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Occupy Oakland
Let’s talk about theory. In theory, when an arm of state power – for an example the police – arrests someone a certain set of conditions must be met. This typically involves the person being arrested facing charges for a crime or being cited for a violation.
But as many Americans learned for the first time watching the police respond to the Occupy protests, sometimes arresting people is just a tactic with no clear crime or violation occurring.
That’s bad enough but for the members of Occupy Oakland arrest was not only a tactic to stop a protest but the beginning of an hours long detainment:
Eight Occupy Oakland protesters have filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Oakland and Alameda County, saying their civil rights were violated when they were held in jail for hours but never charged with a crime…
Arrestees were held for as long as 85 hours, said the suit, filed by Berkeley attorney Yolanda Huang and Dan Siegel, a former adviser to Oakland Mayor Jean Quan.
Mayor Quan can’t be happy about this, not only might the city face heavy penalties from a lawsuit her police force caused but the suit was filed by a former adviser.
The attorneys are asking a judge to give the lawsuit class-action status, which would broaden the number of plaintiffs to others arrested during the protest.
“Rather than cite and release, class members were incarcerated for long periods in overcrowded and inhumane conditions, including unheated or deliberately chilled cells, with limited seating, no sleeping facilities, sometimes standing room only, no toilet facilities, no feminine hygiene and no food, water or medical care,” the suit said.
The mass arrest outside the YMCA happened hours after protesters tried to take over the vacant Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center several blocks away.
Perhaps this lawsuit will provide some incentive to the police and their superiors to stick to more legal forms of arrest and detainment. Or maybe an incentive for taxpayers to start tossing politicians who run up these huge legal bills by breaking the law.
Photo by Oakland Local under Creative Commons license
6 Comments
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Since its been shown that Emperor 0 and his DoJ were complicit to the point of being co-conspirators, shouldn’t they be subject to this lawsuit?
THis could be interessting. ALl those “hippie types” in tha Bay Area just might ruile in favor of OWS and against the guvment conspiracy.
Glad to see you back DSW.
Ths is good news! I encourage folks from other parts of the country who experienced violations of their rights to contact the ACLU for advice on how to bring more suits like this one!
It’s wishful thinking to believe that this lawsuit will have any impact whatsoever on the behavior of OPD and the City of Oakland. One of the Occupy protestors in this new case is someone who was injured in the 2003 anti-war protest. Oakland agreed to change its crowd control policy as a result of that incident, but little has changed and they continue to be under constant threat of a federal takeover. They’ve paid out millions and millions of dollars in settlements over the past few decades and that has failed to mitigate ongoing police brutality, extrajudicial arrests, etc.
Hardly a day goes by in which Jordan and Quan don’t outdo themselves in the Stupidity and Incompetence Olympics. Most recently, they’ve had to walk back their assertion that 90 percent of the huge rise in violent crime in Oakland is attributable to two warring gangs. And HoJo has been forced to send out a letter in an attempt to reassure citizens that even though OPD wants to hire William Bratton as a $250,000 consultant, HoJo promises that Bratton’s infamous “stop and frisk” tactics will not involve racial profiling when used by OPD.
Yeah, Howard, whatever you say.
This highlights an obvious need, that of criminalizing civil rights violations by government executives and agents. Make these sorts of abuses into Federal felonies and the exposure to criminal prosecution may actually deter further abuses. These civil actions do little or nothing to deter and to make those committing the acts personally accountable. Civil fines are paid by the taxpayers, not those guilty of the violations. Civil suits against government are in no way a corrective.