danbacher Steven Joseph Carter, known as “Joe,” spent five days in jail for occupying a tree! Photo courtesy of Occupy Sacramento.
joe_occupies_a_tree.jpg
by Dan Bacher
Steven Joseph Carter, the tree sitter at Cesar Chavez Park who spent parts of three days in a tree in solidarity with Occupy Sacramento, was released from jail on Tuesday, December 13 on his own recognizance.
The protester spent five days in Sacramento County Jail after his arrest, the longest any of the activists arrested by police has been jailed in the city of Sacramento’s campaign against Occupy Sacramento and the First Amendment.
On Human Rights Day, December 10, Occupy Sacramento activists marched on the jail to demand the freedom of Carter and to protest the police brutality, violence and abuses that occur at the facility daily.
Carter, who was held on $16,000 bail since last Friday, is being charged with misdemeanor counts of curfew and “impeding an arrest.” The charges carry up to 18 months in jail, according to Occupy Sacramento Legal Committee coordinator Cres Vellucci.
He is being represented by the Public Defender office. His next court date is February 29, 2012.
“In total now, after 24 arrests last week, there have been 111 arrests at the Park. None have been successfully prosecuted,” emphasized Vellucci. “The City Monday dismissed charges against nine people who were supposed to go to trial Tuesday.”
Occupy Sacramento activists called Monday’s dismissals a victory for the First Amendment.
“We have said all along, and our lawyers have argued, that this local ordinance that proclaims the Bill of Rights only relevant before 11 p.m. weeknights or midnight on weekends is unconstitutional,” said Vellucci. “We think the City of Sacramento knows that and does not want to see it challenged in a court of law.”
The crackdown on the First Amendment by the cities of Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others across the country is apparently part of a nationally coordinated campaign by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies in collaboration with local police departments, as exposed by author Naomi Wolf in her November 25 article in the UK Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy),
“So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence,” wrote Wolf. “It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent.”
The ultimate irony is that while the City of Sacramento and the “leadership” of other cities across the country continue to wage their war against the Occupy movement, the First Amendment and Bill of Rights, the Wall Street criminals continue to profit off their bailouts by the Obama and Bush regimes after having violated a plethora of state and federal laws.
In this unjust oligarchy, defenders of the Constitution are arrested and brutalized for standing up for the law while the real criminals not only go free, but are rewarded for their criminal behavior. The police agencies are effectively serving as the private security forces for the Wall Street banksters who should be locked up in federal prison.
For more information, contact: Cres Vellucci, 916-996-9170, news0058 [at] comcast.net, http://www.occupysac.org/
danbacher “Police did not use pepper spray to break-up the protest, but used very brutal ‘pain’ holds on some of those arrested,” said Cres Vellucci, Occupy Sacramento spokesman. “Those actions are being investigated. The local ACLU office has been contacted.”
Arms linked in solidarity, peacefully assembling. Photos by Occupy Sacramento.
arms_linked_in_solidarity…
by Dan Bacher
The City of Sacramento played the Grinch again on December 8 when they arrested 23 Occupy Sacramento supporters defending their First Amendment rights at Cesar Chavez Park.
However, this Grinch, unlike the Dr. Seuss character, didn’t just try to steal Christmas, but to deprive people of their rights under the Constitution.
The activists – including military veterans from the Vietnam and Iraq wars marking the anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor – were arrested early Thursday morning about 2:30 a.m. during a “First Amendment Party” at Cesar Chavez Park.
21 of the 23 were booked into Sacramento County Jail and all were released by 2:30 p.m.
The Sacramento Police also cited and released two people without taking them to be booked in the County Jail. The two cited included a man in a wheelchair and a disabled military veteran.
Activists claimed they encountered some police brutality during the arrests. “Police did not use pepper spray to break-up the protest, but used very brutal ‘pain’ holds on some of those arrested,” said Cres Vellucci, Occupy Sacramento spokesman. “Those actions are being investigated. The local ACLU office has been contacted.”
One Occupy Sacramento supporter, Joe, was still occupying a tree in the park at press time.
Vellucci said a total of 110 people have arrested at the Park since Oct. 6. There are nine trials on the misdemeanor charge scheduled to start Dec. 13.
District Attorney Jan Scully refused to prosecute, but the City of Sacramento is pursuing the cases, which carry six-month jail sentences for a curfew violation.
“Occupy Sacramento maintains the First Amendment does not end at 11 p.m. (midnight on weekends), and that free speech and freedom of assembly rights continue for 24 hours a day, despite a local ordinance banning First Amendment activities in city parks at night,” said Vellucci. “There is a federal civil rights suit pending.”
The crackdown on the First Amendment by the cities of Sacramento, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Francisco and others across the country is apparently part of a nationally coordinated campaign by the Department of Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies in collaboration with local police departments, as exposed by author Naomi Wolf in her November 25 article in the UK Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/nov/25/shocking-truth-about-crackdown-occupy).
