Jailed for Marching in Oakland: What it means for you and your children.

Occupy Oakland and the hundreds who were arrested are peaceful people demonstrating for an equitable system. I know because I was in jail with them. Some are still being held over fifty hours later. We were cornered at the side of the YMCA by violent police officers simply for marching against homelessness and the need for empty buildings to be used to house people. We were doing nothing but marching. In fact, I was on rollerblades. There was no dispersal order. But more importantly, we wanted to disperse but anyone who tried to leave was beaten with batons. We were smooshed into a corner by the police.

We are teachers, students, social workers, non-profit workers, from all sectors of society, from ages 17 to at least 60 plus. Some were not even part of the protest, but were walking home from the grocery store. It could have been you, it could have been your child, your sister, your brother. Everyone was held at least twelve hours but many of us were held over 40 hours without being booked, in deplorable conditions. Our names were not put into the system during these hours, so we did not exist.

We sat in concrete cold rooms with bright flourescent light shining 24 hours a day, no blanket, no cot, no place to lay down. The rooms were glorified bathrooms where you had to pee or poo in front of all the 5 to 25 other cellmates in your room and any officers or janitors who walked passed and looked through the window, or unlocked the door. Breakfast, lunch and dinner, when sporadically brought were bologne sandwiches, even though many of us are vegetarian or come from religions that cannot eat that meat, or meat at all.

There was no garbage can or bag so the pile of leftover garbage from used maxi-pads (which were sporadically provided) to uneaten bologne and the plastic and cardboard the unedible food was brought in piled up in the corner. We were basically living in a bathroom filled with garbage. We were denied clocks, watches, paper, pens, phone calls (except for a few people who asked the right guard at the right time for their phone call) and most importantly medicine.

Many needed medications, some every 3 to 4 hours, and when I was released they were still denied it for over 36 hours, and they were going into withdrawal. Some are still there and need bail money. They are being charged with felonies simply for trying to find a way to disperse by entering an open door to find an exit because police were cornering us and batoning people who tried to leave.

We could just as easily have been at Guantanamo. This is for real! Economic conditions are worsening, the powers that be are worried about dissent growing, and they are practicing. The public needs to stand up against it now, or else the time will come that it will be you swept off the street and imprisoned anonymously. This is about the 1% holding on to their wealth at the expense of the 99%. They do not want to give up any of their excessive wealth, control or privileges, yet it is unsustainable. So they are tightening a system that will quell all dissent through their ownership of the media, the politicians, the prisons, and the courts.

The NDAA (the National Defense Authorization Act), the Patriot Act and the AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act) are all examples of the 1% and the corporations whose interests are limited to corporate profits re-writing and enacting laws to legalize suppression of dissent. This is one of the first things Hitler did when he came to power. And most Germans turned their heads. It cannot be just a few thousand people in each city standing up to this. This needs to be millions.

Join us now or forever hold your peace when they come for you or your child for requesting a basic right or reporting a violation of someone or a community's rights. We are at a crossroads, do you want to continue listening to the mainstream media that reports corporate interests or will you please start reading alternative people-based media to hear truth so you will stand up before it's too late?

We must salvage anything that's left of democracy, the constitution, and the Earth that feeds and clothes us, and that provides the oxygen we breathe and the water we drink. That is ultimately what our system is destroying in its emphasis on immediate consumption and production for the benefit of the 1% and their multiple mansions and airplanes. All that we consume and produce ultimately comes from the limited resources of the Earth. Stand up now or your children will have nothing to look forward to except prison camps, asthma, and chemicals. Take the time to educate, spread the word, and march with us. This can actually be more entertaining then your weekend movie, television shows, or shopping trips. Lets get together, get to know our communities and stand up for a peaceful just system at the same time.

-Beth Seligman, J.D.
Occupy