Alan James Swinney was recently sentenced to 10 years in prison for assault and unlawful use of a firearm, but before that he was a serial snitch known for filming Black Lives Matter (BLM) and Antifa demonstrators, calling the cops, and using his footage to get them arrested. Even after he'd been in jail for months he was still proud of what he did and bragged about it in a letter to George Floyd's murderer Derek Chauvin. We became aware of the letter recently while covering his sentencing and consider it proof beyond any possible doubt that Swinney is a snitch.
Swinney's Snitch Paperwork
The letter to Derek Chauvin (see PDF link above map) began by calling Chauvin "brother" before expressing his disappointment with Chauvin's conviction, said that he was in jail because he "went to Portland to deal with Antifa and Burn Loot Murder protesters", claims the protesters attacked him, that he was defending himself, and then brags about getting "96 Antifa and BLM agitators arrested." His exact statement which only a stone cold snitch would say in jail reads as follows:
"I've been fighting with the left for years now. I've been to rallies from coast to coast and I've got 96 Antifa and BLM agitators arrested." - Alan Swinney
Swinney then concluded his letter by calling George Floyd a "POS" and saying "our country has too many George Floyds in it. Its time to clean house." Swinney also told Chauvin that he thinks the world is a little bit safer without George Floyd before concluding with a statement saying that he thinks a civil war is coming that will free both of them.
Swinney's Criminal Case
We have been defending Swinney publicly recently due to the unjust nature of the criminal case against him. We consider the issues presented in that case to be separate from and ultimately irrelevant to his status as a snitch. We don't like snitches, but we also don't like seeing people convicted for crimes they did not commit or sentenced excessively even if that person is a snitch. This isn't the first time we have spoken out in defense of somebody we believed to have been treated unfairly only to turn around and call him a snitch later (ex: https://copblaster.com/blast/3287/jason-paul-schaefer-snitch-investigation-findings). We will defend snitches if we think they are being mistreated by the system in way that could easily be applied to solid dudes. We believe that Swinney was wrongfully convicted of Assault II and that his sentence for Unlawful Use of a Weapon (UUW) with a Firearm highlights the need to do away with mandatory minimums.
Assault II
Swinney was convicted of Assault II for shooting Jason Britton in the eyelid with a paintball based on the theory that a paintball is a dangerous weapon. Assault II is a Measure 11 offense that carries a mandatory minimum of 70 months in prison. We don't believe that a paintball used in the way Swinney intended at the time to qualify as a dangerous weapon "readily capable of causing death or serious physical injury" as defined by statute (https://www.oregonlegislature.gov/bills_laws/ors/ors161.html). Swinney was convicted on a transferred intent theory because he intended to shoot someone else. That other person was wearing adequate eye protection in the form of a gas mask. Had that person's gas mask been shot he would not have been at risk of injury let alone serious injury since a paintball hitting his gas mask would not have left so much as a mark on his body. Shooting someone's gas mask with a paintball is much safer than shooting parts of their body that even while clothed are likely to be bruised by the paintball. Since Swinney intended to shoot the other guy's gas mask the intent transferred to Britton should be intent to shoot a gas mask and not intent to shoot a person's eye or other body part. For that reason we don't think that the intent requirement is met. We think a more accurate charge would be Assault IV which covers recklessly injuring another person. Assault IV is a misdemeanor for which nobody can be sentenced to more than 12 months. If this conviction is not overturned on appeal it will set a dangerous precedent capable of putting any stupid kid with a paintball gun in prison. Nailing Swinney is not worth creating law likely to send teenagers to prison instead of college just for shooting someone with a paintball gun.
UUW with a Firearm
UUW with a Firearm carries a mandatory minimum of 60 months. The UUW was committed a week after the Assault II, so it constituted a separate criminal episode. When sentencing someone for two separate courses of conduct the sentences are typically imposed consecutively as was the case here. We think that the UUW statue unfairly and unnecessary punishes people for the type of weapon used instead of how it is used. If you use a gun to do anything illegal then you've unlawfully used it. Normally using a gun is accounted for in the statutory scheme of other crimes. If you unlawfully use a gun to kill, injure, or rob someone you will already get more time for those acts than you could get for UUW. In this case Swinney used the gun to commit the misdemeanor offense of menacing. Had Swinney used a different weapon like a sword or a bomb he would have only been charged with UUW and would not have faced a mandatory minimum. We don't think people should be subjected to mandatory minimums at all let alone just because the weapon used to commit a crime that didn't hurt anyone happened to be a gun.
