Grateful Lost

This is a follow-up post to Morpheus Laughing, it’s important you read that first.

It was about 6am when I was taken into the cell block in Vester Fængsel, a prison in Copenhagen. My relief at the lack of a cavity search was soon overshadowed by the large, muscly, Danish prisoner walking down the hall past me, with a fork in his hand, and a creepy smile on his face… I thought to myself… I’m not gonna last 5 minutes in here, I need to get myself thrown into solitary… It works in the movies…

I hadn’t seen a judge yet, or talked to a lawyer, and the phone call the police promised my while I was at the station was denied to me when I was transferred to the prison before a prelim because they arrested so many damn people there weren’t enough judges to see them all…

I soon learned that I was to be charged with being part of an illegal demonstration, helping construct and light barricades on fire, throwing rocks, bottles and fire bombs, resisting arrest and assaulting an officer…

I only did some of those things… So when I finally went to court, after my lawyer complained to the judge at my right to speak with him pretrial being violated, I pleaded not guilty. The judge didn’t want to sentence me without the video, so i had to wait another 6 hours before it came in. And in the only video they could find that clearly showed me, I was moving some logs around in a barricade. Unfortunately that was enough to put me behind bars… and despite my having an excellent lawyer, and making a pretty good case… Back to Vester I was sent… I was to be held until Cop15 was over, and then released on the condition that I would return for trial.

I was led into a cell where I was promised I would only be put with other activists… My cell mate was pretty big, with tattoos and didn’t speak a lot of english, as I spoke with him it became clear, he was not an activist at all… He was a drug dealer from Christiania who joined the protesters in defense of the hippy paradise when the police attacked… Normally I wouldn’t fear a drug dealer, some of my good friends are dealers, but to be a dealer in Christiania, you need to be associated with one of two rival gangs, the Hells Angels, or the Black Scorpions.

We talked for a while, about what we had done to arrive there, and shared our thoughts on how awesome Christiania is. We watched sports and some movies and chilled, he explained the way the prison system worked, and gave me a winter cap to wear when we went outside. He turned out to be a really great guy, and made my experience in Vester much less stressful than it might have been otherwise.

He introduced me to some of the other non-protester inmates, there on a variety of charges, everything from weapons and drugs to murder… I got along well with the other prisoners, and became fast friends with the man I mentioned at the beginning of the story, with the fork and the smile. turns out, that was his genuinely friendly smile, and he was a puppy dog. He is well-educated Buddhist with 2 university degrees, but was arrested with over 2 million dollars of cocaine with intent to distribute. He is to this day one of the most kindred spirits I have ever met, and the thought of him rotting behind prison bars, being guarded by a bunch of uneducated, uncivilized assholes, as if HE is the danger, is something that will bother me for a long time… (approx 5 years, since that’s his sentence)

I remember the first impression I gave most of the other prisoners, I was given a phone call to tell my parents I was in Jail, I got the machine, and not knowing when I might get another opportunity, I left the following message…

“hey guys, how are you, hows Cozmo, I’m good, Copenhagen is really cool and one of my favorite cities in Europe, and don’t freak out, but im in prison, im fine, ill be out soon, love you and merry Christmas”

I turned to see a whole bunch of hardcore criminals, gang members and murderers looking at me in shock… When I asked what was wrong, one of them said “dude… you can’t tell your parents you’re in prison, a few days before Christmas, over an answering machine, and not give them any way to contact someone and ask about you”
It was amazing to see these guys lecture me on my etiquette, and the longer I was there the more I realized I could take a lesson or two from most of these guys, and like I said, it still hurts me to think where they are, and who is keeping them there…

The meals were pretty good, considering I had been backpacking, living on a TIGHT budget up till then, 3 meals a day was a dream… The TV has lots of channels, the bed was comfortable, I had oranges to juggle, my room-mate was cool… to be honest, compared with the diet and accommodation and loneliness of the road I had been accustomed to before Vester.. it wasn’t too bad.. Although it was the longest I’d gone without alcohol in a loooong time.. A group I’d never heard of before, ABC (Anarchist Black Cross) sent us all some money, some clothes, and letters of solidarity from around the world. It made such a huge difference, I have no way of sharing just how important and helpful it was to read those letters, and I would appreciate if you could (at least) join this facebook group and (if you can) support this cause by donating a little.

