top
East Bay
East Bay
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

Eight protest bystanders charged with multiple felonies

by Live Week (openuniversityucb [at] gmail.com)
UC Police arrested 8 more people – many whom eyewitnesses say had not been engaging in any illegal activity - on the final night of a 5-day, 24-hour-a day “Live Week” open university, held by Cal students and faculty to protest and provide an alternative to the “dead week” at the end of the semester resulting from recent furloughs and budget cuts. The final event of the week, a free performance featuring Boots Riley, a hip hop artist from The Coup, had to be moved at the last minute after a morning police raid on Wheeler Hall, the primary site for "Live Week" activities.
PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE DISTRIBUTION
Eight protest bystanders charged with multiple felonies

Contact:
UC Berkeley student, Marika Iyer: marikaiyer [at] gmail.com;

Other student Organizers of Live Week:
Laura Zelko, student organizer with Live Week: laura_z [at] berkeley.edu
Callie Maidhof, student organizer with Live Week: callie.maidhof [at] gmail.com

UC Police arrested 8 more people – many whom eyewitnesses say had not been engaging in any illegal activity - on the final night of a 5-day, 24-hour-a day “Live Week” open university, held by Cal students and faculty to protest and provide an alternative to the “dead week” at the end of the semester resulting from recent furloughs and budget cuts. The final event of the week, a free performance featuring Boots Riley, a hip hop artist from The Coup, had to be moved at the last minute after a morning police raid on Wheeler Hall, the primary site for "Live Week" activities.

Some 200 students gathered for the concert at the UC Berkeley campus from UC Davis, SF State, UC Santa Cruz, and UCLA as well as Berkeley. Following the concert, which had been interrupted by police cars constantly circling the area, some of the attendees joined a night march that left campus for the residence of UC Berkeley Chancellor Robert Birgeneau. Some of the protesters carried torches to light up the path, they said. Some dragged newspaper boxes into the street.

"Regardless of what one thinks about the events of last night, the minor vandalism that occurred cannot be viewed outside the context of the physical violence inflicted by police on student activists and the broader assault on public education," said Callie Maidhof, a student organizer with "Live Week".

Many of the marchers were upset about the arrests that had been made earlier that day, when police stormed into a building where students had been holding Live Week events since Monday. Sixty-five people who had been sleeping off studying were loaded onto Alameda County Sheriff’s buses during the cold pre-dawn hours, some of them barefoot and wearing only their underwear. Most of the students were given misdemeanor trespassing charges and released by the afternoon.

Police swooped down on the activists in front of University House around 11:30 p.m., resulting in pandemonium as the students and other activists dispersed in all directions.

“When everyone is running, you don’t think that clearly. My friends and I were trying to leave because things were getting out of hand,” said J Poblete, a Cal alumni who participated in the march.

Poblete was split up from his friends, who ran into the woods near Strawberry Creek. Police then swept up Carwil James, 34, according to a friend of Poblete who stood next to James when he was arrested

“Carwil hadn’t been doing anything at the time. Now he’s in jail on his birthday, and they just raised his bail from $50,000 to $132,000. There’s no way we can raise that much money. This is a travesty,” said Poblete.

David Morse, 41, an independent journalist, was filming the demonstration and police response when he was arrested, said witnesses.

“They were simply at the wrong place and the wrong time,” said a student who did not want to give their name and observed the chaos when police arrived at the chancellor’s house.

Eleven people arrested at student demonstrations in the past week remain in custody at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin.

§here are the dates for arraignments
by ucb 8 solidarity
Zachary Bowin - 12/15/09, 2p, Dept. 112, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse

Angela Miller - 12/15/09, 9a, Dept. 112, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse
(source: Inmate Locator)

Julia Litmancleper - ?

John Friesen - 12/14/09, 2p, Dept. 112, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse
(source: Inmate Locator)

Donnell Allen - 12/15/09, 2p, Dept. 112, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse
(source: Inmate Locator)

David Morse - 12/15/09, 2p, Dept. ?, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse (Source: David)

Laura Thatcher - 12/15/09, 2p, Dept. 112, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse
(source: Inmate Locator)

Carwil James - 12/15/09, 2p, Dept. 112, Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse
(source: Inmate Locator)
****

Lots of us will be showing up at the court house. If you have a date for Julian Litmancleper, please comment below.
Add Your Comments

Comments (Hide Comments)
by or other ways to help
If solidarity actions are planned at the jail, at court appearances, elsewhere, please post them widely.

How can we help? I know one of these folks and these are some heavy charges.
STUDENT PROTEST AT BIRGENEAU'S HOUSE: three talking points to keep in mind:

STUDENT PROTEST AT BIRGENEAU'S HOUSE
three talking points to keep in mind:

1.) The Chancellor chose to initiate this escalation. Breaking a tacit agreement, the police were sent into Wheeler early Friday morning without warning to mass arrest peaceful students. Some are still in jail, and will remain. This rightly infuriated many students, who felt betrayed by the administration. It was this fury that was directed toward the individual who made the decision: the Chancellor. It became clear that even the most peaceful and orderly of protests would be met with repression. Had the arrests not taken place, neither would what occurred at the Chancellor's residence.

2.) The Chancellor is now speaking of violence, but this is notably not the violence that he himself unleashed on students by deploying the police to beat, smash, shoot, and arrest. The Chancellor was not beaten or clubbed. His fingers were not broken. He was not shot with any rubber bullets. Students activists have been subjected to all of this violence in recent weeks. The Chancellor, on the other hand, was in no danger whatsoever. And yet now, "violence" has become the word of the day. Many students have justifiably concluded that the only violence that matters in the eyes of the administration is that which affects administrators; violence against students simply does not count (even as it is perpetuated with trumped-up charges and bail amounts of $132,000).

