Feature Archives

H.H. Bhojani reports at AlterNet that about 10pm on January 29, Robert Asberry got on a train around Glen Park. A police officer got onto the car at the San Bruno station. He approached Robert and asked him to get off the train. Robert refused to obey the cop’s orders. After a brief back and forth, the police officer tases him. Other policemen file into the car, and while Robert is on the floor, restrained and posing no real threat, he is again tased. Police officers later carry Robert out of the BART car.

On the evening of February 12, a small crowd gathered in downtown Berkeley to demand answers regarding the death of Kayla Moore, a black transgender woman who was killed by Berkeley PD in early 2013. When the speakers concluded, about forty people marched to the Berkeley Police Review Board meeting, chanting “Justice For Kayla Moore!” The Review Board has allegedly been involved in an inquiry into Kayla’s death since last year but has yet to release any information to her family.

On February 4, the ACLU of Northern California and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area (LCCR) filed a lawsuit charging the state with unconstitutionally stripping tens of thousands of people of their right to vote. According to the lawsuit, filed in Alameda County Superior Court, the state’s actions clearly violated state law when the secretary of state issued a directive to local elections officials in December 2011 asserting that people are ineligible to vote if they are on post-release community supervision or mandatory supervision.

In the early morning on January 21, California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers killed Antonio Mestas in Oakland. At about 9pm that evening, another CHP officer shot and killed 21-year-old Jose Munguia near 54th and Wentworth Avenues. A police K-9 was also shot during the incident and was rushed to a veterinarian. In reaction, vandals defaced the front of the CHP station at 3601 Telegraph Avenue in Oakland. On January 24, family and friends of Antonio Mestas held a fundraiser to raise money for the funeral.

On February 13, a protest of more than one hundred people, including dozens of family members of Californians murdered by police, was held outside A.G. Kamala Harris’ office at the State Building in Oakland in order to deliver a letter to Harris. Family members from the following police murder victims were present: Alan Blueford, Oscar Grant, Gary King, Jr., James Rivera, Jr., Ernest Duenez, Jr., Kenneth Harding, Kayla Moore, Lamarr Alexander, Andy Lopez, Jessie Hamilton, and Mario Romero. Ten people were arrested for refusing to vacate the building.

Supporters of the Santa Cruz Eleven rallied for an afternoon parade through town on February 11 in support of the final four SC11 defendants, whose trial begins on March 3. They still face charges in association with the 2011 occupation of the vacant bank building located at 75 River Street, which occurred during the height of the Occupy movement.

On Tuesday, February 11, a Parade in support and solidarity with the Santa Cruz Eleven will be held in downtown Santa Cruz. The 11th for the 11! Seven of the Eleven have had their charges dropped, however the city continues to spend thousands of dollars prosecuting the remaining four. After two years, their trial is scheduled to begin March 3.