Anthony, an Anarchist from France, Johannes, and anarchist from Germany, and I (the only non-European charged) were the only ones who had clearly broken laws… The rest of the activists were arrested on some very stupid charges! One of them while videoing, another few had unfurled a banner at a dinner for all the politicians who ended up sinking any progress at that summit, the head of Greenpeace Italy was there, all he had done was tell CJA they should try and enlist anarchists from eastern Europe, it was caught on a wire tap, and they decided this advice was criminal…

I was released 2 days before Christmas, and within a week left Denmark, probably for good, because a few weeks later they held my trial without me, and I was convicted to 3 months in jail and 3000$ in court/lawyer costs.

Some of the other activist ended up a lot worse than me, since they were all EU, they had to pay those fees, and many of them served a lot more jail time and one of them was banned from schengen countries…

Meanwhile, the “leaders” of this world, the ones who are protecting you all from the evils of this world, which apparently include anyone who protests, ended up making Cop15 was a complete failure, because lobbyist and corporate interest were put above the well-being of the world, and all who inhabit it…

One day we will bring the corporate criminals and their accomplices to justice, and the crimes against humanity will be answered for, and Steven Harper be someones jail bride. But until then, we must have solidarity for those who are sent to prison in their place.

Peace

River

P.S. I have omitted names of anyone from prison who was not an activist. I know it looks impersonal to call them all “he” but these are members of gangs, and I mention their crimes, so I do not want to associate that with any names.

P.P.S most of the news reports the night I was arrested were down right lies, as usual, The Guardian is fair and balanced.

When protesters and anarchists take to the streets to protest globalization, the banking system, war, the IMF, capitalism, and all the other injustices of this world, The state calls in police with tanks, hoses, acoustic weapons, tazers. tear gas bombs, mace, batons, rubber bullets, helicopters, riot shields and masks and angry dogs.

When thousands of Montreal hockey fans take to the streets and break hundreds of windows, set police cars on fire and loot liquor stores.. all to celebrate a bunch of millionaires on skates put more rubber pucks into a net then another bunch of millionaires, the police show up in small numbers, make as few arrests as possible, lay 0 charges, and laugh it off.. “It’s just boys being boys..” or.. “well this is Canada, we love our hockey hahaha”…

I was watching a documentary about the G20 protests in Pittsburgh, when one protester with a group of War Veterans, remarked… “these police have more armor then I did when I was in Iraq”…

One night during the G20 protest, a small group of protesters broke about 10 windows before heading to Pittsburgh University and disbursing. The Police used this as an excuse to invade Pitt U, and demoralize the students in the hopes of keeping the next days demonstrations small. (I`ve posted the video link below) They brought at an army, with all the weapons I listed above, and brutality beat students, some peacefully returning from a party, still wearing togas. They trapped people in stairwells and fired tear gas at them, pushed people into streets with moving cars, students standing out of the way filming the incident, were targeted and attacked with pepper spray and arrested… In response to all of this, the mayor congratulated the police on keeping the public safe… FROM WHAT? 10 broken windows?

While at COP15 in Denmark, I participated in a few demonstrations. In the first one, the police caught us while we were marching between 2 intersections. They used trucks to block us in, refused to let anyone except press leave their blockade, even though non protesters were caught in the blockade. They kept us there, without any word on why. Just waiting for someone to get frustrated and do something semi violent.. so they could dose us all with tear gas and pepper spray and arrest us. After more than an hour, they decided to let us go. We got about 100 feet before they did it again… After they let us go that time, it was getting late, and most people, including me, disbursed… I later learned those who remained were later blocked on a bridge, all were arrested.

A few days latter During the Peaceful, sanctioned march, of over 100 000 people, the police cut the rally in half, and arrested nearly 1000 people. I was close to the front, and didn’t know about it till later. This same thing happened at 3 other demonstrations I was not able to attend.

A few days later I was in Christiana, a hippy commune in the heart of Copenhagen, it was late, I was drunk, preparing to go to a concert for activists and hear one of my heroes, Naomi Klein. The police decided to attack the peaceful hippy haven, to arrest as many activist as possible ahead of the protests the next day… It was a good plan, catch a bunch of activists in concert tents, at 1am, all slightly (or heavily) intoxicated, fire tear gas into the confined areas, wait for all these angry people to run out and attack, and then arrest them. Christiania is also home to a tolerated drug trade, run by the Hells Angels and the Black Scorpions, who enjoy defending christiania when the police attack. It quickly turned into a war zone, with people going into the bars, asking for empties, and using Christiania’s gas reserves to create a Molotov Cocktail assembly line.

