#J28 Truths coming out on OPD Misconduct and Quan’s broadbrush

Updated 5X (2/3/12)

"OH MY GOD NOT THE SNACKS" – @jeanquan surveying @occupyoakland damage in city hall. LOL! #oo #ows #osf #j28 #opd http://t.co/ta41foOy—
Scott Anansi Rossi (@scottanansi) January 31, 2012

CNN: Occupy Oakland demonstrations, arrests inject new life into movement

Bay Citizen:  Many Arrested, But Few to Face Charges

Out of 409 arrests made, only twelve people (3%) face actual charges.

Nearly 400 innocent people jailed, including journalists, and as reported below many held for three days and mistreated by police and jailers, for the crime of peaceful protest.

Huffington Post: Occupy Oakland Activists Report Inhumane Conditions In Santa Rita, Glenn Dyer Jails

Oakland Tribune: Occupy Oakland supporters claim authorities used excessive force and violated their rights

Salon.com:  Occupy Oakland protesters denied medication in jail

SF Bay Guardian: Occupy Oakland inmates at Santa Rita attacked- developing story

Daily Kos: Oakland Arrestees Tortured

Oakland North: Journalists arrested at Saturday Occupy Oakland Protest

KQED News:  Newspaper Guild wants meeting with Quan

The KQED report includes tweets from journalists, including this one which reports widespread police violation of CA Penal Code 830.10

Yael Chanoff, SF Bay Guardian

-No cops have badge numbers showing and they are refusing to tell protesters

(Apparently with impunity, despite the example made of the only two OPD officers who happened to be caught on video by a citizen journalist.  Why isn’t there wider enforcement?)

Newspaper Guild president Bernie Lunzer sent a letter to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Police Chief Howard Jordan, requesting a meeting and clearly calling them out on OPD’s violation of its own guidelines:

Although several journalists were released quickly on the scene, others were held for long periods of time, making it impossible for them to do their jobs. Numerous reports from the scene document officers ignoring reporters presenting their press credentials and admonishing them for not following orders to disperse.

This despite the OPD’s own guidelines, which state, “Even after a dispersal order has been given, clearly identified media shall be permitted to carry out their professional duties in any area where arrests are being made unless their presence would unduly interfere with the enforcement action.”

You may have heard (as reported in the SF Chronicle) that Mayor Quan plans to call OWS “leadership” to ask them to denounce #OO, showing the laughable scale of her cluelessness on multiple levels.  Here is a response from a member of the leaderless movement known as OWS.

Daily Kos:  Dear Oakland Mayor Quan, you do not need to call me, here is MY response to YOUR demands

Lastly, let’s not forget to keep in perspective the city’s priorities in light of the #J28 OPD brutality that triggered over two dozen solidarity actions around the globe:

• Oakland recently closed 5 public elementary schools in order to save $2 million
• City of Oakland has by now vastly exceeded that spending in policing Occupy Oakland
• Crime in Oakland was down 19% during #OO encampment
• OPD Police misconduct has cost the city $57 million over the past decade
• OPD was stripped of power just last week over its failure to mend its ways, and the misconduct that went down on Saturday only moves them closer to federal receivership.

Note:  this doesn’t include all of the lawsuits that are pending since #OO began.

#AQUApy 2.0! The #AQUApation is BACK!

UPDATED:

#Aquapy 2.0 received eviction notice for tonight!! Come support! Chant against forclosures! #oo #ows #osf #RT @OakFoSho @punkboyinsf—
  (@worthoftheworld) February 01, 2012

Original Post

Only two days after tear gas, rubber bullets, flash bang grenades, smoke bombs, and over 400 arrests, the #AQUApation is back at Oakland’s Lake Merritt.  (Recall the first Aquapy).  Only in Oakland.

Watch the #AQUApation on @OakFoSho's ustream!

As OakFoSho streams the boat house party, he says:  “I guess this is what Jean Quan meant by Occupy using Oakland as its playground.”  Hilarious.

