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Just months after UC Davis police pepper sprayed seated students in the face during a protest against university privatization and police brutality, Chancellor Linda Katehi's administration is trying to send some of the same students to prison for their alleged role in protests that led to the closure of a US Bank branch on campus.
On March 29th, weeks after an anti-privatization action against US Bank ended with the closure of the bank’s campus branch, 11 UC Davis students and one professor received orders to appear at Yolo County Superior Court. District Attorney Jeff Reisig is charging campus protesters with 20 counts each of obstructing movement in a public place and one count of conspiracy. If convicted, the protesters could face up to 11 years each in prison, and $1 million in damages. Support has been requested for their arraignment, which has been rescheduled to May 10th.
Last year, UC Davis and US Bank entered a relationship. The deal was that US Bank would provide some money each year to UC Davis, an amount based on how many students opened up accounts with US Bank, in exchange for Davis leasing an office to the bank in the Student Union and issuing new student ID cards, ones with a US Bank logo, that could be used as debit cards. This is a deal that benefits both sides, US Bank gets a captive group of possible customers and UC Davis gets some cash. The only people who do not benefit are the students. The logic of privatization is most clear when a student ID card is branded by its corporate sponsor.
11 UC Davis Students, Professor, Charged for U.S. Bank Blockade | Support The Davis Dozen! Drop All Charges!
On April 28th, hundreds of women and men gathered at the capitol building in Sacramento, held a two hour rally, then marched through the downtown district. Speakers said that California needs to be at the forefront to keep the tide from turning against abortion and other women's rights. Protesters insisted that the war on women is very real, and vowed to be heard in the legislature and on the streets.
Occupy Wall Street in New York called for a nationwide May Day General Strike. Cities and towns across the United States are heeding the call. Workers will be striking, students will be leaving classes, and banks and other large corporations will be forced to close for the day across the nation. May 1st, 2012, promises to be the largest American May Day since the Immigrant Rights May Day in 2006 and probably the most widespread and furthest reaching in decades.
Monsanto closed its facility in Davis, California on March 16th after 150 occupiers from throughout the state blocked the entrances to their Davis facility at 1910 5th Street. The occupiers reported that they shut down operations at the corporate giant, which produces genetically modified organisms (GMOs) and is notorious for its inordinate influence over the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Students, educators, workers, and supporters of the budding Occupy movement, converged in the thousands on the State Capitol in Sacramento on March 5th. They were there to demand that the government fund education and social services.
They came in response to a call by Occupy the Capitol put out by Occupy Education California.
In the morning, a march left Sacramento's Southside Park headed for the Capitol. There they were joined by thousands of other protesters.
They came from across the state. Some had even marched for five days from San Francisco to be there. Students came from the Central Valley, Los Angeles and elsewhere in Southern California, the Bay Area, and from northern counties too.
A large rally took place on the Capitol lawn at 11 am. The crowd was diverse, mostly young, but with a healthy dose of veteran activists and elders. Student groups and campaigns, such as the petition drive to put a millionaires tax on the ballot, and community organizations such as ACCE (Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment), were more in evidence than teachers' unions - though there were many educators present. A few politicians where there. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom was allowed to speak, and later sat on the floor in a hallway with protesters.
By noon, protesters were already entering into the Capitol, which remained open, but heavily guarded. Rigorous security inspections were conducted of every person entering the Capitol. A general assembly was scheduled for 1 pm, but long waits on long lines to get in, pushed that back.
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Oakland Send Off for Marchers to Sacramento on Occupy Education Day of Action
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Occupy the Capitol M 5 video
On the afternoon of Friday, November 18th, UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi ordered the UC Davis police to clear student protesters from the main quad on campus. Many of the students had participated in a rally on November 15th against tuition increases and police brutality on UC campuses. The rally took place in solidarity with students and faculty who were bludgeoned with batons, hospitalized, and arrested at UC Berkeley on November 9th. Those protesters had linked arms and held their ground in defense of tents they set up beside Sproul Hall. In a gesture of solidarity with those students and faculty, and the national Occupy movement, students at UC Davis set up tents on the main quad. Police in riot gear arrived to remove the tents, and students responded by sitting in a circle and linking arms around the tents. Without provocation, police pepper-sprayed the students.
