Monthly Archives: December 2011

Yesterdays events as told by an arrestee

31 December 2011

Leave a comment

The following was written by Andrew Cunningham.

Arrest at Oscar Grant Plaza, Dec. 30. Source: @Sara_Jeans

OG plaza went crazy yesterday.

There was a huge 80 foot long banner that said ‘operation occupy’ that we were attempting to fasten to lightpoles when police officers started ripping the banner off of the poles. Our beautiful occupiers took the banner and held it proudly as the police threatened arrest for ‘blocking a sidewalk’. Word came from the backside of OG plaza that there were a lot of cops trying to arrest people, and steal our food. We all ran with the banner over to the back of the park to find a young lady named Carly I believe, being harrased and grabbed by the police. I had the video camera rolling on her confrontation with the cops when I noticed that another occupier I will leave un-named, was running across the plaza and out toward the street with approx 6 or 8 cops chasing him. I ran to follow and was getting footage of this occupier being brutalized by this group of police.

He was on the ground face down, mouth bloody. I yelled at the cops that he was already detained and they didn’t need that many police officers still on top of him. I was holding my left hand up and my right hand up with cell phone video camera in it. I didn’t really see exactly what happened but it seemed like chaos was surrounding us. The next thing I knew my left arm was being pulled behind my back and I heard ‘take him’. The cop forced me to the ground as I attempted to pass my phone off to a friend of mine and the cop grabbed my arm and took it from my hand, put my right hand behind my back and handcuffed me. I asked the officer what I was being charged with, he did not answer me. I was led back to the police van in which I was placed with 5 other male occupiers and in the front of the van were 2 more occupiers that were female, one of which was Carly, and I am sorry I can not remember the other female occupiers name. The back doors shut and we were gone with sirens blasting.

We were in the dark, in a non-ventilated van, which we barely fit into and we were sweating and feeling close to passing out. We were in this van under an overpass for hours, once in a while they would open the back doors and ask names and then close the doors again. They eventually took us out one by one and took pictures of us and attempted to make us sign paperwork. We all asked for our lawyer. As we got out of the van we could see there were at least fifty or sixty cops under the overpass with us. Once the cops got their information or lack there of, we were off to Santa Rita jail, where we were put into the first of a series of holding cells or ‘cold rooms’. If you haven’t been to jail, these rooms are all concrete and metal, and they keep the air on so it is cold and uncomfortable. One deputy in particular was a total asshole, saying we stink and he doesn’t even want to look at us and we are pieces of garbage, etc.

Finally after about 8 hours we were given intake food bags, which consisted of ‘bologna’, half stale bread, an orange, a cup, and a packet of orange flavoring like kool-aid, except with salt peter in it I’ve heard. As they were handing us these bags of food, they were taking a picture of the food being handed to each ‘inmate’ (occupier). I asked if they were going to include with those pictures the fact of how many hours we waited before getting food. We were then seperated a few here and a few there, we were all trying to sleep as best we could in the holding cells, which isn’t easy without blankets. When we finally received blankets it was down to Brian Glascock and I alone in a big holding cell with only a TV, no toilet, no water, and the food and blankets that we did have we were told to leave it all outside this coldroom, we were in this room for about 3 or 4 hours, by this time it was around 8am. A lot more people came into that cell that were not occupy people.

We were moved out to general population at around 10 or 11 I believe. When we got into general pop, Brian and I met some people who showed us the rule sheet on the wall and gave us a rundown of how things go inside there. Someone was asking what my name was so I told them, Andrew Cunningham. They then said, you made bail. I walked out feeling bad for leaving my commrades behind, then I was sat in another cold room for a few hours, then another cold room, and then finally went through the process of getting street clothes and property back. I was just released a couple hours ago, so I am sorry if this comes out bad but I am extremely sleep deprived amongst other things, but I wanted to write this out before eating, showering, sleeping, etc.

