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Legal Update for 3/19 & 3/20
Update on arrests from 3/19 and 3/20
3/19:
7 arrests at the Bechtel action, 2 arrests on the march to the housing action, 11 arrests at the housing action, and 4 people arrested inside the housing action (but not charged).
Most charges are blocking traffic / disorderly conduct / failure to obey
Everyone has been released. The first arraignments are Tuesday, 3/23 at 850 Bryant.
3/20:
The march today was estimated at more that 50k people. At 2pm, a solidarity march of approx 500 people broke away from the rest of the march. At about 3:15pm, the police illegally stopped this march and surrounded the activists. As usual, police refused to allow people to comply with dispersal orders. The officer on the loudspeaker told protesters they would be subject to being beaten with batons if they failed to disperse.
Throughout the afternoon, there were arrests at several other locations, and we received reports of targetted arrests by undercover officers. At 6pm activists held a vigil outside the jail at 850 Bryant. At 7pm police began harrassing people, detaining and running IDs of anyone wearing black. They arrested one man.
Police ultimately arrested about 70 people over the course of the day.
Most arrestees were cited and released. At this time (10:15pm) there are 3 people confirmed to still be in custody. We anticipate that they will be released on Sunday, 3/22.
Call the DA's office: 415-553-1752 and demand that the remaining protesters be released, and that all charges be dropped.
There have been numerous reports of police misconduct and brutality during these illegal arrests resulting in several serious injuries. Police beat one man with batons so severely that he had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency care
Legal Observers and witnesses:
Pictures, video and other evidence can be dropped off at the National Lawyers Guild office at 558 Capp St. during regular business hours. (If you can't make this, call 415-285-1011 to arrange another drop-off). Please be sure to label all of your evidence and keep a copy of anything you give to us.
Documenting Injuries and Police Misconduct:
You can find a police misconduct report here. If you were injured in any way, see Shooting the Wounded, a guide to documenting injuries. Fill out these forms and fax or drop off at the NLG office. The fax number is 415-285-5066.
7 arrests at the Bechtel action, 2 arrests on the march to the housing action, 11 arrests at the housing action, and 4 people arrested inside the housing action (but not charged).
Most charges are blocking traffic / disorderly conduct / failure to obey
Everyone has been released. The first arraignments are Tuesday, 3/23 at 850 Bryant.
3/20:
The march today was estimated at more that 50k people. At 2pm, a solidarity march of approx 500 people broke away from the rest of the march. At about 3:15pm, the police illegally stopped this march and surrounded the activists. As usual, police refused to allow people to comply with dispersal orders. The officer on the loudspeaker told protesters they would be subject to being beaten with batons if they failed to disperse.
Throughout the afternoon, there were arrests at several other locations, and we received reports of targetted arrests by undercover officers. At 6pm activists held a vigil outside the jail at 850 Bryant. At 7pm police began harrassing people, detaining and running IDs of anyone wearing black. They arrested one man.
Police ultimately arrested about 70 people over the course of the day.
Most arrestees were cited and released. At this time (10:15pm) there are 3 people confirmed to still be in custody. We anticipate that they will be released on Sunday, 3/22.
Call the DA's office: 415-553-1752 and demand that the remaining protesters be released, and that all charges be dropped.
There have been numerous reports of police misconduct and brutality during these illegal arrests resulting in several serious injuries. Police beat one man with batons so severely that he had to be rushed to the hospital for emergency care
Legal Observers and witnesses:
Pictures, video and other evidence can be dropped off at the National Lawyers Guild office at 558 Capp St. during regular business hours. (If you can't make this, call 415-285-1011 to arrange another drop-off). Please be sure to label all of your evidence and keep a copy of anything you give to us.
Documenting Injuries and Police Misconduct:
You can find a police misconduct report here. If you were injured in any way, see Shooting the Wounded, a guide to documenting injuries. Fill out these forms and fax or drop off at the NLG office. The fax number is 415-285-5066.
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Comments
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One comment: I think the breakaway was a lot larger than 500 people. I would guess that there were more like 2-3k - in its longest uninterrupted stretch, that piece of the demo filled several city blocks when I dropped back to try to get a feel for how large it was.
Also, I just read a very interesting piece on chicago.indymedia:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/38083/index.php
There are ideas here that might be worth thinking about for marches in SF which overlap with the permitted and orderly ANSWER marches in some goals, but not in tactics or political outlook: stage elsewhere, or stage with the main group and move out separately. If there had been two simultaneous marches going on, both would have been covered heavily but I think there could be numerous advantages to being simultaneous.
Also, the point someone else made about black clothing and face masks is well taken - it does make one a target. It also makes it more difficult for the anarchist bloc to disperse and re-stage, or to reintegrate with the permitted bloc if this seemed tactically useful.
-R
Also, I just read a very interesting piece on chicago.indymedia:
http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/38083/index.php
There are ideas here that might be worth thinking about for marches in SF which overlap with the permitted and orderly ANSWER marches in some goals, but not in tactics or political outlook: stage elsewhere, or stage with the main group and move out separately. If there had been two simultaneous marches going on, both would have been covered heavily but I think there could be numerous advantages to being simultaneous.
Also, the point someone else made about black clothing and face masks is well taken - it does make one a target. It also makes it more difficult for the anarchist bloc to disperse and re-stage, or to reintegrate with the permitted bloc if this seemed tactically useful.
-R
The black bloc routine on the Chicago site looks very grim, teaches nothing and certainly does not reach out to anyone who is undecided about politics in general, much less any specific issue, which is true for 99.9% of Americans.
