Columbia SJP calls for alleged arsonist and firebomber Casey Goonan to be released from Jail: 'Resistance is Love'
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine is calling on officials to "free" Casey Goonan, who's accused of firebombing a University of California, Berkeley, police cruiser and setting fire to several areas of campus.
Columbia Students for Justice in Palestine is calling on officials to “free” Casey Goonan, who’s accused of firebombing a University of California, Berkeley, police cruiser and setting fire to several areas of campus.
Cal Fire announced on Monday the arrest of Casey Robert Goonan of Oakland, CA in connection with three arson attacks and the firebombing of a UC Berkeley Police Department vehicle in June.
Officials arrested Goonan on Monday and he was initially charged with felony counts of possession and use of destructive devices and multiple counts of arson.
His bond was initially set at $1 million but was dropped to $450,000 by a judge on Thursday, according to Jewish News of Northern California reporter Gabe Stutman. He’s being held at the Alameda County Jail.
Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine shared an Instagram post by Columbia Apartheid Divest on Thursday, which called for Goonan to be released.
”This is a statement of support for Casey Goonan, accused of taking the rational action of targeting state infrastructure in defense of the 2 million Palestinians being targeted by the US funded, Israeli executed genocide in Gaza. They are currently held on $1M bail and are charged with a string of felonies, including arson,” the post stated. “Pro-Palestine groups in Berkeley have bravely and rightly claimed responsibility for the series of arsons for which Casey has been singularly and violently targeted. Desperate to deter effective action against genocide, Israeli-trained police forces raid and ransack houses of vocal abolitionists in an attempt to repress righteous resistance. They manufacture a case against select individuals, hoping to isolate them and drive the rest of the movement to fear necessary action, condemn it, and proceed with tame civic engagement.”
”The fires on UC campuses have been in direct response to the university’s violent police repression of their own students. The spark ignited on US campuses during the intifada of the last few months cannot be quelled, and further repression will only continue to transform these sparks into flames. The flames are small gestures that display the discontent of everyday people and the seriousness of their purpose: to end the genocide, liberate Palestine from the zionist occupation, and topple all institutions profiting from colonial, racial capitalism,” the group added.
On Sunday, a post by the name “Marilyn’s Daughters” on Indybay.org said that they set fire to a construction site at UC Berkeley, writing that it was the second phase of the “#Escalate movement.”
”phase two of the #Escalate movement heats up at u.c. berkeley with a construction site set on fire in broad daylight. this was done in retaliation for u.c.pd’s violent assaults on vulnerable student demonstrators and to punish the university of kkkalifornia system for supporting the genocidal zionist-Israel entity,” the group wrote. “this was an autonomous initiative in concert with the current WEEK OF ACTION currently underway: operation campus flood.”
The University of California, Berkeley Police Department wrote that a fire was reported at the Dwinelle Annex Construction Site, and an investigation determined it was arson.
One day after a “firebomb” was thrown at a UC Berkeley building that’s named after a Jewish professor on Thursday, another post was made, calling for “a week of autonomous action,” calling it “Operation Campus Flood,” which lasts from June 14 to June 19.
On June 1, an anonymous group claimed responsibility for burning the police vehicle on Saturday with an incendiary device that was placed below the cruiser.
Dan Mogulof, assistant vice chancellor for the Office of Communications and Public Affairs at UC Berkeley, told Campus Reform that the university is “aware of the social media posts and this is being taken very, very seriously.”