"there is a boat sitting on lake merritt right this moment for something called aquapy oakland." (Photo: aegies)

"Aquapy on Lake Merrit #oo #occupyoakland" (via @nicklally)

"Holy moley! Right now on Lake Merritt: AQUA-PY OAKLAND! #oo" (via @Kevin_Seal) (Photo by Erin Allin, according to commenter)

And finally, this is the only pic we’re reproducing from #OO #J28 Move-In Day:

"Amazing photo from #Oakland today ~ a young girl in a gas mask with her mom: #OccupyOakland #oo #J28 #ows #MoveInDay" (via Tommy @MagicZoetrope)

Police crackdown on toy doll “protestors” in Russia

Via The Guardian

"In our opinion, this is still an unsanctioned public event," says the deputy Chief of Police. (Photo: Sergey Teplyakov/vkontakte)

Perhaps Obama’s buddy Rahm should send an attaché to Siberia to take notes:

Police in the Siberian city of Barnaul have asked prosecutors to investigate the legality of a recent protest that saw dozens of small dolls – teddy bears, Lego men, South Park figurines – arranged to mimic a protest, complete with signs reading: “I’m for clean elections” and “A thief should sit in jail, not in the Kremlin”.

Police refer to the dolls as the opposition’s “new technologies,” examining their details and writing down the text of each placard . . .  Read more about creative measures adopted by activists in Russia.

UPDATE 1/28/12

Photos and more backstory on boingboing.net (Photo: RFE-RL)

Photos and more backstory on boingboing.net, from RIA Novosti.

More: MSNBC News, Radio Free Europe, Independent (UK).

OPD Stripped of Power & Other Policing News

Via The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/15nJN)

Judge Strips Power from Oakland Police
Decisions must now go through court monitors, as department steps closer to federal takeover”:

“A federal judge has granted significant decision-making powers to the monitors charged with overseeing court-ordered reforms at the Oakland Police Department, a move that brings the department one step closer to a federal takeover.

“In an order issued late Tuesday, Judge Thelton Henderson wrote that he was in ‘disbelief’ that the department had yet to finish the reforms, adding that the department remains ‘woefully behind its peers around the state and nation,’ and that ‘words and promises are not enough.’”

“If the department has not finished implementing the reforms by July, Henderson said he would consider the possibility of receivership proceedings, during which he could decide whether to place the department under federal authority.”

Full Story

Other Oakland News:

• Weekend of Action: #OO Move-In Day and Rise Up Festival, 1/28-29
• Oakland Police Chief Lied to Discredit Occupy Oakland. (Daily Kos 1/14/12)

SFPD Brutality picked up by NBC news

Police Encounter With Occupy Wall Street West Protesters — Alleged Violence

The above MSM coverage is based on citizen journalism of #J20 Occupy Wall Street West in San Francisco such as this:

@pfailblog  SFPD Attacks Innocent Protesters; Officer M. Ali #619 Breaks My Cam

@punkboyinsf  http://www.ustream.tv/occupysf

More from Occupy Wall Street West #J20

• Photo Gallery
• Summary of all that went down
• Play-by-play News

While earlier MSM coverage of OWSWest sensationalized black bloc destruction, it completely ignored the wonder of the black blob (video by jaspergregory)

“. . . a powerful neoliberal economic order dedicated to eliminating all forms of collective or public resistance to the primacy of capital. . . “

Tightening the Screws: Rahm Emanuel passes “Sit Down, Shut Up” in  Chicago

Obama's former chief of staff Rahm Emanuel passes draconian protest-squashing measure in Chicago

Via Truthout

“Critics say the “sit down and shut up” ordinance, as it has been called, seeks to chill protest and civil liberties in Chicago through measures including mandatory $1 million liability insurance for protests, a heightened police presence and more difficulty getting a permit. . . .

“When the ordinance was first introduced, it was said to be only a measure for the NATO/G8 conference to be held in Chicago in May, but it was later revealed that the ordinance change is expected to be permanent.”