Chancellor Katehi's actions have been met with international shock, outrage, and condemnation. The Davis Faculty Association Board has called for the immediate resignation of Chancellor Katehi, stating, "The Chancellor’s authorization of the use of police force to suppress the protests by students and community members speaking out on behalf of our university and public higher education generally represents a gross failure of leadership. Given the recent use of excessive force by police against 'occupy' protestors at UC Berkeley and elsewhere, the Chancellor must have anticipated that, by authorizing police action, she was effectively authorizing their use of excessive force against peaceful UCD student protestors. The Chancellor’s role is to enable open and free inquiry, not to suppress it."
UC Davis students, alumni and others will converge on Monday, November 21st at noon on the quad to show solidarity and support for the students who were beaten and pepper-sprayed, and for a conversation about the university’s future.
Open Letter to Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi | No Cops, No Bosses | Ten Things You Should Know About Friday’s UC Davis Police Violence | UC Davis Students Call Strike in Wake of Police Pepper Spray Attack
On October 27th, the City of Fresno and Caltrans did what they said they were going to do - they attacked the homeless encampment on Santa Fe street in downtown Fresno. But, they did not destroy the encampment without being confronted with significant resistance by community members who protested the eviction. Evictions at all of the other encampments — The Hill, G street, Santa Clara street, F street, and at San Benito/H street — are scheduled for Tuesday, November 1st.
While there were over 100 community supporters to protest the destruction of the homeless encampment on Santa Fe in downtown Fresno, that was not enough to stop Caltrans and the City of Fresno. The encampment, which is spread across a very long block in the old industrial section of downtown, proved to be strategically impossible to defend, with so few people. If there had been 1,000 advocates, the city and Caltrans would have had an extremely difficult time fulfilling their mission.
Photos: Part 1 | Part 2 | Massive Homeless Eviction to take place in Fresno | Video
On Saturday, October 22nd, over a hundred people from across the Central Valley participated in the 'Caravan of Resistance' against police brutality both inside local jails and on the streets. Participants from Modesto, Stockton, Manteca, Davis, Sacramento, and Merced all converged to participate in a string of actions in a total of three cities. The Caravan brought together over a hundred people: blacks, Chicanos, and working class whites joined with victims' families to protest murder and brutality at the hands of the police.
At around 11 AM, people first started rallying and marching around the Stockton Police Department. SPD was one of the law enforcement agencies that shot and killed James Rivera in 2010, after a high speed chase that caused James to crash into a residential neighborhood. Over 50 people marched around the building, chanting, "No Justice, No Peace!" Next, the Caravan traveled to Manteca, about 20 minutes away, to rally outside of the Manteca Police Department, which in 2011 was responsible for killing Ernest Duenez who, like Rivera, was unarmed.
Next the group headed to Modesto, where they rallied outside of the Stanislaus County Men's Jail. Rita Elias was shot to death by an off-duty Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department officer in September of 2010. The Stanislaus County Sheriff's Department also runs the downtown jail, a facility in which 6 people have died within the last year and a half. While outside protesters chanted, "Revolt on the Inside, Revolt on the Outside," and "Cops, Pigs, Murderers," prisoners banged against the glass inside of the jail.
Read more | previous coverage: Protests Against Police Brutality Spread Across Central Valley
The City of Fresno has announced a plan for the massive evictions of the homeless, starting at 7 a.m. on Thursday, October 27th. Speaking in front of City Hall on Wednesday, homeless people and their allies said the planned eviction was heartless and cruel. Community Alliance newspaper editor Mike Rhodes said “destroying their modest shelter and chasing them with a stick from one vacant lot or sidewalk to another will do nothing to help their lives or to end homelessness in Fresno.”
A delegation from the Catholic Diocese meet with Fresno mayor Ashley Swearengin, who told them that the homeless were being forced to move so construction on an overpass could take place and that she would find housing for all of the homeless in downtown Fresno within a year.
Rhodes said that “not only are city officials wrong to evict the homeless, they are lying to us about their motives. The city says that they are evicting the homeless because of construction projects, when they know that most of the encampments are not located near a construction project. They used that same lie two years ago when they evicted the homeless from the H street encampment. No construction ever took place, but the homeless were evicted and today the vacant lot sits empty with a barbed wire fence around it.”
Bill Simon, chairman of Bishop John Steinbock Homeless Advocacy Committee, said “here are at least 5,000 unsheltered homeless living in Fresno and probably 20,000 more sleeping on a friend's floor or couch and days away from becoming absolutely homeless. A few years ago, FUSD (Fresno Unified School Dist.) estimated there were 3,000 homeless students in Fresno. While housing is the best solution to homelessness, we cannot give housing to 25,000 people in 6 months or a year or 2 years. As a temporary solution, we must provide safe camps with trash bins and water and porta-potties for the homeless.”
