Legal Statement, May 26th, 2026

I've had a lot on my mind this past week. New job, night shift. A new sleep schedule. Biking six miles a day for work. I'm hoisting the boulder up the hill as best I can, but my first real court case is in two days: May 28th. The pressure is serious, heavy, smothering. The case has the potential to be a major, deciding one that could severely limit free speech in America. So let me be clear: I am not on trial. The right to free speech is. The opponent is a self-described free speech advocate. That's not the only irony sitting with me. Neither of us is from this city; both of us recently moved to Lakeland. But I have a feeling that only one of us arrived with the long-term intention of being part of the community, of taking pride in this city and positively contributing to it. Selfless service, the ethos instilled in me during my time in the Louisiana National Guard, remains the baseline of my principles. Whether it's flood rescue then, or feeding the people now.

Think about how the media talks about it: that I filmed a video not far from where she does her on-the-street interviews, at Munn Park. That's because the place she does those interviews is the farmers' market, the same farmers' market where she's been asked to leave by multiple small business owners for harassing people. That market is held in the very park where our DSA chapter feeds people every single week. Last week we fed over 50 people. The week before, over 80. The media treats proximity to the location as proof of a crime, but that location is a constant site of community. Our DSA chapter will have a booth at the Polk Pride in the Park festival there, in that same park. I will be at that booth, handing out zines, publications, and essays I've written, like "What is Praxis?" When she arrives at the event, due to my release conditions, I will have no choice but to leave immediately. And I will; plans are already in place should that become reality. That should tell you how politically motivated this entire case is.

Every zine we distribute at that booth is printed through solidarity funds, they are a testiment to our freedom of press, freedom of speech. Every meal we share in the park is funded by working people, they are a testiment to the people caring for the people. We do not profit from this work. We are organizing for the direct benefit of our community.

For the last three months, after losing my job because of this targeted political arrest, I have survived entirely through solidarity from ordinary people. I would not have survived without it. I had come incredibly close to having to re-home my dog. Every donation, every bag of dog food for my dog, rent money, groceries: everything came from the bottom.

That solidarity has been real, and I am deeply grateful for it, not only for helping me survive personally, but for what it has made possible collectively. I eat at our mutual aid food share. I depend on the same systems as others in our community because I am a part of this community, deeply so. Any community I'm a part of, I take pride in, and intend to serve.

I am only one member of a DSA chapter with barely more than a dozen people, yet we are punching far above our weight. A dozen working class people with solidarity will always outlast a millionaire with a microphone. We are feeding people. We are showing up consistently for our community without corporate sponsors, wealthy backers, or institutional support. The same cannot be said for our opponent.

We do not know the full network funding our opponent, but we know powerful and wealthy interests are behind them. We also know our opponent is already a millionaire public figure with over 1 million youtube subscribers, deeply networked with access to money, influence, and institutional power far beyond anything I individually possess.

As I approach the court date, it's the solidarity that gives me strength to face the possibility that those 15 years might become reality. The money and the fame of the opponent cannot compare to the solidarity and mutual aid of the community. The goal of the case was to isolate me, reveal me as an outsider, and yet what has been shown is the opposite. On Thursday, I walk into that courtroom not as an isolated defendant, but as one part of a living, resilient community of people who care about each other.

- Erik Houdini

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There comes a point where you just begin to find romance within the material struggle. The pain of existence becoming fuel to hoist the boulder again. And again. And again. Until collapse. Until defeat. John Henry spirit. You want me to work the hammer and sickle, yet expect that work to break me, to sublimate me to you, to obedience. But you, the capitalist, have never toiled like a worker. How can you tell me that I cannot take pride in your exploitation? In my role as a worker? You could not bear the same mule load.

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