From Resistance Social:
*please call, and please distribute this email widely. put it on
blogs, facebook, etc*On April 9th – 11th, we’re calling District Attorney Nancy O’Malley and asking that she drop the charges on the Sproul 13. Please join us! It only takes a few minutes… Read the rest of this entry »
Daily Cal: "Students and community members protest the stay away order issued to a number of protesters." (Photo: Kevin Foote/Senior Staff, Daily Cal)
UPDATED 3/21/12 (see below)
At the birthplace of the Free Speech Movement, four students have been barred from going anywhere except to class or work.
Via Daily Cal
A judge issued stay-away orders Monday against four Occupy Cal protesters who were involved in the Nov. 9 demonstrations, barring them from setting foot on UC Berkeley property.
The defendants are not only barred from the Berkeley campus, but all UC property throughout the state of California.
Via KTVU2
At the request of the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office, Superior Court Judge Paul Seeman issued orders which require that the protesters stay away 100 yards from all UC property, except for when they go to and from class and work…
“The problems with the stay away order are that it’s very vague. UC property – does that include UC hospitals? Does that include UC housing? We have some defendants that live in UC Housing,” said Jeff Wozniak, an attorney for one of the protesters.
Note that the faculty member who was arraigned on Friday for similar charges was not given the same stay-away order.
No expiration date was given for the stay-away order, which came as a result of misdemeanor charges of “resisting arrest” and “blocking the sidewalk” after being bludgeoned by UC police on November 9 last year.
Short-timer Birgeneau: "I sincerely apologize..." but I won't do anything about the charges.
The Sorry but Silent Chancellor Birgeneau
Despite a petition signed by hundreds of faculty members calling on Chancellor Birgeneau to condemn the criminal charges and request that they be dropped, he has been unwilling to do so.
Instead, he simply passed on the petition to the DA, to whom it was not addressed, and in his silence has passively aligned himself with the ongoing prosecution.
Listen to Birgeneau’s November apology here
“I consider academic excellence, social equity, public service and free speech to be at the very foundation of who we are as an institution. These are the values that attracted me to UC Berkeley, and they must be preserved.”
UPDATE 3/21/12: A total of 8 UC Berkeley students and alumni have been issued stay-away orders (Daily Cal). Of the 13 charged, our remain to be arraigned. So far, all of those charged have been issued stay-away orders, except the faculty member.
Reblogged from Occupied Oakland Tribune
March 17, 2012by jpmassarIt was a day-long festival in Zuccotti Park / Liberty Square today in New York City yesterday, 3/17/12. Occupiers re-occupied the park, celebrating the six-month anniversary of Occupy Wall Street’s founding. A large number of people stayed in Zuccotti for the evening, but about 11:30 PM were ordered out and were beaten by NYPD…
A different kind of Park Occupation took place in Oakland, CA the same day. Some three hundred Occupy Oaklanders and Oakland residents got together and held a barbeque / speakout / talk-fest at Arroyo Park in East Oakland this afternoon…
You probably won’t read anything about the Oakland event anywhere but here. Of course, that’s because there were no arrests. No shields. No tear gas. No violence. That’s for one very good reason: no police. Just a bunch of happy
campersgourmands stuffing their faces with incredible bbq-ed chicken and awesome deserts, talking shit is fucked up and stuff…You’d almost think that, for today, Oakland was New York, and New York was Oakland.
Read the much more detailed original article at Daily Kos, posted as the beatings in NYC were happening, complete with tweets about the police brutality as it was happening.
Rampant police brutality at otherwise peaceful 6-month Anniversary of #OWS
[embedded video]
0:15 Cops throwing man against window
1:50 Close-up of broken window
More photos of windows broken by NYPD head-smashing:
Just saw police slam a protester into this door, 55 East 10th. This was the result. Arrestee was punched in the face. http://t.co/BKw7eN4N—
Ryan Devereaux (@RDevro) March 18, 2012
Via @OccupyWallSt: Bus window broken when NYPD smashed protestors head into it
Alternet: Liberty Plaza Re-Occupied for 6-Month Anniversary of Occupy Wall Street; Police Violently Raid
SignOn.org:
Investigate NYPD Violence Against Occupy Wall Street
The #AmericanSpring is here. #OWS—
Occupy Wall Street (@OccupyWallStNYC) March 18, 2012
(UPDATED 3/13/12, see below)
November 9, 2011 was the the first Day of Action at Occupy Cal, when University of California police made national headlines by violently beating peaceful protesters at UC Berkeley.
Since then UC President Mark Yudof has publicly announced:
I intend to do everything in my power as president of this university to protect the rights of our students, faculty and staff to engage in non-violent protest.
UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau has publicly stated:
I sincerely apologize for the events of November 9 at UC Berkeley and extend my sympathies to any of you who suffered an injury during these protests. As chancellor, I take full responsibility for these events and will do my very best to ensure that this does not happen again.