I am sure there is a lot I am already forgetting to include in here, and I wish I knew all the occupiers names so I could tell you all. Brian Glasscock did ask me to call his girlfriend but I could not remember the number, so hopefully someone here knows her. Brian is the sound guy for Occupy Oakland. I am not including some of the stories that happened inside as they were demeaning and I don’t want to detail those experiences. I have a scratch/bruise on my forehead from the cop putting my head into the concrete with his boot on the back of my head, also nerve damage to my right pinky finger and wrist from the cuffs being too tight and on for too long. My mind and spirit is with you guys that are still in jail, I feel like shit, but I hope that at least getting this story out to everyone is worth something. I will be at court on Tuesday, along with all other arrested occupiers.

I am going to eat and shower now. I love you all. Solidarity! :)

Statement by the Newton Housing Triangle on the OPD Raid of the 10th and Mandela Home

29 December 2011

1 Comment

Today OPD raided a liberated home at 10th Street and Mandela Parkway in Oakland. Here is the statement of the organization that has claimed the property for community benefit.

The Newton Housing Triangle is an organization dedicated to dealing with the national housing crisis. We want to ensure that the 99% who need housing – seniors, veterans, mothers with children – have a right to safe, healthy homes.

The Newton Housing Triangle claims possession of the home at 10th Street and Mandela Parkway, a vacant and abandoned property, and we have the goal of making it productive again.

99% of property claims are dealt with in civil courts, but today a vigilante realtor appears to have taken it upon himself to wrongfully involve the Oakland police.

We condemn the realtor’s actions and this obvious display of selective law enforcement by OPD. We demand that the City release everyone who was arrested today. We are committed to fighting for the universal right to housing and we are confident that all of those arrested will be exonerated by a court of law.

Source: SFExamier.com

Quan’s codependent investigation of the OPD

Featured

by Scott Johnson
with @MaryMad

Last week, with Police Chief Howard Jordan at her side, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan announced the creation of an “independent investigation” into the actions taken by police against Occupy Oakland.

“We take use of force very seriously,” Jordan said at the press conference. “All instances of force are being thoroughly investigated.”

At a cost of $100,000—which no doubt will be another expenditure blamed on Occupiers—the four-person team of investigators appears to be hardly independent and unlikely to root out systemic police brutality in the department. With the brutal hospitalization of two veterans–Scott Olsen and Kayvan Sabeghi–and the completely unprovoked shooting with a non-lethal device of videographer Scott Campbell, to name only the most high profile cases, there is a desperate need to investigate the violent elements in the OPD. But there are serious questions about this specific investigation.

Campbell told me va email that this whole episode appears to be a “whitewash,” and as of the Christmas weekend–nearly two months after the incident–the OPD has still not yet contacted him about the incident. “The ‘independent’ investigation proposed by the city is is just another version of the police investigating the police,” Campbel said. “This is especially true given the questionable past conduct of the ‘investigators’ and the links that Frazier has to conservative and pro-police think tanks, as well as the Department of Homeland Security.”

What are these connections, exactly?

First, at least two of the investigators have a background with the Police Executives’ Research Forum (PERF), an organization that notoriously coordinated conference calls with police chiefs throughout the country on how to deal with the Occupy movement. PERF claims to be a much less insidious force than the shadowy secret police agency they are often made out to be, commenting on their web site about touchy-feely tactics they encourage such as actually talking to protesters. Nonetheless, PERF was involved in coordinating discussions about the crackdown on the Occupy movement—not in discouraging the crackdown.

Second, the investigators have associations with much better known entities such as the FBI, Homeland Security and the Heritage Foundation, none of them exactly defenders of the progressive values that Jean Quan continues to claim she is a champion of. These are not institutions of the 99% but of the 1%.

A further look into the specific resumes of the investigators raises more serious concerns:

Frazier with DHS Secretary Napolitano. Source: fraziergroupllc.com

Thomas Frazier: Former Police Commisioner of Baltimore, Maryland and President of Frazier Group LLC, Frazier has been appointed to lead the investigation. He is a past President of PERF and worked on the Heritage Foundation Homeland Security Task Force immediately following 9/11 headed by future Iraq colonial governor/overlord L. Paul Bremer. The Frazier Group provides consulting for law enforcement, intelligence and homeland security.

