RIY Denounces Police Abduction
of Spokane Activist Jeremy Logan

The Revolutionary Internationalist Youth denounces the August 30 extrajudicial detention of Spokane Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) co-chair and tenant activist Jeremy Logan.

On August 30, a protest was held in Spokane against the racist police shooting and maiming of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin. As Jeremy Logan was walking to the protest, which was about to begin, individuals in plainclothes who refused to identify themselves seized him and put him into an unmarked van. After this abduction, which turned out to have been ordered by the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office, the van drove to a rendezvous with the Spokane Police Department, which then took brother Logan to the county jail, where federal agents attempted to “interview” him. After more than 24 hours in custody, he was released after the payment of a $500 bond.

As the pretext for this blatant attempt at political intimidation, the authors of this outrageous abduction made contradictory claims about an alleged outstanding warrant, stating that it was from Chelan county, or from Okanogan county, though brother Logan notes that a warrant (for unpaid fines) was issued in Douglas County, 7 years ago. The sheriff’s office, boasting that “we removed him from the street,” promptly switched the pretext, claiming to the Huffington Post (5 September) that Logan supposedly made “threatening public statements toward law enforcement in the past.” That it’s all about flagrant political retaliation is further highlighted by the witch hunt that Spokane County sheriff Ozzie Knezovich has been trying to whip up since May against “antifa socialists.” As an all-purpose bogyman, antifa is now being invoked by cops and raving rightists in Oregon who seek to scapegoat antifascists for the fires there!

The snatch-squad abduction of Jeremy Logan as retaliation for opposing racist police terror is – and is clearly intended to be – a threat and a danger to all opponents of racism and defenders of basic democratic rights. It echoes the sinister kidnapping of anti-racist activists by federal agents in Portland. While, as is well known, we have fundamental political differences with the DSA, we stand in defense of Jeremy Logan against this ominous violation of basic rights, and in intransigent opposition to police intimidation, profiling and repression of leftists and anti-racist activists.

– Revolutionary Internationalist Youth (youth section of the Internationalist Group/U.S.)