Yet in spite of these public proclamations, per Reclaim UC:
Professor Celeste Langan and 10 students have been formally charged by Alameda County District Attorney Nancy O’Malley in connection with the protests on November 9th. Crucially, those charged are not limited to those who were arrested that day, and there is reason to believe that those singled out within this category were chosen for their prominent roles in the movement to restore public education.
In the face of this legal repression, Yudof and Birgeneau have remained deadly silent.
This is how the administration “protects” the rights to engage in peaceful protest: first, a violent beatdown; now followed by criminal charges of the victims, and no meaningful investigation of police misconduct nor any transparency around administrative culpability.
Recall that on November 9, Professor Langan offered her wrists to police while asking to be arrested but was instead dragged by her hair. Read Langan’s account here. Graduate student Shane Boyle, who sustained a broken rib during the incident, has also been summoned.
Analyses of the protests and police conduct that day have been submitted to the UC Police Review Board by three professors: Judith Butler and law professor Jonathan Simon, and Langan herself.
Pickets against legal repression are taking place daily at noon in front of California Hall.
Please Sign this Petition
Remaking the University has posted a petition calling on UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau to follow UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi in asking his county’s DA to withdraw these charges (sign here).
The Berkeley Faculty Association has a petition for signing by members of the UC Berkeley community.
UPDATE (3/13/12)
Birgeneau announces he is stepping down in December.
Berkeley Faculty Association calls on Birgeneau to condemn Alameda DA’s decision to charge November 9th protesters.
It turns out that the UCB Tang Center shared information with UCPD on those protesters who suffered injuries on November 9th.
California Scholars for Academic Freedom protest President Yudof’s recent statement linking protest to hate speech.
Davis Faculty Association points to some problems in UCD’s recent policies on protest.
Occupychallenges administrators in new ways.
Stafford Loan interest rates are about to double.
Increased scrutiny of big for-profit colleges is causing a decline in enrollment.
Colorado considers law that would make it easier to offer lecturers and adjuncts multi-year, enforceable contracts.
UPDATE: Linda Lye of the ACLUanalyzes the implications of the prosecution of the November 19th Protesters. And the ACLU has issued a new PRA request to see what role the University may have played in the decision to prosecute.
UPDATE 2: (3/17/12)
Occupy Cal Protesters to be Arraigned: More than a dozen Occupy protesters are scheduled to be arraigned on charges connected to a clash with police last year.
NBC Bay Area 3/16/12More than a dozen people charged in connection with Occupy Cal protests are set to be arraigned in Alameda County Superior Court this week and next.
University of California at Berkeley Professor Celeste Langan pleaded not guilty today to charges connected to a Nov. 9, 2011 clash between police and protestors, according to attorneys for By Any Means Necessary, a group working with protestors.
Langan is charged with one count of resisting arrest and one count of blocking the sidewalk, both misdemeanors, according to the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. She is scheduled to return to court April 5.
Twelve other people are scheduled to appear for arraignment next week on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday on similar charges in connection with the protests, district attorney’s office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said.
At least four of those being prosecuted are also involved in a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco in November alleging that police used excessive force during the protest.
Attorneys for By Any Means Necessary, the group filing the lawsuit, say that they expect to add allegations of retaliatory prosecution to the lawsuit in light of the criminal charges, which were filed after the lawsuit.
They noted that some of those being prosecuted were not among the more than three dozen people arrested during the actual protest but were among those reporting injuries and taking part in the lawsuit.
FORCE: The UC Policy
March 12 and runs through March 23rd
Memorial Union Art Lounge, 2nd Floor
UC Davis
Opening reception: Wed, March 14th between 3-6pm at King Lounge
Between 4:30-5:30pm: panel discussion on the militarization of the campus police
with Professor Joshua Clover and art history graduate student Geoffrey Wildanger.
AHI 401 will present FORCE: The UC Policy, an exhibition that addresses the question of whether the UC campus police and the UC administration are upholding their stated missions to “prevent violence and protect student rights.” The exhibition focuses on three recent campus protests at UC Santa Cruz, UC Berkeley, and UC Davis between 2005-2011. Through a display of photographs, text, and other documentation, the exhibition exposes a disconnect between the mission of the UC campus police and recent brutal actions against student protestors as in the pepper-spraying incident at UCD on November 18, 2011. The exhibition highlights how the UC Administration and UCPD perceive the sustained student efforts to fight against the privatization of public higher education as hostile and antagonistic rather than expressive of an informed and responsive student population. By underlining the role, responsibilities, and necessity of the campus police, FORCE: The UC Policy invites viewers to examine and question the shift in attitudes towards student demonstrations and the use of force to control them.
FORCE: The UC Policy is co-curated by the students of AHI 401: Giana Belardi, Liz Church, Ashleigh Crocker, Maizy Enck, Susan Fanire, Megan Friel, Cindy Gieng, Bianca Hua, Lizzy Joelson, Mitzi Mathews, Monica Mercado, Bryant Pereyra, Kyle Taylor, Jennifer Urrutia, Ariana Young & Kevin Zhou. AHI 401 is a course on curatorial methods taught by Professor Susette Min
Which do you like better?