Granted, the police acted illegally and viciously and that should be condemned loudly and clearly, the question remains, what was the purpose of the breakaway march?
Most of us go to the peace marches simply to vote with our feet for peace in a public manner. That was easily accomplished with the ANSWER peace march, and many of us added our own politics with our signs and chants as well.
Upon arriving at the Civic Center, we were able to enjoy not a flea market, as one critic said, but a BONANZA OF BOOKS and other very informative educational material, from pamphlets to videos. This writer looks forward to not only the peace marches but the opportuinty to obtain hard-to-find excellent reading material at these peace rallies, and I usually accomplish my goal in obtaining lots of good books.
I also enjoyed the sun while I listened to the speeches, both boring and inspiring. There is always something to be learned from at least some of the speakers.
I then left the Civic Center and took care of the other tasks that needed to be done that day.
When I was in my 20s and had more energy, I had even less time for peace marches than I do now. When I was done with school as a fulltime student, I still took classes after working 40 hours a week, and studied for those classes, and somehow managed to sandwich a peace march against the Vietnam War into that schedule, as well as the usual household tasks we all have.
WE NEED TO ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED
There are 764,000 residents of San Francisco, 99% of whom were NOT at the peace march. There are 7 million people in the 9 counties of the Bay Area, 11 million people in Northern California (from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border), 99% of whom were NOT at the peace march. We had a grand total of 50,000 people marching for peace in San Francisco. All 50,000 of us need to do everything we can to make sure we have 1 million marching for peace AND exposing the 911 Hoax next time!
Granted, the police acted illegally and viciously and that should be condemned loudly and clearly, the question remains, what was the purpose of the breakaway march?
Most of us go to the peace marches simply to vote with our feet for peace in a public manner. That was easily accomplished with the ANSWER peace march, and many of us added our own politics with our signs and chants as well.
Upon arriving at the Civic Center, we were able to enjoy not a flea market, as one critic said, but a BONANZA OF BOOKS and other very informative educational material, from pamphlets to videos. This writer looks forward to not only the peace marches but the opportuinty to obtain hard-to-find excellent reading material at these peace rallies, and I usually accomplish my goal in obtaining lots of good books.
I also enjoyed the sun while I listened to the speeches, both boring and inspiring. There is always something to be learned from at least some of the speakers.
I then left the Civic Center and took care of the other tasks that needed to be done that day.
When I was in my 20s and had more energy, I had even less time for peace marches than I do now. When I was done with school as a fulltime student, I still took classes after working 40 hours a week, and studied for those classes, and somehow managed to sandwich a peace march against the Vietnam War into that schedule, as well as the usual household tasks we all have.
WE NEED TO ORGANIZE THE UNORGANIZED
There are 764,000 residents of San Francisco, 99% of whom were NOT at the peace march. There are 7 million people in the 9 counties of the Bay Area, 11 million people in Northern California (from Santa Cruz to the Oregon border), 99% of whom were NOT at the peace march. We had a grand total of 50,000 people marching for peace in San Francisco. All 50,000 of us need to do everything we can to make sure we have 1 million marching for peace AND exposing the 911 Hoax next time!
Hey Black Blockers,
Get real! There were only a couple hundred in the breakaway march at most--and that includes many of the hangers on at the back. There's no way there were more than 250 at the most. There were fewer numbers of people as there were for the 3/19 action at Bechtel the day before.
Maybe if you weren't drinking all your piss-beer and didn't have a mask on all fucking day, you'd have the clarity to see reality. Stop fantasizing, there weren't that many people in the breakaway.
The saint
Get real! There were only a couple hundred in the breakaway march at most--and that includes many of the hangers on at the back. There's no way there were more than 250 at the most. There were fewer numbers of people as there were for the 3/19 action at Bechtel the day before.
Maybe if you weren't drinking all your piss-beer and didn't have a mask on all fucking day, you'd have the clarity to see reality. Stop fantasizing, there weren't that many people in the breakaway.
The saint
hey block head. even the corporate media was saying that the breakaway was around 2000 people at first. people may have been lost to the sidewalks along the way, as is evident in many pictures posted, but they were still part of the breakaway in many ways. in fact many of us on the sidewalk broke away from the mass arrest of the breakway on market after a lot of indecision.
get off your armchair and your computer and be a part of the solution instead of masturbating over your half ass critiques of other peoples action and claiming that we are all drunkards, which is by the way a long standing claim against anarchists and radicals that goes back to the molly maguires and other irish radicals, and has recently been used against the white overall folks in mexico a lot.
at any rate maybe you should stop stying to act like debra saunders and the rest of the corporate media especially using the pseudonym that you use
don't mourn, organize!! - joe hill
get off your armchair and your computer and be a part of the solution instead of masturbating over your half ass critiques of other peoples action and claiming that we are all drunkards, which is by the way a long standing claim against anarchists and radicals that goes back to the molly maguires and other irish radicals, and has recently been used against the white overall folks in mexico a lot.
at any rate maybe you should stop stying to act like debra saunders and the rest of the corporate media especially using the pseudonym that you use
don't mourn, organize!! - joe hill
i did not see any reports of the police detaining a legal observer at the jail for actidently standing in the vicinity of someone wearing black, are there any updates or is it being overlooked?
here is the reportback mentioning the NLG observer being detained for "getting in the way". he was the only NLG person there at the time, more came a little bit after he was detained briefly and then released.
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674717.php
http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/03/1674717.php
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