These bona fides aside, Frazier can hardly be considered an “independent” investigator. He has been working with the OPD since October, when he was hired as a “special adviser” to help Jordan deal with a consent decree resulting from the decade-old Rider’s scandal that saw Oakland police framing innocent suspects, among other crimes. Before being hired as the Interim Police Chief, Jordan was the leading police official dealing with this consent decree, compliance of which remains critical for the OPD to avoid being placed in federal receivership. Thus, Frazier has been working with the OPD in a critical role for virtually the entire existence of Occupy Oakland and can hardly be considered “independent” of the police department he is now tasked with investigating.

Hillmann is the officer on the right. Source: http://blog.ocsd.org/

Michael Hillmann: Primarily associated with the Los Angeles Police Department, Hillmann has a background in anti-terrorism, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT), crowd control and civil unrest. He is, by far, the most problematic of the investigators.

He was referred to as a “cop’s cop” in a revealing profile by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department (OCSD) blog which describes a troubling history. As a security planner for the LAPD during the 1984 Olympics, he helped identify “potential troublemakers . . . all over the city and placed [them] in check before they could disrupt the event.” He later conducted secretive trainings in “urban warfare” for the Marines, Delta Force and Navy Seals, according to the OCSD blog:

“They would conduct exercises in the early morning hours,” [then LAPD Police] Chief [Daryl] Gates recalled of the military training. “The Mayor would call and say they had so many helicopters over a neighborhood and nobody knew why. “I’d say ‘I’ll check’,” Chief Gates said. “But I wouldn’t get back to him.”

The undemocratic nature of such a statement by Hillman’s former superior is shocking to say the least. Mayor Quan, if nobody else, should be highly suspicious of such comments. If information about Hillmann’s “urban warfare” trainings could not be entrusted to the Mayor of Los Angeles, how can we expect his investigation into Oakland’s actual urban warfare against Occupy Oakland to turn up trustworthy details to our mayor?

In the lead up to the Los Angeles rebellion against the Rodney King verdict, Hillmann was Commander of the LAPD Metro unit which, according to the OCSD blog, “was known as the shock troops of the LAPD and included the most formidable firepower in the LAPD, including submachine guns and armored personnel carriers with battering rams.” He disagreed with his own superior officers by insisting on an even greater preparation for cracking down on the expected uprising. It should be noted that it was the heavy-handed tactics of the LAPD and Gates in particular which led to the mass outrage after the verdict.

Richard Cashdollar: A retired Captain in the US Coast Guard, Cashdollar also works with the Frazier Group. According to his resume at Frazier, he was involved in “tactical drug intelligence in the Caribbean during the height of the drug war in the mid-eighties,” and later “developed an active Weapons of Mass Destruction Task Force in an environment that coordinated the activities of over 50 agencies in an all-threat environment – five years before these command and control initiatives were mandated by the Department of Homeland Security in the National Response Plan . . . He currently serves as Major Cities Chiefs representative to the Homeland Security Consortium, and as their representative to DHS for several developing projects.”

Donald Anders: Former Deputy Police Chief of the San Jose Police Department, Anders has a background in SWAT and has studied with the FBI and PERF.

Frazier with former DHS Secretary Michael Chertoff. Source: fraziergroupllc.com

The first thing that needs to be said about all of these investigators is that in each case—with the exception of Anders—they have backgrounds far beyond the needs of an investigation into the police department of a middle-sized city like Oakland. Is a background in Homeland Security and anti-terrorism really necessary for this investigation?

Moreover, the statement that this is an “independent investigation” begs the question: “Independent of what?” Frazier has an immediate, recent history with OPD and Cashdollar is employed by Frazier. All of them have made their careers behind the “blue wall of silence” and there is little reason to believe they are more loyal to an open democratic process than they are to the use of police force. A truly independent investigation ought to be just that—independent of the police force under investigation and without the ideological and professional baggage carried by these law enforcement consultants.