“So, when you connect the dots, properly understood, what happened this week is the first battle in a civil war; a civil war in which, for now, only one side is choosing violence,” wrote Wolf. “It is a battle in which members of Congress, with the collusion of the American president, sent violent, organised suppression against the people they are supposed to represent. Occupy has touched the third rail: personal congressional profits streams. Even though they are, as yet, unaware of what the implications of their movement are, those threatened by the stirrings of their dreams of reform are not.”
On Saturday, December 10 at noon, Occupy Sacramento will be honoring the Universal Declaration of Human Rights Day at Cesar Chavez Park, 10 and I streets, Sacramento.
The Declaration, adopted by the United Nations on December 10, 1948 provides for the civil and human rights of every person, including assuring that everyone has the right to
• freedom of peaceful assembly and association
• work and a standard of living adequate for health and well-being
• food, clothing, housing, medical care and education.
The 12 pm to 4 pm Human Rights Fair will feature teach-ins, speakers, informational tabling, spoken word and music.
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, founding member of the Gold Star Families for Peace, will speak at 1 p.m. Her son, Casey, was killed in the U.S. war in Iraq.
Her talk will be followed at 2 p.m. with a march to the County Jail (651 I Street) to demand humane treatment of prisoners.
Music and spoken word poetry will be featured from 3 to 4 p.m., followed by the Occupy Sacramento General Assembly.
Finally, there will be a march to Second Saturday in midtown at 6:30 p.m.
For more information, contact occumama [at] gmail.com, 916-448-8157, http://www.OccupySac.com, Occupy Sacto@facebook, OccupySacto@Twitter
danbacher by Dan Bacher
Another seven people are scheduled to have their charges dismissed Friday. Another nine, including anti-war mom Cindy Sheehan, will have charges dropped early next week.
In all, charges are expected to be dismissed or not filed against 40 individuals, the City has indicated to Occupy Sacramento lawyers. The Sacramento Police have made 84 arrests at the park since October 6.
The dismissal took place as police departments have cracked down on Occupy encampments in New York City, Oakland, Portland and other cities throughout the nation, apparently as part of a coordinated effort by federal agencies under the Obama administration to squash dissent.
“After evaluating the facts of each case and criminal history of each defendant, the City Attorney’s office has determined that the arrest and jail time that each dismissed defendant served achieved the People of the State of California’s demand for substantial justice,” City Attorney Eileen Teichert said in a statement.
The office said it would move forward with prosecuting those protesters with multiple arrests for “violating” the park hours ordinance. The city is proceeding with charges against nine defendants.
Vindication for the Constitution
“This is a step in the right direction,” said Josh Kaizuka, one of 36 volunteer lawyers assisting on the case, in reacting to the dismissals.
“This is vindication for the Constitution and the Bill of Rights,” said Cres Vellucci, the vice-chair of the ACLU Board of Directors in Sacramento, who was arrested October 6 for being at Cesar Chavez Park beyond a curfew.
“There is no doubt that Defendant was participating in an organized meeting intended to vocalize a community’s disapproval of our nation’s distribution of wealth,” Kaizuka said in the filing. “This dissent was a political statement, and was, by all accounts, conducted in a peaceful manner…defendant was vocalizing his dissent at precisely the place where we, as a community, would expect: the town square.”
Kaizukasaid, in the “Demurrer,” that by arresting Vellucci and 83 others since Oct. 6 at Cesar Chavez Park, city officials and police “impermissibly interfered with constitutionally protected speech, at a place that for over 150 years has been the platform to protest for the right of speech and assembly. Cesar Chavez Plaza, in fact, is built on the location of the original California State Capitol Building site.”
Kaizuka called the charges “vague,” and asked the court to throw out the case.
Karen Bernal, chair of the Progressive Caucus of the California Democratic Party (whose certification is currently in limbo) is one of the 9 defendants whose case was dismissed today. Bernal was arrested on October 16, along with Cindy Sheehan and other protesters.
“I’m happy that the case was dismissed, but I’m thinking about all of the money that the city spent on arrests and prosecution of protesters when there are so many other real problems that the city has to deal with,” said Bernal after her case was dismissed.
The protesters were originally arrested for “unlawful assembly.” However, District Attorney Jan Scully, stating that “no crime had been committed,” refused to prosecute the protesters for exercising their First Amendment rights.
In an Orwellian move condemned by civil rights lawyers, the City of Sacramento then decided to prosecute the protesters on new charges – remaining in the park after curfew and loitering.
Arrests coordinated with Homeland Security and other federal officials?
As the police crackdowns continue, an investigative news piece in the examiner.com on November 15 revealed that the repression of the Occupy movement was apparently aided by officials from Homeland Security and other federal law enforcement agencies (http://www.examiner.com/top-news-in-minneapolis/were-occupy-crackdowns-aided-by-federal-law-enforcement-agencies).
“Over the past ten days, more than a dozen cities have moved to evict ‘Occupy’ protesters from city parks and other public spaces,” wrote Rick Ellis, Minneapolis Top News Examiner. “As was the case in last night’s move in New York City, each of the police actions shares a number of characteristics. And according to one Justice official, each of those actions was coordinated with help from Homeland Security, the FBI and other federal police agencies.”
