Update on arrests from SF protest

Regardless of the damage anyone does to buildings, cops don't have the right to violently arrest anyone.

i thought it was illegal to attack people in the street and beat them? i cant believe those charges. they are way overboard. hopefully theyll get reduced and dropped. and they will get out unscathed.

fuck the legal system and the laws. we want our freedom!

"i thought it was illegal to attack people in the street and beat them?" ...Sounds a lot like Iraq...or Israel...

Mr. Hallinan, if you truly wish to uphold the law of the land, you should be the first in line to smash the doors down at the INS, and restore liberty and freedom to America and all her guests. Drop the bogus charges against the people arrested at the INS on 1/18!

Many people noticed one of the arrestees to be verbal but not to be participating in any even slightly illegal, even chalk drawing. The undercover officer who suddenly struck out and knocked him over appeared to many to be an angry conservative or motorist who was grabbing a random person out of the crowd. Many yelled at the police that this person in the yellow hat was attacking them, as though to point out to the police that a violent incident was occurring and yellow guy was the aggressor, but then it turned out that he was a police officer. You can see that he has a black sort of scarf around his neck.

The truth is the poorly trained SFPD officers were loudly talking amongst themselves at the last breakaway march. They identified this individual as the "leader" of the protest because he seemed most prominent in the march. I heard at least 3 cops say this very loudly.

And in this protest, they nabbed him, even though he didn't do anything illegal.

I will testify about this in court and I will be in contact with the legal team.

SFPD shouldnt have talked so loud.. Their strategy here is clear.

Fuck Officer Fagan and fuck these stupid pigs who attacked our protest. These sick bastards would probably like to kill some innocent Iraqis themselves.

There is no news as of yet whether the two will be released today.

Their bail is set at $80,000 each, so they would each need $8,000 to get out with bail, ... probably not going to happen.

They will be going in front of a judge soon and may be able to get out w/o paying bail by proving that they live in the area and don't intend to jump town.

It would probably help to keep the phone lines busy.
Call these numbers:

DA complaint line: 415.553.1814

Chief of Police: 415.553.1551

County Jail: 415.575.4419

URGENT: JAIL SUPPORT NEEDED MONDAY @ 1PM
FOR ARRESTED ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS

An emergency support rally is being called for Monday at 1 PM. We will meet at 850 Bryant Street in San Francisco where a judge will decide if Jonah Zern and Jeremy Rochelle can go free, or if the outrageous $80,000 bail that has been set for them will stick. Jonah and Jeremy are local activists who were violently attacked and arrested by police on Saturday. Both of these hardworking activists face three trumped up felony charges.

Jonah and Jeremy were violently arrested in the afternoon of January 18th, after the massive San Francisco protest against war in Iraq. Both were arrested while observing a smaller, unpermitted march of about 1000 people. Neither was doing anything illegal and at the time of their arrests they were not participating in the breakaway march.

I personally witnessed the police assault Jonah. Jonah had been walking on the sidewalk, well away from the protest, when an undercover cop rushed out of the breakaway march, jumped over the hood of a car and brutally tackled Jonah onto the sidewalk. Jeremy was arrested later. Apparently, he had crossed over to the median divider on Market street in order to get a closer look at the march as it went by. An undercover cop sprinted out of the protest march and grabbed Jeremy, placed him in a pain compliance hold, and then dragged him away.

Why would undercover police single out and attack these two individual spectators? Because both are longtime and well-known community activists and are easily recognizable. Cops have charged Jonah and Jeremy with 3 felonies -- each. Both are charged with 2 counts of felony vandalism. Bail is set at $80,000 each. On Monday a judge will hear a request for Jonah and Jermey to be released on their own recognizance (without bail) by proving that they live in the area and don't intend to leave town.

There are a number of ways you can help:

* Come on Monday to the support Rally! 1pm 850 Bryant St.