Imagine that the investigation revealed what is clearly true—Oakland police officers used wanton force, broke their own rules of engagement and vindictively and unnecessarily assaulted Olsen, Sabeghi and Campbell. Such a finding would require the prosecution of the guilty officers and inevitably result in a further political crisis for his own clients, likely leading to the federal receivership that he was previously being paid to help avoid! This incredibly unlikely scenario would only further weaken Frazier’s ability to gain further contracts with other law enforcement institutions, many of which pay him to help their efforts, not investigate them.

Mayor Quan seems to have created an investigation to appease those concerned about police violence while bending over backwards to avoid hurting the feelings of the police officers who largely seem to hate her.

Quan has been struggling for weeks to shore up her independent base—still furious over her attacks on Occupy Oakland—while at the same time building a positive relationship with the OPD and the Chamber of Commerce, both of which are in the midst of varying levels of open revolt. However, she cannot serve both masters. The struggle against inequality and for a more fair distribution of wealth is diametrically opposed to the interests of the police and the business community.

We should not settle for this shambolic inquiry but demand that the guilty parties be held accountable, from the cops who beat Kayvan to the Mayor and Police Chief who ordered the attack.

Thanks to @MaryMad for doing basically all the research for this article.

CORRECTION: A previous version of this story stated that PERF’s conference calls were with mayors and not police chiefs. This has been corrected.

Free Khali!

22 December 2011

11 Comments

The following is a statement submitted to the Occupied Oakland Tribune blog about a recent arrest at Oscar Grant Plaza.

Occupy Oakland is facing increasingly brutal targeting by Oakland Police Department and City Hall. This has ranged from issuing citations for having “structures” like umbrellas in Oscar Grant Plaza or parking tickets to community members dropping off food and supplies, to daily forms of police harassment and raids on Occupy Oakland.

Last Friday December 16, OPD conducted a raid targeting Occupy Oakland during which they confiscated all of the personal belongings of the Occupiers maintaining our vigil at Oscar Grant Plaza. In the course of forcibly taking the blankets, food and belongings of our community, police arrested three members of Occupy Oakland on baseless minor misdemeanor charges. Although Occupy Oakland was able to raise money to bail out two of these individuals that evening, due to a violation hold we were unable to bail out Khali who was then forced to remain in Santa Rita Jail for four nights until his arraignment on the following Tuesday.

At the arraignment, we waited all day for Khali’s hearing because the District Attorney had yet to file any charges (even after four days of incarcerating him). With only minutes before closing the court for the day, the DA announced that charges were being filed and that the paperwork was being drafted and was on its way. Khali’s attorney, Dan Siegel, had only minutes to look over the charges before the hearing began, at which time he requested that Khali be released until his next court date given that he was being charged with very minor misdemeanors. The District Attorney opposed this request, arguing that he couldn’t be released because he was homeless and had no residence on record. Khali immediately notified the judge that he did have a residence and provided the address. It was then concluded that because the staff that could confirm this residence was gone for the day (it now being minutes before closing the court room), Khali would have to remain in jail until his next court date.

Bail, however, was set and Occupy Oakland immediately began the process of posting it. With all paperwork ready to go, we waited for Khali to be transferred back to Santa Rita Jail so his bail could be posted. Shortly after 8pm, we were notified that Khali could no longer be bailed out because he was now being charged with a felony count of assaulting a correctional officer. We have since found out that this alleged incident occurred upon his arrival back at Santa Rita Jail (at the very time we were placing numerous calls to staff at the jail regarding posting his bail). Khali’s bail for this case has now been set for a staggering $580,000.