3.) Of the eight persons arbitrarily arrested by the police in the aftermath of the concert, two are UC Berkeley students, two are UC Davis students, one is a visiting student from City University of New York, one is a journalist, and two are community members supporting the work of student activists. The student movement draws strength from its connections across various schools and with those from allied communities whose work for social justice is intimately connected with students who are working for a more just and equitable education system. Let's remember UC spokesman Dan Mogulof's outrageous claim on the night of November 20 that the vast majority of those involved in the first occupation of Wheeler were not students when in fact 41 out of 43 were. No one should be fooled by the administration's continued attempts to divide the movement by pitting campus against campus and students against community members.
by cp
The expansion of this into a national media story was very rapid, including the top of the Los Angeles Times and southern California TV news. Previous protests at Berkeley and UCLA were national as well, but this vandalism made a lot more of an impression than the 2nd Wheeler occupation the day before. Realistically, it will make campus-based organizing more difficult next semester for students.
By taking the journalist into custody, I speculate they will review his video and photos, and that should be exculpatory for him and hopefully some of the arrested people. It will be very expensive to deal with court and bail though.
Contra Costa Times: At about 11 p.m. Friday, 40 to 70 protesters stormed Birgeneau's home on the north side of the campus and smashed planters, windows and lights while shouting, "No justice, no peace," according to the school's Web site. They also reportedly threw flammable objects into the home.

INTO the home?!? no such thing happened, not even close. but this passes for journalism in the corporate world, repeating what the police and UC administrators say. in this case, even making things up as they go because there have been no "official" reports of anything making it INTO the home. the house is a fortress

corporate media inaccuracies have to be beat back in any and all media we have access to. comment on their websites, point out lies on indybay and in blogs or wherever else you can
Does anyone know if there's an attorney on this other than the PD?
by kim
If you witnessed the arrests of any of the eight protesters on Friday night and have information that may be helpful to the defense of those detained, please contact the National Lawyer's Guild asap at 415.285.5067. Or, if you did not witness the events but know somebody who might have, please encourage any such person to contact the Guild. Protester Donnell Allen is a lean Black man, about 5'7. I do not have descriptions for any of the others arrested.
by Realist
Why is it always the same story with protesters these days - they are all willing to be vocal, and in some cases get violent. However, when they actually get caught, they cry and scream about injustice, police brutality, etc.

It is truly amazing that Maidhof can minimize the breaking of windows and the toss of torches at the house as "minor vandalism". I sincerely would like to see what would happen if someone did the same to her. She'd be on the phone with the police and her lawyer immediately.

If you stand around while windows are being smashed and torches thrown doesn't make you totally innocent. It sounds like people finally began to run once the police arrived.
by reader of constitution
Hey Realist, what country do you live in? I'm no flag waving patriot but c'mon, one thing that's decent about the U.S. is that all of these folks are innocent until proven guilty. Why not refrain from jumping to conclusions until all the facts are out? and no, the cops and the media don't have all the facts.
by Education Not Incarceration, SF Chapter (SF2010mm [at] cs.com)
"Realist",

as in, KKKOps reality show "realist" ?

Go chase violent criminals, bust your own kind.
Something
by Sandy Sanders
Has Indybay published a detailed account that refutes the corporate media account telling of "smashed planters, windows and lights ... also reportedly threw flammable objects into the home"? If so I haven't seen it. Details have to be extracted from sketchy commentary. Why doesn't the journalist arrested publish a first hand account? This lack of reporting leaves corporate media to make up whatever they make up, as reported truth.

I think every demo should now employ a journalist and photographer, who swear to objectivity and carry cameras, to be able to report the truth promptly to counter corporate confusionism. Documentation vs. heresay. The downside is illegal behavior will be exposed, but the illegal arrests and trumped-up charges will also be evident. Then the public will know the truth and we can get a society who's on the same page. Otherwise we will remain in the current Groundhog Day reality of cyclic corporate myths. How else can we as a society move forward to real change?
by ...
I believe he is composing something now... you gotta understand that he was imprisoned at Santa Rita over the weekend and has to deal with legal issues... So, while it may be a priority to write something re: Friday night, perhaps he has bigger things to worry about as well.

For the time being, please see these documents:
http://greenrhet.blogspot.com/2009/12/interesting-e-mails-regarding-last.html
http://liveweek.net/?p=77
by Realist
reader - I've been to enough protests to know that there are a group of troublemakers who repeatedly push the envelope then cry injustice when they are punished. You'll note that that was making a statement not advocating frying those that were caught in this round. However, common sense is common sense and if people are getting out of hand you should know better what will come next.

"Education" not incarceration - sorry, not sure what the hell you are talking about and surely you are not insinuating I have some connection to the KKK. If that is what you are suggesting, then maybe you should lay off the dope.
by klg
Getting arrested sucks... but I'm so proud of the actions that have been taking place at all the UC's, especially UCB.

Also, there's always some idiot commenter, like "realist" or "Berkelean" who always down-plays and criticizes cool actions and articles that I read on Indybay. not sure if they're jealous or insecure or what, but try not to waste too much time getting into it with them.

Keep the pressure on! The chancellor, the regents, and the cops are doing economic damage to us, being violent to us, so we shall just return the favor! Don't get caught!! Stay outta jail.... keep the PRESSURE ON!

k
by madbomber
I lost my camera in front of the chancellors home on Friday night and I think those idiot UCPD cops might of found it. has anyone else been arrested?
We are 100% volunteer and depend on your participation to sustain our efforts!

Donate

$110.00 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