Suppression of "Occupy Eureka"

Eureka city is censoring criticism of Human Rights Abuse by Police [link]
"Occupy Eureka" in Humboldt County has been undergoing straight police terror and repression for a long while now. Older ladies have been beaten, People are being harassed and taken off the streets. Localized Fascism is here, now.

2013-03-19 "Update on Cases AGAINST Eureka Cops"
message from Verbana of "Redwood Curtain CopWatch", "PARC", "Occupy Eureka":
Please come to the Humboldt County Courthouse at 8:30am, Courtroom #8 for the latest round in the civil rights cases against the City of Eureka and the Eureka jo.  I really need your support.
The trials haven't started yet, but will soon (I believe).  Nevertheless, it has been frustrating so far as the City uses their usual wretched lawyers (in small claims where no one is supposed to have a lawyer).  The cops and City are trying to smush all the cases together so that they can create this big, crazy CONFUSING story (defense) about why they had to do the horrible things they did.  They want to try and make it about how scary "we" were to them during November of 2011 (during the hey day of Occupy Eureka) and make sure the cop-loving court can't focus on the facts- so the cops can claim that they had to steal, intimidate, arrest, surveille, destroy, abuse, incarcerate, lie, cover-up (usual police practices)- violate mine and others rights. 
It would be almost impossible for me to try the cases all three of the civil rights cases together.  Please come so I have support, first in convincing the judge not to do whatever the cops and Eureka Mayor want, and then, for trial.  If you were a witness on the 7th, 10th or 30th of November 2011, please contact me.  I could also use your feedback during court and after which is valuable coming from you as an observer in the pews (church, court, sometimes a similar set up...).
Thanks to all the folks who have showed up for the past (uneventful) court appearances.  While the politicians and cops and lawyers have been getting paid to come to court -in a big group- we don't.  So, we tend to wear out easier. 
But, we got something they'll never have...
March 25th is important.  Please try and be there.
THANK YOU
---
late night comment:  P.S.  I encourage you to tell people who are talking about the editor of the North Coast Journal being threatened by Eureka cops to stop taking photographs of them, that the EPD have beaten and arrested people who were simply observing them in public. In two of these November 2011 situations, when I was filming, they arrested and threw me in jail. The Journal really should talk with Redwood Curtain CopWatch about these things....


2012-01-07 "NEWS BLAST" from "Diablo Valley Students and Movement for a Democratic Society [SDS/MDS]"
Concord 99% & All Occupyistas & Social Justice Warriors,
I recently received this emergency post from Sister Verbena up in Occupy Eureka, which is under attack
by the corrupt DA and EPD up there.
Sister Verbena recently beat back her own false arrest case up in Eureka. She was also instrumental in the recent Civil court case victory against the EPD for beating to death of Martin Cotton. Her tireless and heroic organizing led to the EPD being fined over $3 million to be awarded to Martin Cottons daughter & family for his wrongful death at their hands.
The Eureka PD and DA are out of control. This reminds me of the police harassment and brutality faced by civil rights organizers in the deep south.
SDS/MDS calls on all social justice organizations and activists to send resolutions of support and solidarity to  Occupy Eureka & sister Verbena. Send protests to the Eureka DA and demand a end of the harassing arrests and attacks and the dropping of all the bogus charges against the non violent activists of Occupy Eureka.
Tomorrow a solidarity statement will be placed on the Occupy Concord GA agenda as a first step.
AN INJURY TO ONE, IS AN INJURY TO ALL
WE SHALL NOT BE MOVED


2012-01-07 "Occupy Eureka Demonized by Humboldt DA"
Below are responses to government documents uncovered by Occupy Eureka through a CA Public Records Request.  Please come to the Press Conference at 1:00pm on Monday, Jan 9th in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse steps in Eureka, CA (if they haven't fenced it off by then!)

from an Occupy Eureka participant regarding non-violence:
Our whole Occupy  movement is intimately tied to the legacy of Martin Luther King.   On this eve of our celebrating his struggles to emancipate blacks and make certain of our civil rights, our very rights to protest, we again find ourselves immersed here and nation wide...struggling to avoid further desecration of these inalienable rights.
  Martin Luther King said: "Over and over again depending upon the political winds of our times we must  battle for our human rights."
  Non violence, a term born out of the absolute need to confront  brutal force, this alternative whole way of life nurtured for centuries amidst the same terrible arrogance and devastation of violence that have swept the earth.
  MLK said: "Somewhere I read of the freedom of assembly. Somewhere I read of the freedom of speech...of the greatness of America . . .the right to protest for our rights..."


