HOW THE GOVERNMENT PROTECTS A FASCIST AND A TERRORIST. THE CASE(S) OF GEOFFREY BLANK
UP FRONT News June 18, 2007
Published by Tom Weiss
Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.” http://www.tomsupforntnews.blogspot.com/
Among the people who most loudly preach free speech, human rights, and peace, are those who deny same to others. Perhaps among the most hypocritical along those lines is the multiple offender and racist demagogue Geoffrey Blank of Rockaway Park, in Queens. Blank, usually sporting his trademark schizoid blend of hippie and nazi appearance with ponytail and full length German officer coats (similar to the garb worn by Col. Klink in “Hogan’s Heroes), became quite notorious over the years, particularly in Union Square Park in Manhattan, for spouting about free speech while threatening others (in particular me) who sought to exercize the same right.
Blank tried to hijack a loosely organized network of free speech activists called the No Police State Coalition started after 9/11 by Dennis Griggs, and then, claiming to be its president, monopolizing the bullhorn and with his “anti-Bush” and “anti-War rants the content of which paralleled the message of once again “left” mega-fascist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Blank, who could be expected to complain if I were to conduct a speakout in front of his home exposing him for the fraud that he is, got himself arrested several times in Union Square for sound device permit violations. A couple of times in his attempt to impersonate a Black Panther, he was charged with other offenses, e.g. resisting arrest. If lying in public were a punishable offense Blank would be lying on a gurney impersonating Timothy McVeigh.
As a result of his multiple arrests (which only address a small portion of the crimes he has committed for which he has not been arrested and tried) he has been tried several times, once before Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara and once before a jury with Judge James D. Gibbons presiding. Ferrara convicted him of criminal contempt. And the jury convicted him of resisting arrest and a sound permit violation.
For Geoffrey Blank to be convicted of these two offenses is politically analogous the convicting George Bush of littering. For one thing, Blank has a list of harassment complaints on file with the NYPD made by me - only a portion of the criminal harassments he has perpetrated against me. Blank has also not been prosecuted for his involvement in a physical assault perpetrated against me on April 7, 2005 by Wan Yun, the cashier at the now closed 61 Cafeteria, Wan Yun often being the recipient of explicit urgings by Blank to throw me out of the deli-restaurant where Blank used to try to run meetings of the aforementioned No Police State Coalition Mao Cultural Revolution-style. Wan Yun smashed me over the head for several minutes with a full soda glass bottle causing a very serious injury. It took some prodding from me but the 6th precinct of the NYPD after a couple of weeks arrested Wan Yun.
From that point on, Robert Morgenthau, quite possibly for political reasons, went very easy on Geoffrey Blank. Matthew Jackson, the Assistant District Attorney assigned to the Wan Yun prosecution, after rendering himself somewhat communication-inaccessible to me, met with me, took the information about the assault and said that, because of the severity of the injury, Wan Yun might be prosecuted as a felon with me as the chief witness for the prosecution. And then, when I attempted to give him some information about Blank’s involvement, Mr. Jackson said, “I don’t need that.” When I asked him how he could determine he didn’t need something the content of which he did not know, he responded with silence and the interview was over.
From that point on, Mr. Jackson became essentially unresponsive. I went over his head to his supervisor William Mahoney. I then received an e-mail from Jackson offering a meeting with Mahoney and him. I consulted my attorney, Jacob J. Goodman, an experienced housing, tax, and criminal lawyer. Mr. Goodman well recalled the very public matter of my having, some years ago, almost been arrested courtesy of the quite paranoid NYC public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, with whom, via a family member of mine, I’ve been acquainted since 1979. Gotbaum, an elected official with a number of CIA skeletons in her marital closet, had the cops called while I was at her office for my scheduled appointment with her Chief of Staff Scott Coccaro to discuss staff abuse of homeless people in drop-in centers and shelters. Fortunately the police officer called, Sgt. Al Fiore of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division, after interviewing me in the reception area, soon realized that I was no “threat” at all to the very nervous Gotbaum. Sgt. Fiore handled it well and suggesting that I go home and leave Betsy Gotbaum alone, at least for awhile. And al- though as a reporter I’ve been at events where Gotbaum is present, I keep my distance. On one occasion, in 2005 when she was campaigning for re-election on the Lower East Side and I by total coincidence passed one of her poorly attended rallies, from a safe distance I said something audible about Gotbaum and the CIA. Not too many days after that, in a televised campaign debate, Gotbaum refused her opponents’ urgings that she reveal the contents of her appointment book (which included me), claiming that she was being bothered by a “stalker” - (meaning me). I got my side of that defamatory story out via Newsday, the Daily News and The New York Times. The Staten Island Advance used a front page lead to print a story had serious errors and was slanted in favor of Gotbaum.