* Call the following numbers, and keep them busy.
DA complaint line: 415.553.1814
Chief of Police: 415.553.1551
County Jail: 415.575.4419
Tell them you know that Jonah and Jeremy are being attacked for their politics and their activism. Ask that Jonah and Jeremy be released immediately. And tell them that you oppose the war in Iraq too!

* If you witnessed (or have video) either arrest, write down what you saw and contact Midnight Special Law Collective at 510-834-1883 and tell them what you know.

* Spread the word. Let other people know about what has happened. And forward this email.

JAIL SUPPORT NEEDED MONDAY @ 1PM @ 850 BRYANT ST FOR ARRESTED ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS

URGENT: JAIL SUPPORT NEEDED MONDAY @ 1PM
FOR ARRESTED ANTI-WAR ACTIVISTS

An emergency support rally is being called for Monday at 1 PM. We will meet at 850 Bryant Street in San Francisco where a judge will decide if Jonah Zern and Jeremy Rochelle can go free, or if the outrageous $80,000 bail that has been set for them will stick. Jonah and Jeremy are local activists who were violently attacked and arrested by police on Saturday. Both of these hardworking activists face three trumped up felony charges.

Jonah and Jeremy were violently arrested in the afternoon of January 18th, after the massive San Francisco protest against war in Iraq. Both were arrested while observing a smaller, unpermitted march of about 1000 people. Neither was doing anything illegal and at the time of their arrests they were not participating in the breakaway march.

I personally witnessed the police assault Jonah. Jonah had been walking on the sidewalk, well away from the protest, when an undercover cop rushed out of the breakaway march, jumped over the hood of a car and brutally tackled Jonah onto the sidewalk. Jeremy was arrested later. Apparently, he had crossed over to the median divider on Market street in order to get a closer look at the march as it went by. An undercover cop sprinted out of the protest march and grabbed Jeremy, placed him in a pain compliance hold, and then dragged him away.

Why would undercover police single out and attack these two individual spectators? Because both are longtime and well-known community activists and are easily recognizable. Cops have charged Jonah and Jeremy with 3 felonies -- each. Both are charged with 2 counts of felony vandalism. Bail is set at $80,000 each. On Monday a judge will hear a request for Jonah and Jermey to be released on their own recognizance (without bail) by proving that they live in the area and don't intend to leave town.

There are a number of ways you can help:

* Come on Monday to the support Rally! 1pm 850 Bryant St.

* Call the following numbers, and keep them busy.
DA complaint line: 415.553.1814
Chief of Police: 415.553.1551
County Jail: 415.575.4419
Tell them you know that Jonah and Jeremy are being attacked for their politics and their activism. Ask that Jonah and Jeremy be released immediately. And tell them that you oppose the war in Iraq too!

* If you witnessed (or have video) either arrest, write down what you saw and contact Midnight Special Law Collective at 510-834-1883 and tell them what you know.

* Spread the word. Let other people know about what has happened. And forward this email

Today, Monday January 20th, Martin Luther King Jr. day, 50 supporters of anti-war activists, Jonah Zern and Jeremy Rochelle, rallied outside the SF jail at 850 Bryant St for 2 hours.

They demanded that they be released with charges dropped, as well as making a statement that "all prisoners are political prisoners and should be freed."

Some speakers brought up the housing crisis and increasing unemployment in the bay area, citing this lack of opportunites during the war-time budget as the criminalization of the poor and working class.

Others candidly pointed out that on the break-away march, while the black bloc and the pink bloc showed their militant opposition to the war, only the blue bloc were armed and dangerous. The blue bloc was publicly charged with kidnapping, beating up protestors, and beating up themselves.

One eyewitness at the march described what they saw when Jonah was arrested.

"The police made a mistake by choosing to have a black officer do their undercover work. When the plainclothes cop wrestled Jonah to the ground, the regular cops on the sidelines saw one more opportunity to bring their batons down on the black man. They showed their racism blatantly, and in the process, injured one of their fellow officers. Then, after realizing their mistake, they cuffed Jonah, arrested him, and charged him with the injury."