I was no exception, and that night, I was arrested.
I`ll save the rest of the story for later, but I was sent to prison for a couple of weeks, tried, and convicted… I still owe 3 months jail time and 3 thousand dollars to the state of Denmark… :/

With that “preventative” attack in mind, I ask, why did the police not foresee those hockey fans would have been on the street rioting no matter the outcome of the game, and not go into the Bell Center, and fire tear gas at them, to piss them off, so they could arrest them all… If its good for anarchists, why isn’t it good for hockey fans?

No one questions police brutality when it’s against protesters, but when hockey fans do 50* more damage, should they not get 50* more police attention, instead of almost none?

It seems the only way police will use excessive force against you, is if you complain about the system that allows them to use excessive force… The whole point of becoming a cop is either wanting a gun to compensate for your tiny penis, or being a bully in high school was the only thing you did well, and decided to do that for a living. Then again I maintain bully’s are just compensating for small penises… so, I guess it all comes back to that…?

Anywho.. I guess I have 2 main points… Police have tiny penises, and next G20 summit, instead of black, we should all wear hockey jerseys..

Peace

River

P.S. The next G20 protest is in Toronto, at the end of June. just an fyi

P.P.S the media coverage of that night in Christiania was a bunch of horse shit! But as usual, you can count on the The Guardian to be fair and balanced.

P.P.P.S

This is from video taken by a German news station, I’m in the red plaid shirt. When I heard this had been aired on TV, I was excited, and asked my lawyer to find a copy, since one of those “Politi” had knocked my head into that wall when I told him “I don’t have to tell you shit”

When I reviewed the footage, I found they had cut that part out… Another activist then explained that the only reason this news team was allowed behind the police line, was because, like many other media stations, they have given police a veto at what can be shown, in exchange for being allowed to get close to the action…

Independent Media Indeed…

** Link to Democracy 101, a documentary about police brutality at the G20, and the siege of Pitt U.

Bill Maher once summed up death very nicely… He said:
Suicide is man’s way of telling God: “You can’t fire me, I quit!”
As a very stubborn person, this speaks to me.
I don’t read into it too literally, since I don’t believe in God and I certainly don’t empathize with suicide.. I read into more like: living on the edge, taking chances, getting a little crazy, can be a way to take control of life, and making peace with death… By living dangerously you might knock off a few years, but you went out on your terms, and if there is a heaven, you got bragging rights!

I bring this up, because I feel I live a little closer to that edge then average… Sometimes for pure ego/adrenaline reasons, other times cause I’m a dumb ass drunk… Those who know me, know I make a lot of jokes about having only a few years left, and expecting to die before I’m 40… Those who know me really well, know I’m not joking.

Now I don’t want any of this blog’s posts to come off as saying, “I’m hardcore and alternative and your just a boring consumer”… What I want to say “I live a little differently, and that works for me, maybe it could for you 2″.. I also don’t want to try and make my life seem more radical and dangerous then it is.. I just want to show the reality of the things I do…

With that in mind…

I hitchhike. I do it because its free, because its fun, because it adds so much to the trip, and you meet some amazing people, get a whole new perspective on the land, and because everything before the destination can become the real adventure… It is far safer then people think, but like anything involving trust, there are risks…

Last October I hitchhiked around Latvia, Lithuania and Poland. Many experienced hitchhikers will tell you Poland is a thumbers paradise.. And they weren’t kidding… Never wait more than 20 minutes… It was an amazing experience.

A couple of months later, while I was in Stockholm, I read a CS post about a Finnish guy named Emil, my age, went missing on a very similar route out of Warsaw, just weeks before I was there…

Here is a facebook group for him, join it.

This story made me depressed for days, a combination of thinking about how young he was and all the adventures he would never have, and also, it could have very easily been me… For all I know I could have been on the same highway, the same road, the same truck stop where, 2 weeks before, he went missing… I had one of my worst rides ever (going the opposite way) that trip, its such a thin line between, being in control and safe and just.. Trusting the wrong face..

Its been many months since Emil went missing, he had said he was on his way home and would be there in a week, he has not made any contact, and apparently he didn’t have any family issues. Based on the facts, I’d say the chances that something awful didn’t happen, are pretty slim… His parents have not yet given up hope, and have done a cross Europe trip looking for him, tracking down leads.. etc..