Political Motivation
We think the case against Swinney was largely politically motivated. We think the statist left in Portland wanted to send a message to the far right that Portland is their city, the right is not welcome here, and if they come to cause trouble there will be consequences. The District Attorney in Portland, Mike Schmidt, is a known friend of prominent Antifas (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6ugxEWYkJg). The "victims" in this case were both attending an Antifa counter-protest in opposition to a Blue Lives Matter rally organized in part by Swinney. They credited the DA's office with helping them press charges when the police wouldn't.
In another case, an Antifa protester was sentenced to 4 years in federal prison for hitting a United States Marshal with a 4 pound hammer (https://www.oregonlive.com/crime/2021/12/judge-sends-texas-man-who-assaulted-federal-officer-with-hammer-to-prison-for-nearly-four-years.html). In that case the judge had to depart above the guidelines to impose a sentence that was a year longer than the one prosecutors sought. Clearly the conduct in that case is more serious than the conduct at issue in Swinney's case. We are saying this even though we hate the feds and loved hearing about someone hitting a U.S. Marshal with a hammer. We don't have a problem with what the hammer guy did on moral level, but as far as a technical legal analysis goes we still have to say that under the laws of the current occupational government what the hammer guy did was technically far more serious than what Swinney did.
What Prison Will Be Like for Swinney
Swinney is a serial snitch going to prison for 10 years because of a wrongful conviction and an excessive sentence. While in prison he should be properly ostracized by the general population. That means he will likely spend most of his time in protective custody (PC). Inmates in protective custody are typically housed in the same units as those in disciplinary segregation, so they are in their cells 23 hours a day, but unlike inmates in disciplinary segregation they have access to a limited amount of commissary which is much less than they would have in general population. Eventually the staff usually transfer PC cases to other prisons thinking they might do alright in general population there, but usually their jacket follows them and they end up in PC there too. Lucky PC cases are sent to PC prisons where they can walk the yard with other rats, child molesters, and other undesirables. This analysis is based on this author's time served in federal prisons including FCI Sheridan and USP Victorville. However, this author has never done time in state prison and has been told by numerous that have done time in the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) that state prisons are different.
In state prison people like Swinney often have the option of paying a gang for protection. They call it paying rent. Paying rent requires that the undesirable inmate buy commissary items or have money sent to gang members in exchange for being allowed to remain in general population. There is no rent in the federal system because we don't want rats or child molesters on the yard period. In the feds you're either a good dude or you're not. If you're not you can't walk the yard. PC cases often request to be placed in PC when they arrive at any place where they know they won't be welcome once the inmates figure out what they are which typically happens right away or shortly after their arrival. In those cases a PC case might walk the yard for a couple weeks before disappearing. Often the disappearance is due to the PC case realizing that someone might be figuring out what they are, but the rest of the time it is due to a couple members of their race making it clear in plain view of the staff that the inmate is not welcome. This cycle continues for PC cases unless they finally land at a prison specifically designed so that rats, child molesters, and other undesirables can walk the yard just find due to there being no good dudes there.
We want to make sure that Swinney does his time with the snitch jacket that he deserves even though we don't think he deserves to be there in the first place. Hopefully somebody will ask their people to look Swinney up, they will find this article, and they will their person in prison that Swinney is no good. To make sure that at least some inmates know what's up with Swinney we will mention his history in letters to inmates we know at whatever prison they send him to. We don't want any harm to come to him, but at the same time we don't want people we know to unknowingly do things that could get them in trouble in plain view of a known rat. He needs to be properly ostracized by the community before he learns anything he could use to get anyone in trouble. If that mean he ends up doing time he doesn't deserve worse then that is just the consequence of being a snitch. He will wear that snitch jacket wherever he goes whether he is in society or prison. If snitches don't want to do their time like that don't go to prison. Swinney is currently in Coffee Creek Correctional Facility (CCCF), but CCCF is just hub where convicts are held temporarily while ODOC classifies them. Once classified he will be sent to his assigned prison.
We think he will probably be sent to Two Rivers Correctional Institution (TRCI) because we've heard that they have special housing units for PC cases. We've heard that ODOC is far more likely to send a high profile PC case like Swinney straight to a PC yard than the feds are. Several high profile sex offenders are known to this author to have been sent straight to TRCI. However, this author does not know if they afford the same courtesy to snitches, but they probably do.
Conclusion
Alan Swinney deserves to do every day of the time he doesn't deserve to do in the first place wearing a snitch jacket.
UPDATE: We've added a video below featuring a video call Swinney made from jail. What surprises us is that he is in an open dorm with a bunch of other inmates. That means that at about his third month either the inmates didn't know about his history reporting people to police or he was in a PC unit with a bunch of rats and sex offenders. We wouldn't be surprised if nobody in the unit knew because we think most of those incidents took place in other cities and the local media has not covered that aspect of his history to any significant degree.