Climate Camp's "Face Shields" in 2007, precursor to the Occupy movement
Or would you consider to be more effective?
Shields in Oakland on #J28 (via SF Weekly)
The answer may depend on one’s intentions, but consider this about the former:
The Face Shields were used as part of a mass action at Heathrow against the proposed third runway. The shields featured large-scale pictures of real people whose lives had been affected by climate change. These images were put on cardboard boxes, and handles were attached to the backside. Inside the cardboard boxes was not only stuffing to protect protester from police batons, but pop up tents. In this fashion the tents were able to sneak past police lines and once at the targeted destination, British Airport Authority, they were used to camp overnight forming a blockade. Such occupations by Climate Camp are a precursor to the occupy movement. (more on Face Shields here)
Versus the headline that goes with the latter:
Occupy Oakland: Judge Issues Restraining Order Against Protesters
Here’s what the Laboratory of Insurrectionary Imagination‘s brilliant A User’s Guide to Demanding the Impossible has to offer (our emphasis):
During recent demonstrations in Rome, students brought out shields to defend against police batons, with book covers painted onto them. Culture itself appeared to be resisting the cuts. During the 2007 Climate Camp protests in London, shields appeared with huge haunting photographic portraits of the faces of climate refugees upon them. The TV cameras caught the police striking these faces with their batons to contain the crowd. Such re-engineering can be directly functional as well as symbolically powerful. (Link to download book here)
Again, it all gets back to the question of the movement’s intention, now and for the future, and how much of that is about growth. In the context of the battle for hearts and minds taking place via the mainstream media, it’s something to seriously consider on a tactical level.
Additional links and free publications produced in the midst of student uprisings:
We Demand The Impossible: An Interview with John Jordan and Gavin Grindon. – 19 July 2011. Marc Garrett interviews John Jordan and Gavin Grindon about their collaborative publication, A User’s Guide to Demanding the Impossible.
Occupy Everything! Reflections on why it’s kicking off everywhere – 28 Jan 2012. Ed. Alessio Lunghi & Seth Wheeler
Penned after the 2010 European student unrest and before what is now commonly referred to as the “Arab spring” began to escalate, BBC Newsnight economist Paul Mason’s “20 Reasons Why It’s Kicking Off Everywhere” sought to establish an understanding of the motivations behind these globally disparate, yet somehow connected struggles.
What roles do the “graduate with no future,” the “digital native” or the “remainder of capital” play in the current wave of unrest? What are the ideas, ideologies, motivations or demands driving these movements? How is struggle organized and coordinated in the age of memetic politics and viral ad campaigns?
This collection of essays seeks to further explore Paul Mason’s original 20 Reasons in an attempt to better understand our turbulent present.
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:
Note: this doesn’t include all of the lawsuits that are pending since #OO began.
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.”
Other Oakland News:
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
While earlier MSM coverage of OWSWest sensationalized black bloc destruction, it completely ignored the wonder of the black blob (video by jaspergregory)
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
“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:
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 . . .”
“. . . It is a sign of the uncertainty of the moment—the unresolved play of cultural, economic, and political forces currently unfolding before us . . .“
UPDATED 2X
A few lo-fi pix of action in Oakland tonight. Mutual aid was present from Alameda County Sheriff and Highway Patrol.
Many of the marchers adhered to the black dress code, winding their way from O-G Plaza down to jail, and around and around.
Eventually a fire was set, drawing in OPD like moths to the flame, leading to a standoff. Protesters on the front lines shouted at the fools at the back of the pack to stop throwing things at the police.
Live streamer OakFoSho was right in the thick of the bedlam that followed; check his stream for archived video of tonight’s events, including a number of arrests (things heat up at around 39 min. / “ten crazy minutes“). MSM was nowhere to be seen, as a number of folks were clubbed, and at least one man was shot with a less lethal projectile.
Video from pfailblog: “#OPD slams woman and her bike to the ground, beat her and chase her down the street!”
OPD actually directed those observing on the periphery into the kettle, telling them they could leave at the other end, which of course was not true. So for awhile a lot of folks were kettled, including livestreamers OakFoSho and Occupy SF’s punkboyinsf, and mass arrest appeared imminent.
Police kettle at 9th between Broadway and Washington (photo: Occupy Oakland)
Eventually OPD declared unlawful assembly and actually let people go. Six arrests total.
Occupy Oakland is asking everyone to come to the General Assembly on OG Plaza 19th & Telegraph Sunday 2pm.
UPDATE Video here from OakFoSho’s stream
Occupy Oakland Media:
UPDATE 1/9/12
In-depth Analysis: “Oakland’s Dirty War: Coercive Attrition and the Occupy Movement” on Counterpunch
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