SF - June 11th Grand jury teach-in

Stop Grand Juries!

Please join us on June 11th for a community grand
jury teach-in. Grand juries are tools of
government harassment that have long been used to
intimidate and destroy radical movements. There
is an active grand jury convened in the Bay Area.
Several people have been subpoenaed and are
scheduled to appear before the grand jury on June
12th. They need your support! Come out and learn
what grand juries are and how they operate, what
your rights are, and how you can support grand jury resisters.

This forum highlighting grand juries as tools of
government repression is being organized as part
of the June 11th International Day of Solidarity
with Eric McDavid and Marie Mason
http://www.june11.org/.
Eric and Marie are political prisoners who have
the misfortune of serving the longest standing
sentences of any environmental prisoners in the
United States. This event is free but we will be
accepting donations for Eric and Marie's support funds.

Monday, June 11, 2012
7:00 - 9:00pm
The Eric Quezada Center for Culture & Politics
518 Valencia Street, San Francisco
http://www.518valencia.org
This event is wheel chair accessible.

The Outer Limits of Solitary Confinement: A Public Forum to Support the California Prisoner Hunger Strike

Saturday, March 24, 2012

Release Date: March 24, 2012
Contact: Marina Drummer
International Coalition to Free the Angola Three
Marina@communityfuturescollective.org
(707) 486-6806
www.angola3.org
www.angola3news.com

The Outer Limits of Solitary Confinement:
A Public Forum to Support the California Prisoner Hunger Strike

Friday, April 6, 2012, 6pm - 8pm

UC Hastings College of the Law

Louis B. Mayer Lounge

198 McAllister Street

San Francisco

(San Francisco) --This free San Francisco event organized by the International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 will mark 40 years of solitary confinement for Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3, by exploring the expansion and overuse of solitary confinement, and mobilizing support for the Amnesty International Petition to remove them from solitary confinement and support for the California Hunger Strikers. Includes Keynote with Angola 3’s Robert H. King, 2 films and additional speakers.

The International Coalition to Free the Angola Three is presenting a free public forum and film screening entitled “The Outer Limits of Solitary Confinement,” at UC Hastings College of the Law, Louis B. Mayer Lounge, 198 McAllister Street, San Francisco, on Friday, April 6, 2012, from 6pm - 8pm, and co-hosted by the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal and the Hastings chapter of the National Lawyers Guild.

The International Coalition to Free the Angola 3 stands in solidarity with the courageous prisoners that recently initiated hunger strikes throughout California prisons. The event will examine how the torture and wrongful convictions of the Angola 3 are part of a much larger problem throughout US prisons. With presentations from several speakers involved with supporting the hunger strikers, the audience will be presented with many ways in which they too can lend their support in the fight against solitary confinement and other forms of torture in California prisons.

The keynote speaker will be Robert H. King, of the Angola 3, who was released in 2001 when his conviction was overturned, after 29 years of continuous solitary confinement. King says today that “being in prison, in solitary was terrible. It was a nightmare. My soul still cries from all that I witnessed and endured. It does more than cry- it mourns, continuously.”

Since his release, Robert H. King has worked tirelessly to support the other two members of the Angola 3, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox, who have been in solitary confinement since April 17, 1972. This coming April 17, which marks the 40^th anniversary of their solitary confinement, King will be joined by Amnesty International and other supporters at the Louisiana State Capitol in Baton Rouge to present Amnesty International’s petition to Governor Bobby Jindal demanding that Wallace and Woodfox be immediately released from solitary confinement. Read more about Amnesty International’s Angola 3 campaign, here.

At the UC Hastings event, King will talk about the Amnesty International petition demanding transfer from solitary and the broader struggle to release Wallace and Woodfox from prison altogether. Interviewed in a recent video by Amnesty International, King says about Wallace and Woodfox: “All evidence shows that they were targeted simply for being members of the Black Panther Party. There is really no evidence, forensic, physical, or otherwise, linking them to the crime. When I think about the ten years in which I’ve had time to be out here, that is ten more years that they are there.”

In their investigative report, Amnesty International similarly concluded that “no physical evidence links Woodfox and Wallace to the murder.” Even further: “potentially favorable DNA evidence was lost. The convictions were based on questionable inmate testimony…it seems prison officials bribed the main eyewitness into giving statements against the men. Even the widow of the prison guard has expressed skepticism, saying in 2008, ‘If they did not do this – and I believe that they didn’t – they have been living a nightmare for 36 years!’”

