As I head into the courtroom, I am reminded of a few of my heroes who had their own tumultuous experiences with the justice system. People like John Brown, an abolitionist who was hung for initiating a raid on Harpers Ferry. He was initially called a madman and fanatic, though his actions are seen as a precursor to the Civil War and the end of slavery. His actions were, at the time, illegal. They were also completely moral.

Nelson Mandela was considered a terrorist by our government for his role in fighting the apartheid government of South Africa. He spent 27 years of a life sentence in prison and was offered freedom on multiple occasions on the condition he would renounce his beliefs, which he refused. He was later released and became the president of South Africa, ending apartheid and winning the Nobel Peace prize. His efforts were also illegal, and entirely morally justified.

My actions on January 9th, 2021, and indeed my actions for the last 10 years, have been inspired by people like this. Brave, uncompromising individuals who gave their freedom and oft times their lives to a cause greater than themselves. When I was a young child, my late grandfather told me about his family that didn’t escape the camps in WWII. He showed me the knife that his father took off a slain Nazi, a man whose ideology was rooted in the death and dehumanization of others. My great grandfather was the first in my family to be an anti-fascist.

Today I follow proudly in his footsteps, combating fascism and white supremacy, hateful ideology and racist bigotry. I have given years of my life to this cause, I have given my health and well-being, and now I offer up my freedom. I was asked to write a conciliatory statement about the so-called victims in this trial. Neo-Nazis, white supremacists and far right fascists who assembled in San Diego on that day to do violence upon the community. I stood with other brave individuals in an effort to protect people from this blight on our society, and I stand by those actions with my whole being.

One day they will come for you as well, as they have come for so many others. I pray that you don’t fall victim to their hate, though this trial has made it all the more likely. Fascism is here, mask off with a gun and a badge, criminalizing anti-fascists to clear the playing field of any opposition. They may have deemed my actions illegal, but history will exonerate me, like it has so many others this system has attempted to grind under it’s heel.

I leave you with a quote from Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos, who was ostracized from his community for being queer. “They tried to bury us, but they didn’t know we were seeds.