2012-01 Statement from Occupy Eureka:
 It has come to our attention that the Humboldt County District Attorney is indulging in paranoid speculation. In an Email with the subject line, “tents outside of the courthouse” the DA raises the possibility of a sinister threat to county government posed by tents on the lawn.
 Following in the despicable tradition of Joseph McCarthy and Richard Nixon, he speculates on the possibility of “explosives or otherwise dangerous materials” in tents. He states, “...nor are we aware of who occupies those tents.” He clearly states several times that he has absolutely no basis for these suspicions: “I do not believe that any individual out there intends to do any harm to the county government, county property or any individual.” We are still waiting for the county to produce any other Emails as well as the details of any meetings that this speculatory fear must have generated. Initiating the arrest of 15 people and the confiscation of their property based on something that he clearly knows to be false has opened the taxpayers of this jurisdiction to costly civil actions as well as possible criminal penalties.
 The District Attorney is fully aware that this is a nonviolent movement. The facilities manager and the police freely moved about the occupation without interference by the protesters. He was invited to visit the occupation and attend our open-to-the-public general assemblies to see that those occupying the tents were peaceful protesters including members of the houseless community who have been struggling for basic human rights with this county for years. We conduct ourselves in a transparent system for any person to see and participate in.
 He asks that the tents be removed, “as soon as possible” while citing no ordinance being violated and no basis for his reckless speculation. He put into motion a police raid that occurred on the 7th of November with no facts and he states clearly that he has no reasonable basis for his suspicion.
 There have been no violent acts at any of the occupations except those committed by the police, and any attempt to conflate nonviolent political protest with terrorism is an affront to democracy. We are therefore demanding that the District Attorney publicly repudiate this wild speculation and tell the public the real reason for the continued harassment of the occupy movement.


2012-01-07 Open Letter to Humboldt County District Attorney, Paul Gallegos, from Redwood Curtain CopWatch:
 We have reviewed your November 2, 2011 email to the Humboldt County Sheriff, County Counsel, and the County Administrative Officer in which you direct that the tents of Occupy Eureka be removed from the front of the Humboldt County Courthouse. The “go get 'em” email, obtained through a California Public Records Request, instigated, with no legal basis, the November 7 militarized raid, arrests, and civil rights violations by the Eureka Police Department [EPD] and the Humboldt County Sheriff's Department (and presumably the subsequent raids, arrests, and civil rights violations) and creates a conflict as you attempt to prosecute people arrested in those raids and related police actions. Most egregious, however, is that your email to the County is a malicious work of “shock and awe” deceit that should be retracted immediately. You wrote of Occupy Eureka protesters as if they might be terrorists with “explosives” in their tents. Redwood Curtain CopWatch is outraged and disgusted at your dangerous, wholly unfounded, and secret implications regarding non-violent Occupy Eureka protesters. Undoubtedly, thousands of people who will learn of your disingenuous and inflammatory Nov 2 email and the subsequent similar emails will also be appalled and offended by your actions.
You are the District Attorney in a county that painfully remembers the bombing of non-violent Earth First! activists and organizers, Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney, and the government's baseless attempt to depict these victims of horrendous violence, and their fellow activists, as terrorists, in order to destroy their movement. Congress and Obama have just passed a bill allowing for indefinite military detention of anyone the government chooses to deem a possible terrorist. Having endured McCarthyism in the 1950's, still experiencing the affects and injustices of COINTELPRO, suffering Iraq to preemptive attacks and years of war based on suspected “weapons of mass destruction,” we are in the age of the post-911 USA PATRIOT ACT, Arizona's Senate Bill 1070, “Islamaphobia,” the Animal Enterprise Terrorism Act and other atrocious affronts to due process, democracy and humanity. You conjured up a basis for the ongoing conspiracy to violate Occupy Eureka protesters' civil rights relying on a similar to that which produced the above-mentioned bigoted and repressive campaigns. Your Nov 2 email and subsequent nefarious emails wherein you speak of “security concerns” regarding Occupy Eureka has now earned you a place with other government officials and propagandists who strip people of their fundamental right to fairness and use spurious allegations and labels such as “terrorist” to suppress dissent.
The “War on Terror” is based on manufactured fear of a nebulous idea. When Americans are fearful, they allow their military to invade countries illegally and immorally and are willing to surrender their civil liberties. Your rationale for invading tents (and possibly cars and homes) regarding “potential” explosives is the same 'war on terror' based on creating fear. The paranoid directive you gave police regarding Occupy Eureka has led them to treat backpacks, blankets, anything that is under a tarp or a table as illegal or suspect, and they steal and even destroy that property.
You claim in your Nov 2 email that you are “not aware of who occupies those tents” and imply that such a fact is ground for legal suspicion, which it is not. It is also unbelievable that you are “not aware” being that Occupy Eureka demonstrators have been living in the public view. Your Nov 2 email degenerates to a record low when you put forward the most ludicrous, offensive and incendiary statement : “While I do not suspect that any of those tents contain any explosive or otherwise dangerous materials, I cannot confirm that they do not and I do not believe that we can allow the risk of such an occurrence to continue.” What “occurrence”? Are you asserting that your duty includes creating fear and suspicion upon which to predicate preemptive raids and arrests? Are/were you seeking Homeland Security monies by crying wolf, when you know your implications are not true? Your orders and unlawful accusations have already been used locally as the premise for a long list of wrongs perpetrated by the EPD and Humboldt Sheriff's against Occupy Eureka, and they have the potential to ruin peoples' lives forever.