(Photo of the Angola 3. From left to right: Herman Wallace, Robert H. King, and Albert Woodfox.)

Additional speakers will include:

· Hans Bennett, Independent journalist and co-founder of Journalists for Mumia

· Terry Kupers, Institute Professor at The Wright Institute in Berkeley, California

· Manuel La Fontaine, Northern California Regional Organizer for All of Us or None

· Aaron Mirmalek, Leonard Peltier Defense Offense Committee Oakland

· Kiilu Nyasha, Independent journalist and former member of the Black Panther Party

· Tahtanerriah Sessoms-Howell, Youth Organizer for All of Us Or None

· Luis “Bato” Talamantez, California Prison Focus and one of the San Quentin 6

· Azadeh Zohrabi, Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal

· And more (Full speaker bios below).

In addition, two short films will be featured: The Gray Box: A Multimedia Investigation, by Susan Greene, The Dart Society, and Cruel and Unusual Punishment, by Claire Schoen, for the AFSC Stopmax Campaign.

Event notes: Hastings is on the corner of Hyde and McAllister, two blocks from the Civic Center BART station. The Hyde Street side entrance is wheelchair accessible. Refreshments will be served and signed books will be for sale. This event is free and open to the public. Donations for prisoner support will be gratefully accepted.

Watch the trailer here.

a FORTY YEAR HistorY OF REPRESSION:

On April 17, 1972, Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox of the Angola 3 were placed in solitary confinement at Angola Prison in Louisiana. Wallace and Woodfox were subsequently railroaded and convicted for the murder of a prison guard, and remain in solitary to this day. They were framed COINTELPRO-style, in retaliation for co-founding a Black Panther chapter at Angola that initiated multiracial work and hunger strikes.

Currently held inside California’s notorious Pelican Bay State Prison, Hugo “Yogi Bear” Pinell, of the San Quentin Six, has now been in continuous solitary for at least 42 years. A participant in the recent statewide prisoner hunger strike, Pinell was a close comrade of Black Panther and prison author, George Jackson. Having been continually denied parole despite a clean record for the last 27 years, Pinell is, in the words of the Angola 3’s own Robert H. King, “a clear example of a political prisoner." His next parole hearing is scheduled for this May.

The stories of the Angola 3 and Hugo Pinell are the most extreme examples of a widespread human rights crisis in US prisons, where prolonged solitary confinement has become routine. According to www.solitarywatch.com, there are “at least 75,000 and perhaps more than 100,000 prisoners in solitary confinement on any given day” in the US.

On March 20, several human rights organizations jointly filed a petition to the United Nations Group on Arbitrary Detention, the United Nations Human Rights Council, and United Nations General Assembly on behalf of prisoners throughout California’s Security Housing Units (SHU) and Administrative Segregation Units (ASU). The petition calls for UN action against California’s prison administration and deplores the conditions of thousands of California prisoners, “being detained in isolated segregated units for indefinite periods or determinate periods of many years solely because they have been identified as members of gangs or found to have associated with a gang.”

The petition states further that “as a result of the policies and practices that leave California with the largest population of prisoners in isolated segregation anywhere in the world, these prisoners suffer extreme mental and physical harm, including mental breakdowns, extreme depression, suicidal ideation, and breaks with reality, such that their treatment may be considered torture or degrading treatment illegal under well-established international norms and obligations of the United States and the State of California under, inter alia, the United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (‘CAT’) and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (‘ICCPR’).”

Fueled by the racist “War On Drugs,” and the broader criminalization of poverty, the US prison population has exploded from less than 300,000 prisoners in 1970 to over 2.4 million today. This 40-year policy of mass incarceration has turned the US into literally the world’s #1jailer—with the world’s highest incarceration rate and total number of prisoners.

Feb. 20 "Occupy San Quentin" protest. Photo by Alex Darocy, Indybay.org

Position Statement:

We declare that this human rights atrocity known as the “criminal justice system” has now reached its outer limits. This cannot continue! It is becoming increasingly clear to the public that prolonged solitary confinement is nothing other than state torture.

