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David Gilbert (born October 6, 1944) is an American radical leftist organizer and activist who is currently imprisoned at Auburn Correctional Facility. Gilbert was a founding member of Columbia University Students for a Democratic Society and member of the Weather Underground Organization. After about ten years underground, he was arrested in October 1981, along with members of the Black Liberation Army and other radicals including Kathy Boudin, his partner and mother of Chesa Boudin. The details of his arrest are included in the entry on Kathy Boudin in the section entitled "1981 Brinks Robbery." He and she both participated in that robbery and were sent to prison for their part in the resulting murders of Nyack police officers Waverly Brown and Edward O'Grady and Brinks guard Peter Paige. (In 2004 the US Post Office in Nyack was renamed in honor of the slain men.)

Weather Underground

In 1969 SDS split into different ideological factions and Weatherman emerged, its purpose being to build up armed struggle amidst young white Americans in support of the Black Panthers and other militant groups and also oppose the war in Vietnam via activities intended to "Bring the War Home". Gilbert joined this group in 1969 with his friend, Ted Gold, who later died in the March 1970 Greenwich Village townhouse explosion, along with fellow Weather members, Diana Oughton and Terry Robbins. The group became a clandestine operation, and the organization was renamed the Weather Underground. When Weather went underground, members often used money they already had or received from their family to fund their efforts. Gilbert cashed in his Israel bonds and half of that money went to supporting Weather and the other half was put into the Black Panther bail fund.

David Gilbert became a part of the Bay Area collective and they were living in a San Francisco apartment. He and another member were out working on another group's car in Spring of 1971 when they were approached by two men in suits claiming to be real estate agents. The 'suits' asked a few questions and then left, alerting Gilbert that there might be a problem. He suspected that these men were actually FBI agents looking for information. After several meetings within the group, they decided to stay put for awhile.  After more suspicious men started inquiring into the activities of other members, they decided to travel north. They holed up in a motel in Portland on a rainy night and watched television.  Although not on the group's coordinating committee (the Weather Bureau), Gilbert did act as a regional leader, spending at least some of these years in Colorado. The Weather Underground committed several small bombings directed towards governmental and business property and buildings. As support for the group began to wane on the left, the pace of actions lessened and some members of the Weather Underground resurfaced in late 1976 and early 1977. Gilbert resurfaced briefly in Denver, Colorado between 1977 and 1979. Denver is where he helped organize a Weather collective in October 1969. Before surfacing, he managed to get his criminal charges dropped so he did not face any legal penalties. Gilbert, however, did not think it was in the best interest of the movement for him to resurface.  Most Weather members were not prosecuted or did not serve time in prison despite having been sought by the police for years; police misconduct was the cause of many charges eventually being thrown out of court (see: COINTELPRO). Gilbert opted to continue his life underground. Gilbert and his partner, Kathy Boudin, remained active even following the birth of their son, Chesa Boudin, in August 1980.

Brinks robbery

In the late 1970s or early 1980s Gilbert and other white activists took the name RATF (Revolutionary Armed Task Force), declaring their solidarity with the Black Liberation Army (BLA). On October 20, 1981, the RATF participated along with several members of the BLA in an attempt to rob a Brinks armored car at the Nanuet Mall, near Nyack, New York.  While Gilbert and Boudin waited in a U-Haul truck in a nearby parking lot, armed BLA members took another vehicle to the mall, where a Brinks truck was making a delivery. They confronted the guards and a shoot out ensued, wounding guard Joe Trombino after he let off one shot (wounds he survived, although he died decades later on September 11th) and killing his co-worker, Peter Paige.  The robbers then took $1.6 million in cash and sped off to transfer into the waiting U-Haul. The truck was soon stopped by a police roadblock. Gilbert and Boudin surrendered but when the officers tried to search the back of the vehicle BLA members emerged shooting. Two police officers, Waverly L. Brown and Edward J. O'Grady, died in the shootout. Gilbert fled the scene with other RATF and BLA members but was caught by police that day. He was tried, and sentenced in 1983 to 75 years for three counts of felony murder. His extremely long sentence for participating in this action (especially when compared to Kathy Boudin, whose guilty plea earned her 20-years-to-life, from which she was paroled on 20 August 2003 and released 17 September 2003) may be due to his decision not to participate in his trial, not recognizing the authority of the state to try him. Gilbert has admitted that his participating in the Brinks robbery was wrong and apologized for his role in the "tragic loss of life" on that day. He does not deny his role in the robbery and subsequent murders.

Imprisonment

Gilbert co-founded an inmate peer education program on HIV and AIDS in the Auburn Correctional Facility in 1987, and a similar, more successful project in Great Meadows Prison in Comstock following his transfer there. He has published book reviews and essays in a number of small/independent newspapers and journals, some of which were collected into the anthology No Surrender: Writings from an Anti-Imperialist Political Prisoner (Abraham Guillen Press) in 2004. He has also published longer single pieces on the topics of misleading AIDS conspiracy theories and white working class political consciousness. The 2003 documentary The Weather Underground featured interview segments with Gilbert, raising his profile beyond those in the small political prisoner support network who have been following his progress since his incarceration. The DVD release of The Weather Underground features a longer interview with Gilbert as a bonus feature.