At 2:15 the group standing outside received word that Jonah and Jeremy will be released on their own recognisance (OR), meaning that they will not have to post bail since they were able to prove that they live in the area and made assurance they would not leave town before their trial.

They will be released tonight between 10 pm and 12 midnight.

The charges have not yet been dropped. (A)

Thank you everyone for all your support. Someone gave me a better # for the DA's office yesterday: 415.553.1741 Please don't be angry with them when you call. It is not them who falsely arrested us. Please only call and state that you believe or know that we are innocent and feel the charges should be dropped.

No arraignment date has been set yet. Likely because they know the charges are false and are considering dropping them. Please stay tuned! We need everyone's support until the charges are completely dropped!

Jonah

Thank you again!!

Jonah

Our charges were dropped today!...(release below colum)

Letter About a San Francisco Jail

My name is Jonah Zern. I am a substitute teacher in Oakland and the co-coordinator of the Peace and International Relations Committee of the Oakland Education Association and was one of two protestors falsely arrested on Saturday, January 18, 2003 at the anti-war rally of 200,000 people in San Francisco. I want to thank all those who came to my aid and state how important people’s calling the District Attorney, jail and Mayor’s office and the rally organized outside the jail was in both our release and in today’s dismissal of our charges.

I want to make sure that my arrest helps to shine a spotlight on the bigger issues of the prison industry and how it is destroying our communities. I saw how much me being in prison hurt those close to me. I can't even imagine how much it destroys communities of color, about 2/3 of the people in prison were black, very, very few were white, no-one I met were even middle class - when I ask students who I teach in Oakland, "how many of you know someone in prison?" without fail 3/4 of the class raises their hands.

There are many more political prisoners than just Jeremy and I. Most people who I met were in fact there because of non-violent crimes of poverty, such as using drugs or taking money for a place to sleep, or because they had been profiled as a black male. My cell-mate was going to be in jail for a year for taking money from a Wal-Mart, a company that has sweatshops all over the world and viciously fights unions within its own doors. People I met were brilliant, caring, and being deeply hurt; a large portion of people I met talked matter-of-factly about the last few times they had been in prison. One was 18 and talked about how much more difficult the conditions were in jail than his multiple times in Juvie. There are much deeper doors that we need to open, to know that just because two community leaders supported by a massively popular movement are freed of our charges that we cannot rest or put this behind us.

There are so many people suffering in our own community from intolerable government oppression; oppression that continues a cycle of poverty, sadness, and hopelessness. We cannot shed tears for the millions of Iraqis suffering from our government's sanctions and war-mongering without also taking to heart the call to stop incarcerating Black and Latino children. We cannot fight for justice abroad and ignore what amounts to the genocide of a people within our own nation. The total number of inmates in local, state and federal prisons has quadrupled in the past 20 years to more than two million. Two-thirds of all nonwhite adult males are arrested and jailed between the ages of 18 and 30 nationally. On any average day in America, one of every four African Americans between the ages of 20 and 29 is in jail, prison, or on probation or parole.

If my community was so hurt by my two days in jail, where I received much media support, phone calls from political and community leaders, how much does it hurt whole communities of poor people of color who are only told that their brothers, husbands, boy-friends, girl-friends, sisters, mothers, uncles, aunts, friends are in jail because they are “no good”. How can a community lift itself up, when the institution of power is pushing it down with all its might.

It is time that we say “NO WAR ON THE PEOPLE OF IRAQ! NO WAR ON THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED STATES! BOOKS NOT BOMBS, SCHOOLS NOT JAILS!” It is essential that our anti-war movement also become a civil rights movement.