A call to action has gone out in the community to protest the planned eviction of the homeless that will start at 7 a.m. on Thursday, October 27 on Santa Fe, just south of Ventura street. ( Photos: Part 1 | Part 2)
Read more and view photos | Video
October 22nd 2011 was the 16th National Day of Protest to Stop Police Brutality, Repression, and the Criminalization of a Generation. In San Francisco protest took place at 12pm in the Bayview, near where Kenneth Harding was killed this year, to draw attention to Harding's death as well as many other deaths at the hands of law enforcement. In Modesto, participants gathered at 2pm at the H St. Jail for a Day of Action Against Police Brutality. In Fresno, a No More Stolen Lives took place at 5 p.m. at Eaton Plaza. Everyone at the protests, as well as supporters who can't make it, wears black in solidarity with people whose loved ones have died in custody.
Thursday Nov 17th, 2011 12:03 PM :
Small crew of folks is picketing FBI racial profiling and civil liberty abuses as director Mueller gives speech at 595 Market St #OccupySF
Wednesday Oct 12th, 2011 7:57 AM :
Hundreds have arrived at Wells Fargo in march from #occupysf. building is surrounded by crowds in the street on all sides #occupysf #ows
Wednesday Oct 12th, 2011 7:52 AM :
BLO - Brass Liberation Orchestra - serenading at Wells Fargo's back door. SFPD writing up report w/ locked-out bank executive #occupysf
On September 17th, over one thousand demonstrators poured into New York City's financial district to confront corporate greed by establishing an ongoing presence, day and night, in lower Manhattan. The idea was to create an American Tahir Square on Wall Street. Police blocked marchers from reaching Wall Street, but hundreds persisted and set up camp in Zuccotti Park, now dubbed Liberty Plaza. In San Francisco, demonstrators likewise called for an occupation of the financial district starting the same day, outside of 555 California Street. The SF occupation is currently located in front of the Federal Reserve building on Market Street, although after midnight on October 6th, SFPD and city workers raided the site and took away the kitchen, tents, and truckloads of other occupier supplies. Several were beaten by SFPD and one was arrested during the raid. Occupations began in San Jose on Oct. 2nd, in Santa Cruz and Sacramento on Oct. 6th, Berkeley on Oct. 8th, Fresno on Oct. 9th, in Oakland on Oct. 10th and one is planned to start in Santa Rosa on Saturday, Oct. 15th.
On September 27th, thousands of members of the four employee unions of the United States Postal Service joined forces with allies and community members to send a message to the nation and its Congress. All around the country, protesters demonstrated against proposals to close thousands of post offices, eliminate Saturday deliveries, lay off workers, cut postal workers’ pay, and end collective bargaining rights.
Protests took place over week in Manteca, Sacramento, and Stockton around incidents of police brutality and murder. All three demanded answers and the releasing of information by the police in regards to the cause of death of those in question. On July 19th, family, friends, and community members marched on the Manteca City Council, demanding answers concerning the shooting death of Ernesto Duenez Jr. Ernesto was killed by Manteca police earlier in July during a traffic stop as he exited the back of a truck with his hands up.
In West Sacramento on July 20th, people rallied against Sacramento police who brutality beat one man while responding to a fight. Police arrived and beat the man, who later had to be put in crutches and then pushed his wife who was holding their child to the ground. Close by, another man was filming the incident and police arrested him and took his camera. He now sits in a jail cell awaiting deportation. According to a post on Indybay: On July 17th, West Sacramento resident Jesus Castro was arrested and had his camera confiscated by West Sacramento police while videotaping an incident of police brutality. Mr. Castro, who is undocumented, now faces deportation and is currently being held at Yolo County Jail.
On July 22nd, family members, friends, and supporters demonstrated against the brutal shooting death of James Rivera in 2010. Protesters rallied outside of the Stockton Police Department HQ and then proceeded to march through Downtown Stockton to the DA's office. Various speakers addressed the crowd and later in the day a BBQ and vigil were held to commemorate James Rivera's life.
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Event Announcement
Modesto Solidarity Network has launched a campaign to defend renters who are victims of unscrupulous landlords. The Network's first action was against EXIT Realty, a company with offices in Modesto and elsewhere in Northern California. The dispute was centered around the illegal lockout of a renter from her apartment. In California, an illegal lockout refers to the practice of landlords changing locks and harassing tenants until they leave their homes even though they have not legally been given 30 days notice. Since this is a frequent practice in Modesto, this first Network action may be a harbinger of more to come.
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