Gilbert has served time in numerous upstate New York prisons, and is currently incarcerated at the Auburn Correctional Facility in Dannemora, New York. He is not eligible for parole until October 13, 2056.

Commutation of sentence

On August 23, 2021, his last day in office, Governor Andrew Cuomo granted Gilbert clemency in the form of a partial sentence commutation. The commutation of Gilbert's minimum sentence from 75 years to the 40 years he served by October 2021 did not constitute a pardon or reduce the sentence to time served but did make Gilbert eligible to appear before the state's parole board. The board announced on October 26, 2021, that it had granted Gilbert parole, effective in November 2021. Gilbert was released on November 4, 2021.


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Hippie action in the Haight centered around the Diggers, a guerrilla street theatre group that combined spontaneous street theatre, anarchistic action, and art happenings in their agenda to create a "free city." By late 1966, the Diggers opened stores which simply gave away their stock; provided free food, medical care, transport and temporary housing; they also organized free music concerts and works of political art. The Diggers criticized the term 'hippie' with their October 1967, 'Death of Hippie' event.

The Death of Hippie event: In late September 1967, many of the shops in the district began to display a stack of 4x5 cards on their counters proclaiming "Funeral Notice for Hippie". "Friends are invited to attend services beginning at sunrise, October 6, 1967 at Buena Vista Park". An organization known as the Haight Ashbury Switchboard actively supported the Digger's funeral concept. A funeral procession went from the park down Haight St and ended in the Panhandle with supporters carrying a trinket filled casket. It was emblematic of the fate of the hippie movement in San Francisco.


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In October 1967, they staged The Death of Hippie, a parade in the Haight-Ashbury where masked participants carried a coffin with the words "Hippie--Son of Media" on the side.  The event was staged in such a way so that any media that simply described it would be transmitting the Digger message that Hippies were a media invention. This was called "creating the condition you describe" and was used skillfully by the Diggers to control the media. Their own publications, notably the Digger Papers, are the origin of such phrases as "Do your own thing" and "Today is the first day of the rest of your life". The Diggers fostered and inspired later groups like the Yippies.


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"Something" is a song by The Beatles, written by lead guitarist George Harrison in 1969. It was featured on the album Abbey Road, and was also the first song written by Harrison to appear on the A-side of a Beatles' single. It was one of the first Beatles' singles to contain tracks already available on a long playing (LP) album, with both "Something" and "Come Together" having appeared on Abbey Road. "Something" was the only Harrison composition to top the American charts while he was in The Beatles.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney, the band's principal songwriters, both praised "Something" as among the best songs Harrison had written, or the group had to offer. As well as critical acclaim, the single achieved commercial success, topping the Billboard charts in the United States, and entering the top 10 in the United Kingdom. The song has been covered by over 150 artists including Elvis Presley, Shirley Bassey, Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, James Brown, Julio Iglesias, The Miracles, Eric Clapton, and Joe Cocker, and is the second-most covered Beatles' song after "Yesterday".  Harrison is quoted as saying that his favourite cover of the song was James Brown's, and he kept Brown's version in his personal jukebox.

A-side "Come Together"
Released 6 October 1969 (US)
31 October 1969 (UK)
Format 7"
Recorded 25 February 1969
EMI Studios, London
Genre Rock, pop
Length 2:59
Label Apple
Writer(s) George Harrison
Producer George Martin
Certification 2x Platinum (RIAA)


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"Come Together" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon/McCartney. The song is the opening track on The Beatles' September 1969 album Abbey Road.

One month later it was released as a double A-sided single with "Something", their twenty-first single in the United Kingdom and twenty-sixth in the United States. The song reached the top of the charts in the US, and peaked at number four in the UK.

Origin and meaning

The song's history began when Lennon was inspired by Timothy Leary's gubernatorial campaign for governor of California titled "Come together, join the party" against Ronald Reagan, which promptly ended when Leary was sent to prison for possession of marijuana.  It has been speculated that each verse refers cryptically to each of The Beatles (e.g. "he's one holy roller" allegedly refers to the spiritually inclined George Harrison; "he got monkey finger, he shoot Coca-Cola" to Ringo, the funny Beatle; "he got Ono sideboard, he one spinal cracker" to Lennon himself; and "got to be good-looking 'cause he's so hard to see" to Paul); however, it has also been suggested that the song has only a single "pariah-like protagonist" and Lennon was "painting another sardonic self-portrait".

A-side "Something"
Released 6 October 1969 (US)
31 October 1969 (UK)
Format 7"
Recorded 21 July 1969,
EMI Studios, London
Genre Blues rock
Length 4:18
Label Apple
Writer(s) Lennon/McCartney
Producer George Martin


(https://en.wikipedia.org)

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