Sets a chilling precedent:

Chicago Independent Media Center reports that the ordinance, as it stood the day before the vote, contains the following:

• Virtually every street protest in the downtown would be designated a “large parade,” requiring $1 million liability insurance and for organizers to “agree to reimburse the city for any damage to the public way or to city property arising out of or caused by the parade”;
• Large parade or not, organizers would be required to provide the city with “a description of any recording equipment, sound amplification equipment, banners, signs, or other attention-getting devices to be used in connection with the parade” at least a week in advance of the march;
• Every contingent in the march and the order in which they would appear would have to be registered at least a week in advance with the City; and,
• Demonstration organizers would be required to have one marshal for every 100 participants.
• Under a wholly new section of the municipal code (10-8-334), even gatherings on sidewalks, with no presence in the streets, would now be subject to demands that they get permits, giving the City extraordinary latitude to dictate what union and other pickets occur or get shut down by police action.
• Allow the police Superintendent to deputize FBI, DHS, ATF, and DOJ employees as Chicago police officers.

That last point means Mayor Emanuel can have his own personal army, when the time comes.

Police Tech: “Why do Police douse Protestors with Colored Water?”

Via Foreign Policy

In what appears to be a growing trend around the globe, police are spraying crowds with semi-permanent dye.

As Egypt prepares to mark the first anniversary of the Egyptian revolution on Wednesday, with activists mapping out protest routes and the ruling military council partially lifting the country’s emergency laws and releasing prisoners in apparent goodwill gestures, Al-Masry Al-Youm is reporting something rather odd. Anonymous security sources tell the Egyptian newspaper that security forces are planning to use batons, loudspeakers, and “colored chemicals that will stain one’s skin for six months” against “those perceived to be violating the law . . .”

Full story here.

“. . . It is a sign of the uncertainty of the moment—the unresolved play of cultural, economic, and political forces currently unfolding before us . . .“

#OccupyChabot Rally: Student suspended for passing out OOakland flyers

"Student was suspended 4 distributing #OccupyOakland flyers. Free Speech Rally Mon, Jan 23 @ 8:00 am #OccupyChabot"

Story in Occupied Oakland Tribune: Suspended from Chabot College: a preliminary statement by Joshua Hewitt, reblogged here:

The following is a statement from Joshua Hewitt, aka @DJ_JDot.

I was passing papers out fliers for Occupy Oakland’s January 28 Move In Day action in front of the Chabot Community College radio station in Hayward, CA and a security guard pulled up in a car and asked me if I had permission from the office of student life.

“I have rights,” I said. “The right to free education which I don’t get and the First Amendment. Since I don’t have one of those rights–because I pay too much for not enough education–I’m gonna use my other right.”

He called the other security guard, Nathan Moore, and they took my info. The security car and person drove and walked until I was off campus and told me if I’m back on campus they’ll call the Hayward Police Department to come get me.

And I’m suspended until I get a call to set an appointment up with a dean.

UPDATE: In case you’re wondering, yes, Nathan Moore has been doxed by @VizFoSho.

UPDATE 2: Fellow Chabot-student @BellaEiko has also written about this issue here.

UPDATE 3: Joshua has received a call from the VP of Student Services to setup a meeting. Expect a hasty retreat on the part of Chabot.

Occupy Oakland rally and press conference on the US Coast Guard

Two of a Kind: Obama administration engages in the “first known use of the US military to intervene in a labor dispute on the side of management in 40 years.”

Via OccupyEverything.org

Jan. 23 Demonstration Called to Defend Washington Dock Workers

Protest Use of U.S. Coast Guard for Union-Busting

PIPA/SOPA graphics: flowchart and effect

Both via boingboing.net [1, 2]

NOTE:  California Senators Boxer and Feinstein co-sponsored PIPA.

