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THE MICHIGAN DAILY
Thursd®y, September 7,:1' 72
P~ge Six YHE MICHIGAN DAILY Thursday, September 7, 1972
I
I
pun released
by wiretap ruling
By ROSE SUE BERSTEIN ..:
Il
Rainbow People's Party (RPP)
leader Pun Plamondon was re-.
leased on $50,000 bond late last
June from the federal peniten-
tiary in Terre Haute, Ind. The
bond was posted by RPP.
Prior to a Supreme Court rul-
ing eariler that month which
struck down the government's
practice of wiretapping suspect-
ed political "subversives," Pla-
mondon had been ineligible f o r
release under bond.
Plamondon is- one of three per-
sons accused of bombing the
local CIA office in- August, 1968,
but the alleged evidence was ob-
tained through what is now an
illegal wiretap procedure.
Followinghis release, Plamon-
don said he plans to help on-
going anti-war activities, the
Michigan Marijuana Initiative
(MMI) and to work for prison-
er's rights.
RPP sponsored the unsuccess-
ful MMI petition drive to place
the question of legalizing mari-
juana on the November ballot.
Plamondon remarked that he
"We were never engag-
ed in criminal activity. We
weer just viciously perse-
cuted. Some actual crimin-
als we really want to deal
with are those who run the
correctional institutions."
-John Sinclair-
R.P.-P.
learned in jail that ."prisoners
are just like everyone else-just
like the people in this room.
They're not evil or inhuman.".
Since his release, Plamondon
said that he has been "smoking
a lot of marijuana, meeting a
lot of people and pretty well
cruising around."
When asked why his hair was
not long, he replied, "It's by
chance. It was cut."
And when asked how RPP
supports its programs and whe-
ther his experience in prison
made him more timid or cau-
tious politically, another RPP
leader, John Sinclair responded.
"We have changed the laws
we set about to change," he
said, referring to the state and
local marijuana ordinance and
the wiretap decision.
"We were never engaged in
criminal activity," Sinclair ex-
plained. "We Were just viciously
persecuted. Some actual crimi-
nals we really want to deal with
are those who run the correc-
tional institutions."
"Our record," he continued,
"of calling people criminals and
then proving our case is pretty
good."
Plamondon predicted that de-
spite the court ruling there
would not be less wiretapping
now. But, he said, "their uphold-
ing the Fourth Amendment is
gratifying."
"Justice only comes," added
Genie Plamondon, an RPP lead-
er, "when large groups of peo-
ple force it."
"There ain't any justice in
this place," a d d e d Sinclair.
"People on the streets know
that. There are criminals," he
said-speaking about the Nixon
administration and large cor-
porate interests like ITT-and
"we're critizens."
Plamondon said he hoped his
case would come to trial so that
he "could win in court." With-
out the wiretap evidence, the
prosecution's case would rest
upon the testimony of David
Valler, a government informer.
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