(Oakland) Police declare "illegal assembly,"arrest at least 60 people

[Newsjock]

Source: Oakland Tribune

... Meanwhile, police have arrested at least 60 people at 6th Avenue between East 17th and East 18th Street. Those arrested are being processed and put on a bus.

"The time for patience and restraint is over," police Chief Anthony Batts said.

... 7:50 p.m.: Police declare "illegal assembly," about 20 in restraints

Police Chief Batts said officers are making multiple announcements to the crowd at 7th Avenue and East 17th Street that "this is an illegal assembly."

Read more: http://www.insidebayarea.com/oakland-bart-shooting/ci_16533309

---

Also from KGO radio's Jenna Lane:
http://twitter.com/jennalane/status/750180945108992
It was not my imagination. OPD confirms crime scene declaration and order to disperse were simultaneous. So, too bad if you were trapped.

[Dawson Leery]

1. Worthless porkers remind me of a certain European country during the 1930's.

[11cents]

5. Do you live in Oakland? I do.

And not the "nice part." Yes there are problems with the police here, but there sure are times that I'm not sorry to see a "worthless porker" in the neighborhood.

And if you look at the picture of that woman being arrested -- think she's one of "the oppressed?" And she's probably not from Oakland. I'll lay money that she's a member of a far-left cult, the Revolutionary Workers Party, which parasitizes every local movement and genuine grievance and uses it as an excuse to break random car and shop windows -- thus bringing on The Revolution and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, of course.

I'm fine with them being arrested.

[Swagman]

16. OMG !! the far left

[Occulus]

23. Far left *cult*, no less.

Shameful.

[comtec]

33. um we're talking the REAL far left

not the bullshit the RW talks about.
im from the bay area, and the poster is quite correct.
there are some serious whack jobs out there.

anarchy in some places is seen as a real option!

the RW like to say that we moderate, reasonable liberals are the wack jobs, but we aren't.

the left version of the tea baggers are fucking scary!

so consider that before you make such a stupid comment.

if one of US says they're far left, give it some consideration before making an ass out of yourself.

[Iggo]

36. LOL...one of US.

Yeah, but exactly who are you guys?

[comtec]

55. um... what?

im a moderate.
im labeled a flaming liberal because i have common sense.
but in my personal opinion there needs to be a balance between gov and private sector.
we are so far off that balance it's not funny.
having a universal health program is good for everyone, especially business.
having a slightly xenophobic, protectionist trade policy does the US good.

i find these anarchy groups detrimental to the cause.

and do i really need to point out how fucking WAY OFF and WRONG the cops are?

[No Elephants]

39. One of us what?

And 11cents never said anyone was far left. S/he took a wild guess, based on a photo of the woman.

You need to read more carefully.

[Iggo]

35. Since you're fine with cops stomping on people's civil rights...

..who else's civil rights would you not mind seing trampled?

[comtec]

56. no, your assumption that said person was innocent is whats off

just because the cops are way off base in what they said (there is no patience with demonstrations... only the law for them to STFU and take it)
it does not mean they were wrong.

the crime in Oakland is bad... seriously bad.
and there are these whacked out uber left groups.
not movements, but actual cults like were described.
Live in the bay area for a while, and get your head out of your ass please.

many thanks.

[Iggo]

58. Oops.

Rules.

[Iggo]

59. Where did I assume someone was innocent of something?

[bobburgster]

62. Hmmm, my daughter lives there....

she's mentioned a lot of things, but not whacked out uber left groups. Then again, she lived in Queens for 5 years too. ;-)

[No Elephants]

38. You'd think a post from a poster with all of1300 posts here since 2002 would be more restrained.

Instead, that post is over the top.

And you know from looking at a photo of a woman being arrested exactly to which "far-left cult" she belongs? Very impressive.

Do you read palms, too?

[Iggo]

43. It's obvious!

She beongs to that far-left cult that insidiously and methodically infiltrates good causes, biding their time, waiting patiently, until that magical day comes when they can...you guessed it...when they can BREAK WINDOWS!

Those evil window-breaking motherfuckers!