PIPA/SOPA understanding and action: flowchart edition by Joey Sellers, via boingboing.net

How the Internet blackout affected congressional support for PIPA/SOPA, by Pro Publica via boingboing.net

 

The Art of Demonstration: Exhibit Explores Emergence of Online Protests

Via Spiegel Online:

Spiegel Online: "A new art exhibition in Frankfurt draws connections between demonstrations past and present. In the case of Egyptian artist Aalam Wassef, it studies how online activism has transformed protesting and become a work of art in itself -- but one that can cost people their lives."

One of the exhibition’s premises is that humanity is in the midst of a new, global protest movement similar to those of the late 1960s. Nothing will be the way it was before, it posits, because too many things are happening and in too many places, including Spain, Greece, London, New York and Russia. And then, of course, there are also the uprisings in the Arab world, the so-called Arab Spring that has cost thousands their lives.

The article in Spiegel Online speaks with artist Aalam Wassef, and looks at the role of online protest:

• Studying How Protests Usher in New Orders
• No Longer about Left or Right
• Virtual Protests, Real-World Dangers
• Online Protest as Art
• Persevering Despite the Perils

It also mentions the work of Russian radical art collective Voina, who set fire to an armored paddy wagon on New Year’s Eve, an action titled Fuck Prometheus that the group declared was “not art,” but rather “beyond art.”

"In this 2007, action, a Voina artist tossed a cat across the counter of a Moscow McDonald's outlet. Voina founder Oleg Vorotnikov said at the time that the cat-tossing performance had been designed to shake up service staff stuck in their work routine." Spiegel Online (Photo: Reuters)

More Voina:

• Overturning a police car:  photos and story, which involves a toddler as well
• Russian establishment tries to co-opt Voina (is it working?)
• Russian Protesters Use Art as Act of War: “Can they truly call their protests art?”

“When art is just a luxury, ‘ART’ is a LIE” Banner Drop at NY MoMA

#J13 #OCCUPYMUSEUMS #OCCUPYWALLSTREET – MoMA BANNER DROP @ DIEGO RIVERA EXHIBIT

MoMA is exhibiting work from one of the most renowned Mexican painters of the twentieth century, Diego Rivera. Diego influenced by the Mexican Revolution and the Russian Revolution, believed that art should play a role in empowering working people to understand their own histories. Meanwhile MoMA buys and sells millions of dollars in art at Sotheby’s auction house. Sotheby’s has locked out 43 Local 814 union art handlers, claiming they are unable to negotiate a new contract with them. “The auctioneer proposed cutting the handlers’ workweek to 36 1/4 hours from 38 3/4 hours and increasing the number of temporary laborers, according to both sides. The union said new work rules would decrease eligibility for overtime, resulting in take-home pay declining 5 percent to 15 percent. Temporary workers without medical or pension benefits would replace unionized art handlers as they retire or find other jobs. Chief Executive Officer William Ruprecht, yearly salary doubled in 2010 to $6 million dollars.”

http://www.sothebysbadforart.com/content/

Photos: 2012-01-13 – New York – #OCCUPYWALLSTREET MoMA Action

The tide is rising . . .

“Should Museums Welcome Parody?”

That’s a question posed by scholar Morgan Pitelka in a review of the book Lords of the Samurai: The Legacy of a Daimyo Family published in the journal Early Modern Japan in 2011.

The book itself was published by the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, and accompanied the same Lords of the Samurai exhibit which inspired our critical intervention.

The review explicates cultural politics otherwise elided, duly noting the issues raised in the rich dialogue generated by the intervention.

As long as museum exhibitions and catalogs are not subject to the same processes of peer review and academic criticism as other forms of scholarship, they should be open to—and indeed welcome—informal and if needed anonymous critiques of the sort orchestrated by Majime Sugiru and his band of merry artist-activists. Because in the end, the complicated and at times heated conversation about history, identity, and representation that can be traced through the websites, interventions, blogs, and even radio shows related to the Lords of the Samurai exhibition adds up to one of the more significant and compelling English-language critiques—albeit in the form of online hypertext—of the politics of museum displays of Japanese culture.

A pdf of the entire review is available here.