As I prepare to take off on another adventure, I feel its important to say a few things I’m sure Emil wishes he would have been able to say… If anything should ever happen to me, I want my family, friends, everyone I’ve met along the way, to know how much they all meant to me. I don’t say it enough, but I love you all. I’d say it was not anyone’s fault, and that no matter how many times any of you tried to talk me out of (whatever dumb ass thing I did to get myself killed) I was still going to do it..

I guess what I want to say is, you never know what could happen, you could die of a heart attack while on the toilet, or die while hitchhiking in Poland… You could even die before you finish reading this post…

*long pause for effect*

The point is to live every minute with a smile on, so when that time does come, you have no regrets.

Peace

River

I got a fortune cookie a few weeks ago… And despite the fact that I only recently got back from Europe, have no money and promised myself I wouldn’t take off traveling with 0$ again…. That no good fortune cookie decided it was “time for you to take off on an adventure”… what a tease…

A few days ago I started making arrangements for my next trip, a 6 month tour of the US. Not that I take my orders from cookies or anything, It just so happened that my arctic house building job fell through, and breaking my self promises to go off traveling again was always plan B…

Well I opened another fortune cookie today… And unbelievably… The little bastard proudly proclaimed:

“You are going to travel somewhere far away”

Now, at the risk of giving these fortune cookies some kind of god complex, I still plan to head south this summer.  But you just gotta love when the universe is singing the same tune as you…

I’ve been in Ottawa since January, it’s now May, that’s like *counts fingers* 5 fuckin months in 1 place… You might be able to do that, hell, 99.9% people can do that, and not think twice. But me… im wired differently… after only a few weeks… I’m already buggin out and dying to leave… Not that I can’t ever live in the moment, cause trust me, I’ve lived in some excellent moments… I just cant help but think of all the things im not experiencing, the people im not meeting, all the places in the world that I need to see before I die… and the 60… the 30… ok… realistically… the 10 more years I have left is not enough to see it all…

This will be the first time I incorporate WWOOFing into my travels. Which means I will be stopping along the way, sometimes for a week, sometimes for a few, to volunteer on organic farms. In exchange for my hard work, I will be given food, a bed, and by the end of it, a wicked tan.

Ive never worked on a farm before, but its a pretty important skill to have. When oil starts running on empty, modern industrialized agriculture will no longer be a viable option. Organic farms and Urban agriculture will be the solution, and people with experience on them will have a very important skill set that people will be hungry for… (that’s right, bad puns will be a mainstay of this blog!)

The second part of my trip will be networking… I will be trying to hit up some of Americas most alternative cities, and stay in as many squats as possible.. You see, one of my dreams is to start a squat in Vancouver, and then fight to keep it, and then start another… and keep it too… and so on… I feel Vancouver is the perfect place for a European style squatting movement to take off in Canada… And with Portland, Seattle and San Fransisco so close, I’m sure we would have allies. So by this time next year I hope to be breaking down some doors and helping to set up a beachhead! And it all starts with this summers tour.

As always I will be couchsurfing as much as possible, and to get around, I will be hitchhiking, something I’ve never done in the Eastern/Southern US… So that should be interesting… :/

I leave on the 26th… Starting with an CS Urban Exploration gathering in Detroit… And then… South…Hopefully adventures will follow, and hopefully you will stick around to read them.

Peace

River

Its late at night, your train stops at the station, you grab your pack and step out into a new city, in a foreign country… You don’t speak the language, you can’t read the signs, you’re not even sure which one the men’s room is… Then along comes a total stranger, but you already know their name, they ask you about your trip as they lead you to their home, they point out interesting facts about the city you would not have learned from a tour guide or a map… They show you a mattress, a couch, or even a full on bed, where you will spend the next couple days… They offer you some tea, or something to eat, point out the washroom and give you a towel, say goodnight, and then retire to their room. You wake up the next morning, comfortable and well rested, you help cook breakfast and enjoy fresh organic coffee, and you talk about everything and anything.
Perhaps they have to go to work, in which case they hand you a map, and tell you everything you could ever want to know about the city, and tell you about the cool bar they are going to take you to that night. Or perhaps they don’t have to work, and they spend the entire day exploring the city with you, sharing stories about life and traveling and love and politics and you can be more honest then you’ve ever been, because you know this is a kindred soul. You see some amazing sights, people, cultures and traditions, and your interpretations of all these things will be make the stranger feel their familiar city is suddenly seem new and exciting… You go out on the town, meet their friends, and all sorts of other random people all around this amazing city that already feels like home, you try new beers, or even new drugs you let loose in a foreign land and yet always feel safe and looked after. Later that night you retire once again to the strangers safe, warm, welcoming home, and have another wonderful nights rest. The next morning, you pack your bags, have large breakfast and share stories about all the new and amazing memories the last 2 days have brought. You hug the person who just a couple of days ago was a total stranger, and try to hold back tears because you feel so inexplicably close to them, and wish you had more time to get to know one another. You give them a small token of thank you, a pin, some art, something small and priceless, that will mean as much to the stranger as their hospitality meant to you. It will mean more than money ever could.