[No Elephants]

44. LOL!

[Odin2005]

53. ROFL!

[bobburgster]

63. Every thing but your title, I wholeheartedly agree with.

I don't believe the "numbers game" is necessary. Gets in the repug frame of mind.

[bobburgster]

64. Repulsive!

That is just another horrible example of a Police Industrial Complexes unchecked power. They deserve riots, seems to be the only thing that works anymore.

[bobburgster]

71. Every thing but your title, I wholeheartedly agree with.

I don't believe the "numbers game" is necessary. Gets in the repug frame of mind.

Duplicate....posted in the wrong place

[Odin2005]

52. I think you are at the wrong site.

"Far-Left Cult" :eyes:

[bobburgster]

61. Classic Red Herring...

Your reply to the previous poster is a classic red herring. Granted he/she lumped their anger into a generalized form. The key to this discussion should be the absurdly low sentence this guy was given. You can defend the police all you want I do not feel this OP is really the best place for it. To go off on a tangent about the woman being arrested,,,,never mind, I don't even want to go there.

[bemildred]

2. That's it, throw more wood on the fire. nt

[readmoreoften]

3. The two years Mesehrle got for shooting an unarmed citizen in the back for no reason whatsoever

will probably be commuted to less than 3 months from what I'm reading.

I hear that the protests have turned into riots and that's what those murderers and accessories to murder deserve.

[Matariki]

12. I can't get over his lame assed excuse that he *meant* to TASER the man who was lying face down.

He deserves more than two years if had BEEN his damned taser. He deserves a life sentence for murder.

[molly77]

34. Life sentence in the general population

If that kind of sentence happened EVER , we would not see so many "accidents" by our police . Sherrif's dept. in Raleigh NC hiring..first priority given to Iraq veterans. Some people like the "accidents". They used to wear sheets at night in the south. Now they go to church and hear hate from their ministers. Seems more respectable than the sheets. But it isn't.

[DCKit]

68. Geez Molly, I think we're sharing a brain - your words are exactly what I was thinking. n/t

[kelly1mm]

13. How are the victims of the riots either murderers or accesories to murder? nt

[No Elephants]

45. I read that poster as meaning bad guys deserve riots.

[The Green Manalishi]

50. Sure they do

But the riots usually end up trashing the small businesses, houses and cars of the people who live in Oakland, not the bad guys; that's the point. It's one thing to rage, or understand the rage. What I am unable to understand or emphasize with is throwing a trash can through the window or torching the car of somebody who is much more likely to be, or have been, a victim of the same bad guys. Tar and feather the ones who deserve it, but the punks trashing African American homes, cars, and businesses are part of the problem, not the solution, no matter how righteous their rage.
The people who are GLAD Oscar Grant got whacked are laughing their asses off, far away, watching rioters trash Oakland.

[kelly1mm]

54. Are the bad guys going to be the victims of the riots? Probably not. nt

[Scruffy1]

28. I'm sure that if we just hold hands and sing

"Give Peace a Chance" , justice will be meted out post haste.

[bobburgster]

65. Bah, haha.....sorry, it is not a laughing matter.

It is a disgrace to the judicial system in our country.

[47of74]

4. Mr. Batts sounds like a pig to me.

[11cents]

7. Actually, he's pretty good.

A big improvement on his predecessor, anyway.

As I said above, the people being arrested are almost certainly the same people who got arrested the last time there was a Grant demonstration -- members of the "Revolutionary Workers Party," people who have the mental and emotional age of about 12. Plus a few freelance "anarchists." Fuck 'em.

[Zephie]

6. Can someone link what this is related to?

I get that it had something to do with a court ruling, but what was it about?

[lunasun]

8. Everyone needs to see that cell phone video of the shooting

[TroglodyteScholar]

32. I wish I hadn't.

A man got shot in the back while he was face-down on the ground.

[eyeofdelphi]

9. "the time for patience and restraint is over??"

so the officer that shot the guy point blank in the back while he was handcuffed on the ground was a show of restraint? i thought these cops had already decided that showing restraint was a waste of time.
i know that not every officer is a cretin, but to only get 2 years for shooting someone like that, that's unbelievable. they should have to pay the same as us when they break the law.