“The official, who spoke on background to me late Monday evening, said that while local police agencies had received tactical and planning advice from national agencies, the ultimate decision on how each jurisdiction handles the Occupy protests ultimately rests with local law enforcement,” according to Ellis.
“According to this official, in several recent conference calls and briefings, local police agencies were advised to seek a legal reason to evict residents of tent cities, focusing on zoning laws and existing curfew rules. Agencies were also advised to demonstrate a massive show of police force, including large numbers in riot gear. In particular, the FBI reportedly advised on press relations, with one presentation suggesting that any moves to evict protesters be coordinated for a time when the press was the least likely to be present,” said Ellis.
Vellucci said the revelations by Ellis appeared to confirm what he witnessed at the Occupy Sacramento encampment since the city cracked down on the peaceful, legal protest.
“From the first day in Sacramento, it was obvious the police were waiting for media to leave, as if they were trained to do so,” said Vellucci. “Now there’s evidence that waiting for press to leave, coming out in overwhelming numbers (and using ‘curfew’ laws was all part of advice Sacramento and other cities received from the federal government, including the FBI and Homeland Security.”
For example, Vellucci said that although the curfew begins at 11 pm, the police didn’t begin arresting people until 12:15 am on the first night of the arrests. “They didn’t start arresting people until the media was out of the park,” said Vellucci.
He also noted the overwhelming show of force by the police during the arrests. “Sacramento had as many as 44 vehicles and 80 officers for 4 arrests,” emphasized Vellucci. “There were an average of over 20 police vehicles and 40 officers clad in riot gear each night of the arrests.”
“Now it all makes sense that somebody from the federal government was advising the city on their crackdown,” said Vellucci.
Vellucci noted that Occupy Sacramento lawyers have made a State Public Records Act request of the city to release all of the communications between the police, city staff, City Council and Mayor and the costs incurred regarding the repression of Occupy Sacramento. The city has delayed releasing the documents by two weeks.
For more information, contact: Cres Vellucci, 916-996-9170, http://www.occupysac.org.
The full court brief can be found at:
http://occupysac.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Occupy_Demurrer_11-11-11.pdf
danbacher 79 people have been arrested for asserting their First Amendment rights at Cesar Chavez Park since Oct. 6 when Occupy Sacramento began.
Photo: Renowned civil liberties lawyer Mark Merin speaks at an Occupy Sacramento news conference on Monday, October 24. Photo by Dan Bacher.
by Dan Bacher
Volunteer lawyers announced late Monday they will file a civil rights lawsuit against the City of Sacramento in federal court Tuesday on behalf of those arrested at Occupy Sacramento – and will ask for a temporary restraining to stop arrests at the Cesar Chavez Park demonstration.
“Similar federal lawsuits in other U.S. cities have resulted in an end to arrests,” according to Cres Vellucci, Occupy Sacramento spokesman.
79 people have been arrested for asserting their First Amendment rights at Cesar Chavez Park since Oct. 6 when Occupy Sacramento began. So far about half of those have gone to court on misdemeanor charges (6 months in jail, $1,000 fine).
“When the District Attorney refused to file charges last week claiming no laws were broken, the City of Sacramento took over the prosecution,” said Vellucci.
All were either defended by more than a dozen volunteer lawyers or the Public Defender office.
Details of the litigation will be released at a major press conference TUESDAY, 2 p.m. at the Federal Courthouse (5th & I Streets). Lawyers and plaintiffs will be available for comment.
Four more Occupy Sacramento protestors arrested for asserting their First Amendment rights at Cesar Chavez Park went to court today. Two of them are veterans, who made a statement about the horrendous injury to ex-Marine Scott Olsen at the hands of police in a raid at the Occupy Oakland site last week. Those arraigned were Daniel Garza (Iraq Vet), Gabriela DeOliveira, Sean Thompson and Kathryn Coke.
Vellucci also announced that Occupy Sacramento has filed a public records request to discover the true costs of the City of Sacramento’s suppression of First Amendment rights.
“The costs should be much more than than in Phoenix Arizona, where the city spent over $200,000,” said Cres Vellucci of Occupy Sacramento. “We have 18-45 vehicles and 40-80 officers at protests at curfew at Cesar Chavez Park.”
“We’ve also asked for all correspondence between police, city staff, mayor and city council about Occupy Sacramento. They have 10 days to respond (from last week),” noted Vellucci.
Activists at Occupy Sacramento have used increasingly creative actions to dramatize their protests of Wall Street control of US politics. Occupy Sacramento hosted two “Zombie Walks” on Saturday, October 29, two days before Halloween and Dia de Los Muertos (http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/10/30/18696099.php).
Shouting, “What Do We Want? Brains!,” “Where do we want them? City Council!,” over 200 “zombies” from Occupy Sacramento marched from Cesar Chavez Park through the streets of downtown Sacramento on the afternoon of Saturday, October 29.
For more information about Occupy Sacramento, call Cres Vellucci, 916-996-9170, or contact: http://www.facebook.com/OccupySacramento, http://www.occupysac.com, Twitter@OccupySacto
See OccupySacramento LIVE now at: http://www.livestream.com/occupysacto or http://www.ustream.tv/channel/dummey
