In the early morning of May 17, longtime anti-war and immigrant rights activist Carlos Montes awoke to the startling sound of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department SWAT Team breaking down his door. "They came in with guns on their shoulders, yelling. I was shocked," 63-year-old Montes told the Pasadena Star-News. "I thought, let me close my eyes so I can go to sleep and see if I wake up from this nightmare."
Authorities searched Montes' home, confiscating his cell phone and computer. Montes says the authorities also sorted through, stacked and organized a large number of personal documents and photos, many of them relating to his activist activities and trips he took to Colombia and Cuba (Montes founded the Brown Beret Chicano youth group in the 1960s and has been involved in anti-war efforts for four decades).
When authorities discovered an illegally purchased firearm in his home, Montes was arrested and charged with possession of a firearm by a felon (Montes was convicted in 1969 of assaulting a police officer), possession of ammunition, and four counts of perjury for lying on his gun registration.
Montes already felt the raid had less to do with firearms than with his political activism, but what happened next solidified that feeling. While sitting in the back of a patrol car, Montes was approached by a plainclothes FBI agent who questioned Montes about his involvement with the Chicago-based Freedom Road Socialist Organization.
Read more over at AlterNet.
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