[11cents]

10. For f**ck's sake

First of all, Mehserle was a BART cop, not an Oakland city cop. Secondly, this is about the nth time that the jackasess from the RCP have used the Grant case as an exclude to stream into Oakland from Berkeley to exact a little "revolutionary justice" by breaking car and shop windows -- mostly property belong to African-Americans or Latinos, by the way, since they're doing this downtown and on International Blvd. That's the context in which "the time for restraint is over." It's always the same 100 to 200 people involved; they always declare their tantrum an "uprising" even though it's just them that are involved, and some people on DU are always ready to buy into the bullshit.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

24. Would it be too much to ask for you to address the content of the post you replied to?

[madrchsod]

26. did you mean the RCP? the tea party of the left?

http://revcom.us/rcp-e.htm

[No Elephants]

42. You don't seem to be here enough to know what some DUers are "always" ready to buy into.

Since you're so contemptous of DUers "buying into...bullshit, I know you won't mind being asked to back up your own assertions.

[UndertheOcean]

11. OINK OINK OINK

[azurnoir]

14. "To Protect and Serve" yep that's the ticket alright

and well you know how them folks get when their mad:sarcasm:

[47of74]

30. More like "To Punish and Enslave"

[SkepticAll]

66. Loved that line from Transformers. Cool car too!

[defendandprotect]

41. ... "public servants" ...... Freedom of Assembly ....

[11cents]

15. Oh carry on then.

Don't let information from someone who lives in Oakland and knows who the players are here deter you from oinking away. Maybe you all should come on down and join the revolutionary cadres while they kick out the windows of a beauty salon owned by a middle-aged African-American FASCIST PIG. Fight the power!

BTW, the protest was peaceful with no arrests until the brave urban guerrillas showed up to express their REVOLUTIONARY RAGE, i.e., to use the death of a black man as an excuse for white folks to smash stuff.

[denem]

19. I gotcha.

Even if there's no comment, plenty are reading.

[madrchsod]

25. how many informants and instigators are in the revolutionary cadres?

it is amazing how people fall for this crap.

[The Green Manalishi]

27. Same thing I hear from my friends in Oakland

Sure the people are pissed, but the protests are peaceful and even 'productive' (in the sense of building community and political awareness). Then the "Starbucks Anarchists", bored white kids from outside Oakland come in to try to start a riot. The times they succeed it is African American businesses that get trashed. The locals are wise to it but it only takes a few punks setting things on fire or smashing windows to cause the police to respond as if it were a full scale riot. then the little punks scoot back out of town and laugh.

[zeemike]

29. Well thanks for cluing us in.

But my question is do you really know the players or do you know what you are told the players are?
I ask this because this has all happened before...and it goes like this....agent provocateurs from the FBI or police infiltrate movements on the left and convince them they have to riot...and the only place they can do it out of the sight of the cops is in poor neighborhoods...where the cops are absent for the most part and where the wealthy that they are protecting and serving are kept safe and turns public opinion in the poor community against the protest.
Then they can declare that assembly is illegal and endangering the community.
Think this is a conspiracy theroy?....it is not, it is how things are done to control...and that is what this is all about. And I have seen this movie before.

[jberryhill]

48. Then it's a good thing those agent provocateurs are being shut down this time /nt

[Iggo]

60. Yes. Broken windows. You keep saying...(n/t)

[farmboxer]

17. It's going to get worse...........

This is becoming a very sick country.

[peace frog]

22. "Becoming", hell

We're there. Sick, sad and demented.

[alp227]

18. The violence is usually because of the outsiders

as the Oakland protest organisers have been repeatedly insisting on peace and "use your words and not your fist." Those damn revolutionary immature anarchists sure love party crashing don't they?

[truthisfreedom]

dupe

i don't get this. I keep getting dupes and all I'm doing is clicking once on post. weird.

[truthisfreedom]

20. People, let's trust the DU members who know more about the situation than the rest of us.

Apparently things are more complex than they seem.