We don’t yet have all the details about this alleged incident of assault at Santa Rita, but do know the following:

  • Khali was originally arrested on minor misdemeanor charges but because of a violation hold he was incarcerated for 4 days before any charges were formally filed.
  • While most people would have been released from jail and asked to appear for a future court date given the minor nature of the misdemeanor charges, the DA extended Khali’s incarceration because of the county’s assertion that he is homeless.
  • We are concerned for Khali’s health and physical well-being. He has shown up for every court appearance with severely bruised, swollen eyes and it’s evident that he is suffering physical abuse.
  • We are also concerned for Khali’s mental health. He is on medication prescribed by a psychiatrist and we have learned that he has not been given his meds, nor even received medical evaluation since his arrest. It is clear during his court appearances that he is suffering enormously from having his medication withheld.
  • We have learned that the alleged assault occurred upon his arrival back at Santa Rita when guards were placing him in solitary confinement. It is unclear why the decision was made to place him in solitary confinement (prior to any alleged assault) given that he was only being charged with minor misdemeanors and was in the process of being bailed out.

Khali’s situation is a particularly brutal example of OPD’s targeting of Occupy Oakland. He was picked up on minor charges which, after four days of incarceration and withholding of his medication, have morphed into a violent felony charge that could now lead to a long prison term. They are sending Occupy Oakland a message, and they’re doing it at the expense of Khali’s health and freedom. As a community, we need to stand by Khali and show police and the District Attorney that we will not allow them to continue to target and brutalize us.

PLEASE call the Pleasanton District Attorney’s office and express your concern regarding Khali’s (Marcel Johnson) case: (925) 803-7171

Occupy Oakland Questions City Council

21 December 2011

Leave a comment

Occupy Oakland stood up to the Oakland City Council last night and their resolution to prevent all future Port of Oakland shutdowns. Council members Ignacio De La Fuente (District 4) and Libby Schaaf  (District 5) called for the urgent hearing of their resolution for fear another shutdown would occur before their next meeting, January 17.

The  resolution would direct the City Administrator and urge Mayor Jean Quan to “use whatever lawful tools we have, including enforcement of all state laws and local municipal code regulations and requirement, to prevent future shutdown or disruptions of any port operation.”

Since the proposal was placed on the agenda December 13, it required six votes to be heard last night. The proposal failed to garner six votes so the resolution goes back to committee. It is not known if the matter will be placed on the January 17 agenda.

President Larry Reid looked hopeful after the vote. Fifty-nine people were signed up to speak against the proposal and he seemed to believe the people who had waited six hours for the council to reach this proposal, the last agenda item, would walk away quietly. Instead, he gave a huff, cut the speaking time from 2 minutes to 1 minute and tried to keep his control over the Chambers.  Only 3 people spoke in favor of the proposal. Reid lost his cool several times and eventually walked out of the Chambers.

Watch the video from OakFoSho to hear people stand up for First Amendment rights and against the use of police brutality to stop protests. Visit the OakFoSho website to see all videos from last night. Read the twitter conversation about the #oakmtg here. Contact information for City Council members is listed on the City of Oakland website.

Occupy Oakland Goes Mary Poppins

21 December 2011

Leave a comment

It’s a jolly holiday in Oakland when people stand up to the absurd with some absurdity of their own. From Aquapy to Kitten Outreach, Occupy Oakland autonomous actions continue to get the community’s attention with their creative methods.  Give credit where credit is due, the Oakland Police Department has shown their own creativity when interpreting laws and ordinances.

Such was the case on Friday, December 16, when three people from the Interfaith Tent were cited for having an umbrella after the umbrella was deemed a “structure.” To have a “structure” at the plaza, a permit is required. Before this incident, the Interfaith Tent applied for a permit, but were denied. That same day, a man received a citation for leaning his bicycle against a pillar. Since the bicycle was not in use, it too, was deemed a “structure.”

Of course, actions like that from police deserve a song and dance.

To respond to the selective enforcement of the mythical umbrella ordinance, protesters grabbed their umbrellas and headed to the plaza on Monday, December 19, to take part in the “Occupy Oakland Goes All Mary Poppins” event. With “structures” in hand, people talked about Occupy Oakland, shared a slice of birthday cake and performed a musical number written by Laura Larken, an Occupy Oakland activist.