* (prison is data from Platt, in Social Justice Journal, Vol. 28, No.1, 2001)



PRESS RELEASE:
JANUARY 23, 2003
CHARGES ON TWO ANTI-WAR POLITICAL PRISONERS DROPPED; ARESTEES CALL FOR END TO POLITICAL TARGETTING AND WAR ON THE POOR

Contacts:
Jonah Zern, Co-Coordinator, Peace and International Relations Committee, Oakland Education Association, 510.654.8613
Riva Enteen, National Lawyers Guild, 415.285.1055
John Viola, Zern and Rochelle’s Attorney, 415.902.5491

Charges falsely levied against Jeremy Rochelle, 21, San Francisco, and Jonah Zern, 25, Oakland, at Saturdays major anti-war rally in San Francisco have been dismissed. The two were held in SF City jail for two days and released on Martin Luther King Day on their Own Recognizance. The charges are dismissed pending investigation, a normal charge for protest dismissals that give the District Attorney the right to re-introduce charges for one year.

The community with national and international support played a major role in supporting Rochelle and Zern, both while they were in prison and once they were released. Supporters made calls of support to the District Attorney, Mayor and the Jail and organized a rally of approximately 60 people outside the jail calling for their release. “The Guild recognizes that courts are more likely to do the right thing if people create the political climate for them to do so.” Said Riva Enteen of the National Lawyers Guild.

Supporters expressed concern that Zern and Rochelle’s arrests were politically motivated. Many police were seen watching protestors committing illegal actions, while Zern and Rochelle who had done nothing, but are prominent activists in the Bay Area were targeted. “ Post 9-11 is not a war against terrorism it’s a war against dissent, there are serious attacks against constitutional rights of speech and association.” said Enteen

Zern, a substitute teacher in Oakland, further expressed concern that money diverted from social spending to a war on Iraq would also lead to deepening poverty and more prisoners. “Most people I met in prison had committed either crimes of poverty or were singled out as black people. I want to make sure that my arrest helps to shine a spotlight on the bigger issues of the prison industry and how deeply it is hurting communities of color. If the United States goes to war with Iraq, money will be taken away from poor communities and will lead to even worse conditions and more prisoners.”


###

Is it true that the Black Bloc in San Francisco are planning on throwing balloons full of talcum powder into elevator lobbies of high-rise buildings. I understand this would close the building for a day or more and can be done by a single individual. However, I don't agree that the only charge the police could make is vandalism. Everyone will assume the powder is Anthrax. Doesn't that automatically make the charge terrorism even if the balloon thrower makes no claim and just runs away. Could you comment on this on your site. Some of these well meaning children might not understand the seriousness of their actions.

Maybe before one inundates the DAs office with phone calls, we should consider the limited funds the DA has due to the fued with Willie Brown and the broad based atttacks T.Hallinan's is now under due to indictments against SFPD brass and three patrolmen. Let's also remember Hallinan has always been a friend to the Peace Movement, and historically supports and participates in progressive causes.

Hallinan is up for re-election and faces two opponents with ties to the SFPD and Mayor Brown. His staff is already overinundated with calls regarding the indictments of SFPD, so maybe a petition...on line perhaps, would be equally effective. It might be viewed very useful to the peace movement to allow the courts to discredit SFPD. DAHallinan needs our support to proceed without hindrance toward convicting the SFPD of misconduct, felony assault and conspiracy to cover up misconduct. I would think it's a good time to encourage our supporters and focus our energies disabling those who seek to silence voices for peace. Thanks! Never thought I'd be defending a District Attorney!! EGADS! Free all political prisoners!

" If we cannot dissent in San Francisco, where else in this country can we? "

You can dissent. Matter of fact, you're encouraged to think for yourself, and to express your own opinion.

But preventing or intimidating others is what these people are booked for. You've got to respect the choices of others too.

(Funny "in this country" line you've got there, by the way -- you're arguing to perpetuate an actual repressive and brutal regime, and you're worried that you can't halt others in the street, can't attack those with different signs, can't attempt economic damage to those you perceive as enemies. "In this country", what a qualifier.)