[No Elephants]

46. I'll trust ANY credible source posted to support an anti-left rant. So far, though, I've seen only

unsupported anti-left accusations, a number of them from folks who don't seem to post here very often.

Almost anyone can be a "DU member," especially a DU member who doesn't post here very much. And even dummy Reagan said "Trust but verify." So, please let me know when credible verification gets posted.

[Elmore Furth]

21. Protests erupt in Oakland, Calif., after ex-transit cop sentenced

Source: Associated Press

OAKLAND, Calif. — Dozens of protesters took to the streets Friday, some breaking windows and knocking down fences, after a white former transit officer was sentenced to the minimum possible prison sentence of two years for fatally shooting an unarmed black man on a California train platform.

The case against defendant Johannes Mehserle has provoked racial unrest at every turn, and police in Oakland, the scene of the killing, were on alert for more problems following a sentence that many thought was too light.

More than 100 people were arrested after a rally billed as a tribute to the victim, Oscar Grant, turned into a march through the downtown area, where people broke car and bus windows. Some carried a banner reading "Justice for Oscar Grant."

Police spokesman Jeff Thomason said officers in riot gear started making arrests around 8 p.m. after police declared the protest to be an illegal assembly.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40031882/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

[MilesColtrane]

31. Oink

[fascisthunter]

37. THIS is a Direct Result of Justice Not Being Served

and ya know what, I hope more people do this when cops get away with shit.

how anyone could side with the cops here... disgusting, and fuck off too.

[defendandprotect]

40. K&R

[Dappleganger]

47. Fucking pigs.

[Name removed]

49. Deleted message

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Odin2005]

51. "Illegal Assemby" = BLATANTLY Unconstitutional.

[1monster]

57. When the First Amendment is trashed, so are all the others...

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;

or the right of the people peaceably to assemble,

and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

[47of74]

67. It's lawyer time

Time to take the city to court and force them in to bankruptcy. That's the only thing these people understand.

[boppers]

69. Here, let me fix that for you:

Amendment I

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people

peaceably

to assemble,and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Rioting doesn't count.

[1monster]

72. The O/P didn't say anything about rioting. I learned that after I posted. Calling a riot

an "unlawful assembly" is rather an understatement and leads one to a to the wrong conclusion.

[TheMadMonk]

70. NOTHING was done to stop the protest. The police acted AFTER property...

...was damaged.

"...or the right of the people PEACEABLY to assemble." Trashing property is not peaceably.


A thousand people or more trashing the streets IS civil unrest, and probably an indicator of serious social injustice issues that need to be addressed. The same few dozen (allegedly) people turning up at multiple protests against multiple issues and invariably kicking off a riot as soon as they arrive, is stronly suggestive that they're there for the doneybrook, not the cause.

AND having a cause neither excuses illegal behaviour, nor grants such behaviour First Ammendment protection.


Perhaps they're the "Chamomille Tea Party" as some here have directly accused. Perhaps they're agent provacteurs as a couple have hinted at. And perhaps there a bunch of bored kids out looking for trouble, not at all an unlikely scenario given how the same types are always good for a spot of trouble in nightspots, or crashing private parties.

No matter what, just shrieking "Oink! Oink! Oink!" is not a productive strategy. You yourselves should be throwing CTP types and bored kids into the arms of the cops, and paying good money for background checks on anyone who advocates "direct action", particularly against the police (or even in their presence).

I will allow that a certain amount of breast to breast confrontation is a part of any protest situation, but when a person's deliberate actions put the lives/wellbeing of others at risk, I have very little sympathy if their head subesquently stops a truncheon or three. I know what can happen when a chainsaw meets a railway spike in a tree. I know what can happen when a plate glass window turns out to really be cheap plate glass and not expensive laminate as it should be. People lose jobs when they can not get to work, because some yob has torched their car. Others lose wages because their workplace is closed for repairs.

Apart from a possible R vote, generally none of the people harmed in these "riots" ever have any part in the decissions that touch them off.

[1monster]

73. See post number 72. link below

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4603556&mesg_id=4604961