As quickly as you came, you go on your way, to the next town, to meet another stranger, who, just like the one your leaving, you will never forget…

Does this sound like a fairytale world where world peace has been achieved, the Israelis and Palestinians work the land together, everyone has food in their belly and Steven Harper was hit by a Hummer driven by Ed Stelmach who was also killed in the collision…?
Thankfully you don’t have to wait that long for www.couchsurfing.org to change your life… As it did mine…

Sign up, fill out your profile in full, take a picture of your couch, and prepare to welcome some of the most amazing people you will ever have the fortune of meeting into your home. Show them your city, be proud, remember this might be the only time in their life they will be in that little corner of the world, make it count! Give them maps, keys to your place, a phone, a bike, bus tickets… And the next time you go on your travels, you’ll see how amazing it feels when someone does it for you… There are groups, search the one for your city, they meet regularly and they bring people who are surfing their couch, it’s always a great time, you will learn a lot about your own city and meet some hard-core travelers who will inspire you like never before…

It’s truly like nothing else you will ever experience, I hope you all give it a shot… World Peace is only a couch away…

Peace

River

I had a blog once… A few years back… It lasted a week…

My life has changed a lot since then, in fact anything and everything that came before the age of 17 really holds no positive value for me. I don’t remember any of it “fondly”… Nor does any of it in any way contribute to who I am, my current outlook on life, my personality.. Those years didn’t even contribute to any of my many flaws, as one might assume of a childhood being described in an “unfondly” manner…

I was unhappy, unmotivated, no purpose, I didn’t believe in anything… I was just another, underachieving, middle class, suburban, apathetic, consumer… Being brought up to obey my elders without question. To live within the system, society, conform, accept the world as it is…

Television told me the only way I was gonna get laid was with a Porsh in my driveway. The Porsh would require a Job requiring a suit. A “suit job” almost always, in some direct or indirect way, exploits someone…  And whatever money I didn’t end up spending on all the meaningless crap my 80″ TV told me to, I would happily hand over as “tax” to a guy in a nicer suit who has a nack for spending my money on the only things that are less useful than all the meaningless crap my TV made me buy…

Luckily, I broke free… I became the very opposite of what my upbringing and education and Sunday school attempted to mold me into… An independent, critical thinker… *gasps*

There was no defining moment where I was “reborn”… No acid trip epiphany, no inspiring work of fiction I took too literally, and I certainly didn’t “find Jesus”…

I decided I couldn’t deal with school anymore… and with no plan… I dropped out… In this decision, I wasn’t being radical, or anti establishment, I was doing exactly what they wanted me to do, and what 18% of other students in Ontario did… I was getting one step closer to being the guy who flips the burgers for the guy in the suit…

Those of you who know me, know I never once flipped the guy in the suit any burgers.. I flipped him off whenever I got the chance… but no burgers…

Instead.. I found politics… I found environmentalism, social justice, global warming, globalization, wage slavery… I became so angry with the way things were, and that after 15 years of school, this was the first I was hearing of most of it… I became a Socialist, then a Libertarian and finally, an Anarchist. And with no career or student debt, holding me back… I started to travel… Africa, North America, Europe… I backpacked and hitchhiked, squatted and couchsurfed.

I’ve had some amazing adventures in all that time… Some of them pretty unbelievable… Everything from robbing a slave laborer in California, Jumping out of a moving car in Poland, Taser fighting with drug dealers in Christiania, and prison for protesting in Denmark…

This blog will tell some of the stories from my past, as well as follow me on my current travels and express my political opinions on current events… If I manage to stay interested in writing for more than two weeks, I hope you will stay interested in reading. The spelling and grammar wont always be correct, the language wont ever be correct, my morals might not match up to your standards, and my ideas and opinions might not be compatible with yours, but we don’t all need to be the same, and I guess that’s the whole point of this blog…

I just ask you for one favor… Please don’t forward this blog to my parents.

Peace

River