drop the charges against Juan Ruiz

Some of you already know about this and some of you might not. There was a week-long No Borders Camp along the Mexico/U.S. border earlier in November. I went to the Calexico/Mexicali area for this camp. During the last day of the camp, the U.S. border patrol attacked the U.S. side of the camp at the end of a march and rally that ended the camp. Three people were initially arrested and several people beaten and shot with pepperspray pellets. Two of the people were held without charges for 48 hours and then released. The third person, Juan Ruiz, was charged with a felony assault of a federal officer. The drum Juan, a musician, was playing bumped into a border patrol agent, he was then tackled and thrown to the ground. Much of the border patrol's actions are on videotape and can be seen at:

http://noborderscamp.org/

There is also more information about Juan available at this site. He is a permanent U.S. resident and is facing possible deportation in relation to the charge. At the No Borders Camp website you can sign a petition to drop the charge against Juan. There is also a campaign of sending letters and faxes to the U.S. attorney; more details are available at the website. People are hoping for at least a thousand signatures. When I signed it, I was number 591. So, check out the website, read about what has happened, and sign the petition!