Yet again we see an example of someone exercising his privilege to be white and earn some benefits off those he’s already received in being out of jail awaiting his trial.

Gabriel Augustin Garcia is Proud Boy being prosecuted for illegal entry and civil disorder. Depending on the circumstances, those can be serious crimes that scare a court when it comes to bail. It appears the court worked with him on the conditions for his release. From Yahoo News:

As part of the conditions of his pretrial release, Garcia was put under curfew and fitted with an ankle monitor – which his lawyers said is now presenting problems.

Obviously, these conditions would normally be considered a decent “halfway point” between total freedom and waiting for his trial in jail. But “decent halfway points” aren’t good enough for Garcia:

In a request to modify his release conditions filed September 1, Garcia’s lawyers said the monitor is a physical safety hazard in his roofing business and is also off-putting to people he hopes will buy his services.  “The monitor has randomly started beeping loudly around potential clients, immediately followed by an embarrassing phone call from pretrial services asking for his exact location,” his lawyers wrote.

Yes, of course it does, they are a pain in the ass. The problem is that Black Americans would seldom be back in court complaining that it’s uncomfortable and keeps going off (Try jail as a contrast with respect to “comfortable” conditions.”) Just get him a new monitor.

The monitor is also cumbersome and hazardous at work, they said. “He climbs ladders and the GPS monitor often gets stuck on the next ladder step when climbing,” they wrote. “One time, he almost fell off the ladder,” they added.

The safety hazard could be entirely legitimate, though we have our doubts because if the safety hazard was a big concern, it would be the first reason to ask that it be taken off. If he fell from a ladder due to the monitor, and it was serious, why didn’t they file an emergency motion based upon that reason alone? Tough to prove?

The embarrassment about clients sounds as white as can be. No one ever, anywhere, has worn an ankle bracelet and not been ashamed of having it on and it impacts everyone detrimentally. The first thing that Garcia likely does is explain why it’s on. We presume that he works around at least a few people who “understand” at that point.

Garcia is a Hispanic surname, but in a picture, he looks white, whatever that means, and he’s exercising some white privilege and expectations. We will follow up on whether the judge buys it or not. If it is safe, and they can replace it with one that works, it sure sounds like the judge will ask him/herself why she should change what she originally ruled. We will follow up.

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