Legal Update on Oakland Arrestees: COME TO HEARING TOMORROW!

Three women have just been released from Santa Rita jail in Dublin as of 9:50pm this evening. Six other women are debating about whether or not to do jail solidarity. Please gather blankets, food and people to meet these people as they are released from Santa Rita. Please show up for Laura Glenn's trial tomorrow morning at 9am 107 Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse.

For more information, please call : 415-248-1011

I who wrote this note to you are an independent reporter.
I have folowed this action al night long, from yesterday evening to day at this hour..

Please, I em writing to you from Oslo capitol in Norway, and i em very concerning about this who happend in Oakland yesterday.

Please give detailed information about what happend, and of course what is happend in the hearing.

Best regards
Andreas Tselentis
editor of the local newspaper
Gatas Parlament/Streetparliament.

Go to indymedia.no to se our foolowing up stories about the case of oakland.
http://indymedia.no/news/2003/04/8341.php

I was among the group of people arrested yesterday morning. To my knowledge, there were 19 men and 12 women held in Santa Rita. Several of the women were released yesterday evening, the status of the rest of them is unknown to me. 3 of the men who were held were doing jail solidarity and refusing to reveal their names and addresses, they were held separately. The rest of the men, 16 of us, were cited and released early this morning between 2 and 3 AM, after being held for around 18 hours. We were cited with failure to disperse and blocking the roadway, both minor traffic infractions.

Among those arrested were Jack Heyman, as mentioned, who is a union official with ILWU, not a dockworker as reported in the previous post. Also arrested was a bystander who was at the port on personal business when he was swept up by the police.

For my part, I can say that I was not told to disperse from the picket line we had established, and was grabbed as I was trying to leave the area. I cannot speak to the excessive use of force, as I arrived too late and was grabbed too soon to see what was going on, but from reports I heard, the police were way out of hand.

If you have anything to say about this issue, I would encourage you to not only post it here, but also show up tonight (Tuesday) at the Oakland City Council meeting (7 PM City Council Chambers, City Hall, 1 Frank H. Ogawa Plaza) where you will have an opportunity to speak about the use of force. Call (510) 238-3226 for agenda information.

if you have videos, i can collect those for use in follow up with the cops.
if you need photos taken of your injuries, call photographer scott braley at
510-655-7638. nlg and bay area police watch will be organizing a meeting
with injured persons.

rachel lederman, nlg.
558 Capp Street, San Francisco, CA 94110.
415 282 9300
rlederman [at] 2momslaw.com

Reading the record here (Tokyo) of the police violence in Oakland, I was upset enough to send letters of protest o the mayor and to police officials whose names were listed on the Oakland city page. I got through about 20 names in the first threee letters of the A-Z list before I realized it was so large, but it contianed a number of interesting addresses. I will post the addresses to whom I sent as well as from who I received. It is not clear what, if any, responsibilty, any of the addressees have, but some of the titles were interesting--one or two even seem to be FBI assignees to the Oakland Police Department.

Note that at least one response (so far) has been either mocking or serious in saying my message was beinging forwarded to Rumsfeld and Ashcroft.

Should I also contact any legal person to make sure these responses are monitored.

I will make available header information to verify these messages if it is needed.

Paul Arenson

MY LETTER:

Shame on you. Protecting PEOPLE is supposed to be your job, but you HURT
the people in the defense of property and war. You do not serve the
people. Using rubber bullets and shock weapons. And using them at close
range. Shame shame shame!

We will urge our friends to boycott Oakland. Japanese tourists want
nothing to do with a city whose police act like Gestapo.


The individual police officer, like the individual soldier is not the
enemy, it is those in command. Probably you take your orders from
Ashcroft's office. I guess you are too young to remember the McCarthyist
period of American history, but increasingly it is those in charge of
protecting the people who are the biggest threat. Have you not heard of
the Bill of Rights? of the Constitution? Or has that been suspended too
by the right wing zealots in power. And shame on your mayor, who cliams to
be so liberal, but who sends recruiters to schools to sign up people of
color to fight and die in the white man's war.


Paul Arenson
Japan Human Rights Appeal

RESPONSE SO FAR

from john lois <opdrecruiter [at] yahoo.com>
Your message is being forwarded to John Ashcroft/Donald Rumsfield.
---------------------------------------------------------

I sent a response to the same person:

"Why is my message being forwarded to those two individuals. I sent it to
the Oakland Police Department."

Other recipients of the original letter are:
webteam [at] oaklandnet.com, tbarajas-perez [at] oaklandnet.com, acampbell [at] oaklandnet.com, schin [at] oaklandnet.com, sshayes [at] oaklandnet.com, alujan [at] oaklandnet.com, nsaadat [at] oaklandnet.com, madkins-bailey [at] oaklandnet.com, haguilar [at] oaklandnet.com, saigbekaen [at] oaklandnet.com, jalbert [at] oaklandnet.com, falliger [at] oaklandnet.com, yaltes [at] oaklandnet.com, deanderson [at] oaklandnet.com, NAngulo [at] OaklandNet.Com, karnold [at] oaklandnet.com, sbailey [at] oaklandnet.com, pbalzouman [at] oaklandnet.com, pmbanach [at] oaklandnet.com, tbanayat [at] oaklandnet.com, abanks [at] oaklandnet.com, mbard [at] oaklandnet.com, abarton [at] oaklandnet.com, labaugher [at] oaklandnet.com, jbeal [at] oaklandnet.com, wbeckwith [at] oaklandnet.com, abelland-smith [at] oaklandnet.com, pberlin [at] oaklandnet.com, pbiddle [at] oaklandnet.com, wbodin [at] oaklandnet.com, eboyle [at] oaklandnet.com, mpbrown [at] oaklandnet.com, jebuna [at] oaklandnet.com,webcop [at] oaklandpolice.com <webcop [at] oaklandpolice.com>

Is there a legal office that is interested in this for the record?


I will post updates here if I get them.

P.S. I am also a member of the new Indymedia Japan
collective. We just got our official approval and still use the test site url:

http://japandada.bandwidthcoop.org

Below is the response I erceived to my question
on the frivolous response to my initial letter or protest.

i have sent initial comment to amnesty intl, national lawyers guild, aclu, human rights watch

---------------------------------response i received----



paul <paul [at] tokyoprogressive.org> wrote:>

Why is my message being forwarded to those two individuals. Isent it to
the Oakland Police Department.>

> Your message is being forwarded to John Ashcroft/Donald Rumsfield.
-------------------------------------------

We feel Ashcroft & Rumsfield are best equipped to address your message, and they are paid the "big bucks" to sympathize with your concerns. Besides, you stated the individual officer is not the enemy, but it is the command. However, be patient awaiting a response from Rumsfield, because he is very busy bombing the hell out of Iraq!
----end of response from opdrecruiter [at] yahoo.com---

If there is any reason now to be proud of being an American, you are part of that reason. Thank you for standing for our world. Christ said that the greatest gift a man can give is to lay down his life for a brother. Thank you for your courage and your gift.