Attorney Goodman, citing the Gotbaum matter, urged me not to accept any appointment with the District Attorney’s office unless I receive a written guarantee that I would not be
arrested. ADA Jackson, in an e-mail, refused to provide such a guarantee. I never heard from him again. My calls and e-mails to top level Morgenthau officials such as James Kindler went unanswered. My calls, e-mails and a fax to Mayor Bloomberg yielded stonewalling and a verbal suggestion that I go to the NYC Department of Investigation. I contacted the NYCDOI and was told to submit a letter but that I could not know the identity of the individual who would get it. Who investigates the investigators?
Sgt. Fiore, who, like the FBI, now knows lots about Geoffrey Blank, assisted me in arranging a meeting at City Hall with Bloomberg aide Katie Hart on a number of matters including the apparent coverup at Robert Morgenthau’s office. Ms. Hart, working for a seemingly Teflon mayor, was little help and Sgt. Fiore offered to check into the DA matter in my behalf, to which Ms. Hart was agreeable. Some weeks later Sgt. Fiore told me that the case against Wan Yun had been, without a known explanation, “sealed and closed.” Several lawyers, including a very prominent civil rights attorney, urged me to try to get answers from the DA. Despite several calls and e-mails from me, from Morgenthau’s people came only a Cheneyesque silence.
John Feinblatt is the New York City Criminal Justice Coordinator. Since the apparent failure to prosecute Wan Yun is a miscarriage of justice, I called his office and spoke to his Assistant, Melissa Ballard. She advised me to send an e-mail, which I did on February 13, 2007. It took another few calls and an e-mail from another attorney before I got a response from Deputy Criminal Justice Coordinator Scott Sigal acknowledging my com- plaint against Mr. Morgenthau’s office and referring me back to the NYC Department of Investigation. Armed with a referral letter, I contacted NYCDOI again and discussed the matter briefly over the telephone with special counsel Kim Berger. She has since received a very detailed e-mail from me about how Robert Morgenthau is letting Geoffrey Blank off very easy.
Over the months I’d been in contact with Christian Browne, the ADA “prosecuting” Blank for his Union Square games. Mr. Browne showed little interest in the fact of Blank’s other crimes, as described above. Of greater concern is the fact that the DA showed little interest in my factual information linking Blank to terrorism and to the convicted felon and mega-fascist, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
I do not ordinarily regard The New York Post as a news source. Every once in awhile,
however, that paper publishes an interesting story. On December 26, 2005 reporter Niles Lathem did a story headlined “Harlem radicals probed”, about the so-called Freedom Socialist Party. The article reported that the FSP is under international investigation for ties to Musab al-Zarqawi-style terrorism in Iraq. Indeed the article quotes FSP spokes- person Stephen Durham as condoning Zarqawi’s hostage beheadings. What the Post had no way of reporting is the fact that Geoffrey Blank is directly connected to that group. Blank, along with Lynn Stewart, was a featured speaker at the FSP on November 12, 2005, presumably one of the speaking engagements on the FSP-sponsored speaking “tour” that Blank used to brag about.
I am told that, following Blank’s conviction by a jury, at the sentencing by Judge James D. Gibbons, DA Browne asked the judge to give the defendant a bit of jail time. Judge Gibbons, acting like a jurist on the take, however, gave the psychopathic demagogue Blank no jail time. According to a report by observer Roman Shusterman, Blank was compared by Gibbons to Winston Churchill. (In my letter of complaint to Administrative Judge Juanita Bing Newton, I suggested that, had Judge Gibbons presided over the trial of convicted sexual predator Peter Braunstein, he might have compared that defendant to FDR.
Judge Gibbons also ignored the content of a pre-sentencing e-mail I sent him about Geoffrey Blank and openly disparaged both Mr. Shusterman and me in open court.
A terrorist, according to the dictionary, is someone who uses threats, intimidation and violence for political ends. Geoffrey Blank is a terrorist. Somewhat simplified, a fascist is someone who believes in the supremacy of a dictatorial ruler and who, regardless of his or her rhetoric, is opposed the freedom of speech, press, expression etc. Lyndon LaRouche and Lenora Fulani (about whose ties with them Blank will not talk), Fulani having helped Michael Bloomberg win two elections), are fascists. Geoffrey Blank is a fascist.
No wonder he is getting protected by the government.
