(05-01) 19:30 PDT Oakland —
Oakland police clashed repeatedly with Occupy activists Tuesday, firing tear gas canisters and flash-bang grenades at several hundred protesters near City Hall in brief but volatile skirmishes that escalated as quickly as they dissipated.
Some protesters shoved against police lines with black shields bearing an “A” for anarchy. Some threw objects at officers, surrounded police cars and pounded on them. In one case, a protester dressed in black threatened an officer with a pole.
But many protesters remained peaceful, throwing flowers at the cops’ feet or marching peacefully with children in the Fruitvale District, vowing to avoid the violence downtown.
The daylong series of events on May Day was held throughout parts of Oakland, San Francisco and the rest of the Bay Area by a wide range of protest groups, including Occupy, to honor International Workers’ Day and denounce economic inequities.
In Oakland in particular, the mood was tense from the beginning, despite the range of events that went from peaceful rallies to confrontations and vandalism.
“The tempo of the crowd was a lot more assertive, a lot more aggressive” than in past demonstrations involving Occupy groups, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said in an afternoon press conference. He said the mood was so volatile that by 9 a.m. he had called for mutual aid from about a half-dozen area law enforcement agencies.
Source: sfgate.com
Inquiries on Violence at Occupy Protests Moving Slowly
More than four months after an Occupy demonstration shut down the Port of Oakland and devolved into violence, at least nine separate investigations into the ways police officers dealt with the protests in Oakland and on University of California campuses in Davis and Berkeley remain unresolved.
Many of the investigations have been delayed for reasons that range from a court challenge to the difficulty of scheduling meetings with college students. And while people on both sides of the Occupy issue applaud the efforts, experts said the sheer number of investigations could be counterproductive.
There is a danger that excessive investigation “can actually lead to greater obfuscation, because no one understands what each investigation is doing,” said Linda Lye, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California, which is representing protesters in lawsuits against Oakland and U.C. Davis. “Delay is always a concern, because it can lead to diminished public interest and distraction.”
At U.C. Davis, where a campus policeman pepper-sprayed a group of seated students and others on Nov. 18, a task force report was expected last week. However, a judge granted a temporary restraining order at the request of the police union. A hearing is scheduled for Friday in Alameda County Superior Court.
At U.C. Berkeley, several groups are reviewing the events of Nov. 9, when campus police jabbed demonstrators with batons and dragged two protesters, including a professor, to the ground by their hair. The professor, Celeste Langan, was one of five people charged by the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office last week with misdemeanor resisting arrest in connection with the protest.
Lt. Eric Tejada of the U.C. Berkeley police said the results of one investigation were expected “any day now.”
Meanwhile, a report by U.C. Berkeley’s Police Review Board, initially expected in January, may now be finished in April. “We had a subcommittee of five people,” said Jesse Choper, a professor at the university’s law school and chairman of the review board. “Two of them are students. It’s very hard to get meetings together.”
In Oakland, investigators are working through hundreds of complaints of police misconduct, many of them related to Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who sustained a fractured skull during a protest on Oct. 25. Mr. Olsen’s lawyer, Mark Martel, told The Bay Citizen this week that Oakland police had acknowledged that a bean bag round hit Mr. Olsen in the head. It is still not clear who fired the shot.
“I think that it’s been plenty of time by now,” Mr. Martel said. “It doesn’t take five months to find out who shot him.”
Sgt. Chris Bolton, the Oakland Police Department’s chief of staff, said his department was reviewing hundreds of videos, documents and other evidence related to Occupy protests on Oct. 25 and Nov. 2.
“I don’t want anyone to think that it’s ever our hope or intention to let things die down and never address it,” Sgt. Bolton said. “We have never backed down from telling people that where appropriate we will investigate, and we will hold ourselves and each other accountable. So at some point those investigations will conclude.”
Source: The New York Times
The Battle of Oakland
A really great documentation of the events that unfolded between protesters and the police in Oakland on Jan. 28, 2012.
About 300 people were arrested Saturday in Oakland during a chaotic day of Occupy protests that saw demonstrators break into City Hall. Anarchists scuffled with police after police fired tear gas and bean bags to disperse hundreds of people after some threw rocks and bottles and tore down fencing outside a nearby convention center.
Oakland PD Used Violent Cops Against Occupy
Records reveal that the #OPD put officers with histories of using deadly force on the frontlines during Occupy Oakland protests.
Source: sweetgirlgone
#OO #OPD slams woman and her bike to the ground
During a march in Oakland on January 7, 2012, a woman and her bike were shoved to the ground. She was then surrounded by several OPD who pulled out billy clubs and pummeled her and her bike. A group of fellow protesters screamed at the cops and ran to her rescue. Though she was pulled away from the grips of the police, she and the group were chased down the street. Moments after this footage, the entire group of protesters on this street were quarantined and illegally detained there for 10 minutes before being released…since they did nothing illegal.
Police Arrest Twelve Oakland Protesters from Occupied Foreclosed Home
Twelve protesters were arrested Dec. 29th when Oakland police removed activists who had occupied a foreclosed property in West Oakland, police said.
