Feature Archives

On November 14th, the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California (ACLU-NC) and the National Lawyers’ Guild (NLG) filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Oakland Police Department (OPD) for its egregious constitutional violations against Occupy Oakland demonstrators. The ACLU-NC and the NLG are suing OPD on behalf of Scott Campbell and other demonstrators subjected to excessive force during recent demonstrations. Additional plaintiffs include Kerie Campbell, Marc McKinnie, Michael Siegel, and NLG Legal Observer Marcus Kryshka.

Occupy CSU Monterey Bay will hold a rally, march and general assembly on Tuesday, November 15th starting at 1pm at Library Plaza on Divarty St and 5th Ave at CSUMB. A flyer for Occupy CSUMB states, "The California State University system is infected with the same disease as the rest of our sick society. It is designed to allow a small group of people to enrich and empower themselves at our expense. So as our tuition rises every year, and the staff and faculty are denied promised raises, the top administrators throughout the system receive outrageous salaries and benefits."

On Saturday, November 12th at 5 AM, 15 - 20 deputies with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Department swarmed the courthouse steps occupation location of Occupy Santa Cruz, blocking it off with police tape from the lower camp in San Lorenzo Park. The deputies reinforced the County’s unofficial but repeated written notice that “lodging” was prohibited, and indicated any tents not removed voluntarily would be confiscated. A few tents were voluntarily moved, but a dozen tents and all personal property in them were taken by the sheriffs.

In solidarity with the call by Occupy Oakland for a general strike, which was in response to the police violence in Oakland that resulted in the serious injury of Scott Olsen and others, Occupy Santa Cruz members called for a strike to be held in Santa Cruz on November 2nd. Suggestions to avoid work and or/school were made, and community members gathered at the county courthouse steps for a march and demonstration downtown.

Occupy Oakland continues to kick through the boundaries of what was previously thought possible, upping the ante of what it means to resist against corporate greed and state oppression. Just one day after a hundred people were arrested, two encampments were physically smashed to the ground, and a thousand supporters were attacked by police with chemical weapons and projectiles in a manner that shocked the conscience of the nation, Occupy Oakland collectively took the audacious and ambitious step of calling for the first General Strike in America in sixty-five years.

Early on October 25th, expecting a police raid at Occupy Oakland in Oscar Grant Plaza, occupiers began to erect barricades along the perimeter and access ways to the plaza. At 4:30am, over 500 police surrounded the plaza. Police fired projectiles and tear gas shells and hand-lobbed at least one flash-bang grenade over the barricades before marching through the camp tearing down tents and pulling down almost everything that stood in the plaza. Over 70 people were arrested during the raid. Later in the day, Alameda County Sheriff's deputies repeatedly deployed massive amounts of tear gas and fired projectiles into a crowd of marchers throughout the night. Numerous people were injured, some seriously when projectiles were fired at the heads of protesters. On October 26th, occupiers removed fencing and again took Oscar Grant Plaza, holding their daily General Assembly which voted 1484 to 46 for an Oakland general strike on Wednesday, November 2nd.

Protests that began on the plaza at San Jose City Hall on October 2nd continue around the clock. The San Jose Police Department has issued many arrests and citations in the middle of the night, mostly for illegal camping. On October 24th, a demonstrator climbed atop a wall estimated to be 36 feet high and five feet wide to protest the continuing police raids. As of 4:00pm November 16th he remains on his perch.