* * * * * * *
Published by Tom Weiss
Editorial Advisor: Willard Whittingham
“The paper that can’t be bought and can’t be sold.” http://www.tomsupforntnews.blogspot.com/
Among the people who most loudly preach free speech, human rights, and peace, are those who deny same to others. Perhaps among the most hypocritical along those lines is the multiple offender and racist demagogue Geoffrey Blank of Rockaway Park, in Queens. Blank, usually sporting his trademark schizoid blend of hippie and nazi appearance with ponytail and full length German officer coats (similar to the garb worn by Col. Klink in “Hogan’s Heroes), became quite notorious over the years, particularly in Union Square Park in Manhattan, for spouting about free speech while threatening others (in particular me) who sought to exercize the same right.
Blank tried to hijack a loosely organized network of free speech activists called the No Police State Coalition started after 9/11 by Dennis Griggs, and then, claiming to be its president, monopolizing the bullhorn and with his “anti-Bush” and “anti-War rants the content of which paralleled the message of once again “left” mega-fascist Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr. Blank, who could be expected to complain if I were to conduct a speakout in front of his home exposing him for the fraud that he is, got himself arrested several times in Union Square for sound device permit violations. A couple of times in his attempt to impersonate a Black Panther, he was charged with other offenses, e.g. resisting arrest. If lying in public were a punishable offense Blank would be lying on a gurney impersonating Timothy McVeigh.
As a result of his multiple arrests (which only address a small portion of the crimes he has committed for which he has not been arrested and tried) he has been tried several times, once before Criminal Court Judge Anthony Ferrara and once before a jury with Judge James D. Gibbons presiding. Ferrara convicted him of criminal contempt. And the jury convicted him of resisting arrest and a sound permit violation.
For Geoffrey Blank to be convicted of these two offenses is politically analogous the convicting George Bush of littering. For one thing, Blank has a list of harassment complaints on file with the NYPD made by me - only a portion of the criminal harassments he has perpetrated against me. Blank has also not been prosecuted for his involvement in a physical assault perpetrated against me on April 7, 2005 by Wan Yun, the cashier at the now closed 61 Cafeteria, Wan Yun often being the recipient of explicit urgings by Blank to throw me out of the deli-restaurant where Blank used to try to run meetings of the aforementioned No Police State Coalition Mao Cultural Revolution-style. Wan Yun smashed me over the head for several minutes with a full soda glass bottle causing a very serious injury. It took some prodding from me but the 6th precinct of the NYPD after a couple of weeks arrested Wan Yun.
From that point on, Robert Morgenthau, quite possibly for political reasons, went very easy on Geoffrey Blank. Matthew Jackson, the Assistant District Attorney assigned to the Wan Yun prosecution, after rendering himself somewhat communication-inaccessible to me, met with me, took the information about the assault and said that, because of the severity of the injury, Wan Yun might be prosecuted as a felon with me as the chief witness for the prosecution. And then, when I attempted to give him some information about Blank’s involvement, Mr. Jackson said, “I don’t need that.” When I asked him how he could determine he didn’t need something the content of which he did not know, he responded with silence and the interview was over.
From that point on, Mr. Jackson became essentially unresponsive. I went over his head to his supervisor William Mahoney. I then received an e-mail from Jackson offering a meeting with Mahoney and him. I consulted my attorney, Jacob J. Goodman, an experienced housing, tax, and criminal lawyer. Mr. Goodman well recalled the very public matter of my having, some years ago, almost been arrested courtesy of the quite paranoid NYC public Advocate Betsy Gotbaum, with whom, via a family member of mine, I’ve been acquainted since 1979. Gotbaum, an elected official with a number of CIA skeletons in her marital closet, had the cops called while I was at her office for my scheduled appointment with her Chief of Staff Scott Coccaro to discuss staff abuse of homeless people in drop-in centers and shelters. Fortunately the police officer called, Sgt. Al Fiore of the NYPD’s Intelligence Division, after interviewing me in the reception area, soon realized that I was no “threat” at all to the very nervous Gotbaum. Sgt. Fiore handled it well and suggesting that I go home and leave Betsy Gotbaum alone, at least for awhile. And al- though as a reporter I’ve been at events where Gotbaum is present, I keep my distance. On one occasion, in 2005 when she was campaigning for re-election on the Lower East Side and I by total coincidence passed one of her poorly attended rallies, from a safe distance I said something audible about Gotbaum and the CIA. Not too many days after that, in a televised campaign debate, Gotbaum refused her opponents’ urgings that she reveal the contents of her appointment book (which included me), claiming that she was being bothered by a “stalker” - (meaning me). I got my side of that defamatory story out via Newsday, the Daily News and The New York Times. The Staten Island Advance used a front page lead to print a story had serious errors and was slanted in favor of Gotbaum.
