PEOPLES MOVEMENT
It is my hope that someday these causes will be eliminated that a better society is established for all.
Another World Is Possible.
For Immediate Release: November 15, 2011
Contact:
Yetta Kurland – 917-701-9590
Daniel Alterman – 917-945-2599
Gideon Oliver – 646-263-3495
Margaret Kunstler – 917-331-8012New York, NY: At around 6 AM on November 15, 2011, attorneys associated with the New York City Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild working as the Liberty Park Legal Working Group obtained a temporary restraining order against the City of New York, various City agencies, and Brookfield properties directing that occupiers be allowed back on the premises with their belongings.
Earlier, at approximately 1 AM, the NYPD began massing around Zuccotti Park “aka Liberty Park.” In the following hours reports surfaced that the NYPD entered the park with police in riot gear backed up by numerous police vehicles, including a bulldozer, evicting occupiers. In the process they destroyed property and arrested dozens of occupiers and protestors including NYC Councilmember Ydanis Rodriguez and District Leader Paul Newell.
In the coming hours, days and weeks the LPLWG will pursue all legal options to enable the occupiers to continue to exercise their first amendment rights to speech and assembly for speech. Attorney Yetta Kurland, one of the attorneys from the LPLWG, said, “This is a victory for everyone who believes in the First Amendment. We will continue to fight for everyone’s right to continue the occupation.” In response to the injunction, Daniel Alterman, also an attorney with the LPLWG, stated that, “This is a victory for all Americans, for the constitution and for the 99%.” Gideon Oliver, another attorney with the LPLWG reacted by saying, “The LPLWG has been fighting to ensure their right to free speech from day one of the occupation. The occupiers right to free speech is based in our most core legal principles and we will be here till the end to fight for those rights.”
The order is available for download here.
The Liberty Park Legal Working Group is a group of volunteer attorneys and legal workers dedicated to defending the rights of those engaged in constitutionally-protected assembly or protest.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 14, 2010
10:16 AMCONTACT: National Lawyers Guild
Walter Riley 510-451-1422 end_of_the_skype_highlighting,
Carlos Villarreal 415-377-6961 end_of_the_skype_highlightingOPD, Law Enforcement Used Excessive Force at Oscar Grant Protest
NLG Decries Police Tactics, Assualts on Peaceful Protesters
Press Conference Wednesday, July 14, 12 Noon, 14th and Broadway in Oakland
OAKLAND, CA - July 14 - Despite claims by Oakland Police (OPD) and city officials that law enforcement used restraint during last Thursday’s protests following the Johannes Mehserle verdict, details emerging paint a very different picture. Police used excessive force against a largely peaceful protest, violently attacking a number of people. Police arrested many demonstrators who had done nothing wrong, and then held them in jail through the night and in some cases through the weekend and beyond.
There will be a press conference at noon on Wednesday, July 14 at 14th and Broadway in Oakland with Walter Riley, Susan Harman, and others.
Among those arrested were NLGSF member, and prominent Oakland attorney, Walter Riley. “Thursday’s law enforcement conduct must be investigated. The police were provocative and seemed determined to instigate violence, which of course, served their police contract negotiations with Oakland at a time when they are facing layoffs of 80 officers,” said Riley. ”In the organized rally where protesters, including me, were helping to ensure peaceful protest, the police helped to perpetuate a narrative of violence by allowing a small number of people to vandalize businesses when they could have stopped it.”
Also arrested were Oakland School Board member Jumoke Hinton Hodge, 69-year-old former school principal Susan Harman, journalists and legal observers. Many of the arrestees were seriously injured by the police, including a handful who were taken to the hospital from the scene and at least one individual who was denied medication, causing a potentially life threatening situation to an elderly member of the community.
“Last Thursday a court in Los Angeles sent a disgraceful message about police violence, and that message was reinforced by the conduct of Oakland Police and other law enforcement Thursday evening,” said Carlos Villarreal, NLGSF Executive Director. ”OPD and outside agencies brought in as reinforcement used overwhelming force on a largely nonviolent assembly, sweeping up lawyers, legal observers, journalists and community members, and seriously injuring a number of individuals.”
Several years ago the National Lawyers Guild and ACLU obtained a $2 million settlement in a lawsuit over OPD brutality toward demonstrators, and at that time OPD adopted new crowd control policies designed to safeguard freedom of speech in just this sort of volatile situation.
“If OPD had followed its own crowd control policies, the injuries would have been avoided,” explained NLGSF attorney Rachel Lederman. ”The aggressive use of police formations, baton beatings and indiscriminate arrests were unnecessary and violated people’s constitutional right to protest. To make things even worse, OPD violated state law by jailing people for long periods of time who had been arrested for very minor offenses.”
The National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (NLGSF) condemns the police abuse by OPD and other law enforcement on the scene and is investigating possible legal action. The NLGSF is a human rights bar association founded in 1937 with hundreds of members throughout the Bay Area. Find out more at www.nlgsf.org.