Why did you lie to the public, claiming that Occupy Eureka gets raided because of broken camping laws and municipal codes? There is nothing in your emails that alludes to the illegality of the tents, nothing requesting enforcement of the “crime” of displaying signs and banners, nothing that gives officers a legal basis for mass arrests or clearing all protesters from the sidewalks and lawn near the Courthouse, nothing that instructs officers to arrest people filming their activity, and nothing that alleges Occupy Eureka demonstrators were harming any property, government business, or other people. (In fact, you specifically state that you do not believe Occupy Eureka demonstrators are harming property, government business, or other people). Nevertheless, the officers have consistently pretended that all of those things are the reasons for their unlawful actions, and you have told the media the same.

You remind the recipients of your Nov 2 email that “the courthouse is, in effect, the seat of all Humboldt County government.”  That is the primary reason why Occupy Eureka is located in front of the courthouse. You defame the character of people engaged in constitutional activity with your preposterous suggestion of explosives.
In mid-November, you acknowledged in a message to County Supervisor, Mark Lovelace, that the [Occupy] movement “has been somewhat co-opted locally by our professional protesters.” Putting aside the absurdity of such a statement, we do understand the implication that you recognize some of the non-violent protesters and that you believe they are experienced, know what they are doing. However, you repeatedly suggest that “All you need is 1 McVeigh guy... and the whole seat of government is gone.” How dare you correlate such an inflammatory idea with Occupy Eureka. How dare you create such a false and secretive premise and then tell the public that the police (through their illegal activities) are protecting the community and the safety of the “300 employees and 300 jail inmates.”
You have protected no one.
We understand now that you use menacing and inflammatory “what ifs” to prompt officers to raid Occupy Eureka in riot gear with semi-automatic weapons, to interfere day and night with every form of first amendment expression, to oppose release from jail for protesters held on non-violent misdemeanor charges, and to order warrants and arrests that have no legal grounds. Perhaps you have forgotten that people still have basic legal protections including the presumption of innocence, the right to be free from unlawful search and seizure, the requirement of probable cause before arrest, and the right to due process. These rights and others have been completely disregarded beginning on November 7th when Eureka Police began its raids, wrongful arrests, and unrelenting theft from Occupy Eureka. If the reason for the raids and daily harassment began with suspicion of explosives, the police should have had a search warrant, some kind of legal investigation. But you know, and so do the Eureka Police and Humboldt County Sheriff's, that there was never a threat of explosives at Occupy Eureka. It is incredulous that you are worried about “1 McVeigh guy” who “doesn't even have to [be] from here.” If you are acting on a concern that anyone from anywhere could come and harm everyone in the courthouse/jail building, perhaps you are too paranoid and delusional to hold an office. Invoking a tragic incident with many victims that occurred in another state over fifteen years ago does not give you legal grounds to create more victims by violating the rights of people peacefully assembling and redressing grievances.
In addition to laying the groundwork for a string of civil rights violations against Occupy Eureka participants (and anyone who happens to be in front of the courthouse when the police decide to handcuff, steal, intimidate, etc.), your dangerous and unlawful framing of Occupy Eureka protesters as potential terrorists resulted in Eureka Police Officer, Louis Altic, telling protesters recently that he wanted to search a bag because “it may have a bomb in it.” People refused to consent; Altic did not get a warrant; he did not search the bag; the bag continued to hold clothes and toiletries for its owner. If there was a legitimate suspicion that the bag contained a bomb, it would have been criminally negligent for Altic to not search the bag. The fact that he did not only proves that he never had a legitimate suspicion and used a baseless accusation as a flimsy pretext for harassment. This dishonest behavior in dealing with the Occupy protest seems to be standard operating procedure for not only the EPD, but the office of the District Attorney as well.
Stop deceiving the public and stop targeting the Occupy Eureka protest.
You have not only defied the law at the expense of many peoples' civil liberties, property, and well being, but you are wiping out any remaining trust from the 'progressive' community that put you in office. Your terrorist rhetoric has no place here.


