Portland: Pax, After Facing 72 Felonies, Pleads to Three Felonies

Local Anarchist, After Facing 72 Felonies, Pleads to Three Felonies

We would like to say ‘thank you’ to all who have extended solidarity to Pax (Bryan Wiedeman) throughout this situation. We hope that similar solidarity will be displayed in other instances of repression–political repression as well as policing-as-usual that operates along class-based, racist and patriarchal lines.

Portland, Oregon — Bryan Michael Wiedeman accepted a plea deal on October 1st for three counts of criminal mischief in the first degree. Wiedeman was arrested on May 3 and was initially charged with 72 felonies — 36 counts of criminal mischief and 36 counts of conspiracy to commit criminal mischief. The non-cooperating plea deal Wiedeman accepted includes 5 years supervised probation, 20 days of weekend jail, 80 hours of community service, and $43084.59 restitution.

The discrepancy between the original charges and the anti-climactic outcome is evidence that the prosecution was politically motivated, says Kristian Williams, with the Committee Against Political Repression.

“The police don’t ordinarily kick down doors with guns drawn over simple vandalism,” says Williams, “and the attempt to inflate the case to felony conspiracy is pretty shameful. Clearly the whole affair was politically motivated.”