###National Lawyers Guild Links:
via commondreams.org
Susan Harman speaks at the press conference re: Oakland police excessive force Anne Weills, civil rights attorney and NLG legal observer Rachel Lederman, attorney, on past litigation re: City of Oakland “crowd control” policy More from attorney and arrestee Walter Riley
Walter Riley, Esq. speaking at NLG Press Conference at Broadway & 14th Street, Oakland, CA, on June 14, 2010
Photo by Jonathan Nack
Police Accused of Using Illegal Tactics at Oakland ProtestPolice Accused of Using Illegal Tactics at Oakland ProtestBy Jonathan Nack
June 15, 2010OAKLAND, CA – Lawyers and activists decried police tactics used by the Oakland Police Department (OPD) and other law enforcement during protests in downtown Oakland last Thursday, July 8, 2010,. The protests were in response to the verdict of Involuntary Manslaughter in the trial of Officer Johannes Mehserle for the killing of Oscar Grant, which was announced that day.
At a press conference held yesterday which was called by the National Lawyers Guild (NLG), at 14th Street and Broadway in Oakland, the same corner that was the site of a mass speak-out protest last Thursday, police actions were slammed. http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2010/07/14
Speakers charged police with using excessive force including violently attacking people who were nonviolent; arresting many demonstrators who did nothing wrong; holding people in jail who were arrested for minor offenses; deliberately provoking protesters; failing to protect small businesses; and violating a court ordered crowd control policy, as well as state and federal laws.
“What we’ve found from our investigation so far is that there was police misconduct,” summarized Walter Riley, a well known Oakland-based civil rights attorney. “Police were overly aggressive, they were violent… We intend to investigate to get more details about the police procedure that was in place that night… We want to see some hearings,” said Riley.
“Police made a number of attempts to provoke a confrontation,” charged Riley. “They could have stopped some of the things that occurred, but didn’t”, he said. He added that police allowed a small number of people to vandalize businesses to perpetuate what he called, “a narrative of violence.”
Riley described how he himself was arrested and choked by a police officer while trying to clear the area following OPD’s declaration of an unlawful assembly.
“I was arrested right at my front door Thursday night… I was moving out of the street and urging others to,” said Riley. He described how he was using his key card to the secure office building where his law office is located at the time he was arrested.
Riley said that he tried to explain to an officer that he was an attorney going to his own office, but was subsequently choked by an unidentified police officer. “I don’t appreciate being choked,” said Riley bitterly.
“I was here in the crowd as part of the protest, because the murder of Oscar Grant is a murder that requires justice… The National Lawyers Guild had members out here that night, working with other citizens of this community, to insure that people had the right to peaceful protest,” explained Riley.
“It’s important for those who want to play a leadership role to be there on the streets, “ emphasized Riley.
Susan Harman, a 69 year old retired teacher and principal, said she was at the protest to help protect protesters from police attack. She described how she joined with others who nonviolently positioned themselves between police and protesters and linked arms.
“I was hit on the head by a police baton.. I’m wearing the shirt today that is stained with my own blood,” said Harman. She told how her arms were wrenched behind her back when she was arrested and how she was kept overnight in a crowded cell in which the toilet wasn’t working.
“It’s frightening that this happened in a country that is using security to justify repression,” said Harman.
Under a court ordered crowd control policy, OPD officers, “are never allowed to hit someone on the head,” who is protesting nonviolently, said Rachel Lederman, a San Francisco-based attorney who represented plaintiffs that sued the City of Oakland over OPD’s shooting of nonviolent demonstrators and workers at the Port of Oakland during an anti-war protest in 2003.
The City settled that suit for $2 million dollars. As part of the deal, the judge issued a Settlement Order which requires OPD to adopt a specific Crowd Control Policy, according to Lederman.
“We’re very disappointed that the Court ordered policy was thrown out the window and that state laws and the U. S. Constitution were violated,” said Lederman.
Among the violations Lederman cited was the failure to provide adequate time for protesters to clear the area, and the holding protesters overnight who were arrested for minor offenses. “People were held for up to 20 hours,” described Lederman. She said that the NLG was considering legal action.
“The abusive and provocative actions of the police were just shameful, “ said Rachel Jackson, of the Coalition for Justice for Oscar Grant. “Shame on the officers,” she scolded.
“The speak-out was a beautiful event that was multi-racial and multi-generational… Somehow our event was lost,” in the media coverage of the police action, lamented Jackson.
The police, “deliberately put small businesses in harms way,” Jackson told this reporter following the press conference. She claimed that police first provoked protesters and then didn’t protect businesses which were attacked.
Anne Weills, another Oakland-based attorney who was a NLG Legal Observer at the protest, described the police actions as “surreal”and and that they, “created an armed camp downtown.” “The police were so angry,” said Weills.
“Who is running this city? OPD, the police union, or the people of Oakland,” asked Weills.
Carlos Villarreal, Executive Director of the NLG, said that the purpose of the press conference was to present, “a different a picture of the reality on the ground.” There is little doubt that it was also a warning of impending law suits.
* * *
More information about justice for Oscar Grant is at:
http://www.oaklandforjustice.org