The property, located at 1415 and 1417 Tenth St., is listed as a foreclosed property for sale on several real estate websites and was occupied by activists from Occupy Oakland and Causa Justa. Activists with Causa Justa said the building had been occupied since an “Occupy Our Homes” day of action on Dec. 6 and had hosted as many as 60 people for a meeting on fighting home foreclosures.
“This is one of several properties in Oakland that are being squatted and occupied,” journalist and Occupy Oakland protester Spencer Mills said. ”This was the most publicized of the homes being occupied currently by Occupy Oakland and other groups.”
After removing the protesters, work crews boarded up the vacant house’s doors and windows.
In the same neighborhood, police removed protesters camping in a vacant lot in the 2000 block of Peralta Street on Wednesday. Protesters had started setting up camp in the private lot, however after consulting with the property owner police moved in and removed the protesters, arresting one and citing 14.
Source: baycitizen.org
![An Oakland police officer who shot an Occupy protester/journo with a beanbag last month has been removed from street duty along with his supervisor, pending an investigation.
Police officials have released few details about the Nov. 3 incident in which Scott Campbell, 30, was hit in the leg with a nonlethal beanbag. The Oakland resident uploaded his video to YouTube, did national television appearances and sued the Police Department in federal court.
The sources said the incident was the subject of an internal affairs investigation of the officer who fired the beanbag as well as his supervisor, Capt. Ersie Joyner III. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is a confidential personnel matter.
Despite the internal affairs probe, Campbell said no one from the Police Department had contacted him.
“I’m surprised they could investigate this incident without talking to me,” he said. “I still find it outrageous that someone would feel it was appropriate to shoot someone who was posing no threat.”
The Police Department’s crowd-control policy says beanbags may be used against people who pose “an immediate threat of loss of life or serious bodily injury to themselves, officers or the general public.”
Officers who fire beanbags must do so “under the direction of a supervisor,” the policy says, and a person struck by a beanbag “shall be transported to a hospital.”
Campbell states that the police did not attempt to aid him. Instead, a medic from Occupy Oakland gave him ice before others helped him into a taxi. He said he saw a doctor later in the day. [Read More]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw7m9lFZM71r4gdqgo1_1280.jpg)
An Oakland police officer who shot an Occupy protester/journo with a beanbag last month has been removed from street duty along with his supervisor, pending an investigation.
Police officials have released few details about the Nov. 3 incident in which Scott Campbell, 30, was hit in the leg with a nonlethal beanbag. The Oakland resident uploaded his video to YouTube, did national television appearances and sued the Police Department in federal court.
The sources said the incident was the subject of an internal affairs investigation of the officer who fired the beanbag as well as his supervisor, Capt. Ersie Joyner III. The sources spoke on condition of anonymity because the probe is a confidential personnel matter.
Despite the internal affairs probe, Campbell said no one from the Police Department had contacted him.
“I’m surprised they could investigate this incident without talking to me,” he said. “I still find it outrageous that someone would feel it was appropriate to shoot someone who was posing no threat.”
The Police Department’s crowd-control policy says beanbags may be used against people who pose “an immediate threat of loss of life or serious bodily injury to themselves, officers or the general public.”
Officers who fire beanbags must do so “under the direction of a supervisor,” the policy says, and a person struck by a beanbag “shall be transported to a hospital.”
Campbell states that the police did not attempt to aid him. Instead, a medic from Occupy Oakland gave him ice before others helped him into a taxi. He said he saw a doctor later in the day.
[Read More]
Source: sfgate.com
West Coast Port Shutdown: Your Guide to Being as Safe as Can Be
Compiled by the POC Caucus of Decolonize/Occupy Seattle.
Click here to download our PDF Guide to the Seattle Port Shut Down.
BEFORE YOU GET THERE
1. Bring at least one piece of valid picture I.D, and if you have it, official documentation of your legal right to be in the country.
2. Know by memory/write on your arm the phone number of a support person. The Occupy Seattle legal number is 206-403-8741.
3. Let someone know where you will be at all times. Find at least one other person at the action and know where they are at all times. Support and protect each other.
4. Avoid carrying bags, purses, backpacks, which may get stolen/lost if you are arrested.
5. Do not bring drugs, weapons, alcohol. For obvious reasons, do not bring your smartphone.
IN CASE OF ARREST
6. If you need prescription drugs, bring them in their original containers, and bring a copy of the prescription. Don’t risk arrest if you’re going to need to take your own medicine at regular intervals of less than about 48 hrs.
7. If you have outstanding warrants for any reason, your bail may be raised and it may result in you being singled out from other arrestees.
8. Know that if you don’t live nearby, if you are arrested you may be legally required to return to this area to go to court on one or more occasions, and not on your schedule.
9. Don’t risk arrest if you’re not a US citizen; our system is pretty messed up, and regardless of your legal status, immigrants can be put in danger by these arrests.
10. If you are differently-abled, consider the fact that the police and jail authorities are not obligated to give you the level of care and consideration you would receive otherwise.
11. Juveniles (under-18s): the consequences of arrest could include getting schooling impacted or living situations disrupted (e.g. CPS).
Source: occupyseattle.org
Monday, December 12th - West Coast Port Shutdown
