top
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Indybay
Regions
Indybay Regions North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area North Coast Central Valley North Bay East Bay South Bay San Francisco Peninsula Santa Cruz IMC - Independent Media Center for the Monterey Bay Area California United States International Americas Haiti Iraq Palestine Afghanistan
Topics
Newswire
Features
From the Open-Publishing Calendar
From the Open-Publishing Newswire
Indybay Feature

Photos of Berkeley Liberation Radio after FCC raid

by Vicente Balvanera, Slave Revolt participant
Photos of Berkeley Liberation Radio studio after the raid, list of equipment expropriated by FCC.
img_0799.jpg
As one who has participated in Berkeley Liberation Radio, informing on the working class and popular rebellion in Argentina on Slave Revolt, I accompanied Gerald Smith yesterday to the BLR studio to see the damage. I took the following photographs.
We found the warrant hanging from a clip (see photo). The telephone, mixers, CD players, all tapes and the transmitter were missing.
§Door leading to the studio.
by Vicente Balvanera, Slave Revolt participant
img_0801a.jpg
§Damage to door.
by Vicente Balvanera, Slave Revolt participant
img_0801b.jpg
§View of studio emptied of equipment
by Vicente Balvanera, Slave Revolt participant
img_0802.jpg
§Second view of studio emptied of equipment
by Vicente Balvanera, Slave Revolt participant
img_0805.jpg
§Warrant as it was found hanging on clip
by Vicente Balvanera, Slave Revolt participant
img_0804.jpg
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by bov
Did they use the Patriot Act? Because Berkeley already passed something against that.
by Vo
Set your gear up in a van and use that to transmit from, you can still produce the material in fixed offices/studios but it'll make it harder for the FCC to harrass you.
by C
Yes, but the studio was in Oakland.

Could you post a link, if one exists, about whatever measure Berkeley passed against the patriot act?
by Tim Neal
No need to use the Patriot Act. The closing of so-called "pirate radio" stations has been ongoing for the last several years regardless of format -- rock stations, religious programming, militia and "right-wing" broadcasts. Berkeley's number just came up in a long list of crackdowns by the FCC.
by bov
But if they did try to use anything in Patriot Act, they need to be called on it.

http://www.ci.berkeley.ca.us/citycouncil/2002citycouncil/packet/101502/10%2D15.htm
city council pda of Worthington's resolution to oppose the Patriot Act
Contact: Kriss Worthington, Councilmember District 7, 981-7170

Do violations of FCC regs mean they can just make raids without any notification? It makes sense - how else would you get someone - but I don't know what the laws are around that.

Plus, if they can make a raid on even simple FCC violations - say some technical aspect that isn't consistently in compliance - couldn't they raid almost any news source they wanted without notice?
by Tim Neal
The only FCC raids of which I'm aware are those for unlicensed radio stations.
by brad (jhill_81 [at] yahoo.com)
V-man put out a mp3 newscast on this.,

listen here...
http://radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=5999
by .
haha... No more crappy Berkeley pirate radio.
by V-Man
104.1 will not be silent long!
by Beetle
The Berkeley City Council has no authority over the FCC, or Congress (i.e. the PATRIOT act). Any city resolutions passed to that effect are purely symbolic, and hold no weight in any court. It's similar to marijuana legalization ordinances.
by cp
Councilmember Kriss Worthington said that the council, and the mayor, don't really have power over the police department - the police do not report to the council. They basically might have the power of a 'supercitizen', where due to their special status as council members, police will probably be more likely to do what they say, however, they cannot give orders to officers, and they cannot fire officers who refuse to follow their orders.
This came up when I spoke with Worthington regarding the police very inappropriately conducting a drug raid in the apartment of someone in my building based on the false tips of a man with schizophrenia three doors down who had been observed to harrass the victim for years, yelling at him on the street, making phone calls, and sending letters accusing him of far fetched things like being a child molester, a drug dealer and to be responsible for all the scraps of litter on the sidewalk. The BPD apparently couldn't recognize his mental illness. But Worthington explained that he did not have the power to tell the police to change their behavior or to take sanctions if they didn't listen to him. They sort of run themselves.
This might be more significant if Berkeley Liberation Radio moves back into Berkeley. I don' tknow how things are run in Oakland.
Also, The Berkeley Police Review Commission does not have any real power - it isn't a judicial body. The Review Commission could decide to find against an officer (which they rarely do - if you look at the statistics on their web site, they don't sustain many complaints) but this doesn't mean anything by itself. The Chief could make the decision to totally ignore the finding and not demote or take action against the officer at all. Usually they do though, as far as I am aware. A complainant would have to go to court to actually seek for damages against an office failing to enforce the law correctly, or breaking the law themselves.
by bov
I don't think they're purely symbolic. I think if you take something to court that the resolution will have implications, as opposed to working directly with police. If you have other info, please post or post links.

by John
http://www.indybay.org/news/2002/12/1549962_comment.php#1550445
doesnt work. I tried it at UC Berkeley library.
by Monk (kbfr [at] msn.com)
Any chance we can get copies of the 'warrant's' that were posted? It would be helpful in understanding their legal strategy.
by Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain
I agree with Monk. The text of the warrant should be posted.
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$140.00 donated
in the past month

Get Involved

If you'd like to help with maintaining or developing the website, contact us.

Publish

Publish your stories and upcoming events on Indybay.

IMC Network