UPDATE *

URGENT NEWS ADVISORY
Friday, Oct. 7, 2011
Contacts: Cres Vellucci 916/996-9170; April Junio 916/996-0866 ,
Sean Thompson 916/889-1786

http://www.facebook.com/OccupySacramento http://www.occupysac.com Twitter @OccupySacto


OccupySacramento will stay until midnight Friday,
vow to continue occupation through weekend;
claim city abusing rights of demonstrators

SACRAMENTO, Ca. – OccupySacramento announced Friday it will stay at Cesar Chavez Park – despite 20 arrests Thursday by Sacramento police – until midnight, at least, on Friday night. The occupation will continue Saturday and Sunday, starting at 5 a.m.

Twenty demonstrators – including a member of the ACLU board of directors, and veterans – were jailed on unlawful assembly misdemeanor charges Thursday about midnight. All were released after 6-12 hours in jail with a court date of Oct. 26.

Thursday night, about midnight, Sacramento Police arrested 20 protesters from the "Occupy Wall Street" style protest, "Occupy Sacramento," after they refused to leave the city's Cesar Chavez Park after an 11 PM curfew, calling it unconstitutional.

They were also given paperwork claiming they could not go back to Chavez Park – however, later Friday, after the civil rights lawyers objected, the city rescinded the "stay away" admitting it was a "mistake."

Says Cres Vellucci, a board member of the Sacramento chapter of the ACLU who was arrested, "The misdemeanor charge is an infringement of our First Amendment right, and the 'stay away,' is a further infringement. Clearly, the intent of the city of Sacramento and the Police Department is to frighten demonstrators so they will not continue with the Occupy Sacramento action."

Vellucci added that the decision to let OccupySacramento stay until midnight Friday is not generous but an attempt to make arrests out of the view of the news media, who have 11:30 p.m. deadlines. He said Thursday police waited until after deadlines, more than an hour, to make arrests, hoping news crews would leave.

"Occupy Sacramento" spokesperson Arya Rashid says, "Our supporters performed an act of civil disobedience last night by staying in Cesar Chavez park after hours. It is our park, we are within our rights, and we will continue to protest the actions of Wall Street which have decimated the economy of Sacramento."

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