2/6/2004: The District Attorney of Alameda County is still attempting to prosecute 25 persons arrested at the Port of Oakland on April 7, 2003. Over the last several months there has been a series of pretrial hearings. At the hearing today, Judge C. Don Clay is expected to decide whether the case of the Oakland 25 will go to trial. Defense attorneys will present motions to demur and dismiss charges for “vindictive prosecution” against defendants whose only “crime” was to exercise their First Amendment rights. The defendants are being charged with several misdemeanors including “disrupting a business” and “creating a public nuisance.”
Before the hearing today there was a rally of several hundred labor and antiwar activists in front of the courthouse. Pictures:  1  2
On April 7, 2003 the Oakland Police Dept. opened fire with "less-lethal" weapons on a peaceful anti-war picket line in the Port of Oakland protesting the war profiteers shipping military cargo. The demo was called by Direct Action to Stop the War. Dozens of demonstrators and 9 longshore workers, members of ILWU Local 10, were seriously injured and 25 were also arrested.
Committee to Defend ILWU Local 10 BA Jack Heyman | April 7th Protest