From Reverend Billy

Reverend Billy

Out of Jail - Into Free Speech

The trial concluded last Thursday, and 12 jurors found me guilty of obstructing a lawful business. The LA City Prosecutor slowed down the surveillance tape of our action last April 19th to persuade the jury that our Cash Register Exorcism slowed down or stopped a customer from buying a latte. Of course, IT DID, and I AM guilty, if you consider Starbucks business lawful...yes we obstructed it. At one point I danced on the counter.

I hope you members of the Church will, if not dance up on that stage, at least pray over Howard's sinful cash, try to reverse its flow, back to the coffee families in Guatemala and sourthern Mexico.

The judge agreed with the prosecution that there couldn't be any "politics" from our side, although sometimes the illustrious representative of the People sounded like an ad for Starbucks. At one point five members of the jury admitted that they go to Starbucks regularly, and the foreman was a retired, lifelong employee of the Central Intelligence Agency. Come to think of it, I can see why Starbucks went after us out in the San Fernando Valley.

At one point I faced the jury, pointing to a large map of the Starbucks. I took them through color coded tables and chairs, tracing our journey toward the cash register in question. Then my lawyer, Mark Wolfe, asked me what I said in my prayer over the cash appliance. There were four consecutive I OBJECT THE DEFENDENT'S PERSONAL VIEWS ARE NOT RELEVANT.

Mark replied "How do we go to the intention of the alleged crime?" The judge finally asked me, "Well, what did you say? Say it once. Only once." And so I got my 4 minutes in court, and we've got the transcript and we'll post it. I tried to make the children out in those coffee fields appear in the courtroom. Maybe they did. I wonder if the jury members have gone back to their lattes.

I went to jail, where there is no coffee of any kind. The LA County Correctional Facility is as bad as The Tombs. Just miles and miles of people in that underground world, almost all Hispanic or African Americans of course. The gangs are the shadow government there, and I had a rather formal interview by some coalition of Crips, Bloods, and, well, a number of large men with shaved heads and Aztec tattoos, let's say. Some of them assumed I was a cop, but mostly they were perplexed. I talked about dancing on the counter of the Starbucks, and about how billionaire Howard Schultz gets his coffee on the cheap because he doesn't pay the families who bring it to market. They are out there with their children and grandparents desperately trying to increase their output, some of the kids are six and seven years old...

All this was better known to these guys; they are educated on the impact of the globalized coffee economy in a way that most liberals aren't. Anyway, they called me "Starbuck" throughout my stay, and there was always one near me, walking me through the fluorescent tunnels. I felt safe.

So I'm out now. The choice to go to a jury trial, and then to go to prison, somehow felt right, after Bush's election especially. I needed to go down into the world we make. Discussing the decisions with Savitri and the choir -- we were aware that going voluntarily into this bad prison would drive the information about the coffee families farther into the mediasphere. That has happened. LA Weekly, LA Times, NPR. Just before this writing, I was able to connect the leader of the Labor Education in the Americas Project with a writer for the Chicago Tribune. Here in LA we had Cal State students doing Retail Interventions in the Highland Hollywood mall... getting back inside Starbucks to pray over the money while the ban from the Devil's Cafe is still echoing in the courtroom.

Amen!

www.revbilly.com

NYC: Rev Billy on Mother's Day

Reverend Billy and the Stop Shopping Gospel Choir Mother's Day Spring Revival at St. Marks Church

Hosted by Father Julio Torres

Reverend Billy photo courtesy of Fred Askew

We are raising money to FIX THE ROOF at the Church. Help us launch a special effort to FIX THE ROOF. We return to New York to FIX THE ROOF after stops in London, Barcelona, Altoona, Pennsylvania, and a bus revival tour to California communities threatened by the invasion of predatory superstores.

Please BRING YOUR MOTHER or a picture of your mother for special rites, followed by a baptism and the choir's new sing-along hit: GEORGE BUSH DOES NOT RETURN TO GROUND ZERO.

Info and Reservations: www.revbilly.com

12/10/03

NYC: Rev Billy's Annual Come Happy Leave Hungry Christmas Revival

REVEREND BILLY AND THE CHURCH OF STOP SHOPPING ANNUAL COME HAPPY LEAVE HUNGRY CHRISTMAS REVIVAL

SUNDAY DECEMBER 14TH 8 PM
ST MARKS IN THE BOWERY,
2ND AVE @ E 1OTH ST
10$ AT THE DOOR,
plus a handmade gift for the gift exchange

RESERVATIONS & INFORMATION
WWW.REVBILLY.COM

TRAINS: F TO 2ND AVE, NR TO 8TH ST, Q45 TO UNION SQ, 6 TO ASTOR

Reverend Billy and The Amazing Handmade Stop Shopping Gospel Choir celebrate Christmas the old fashioned way: NOT SHOPPING IN A CHURCH. Bring aŹ homemade present for New York City's largest gift exchange and witness the passionate baptism of hundreds of post-consumer converts. Reverend Billy unveils a whole new value system and unleashes a torrent of heretofore unknown holiday logic. Come Happy — Leave Hungry.