2011-12-27 "You Can Jail the Resistors, But You Can't Jail the Resistance!"
INCARCERATION:  Holiday Gift from Paul Gallegos to Occupy Eureka -
While the District Attorney vacations with his family for the holidays, he (ultimately responsible for actions of his office) has set in motion another campaign of harassment, wrongful arrests, and incarcerations.
* As you know, Anne Rian was locked up on X-mas morning "for a warrant".  She was just bailed out today (Dec 27).
* The next morning, 4am-ish, Martin Katz was arrested "for a warrant" and is still in jail. 
*  Today (Dec 27th), Pat Kanzler was arrested for hanging her American flag banner with the words "Freedom of Speech" at the bottom on the main anti-first-amendment fence at the courthouse.  She was released from jail.
* Also, today (Dec 27th), Keelan McWayne was arrested "for a warrant" and is still in jail.
What do the three people who were arrested "for a warrant" have in common?  They all are dedicated Occupy Eureka demonstrators.  They all were arrested in the 'no warning' mass arrest on November 14th.  They all made sure to inquire about their court dates.  NONE of them received notice in the mail to appear.  All of them had signed for or been told that their dates were after the holiday. And NONE of them had, or could have, missed a date!  (In fact, Martin went in to the court clerk on his own to make a Dec 28th court date!)
So, why the warrants and the cruel X-mas arrests?   
We could call it absolute incompetence by the District Attorney's office (who is precisely the entity to cause warrants to be issued here), or we could call it deliberate and blatant action to stifle political dissent.  Violating constitutional rights and locking people up to stifle dissent: the same reason that the county and the city and the DA have criminalized hanging a flag banner (or any sign) around the courthouse, and arrested Pat today.  The DA's office won't tell us who has these bogus warrants. 
Who will it be tomorrow? 
*Call for the RELEASE OF MARTIN KATZ AND KEELAN MCWAYNE! 
COME OUT TO OCCUPY EUREKA, HOLD SIGNS AND SUPPORT! 
NO MORE BOGUS WARRANTS AND ARRESTS!!
*Leave message for Kelly Neal, Assistant District Attorney at 707-441-3051  and fax 707-445-7416 
KNeel@co.humboldt.ca.us, pgallegos@co.humboldt.ca.us, districtattorney@co.humboldt.ca.us

As stated above, Martin Katz made a court date which is tomorrow morning, Thurs, at 8:00am.  If he is still in jail, please show up to support Martin in court.  Watch out:  The DA's office might oppose his release back to the community like it has for other Occupy protesters! 
Additional note:  EPD's Sgt. Guy, while arresting Martin Katz, pulled out his nunchukas (his favorite torture weapon) to squeeze around Martin's limbs. Guy put them away, however, when a camera focused on him.  Consequently, Sgt. Guy wrongfully arrested me for filming in November, had earlier tried to break my camera, and uses his nunchukas on non-violent protesters.
UPDATE as of 7:09pm: I just heard that Keelan was released!! yeah!! Martin Katz is still in jail.  He is not on the court calendar for 8 in the morning, but Angie is!