Police State & Prisons News

White-supremacist and other fascist groups have repeatedly targeted the Bay Area in recent months. Now they are back for a weekend of provocations on Saturday, August 26 in San Francisco and Sunday, August 27 in Berkeley. Pro-Trump group "Patriot Prayer" is having a "Freedom" rally at Crissy Field in SF. Their events in Portland and Seattle attracted neo-Nazis, white supremacists, militia groups, and "Alt-Right" trolls. The following day, white supremacists, Alt-Right activists and neo-Nazis are holding a “No to Marxism in America” rally at Martin Luther King Park in Berkeley. As with Boston, local organizers are calling for people to come together by the thousands to say: We will not allow your hate in the Bay.

Called by prisoners to give voice to their demand to remove the slavery clause from the 13th Amendment, thousands turned out in as many as 16 cities on August 19 to abolish slavery and end mass incarceration. At the main march in Washington, D.C., a speaker from Leonard Pelitier's support committee read Leonard's statement of solidarity with Mumia Abu-Jamal. In San José, about 200 people marched to the county jail for a rally with powerful speakers who saluted the prisoners and inspired the crowd.

Federal prosecutors say DisruptJ20.org was used to plan a violent anti-Trump riot on Inauguration Day in Washington, D.C. Initially, the Department of Justice (DoJ) demanded that the site’s web host, DreamHost, turn over extensive data including 1.3 million IP addresses. After DreamHost and activist organizations complained that the warrant was an abuse of government authority, the DoJ narrowed the scope of the warrant on August 21, dropping IP addresses but still seeking information on private groups that organized via the website. In preparation for the trial of more than 100 demonstrators in October, the government is trying to prove protesters premeditated violent demonstrations.

On the night of August 14, the official Twitter account of the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office retweeted a video of a press conference organized by Richard Spencer, the icon of the white supremacist “alt-right” movement. The retweet dubbed the press conference with a “Unite the Right” hashtag — the same slogan that white supremacist groups used to mobilize people to Charlottesville, VA, which resulted in the tragic murder of an anti-racist demonstrator by a white supremacist. A protest was held at the Sheriff’s Office in Oakland on August 16. Community members condemned not just the retweet, but the ongoing racism and violence of the Sheriff’s Office.

Eric Clanton writes: I’m currently facing years of prison time as the result of accusations made in the most shockingly hateful parts of the internet. On April 19, I began being targeted by a dedicated swarm of internet trolls known for spewing racism, xenophobia, and misogyny onto the web. Suddenly a hit piece by Milo Yiannopolis caused the targeting to go viral. Several old social media photos were posted, online accounts hacked, addresses published, hundred of calls to my employers, and countless threats of physical violence made against me, my coworkers, friends and many others. This harassment campaign is where the accusations against me originated.

The Workhouse medium security prison in north St Louis City is notorious for it’s filth, cockroach and rodent infestations, black mold, antagonism by the guards, and deep ineptitude of those who operate it. To highlight the inexcusable conditions, a noise demo was called for the evening of July 21. Around 300 people gathered outside the Workhouse to demand immediate relief for those suffering inside. The front line of the demo turned it’s energy on the fence itself, shaking the outer fence and eventually removing some of the clasps that adhere the fence to the fence poles. Protests continued through the following day. People were pepper sprayed by police and arrested.

On June 20, over 500 advocates and Berkeley residents, including former mayor of Berkeley Gus Newport, packed the Berkeley City Council chamber to show support for withdrawing the city from the controversial and highly militarized Urban Shield SWAT training and weapons expo. Berkeley police officers violently cracked down on community members opposed to Berkeley’s participation in Urban Shield at a special hearing of the city council. Two people were arrested, and multiple people were injured. Two days later, the City of Berkeley decided to uphold the largely contested vote by the Mayor and City Council on the city's participation in the controversial Urban Shield program.

This timeline mapping state violence in Stockton, CA was collectively generated as part of a larger ongoing convivial research effort to expose low intensity war across the Bay Area and state. The timeline was produced through a collaboration between the Center for Convivial Research and Autonomy (CCRA) and the efforts of families and grassroots groups in Stockton and beyond. It is a tool that remembers, counts, mourns and honors our dead. The timeline is a collaborative effort of documentation over time that makes visible the many resistances that have refused erasure.

Northern California Anti-Racist Action writes: On May 24, the Berkeley Police Department arrested Eric Clanton in Oakland regarding alleged assaults that occurred during an April 15 confrontation in Berkeley between antifascists and a coalition of far-right groups. In weeks preceding Clanton’s arrest, members of 4chan’s politics forum called /pol/, the alt-right and all around disgusting and hate-filled internet message board, had been collecting what they considered to be evidence in the case. Threads about Eric Clanton’s alleged behavior could be seen wedged between other discussions such as anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jewish world domination and the biological inferiority of people of color.

On May 5, someone presenting themselves as federal informant Andrew Clark Darst tried again to establish communication with organizers he informed against in the lead-up to the 2008 Republican National Convention in St. Paul, MN. Most of the RNC 8 write: We are bewildered, dismayed and angered by the bizarre entitlement of the email. The author, apparently the same person who spent a full year lying to people to gain their trust, all the while sharing all the information he gathered with the FBI, dares to ask us for privacy. He points out that our shining a light on his actions may damage his career options.