While the crowd was preparing, two people, again from the Interfaith Tent, received a citation for their umbrella propped against the stairs providing a shaded place to sit. When questioned about their selective enforcement, as a dozen other people who had open umbrellas were not cited, officers said the umbrella was “unattended and a structure.”

The show must go on.

During the musical number, “We are the 99%,” protesters ask for freedom of speech without pepper spray in their face. While dancing in a circle, protesters sang and twirled their umbrellas. Afterwards they laid their umbrellas, still open, on the ground. Officers didn’t deem these umbrellas as structures even though they were unattended.

As “selective enforcement” continues, people are encouraged to bring their umbrellas to the plaza anytime. Perhaps as Officers see umbrellas used to shield people from rain and provide shade on a sunny day, they could see its non-structure purposes.

Occupy Death Row

18 December 2011

2 Comments

Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on death row in San Quentin, CA. Originally posted at FreeKevinCooper.org

Kevin Cooper (right) with Oakland Occupier Jack Bryson

It seems that many people are glad, and in some cases downright happy, that the Occupy movements have taken place across this country. Many people around the world are asking, “What took so long?” All of them want it to grow, and to include all of the people who are being affected by the one percent and their policies.

One cannot live on this planet and not know the bed capitalism lays here within this country. The roots from the tree of greed have spread to damn near every part of this world. They have had an impact, directly or indirectly, on every person in this world, to one degree or another.

Capitalism, and the capitalists who run and control it, need very important ingredients to make it work. They need “The Haves” and “The Have Nots!”
These days, as it once was when this country was first formed, it is very easy to tell the difference between the two. Some of the people, who for most of their lives considered themselves the “Haves,” are finding out that they were living a lie. That now, they are part of the “Have Nots.” This reality is causing them, or at least some of them, to become part of this Occupy movement, and understandably so.

I have never considered myself to be a “Have”, nor has this country ever treated me as a “Have!” No man or woman on death row in this state, or any other state, is a “Have.” We are also the “Have Nots.” We are the bottom one percent, who damn near everyone shits on. We are scapegoated, ignored, humiliated, disowned, and ritually tortured and murdered by, and at the hands of, the top one percent, and some of the 99 percent as well!

Those people who are truly the “Haves” within this country have not made it to any death row. For the most part, they never have and they never will. America has a deep seeded philosophy in which it only allows for the execution of its poorest people. These seeds have taken root and have grown in such a way that no person who this system sees as a “Have Not” is safe from its death machine. Whether they are within this building, or on a BART platform.

It seems that the one percent are immune from the sentence of death, even when their policies in war, or peace, have killed untold numbers of people around the world. The bottom one percent is not immune, and seems to be used as part of entertainment, from the media to the politicians.

While these truths must be known to the 99 percent who are now saying that they are the “Have Nots,” these truths are not acknowledged by the majority of them. We who are the bottom one percent, the historical “Have Nots,” the ones who are paraded before the public and humiliated, strapped to a gurney, tortured and murdered by the powers that be; we ask “Why aren’t we included in this Occupy movement?”

While people are, and should be, occupying Wall Street and every other money street in the country, as well as occupying every city that they can, I ain’t hearing no one say, “Occupy death row!”

Nonetheless, I have been doing so since 1985. And death row itself has been occupying this country since even before this land became a country. Executions, and the various ways that poor people have been executed throughout the years proves that executions are part of this country’s DNA.

So, I now respectfully ask this to those of you who are part of this occupy movement: Will you please not make the same mistake that was made by previous movements seeking civil, or any other type of rights? That mistake was not to include the ending of capital punishment as part of the demands.

Our fight, and our plight from here on death row is just as important to us, as your fight and your plight is to you! We understand this and respect this. All we ask, and all we have the right to ask, is that you not leave us behind, and/or out of the conversation. Any house, even a house full of “Have Nots,” divided upon itself cannot, and will not stand. We must unite!

In Struggle and Solidarity

From Death Row at San Quentin Prison,

Kevin Cooper