Attorney Goodman, citing the Gotbaum matter, urged me not to accept any appointment with the District Attorney’s office unless I receive a written guarantee that I would not be
arrested. ADA Jackson, in an e-mail, refused to provide such a guarantee. I never heard from him again. My calls and e-mails to top level Morgenthau officials such as James Kindler went unanswered. My calls, e-mails and a fax to Mayor Bloomberg yielded stonewalling and a verbal suggestion that I go to the NYC Department of Investigation. I contacted the NYCDOI and was told to submit a letter but that I could not know the identity of the individual who would get it. Who investigates the investigators?
Sgt. Fiore, who, like the FBI, now knows lots about Geoffrey Blank, assisted me in arranging a meeting at City Hall with Bloomberg aide Katie Hart on a number of matters including the apparent coverup at Robert Morgenthau’s office. Ms. Hart, working for a seemingly Teflon mayor, was little help and Sgt. Fiore offered to check into the DA matter in my behalf, to which Ms. Hart was agreeable. Some weeks later Sgt. Fiore told me that the case against Wan Yun had been, without a known explanation, “sealed and closed.” Several lawyers, including a very prominent civil rights attorney, urged me to try to get answers from the DA. Despite several calls and e-mails from me, from Morgenthau’s people came only a Cheneyesque silence.
John Feinblatt is the New York City Criminal Justice Coordinator. Since the apparent failure to prosecute Wan Yun is a miscarriage of justice, I called his office and spoke to his Assistant, Melissa Ballard. She advised me to send an e-mail, which I did on February 13, 2007. It took another few calls and an e-mail from another attorney before I got a response from Deputy Criminal Justice Coordinator Scott Sigal acknowledging my com- plaint against Mr. Morgenthau’s office and referring me back to the NYC Department of Investigation. Armed with a referral letter, I contacted NYCDOI again and discussed the matter briefly over the telephone with special counsel Kim Berger. She has since received a very detailed e-mail from me about how Robert Morgenthau is letting Geoffrey Blank off very easy.
Over the months I’d been in contact with Christian Browne, the ADA “prosecuting” Blank for his Union Square games. Mr. Browne showed little interest in the fact of Blank’s other crimes, as described above. Of greater concern is the fact that the DA showed little interest in my factual information linking Blank to terrorism and to the convicted felon and mega-fascist, Lyndon H. LaRouche, Jr.
I do not ordinarily regard The New York Post as a news source. Every once in awhile,
however, that paper publishes an interesting story. On December 26, 2005 reporter Niles Lathem did a story headlined “Harlem radicals probed”, about the so-called Freedom Socialist Party. The article reported that the FSP is under international investigation for ties to Musab al-Zarqawi-style terrorism in Iraq. Indeed the article quotes FSP spokes- person Stephen Durham as condoning Zarqawi’s hostage beheadings. What the Post had no way of reporting is the fact that Geoffrey Blank is directly connected to that group. Blank, along with Lynn Stewart, was a featured speaker at the FSP on November 12, 2005, presumably one of the speaking engagements on the FSP-sponsored speaking “tour” that Blank used to brag about.
I am told that, following Blank’s conviction by a jury, at the sentencing by Judge James D. Gibbons, DA Browne asked the judge to give the defendant a bit of jail time. Judge Gibbons, acting like a jurist on the take, however, gave the psychopathic demagogue Blank no jail time. According to a report by observer Roman Shusterman, Blank was compared by Gibbons to Winston Churchill. (In my letter of complaint to Administrative Judge Juanita Bing Newton, I suggested that, had Judge Gibbons presided over the trial of convicted sexual predator Peter Braunstein, he might have compared that defendant to FDR.
Judge Gibbons also ignored the content of a pre-sentencing e-mail I sent him about Geoffrey Blank and openly disparaged both Mr. Shusterman and me in open court.
A terrorist, according to the dictionary, is someone who uses threats, intimidation and violence for political ends. Geoffrey Blank is a terrorist. Somewhat simplified, a fascist is someone who believes in the supremacy of a dictatorial ruler and who, regardless of his or her rhetoric, is opposed the freedom of speech, press, expression etc. Lyndon LaRouche and Lenora Fulani (about whose ties with them Blank will not talk), Fulani having helped Michael Bloomberg win two elections), are fascists. Geoffrey Blank is a fascist.
No wonder he is getting protected by the government.
* * * * * * *
posted by Tom Weiss at 8:28 PM
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