand jury. KteeO and Matt are still in prison for resisting the grand jury. If you can, you should wire about them! (supportresist.net).
There is also a separate Grand Jury going on in San Francisco, Ca. Feel free to check GITNR (greenisthenewred.com) for updates on that!
Thanks, Because We Must, for answering our questions! We appreciate that it's hard for volunteer organizations to disseminate information in an organized and timely fashion.
—Jonathan Penton and Joseph Rose, December 3, 2012, 05h40 UTC
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