The recent collaboration of prison activists and Occupy Wall Street, Occupy 4 Prisoners, marks a renewed linking of economic justice activism to a critique of mass incarceration and the criminalization of poverty. As Robert H. King said in his message to Occupy 4 Prisoners, “the same people who make the laws that favor the bankers, make the laws that fill our prisons and detention centers. We have to continue to make the connection between Wall St. and the prison industrial complex.” The upcoming "Occupy the Justice Department” action in Washington DC on April 24 is calling for the release of Mumia Abu-Jamal and all political prisoners.

The strength of the 99% is in our numbers. Our only hope is to unite against the 1%. A newly-formed multiracial coalition of hunger strikers throughout California’s prisons (most recently at Corcoran State) has demanded an end to prolonged solitary confinement and many other inhumane policies. These freedom fighters are on the frontlines of the struggle and they badly need our support. Our event is being held to give voice to their struggle and to present the audience with opportunities to show their support.

FEATURED SPEAKERS BIOS:

ROBERT H. KING (Keynote Speaker)-- A member of the Angola 3, released in 2001 after 29 years of continuous solitary confinement. Since his release, he has worked tirelessly in support of Herman Wallace and Albert Woodfox. In 2008, King released his award-winning autobiography, entitled From the Bottom of the Heap: The Autobiography of Robert Hillary King (PM Press). His website is www.kingsfreelines.com.

HANS BENNETT-- A prison abolitionist, independent multi-media journalist and co-founder of Journalists for Mumia Abu-Jamal (www.abu-jamal-news.com), Bennett has written for several publications including Alternet, Truthout, Z Magazine, Black Commentator, ColorLines, Poor Magazine, SF Bay View Newspaper, Slingshot and Indymedia.

TERRY KUPERS-- An Institute Professor at The Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. Dr. Kupers’ forensic psychiatry experience includes testimony in several large class action litigations concerning jail and prison conditions, sexual abuse, and the quality of mental health services inside correctional facilities. He is a consultant to Human Rights Watch, and author of the 1999 book entitled Prison Madness: The Mental Health Crisis Behind Bars and What We Must Do About It.

MANUEL LA FONTAINE-- The Northern California Regional Organizer, All of Us or None. As a former street organizer (also known as a gang member), a formerly-incarcerated person, and a college graduate, Manuel brings street savvy, along with scholastic aptitude, and incorporates them into his work life to better assist those without voices.

AARON MIRMALEK-- The founder of the Oakland chapter of the Leonard Peltier DefenseOffense Committee, started in honor of his cousin Leonard Peltier. Born in Oakland, he is a longtime community organizer. In 2010, Aaron was the Executive Producer of "Free Leonard Peltier: Hip Hop's Contribution to the Freedom Campaign." In 2011, he was the Executive Producer and Co-Host of "Free Peltier Free Em All!" DVD with Chairman Fred Hampton Jr. For more information: www.FreeLeonardAlbum.com.

KIILU NYASHA-- A San Francisco-based journalist and former member of the Black Panther Party. Through the end of 2009, Kiilu hosted a weekly TV program, "Freedom Is A Constant Struggle,” on SF Live. She writes for many publications, including the SF Bay View Newspaper and Black Commentator. Also an accomplished radio programmer, she has worked for KPFA (Berkeley), SF Liberation Radio, Free Radio Berkeley, and KPOO in SF. Her website is www.kiilunyasha.blogspot.com.

TAHTANERRIAH SESSOMS-HOWELL-- Youth Organizer, All of Us Or None. Sessoms-Howell is a native of Berkeley, California. When she was arrested at the age of 15 she got her first glimpse into the cruel world of “rehabilitation.” While in jail and on probation, Sessoms-Howell found out very fast that there is no such thing as a fair justice system. She now works to inform the youth of their rights and keep connections between youth and their elders strong. As Youth Organizer for AOUON, her job is to help, by any means, ensure the safety and rights of future generations to come.

LUIS “BATO” TALAMANTEZ—One of the San Quentin 6, Talamantez also works with California Prison Focus, and is a long time Bay Area activist and organizer.

AZADEH ZOHRABI-- Co-Editor-in-Chief of the UC Hastings Race and Poverty Law Journal, Zohrabi is a third year law student at UC Hastings. Her family's experience with incarceration is what motivated her to become an attorney and an advocate for people in prison. Most recently, she has worked to advocate on behalf of prisoners in the Security Housing Units as a member of the Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity Coalition and the mediation team for the prisoners.

View/Download April 6 Event Flyer Below:

MORE SF BAY AREA EVENTS WITH ROBERT H. KING:

--Let Us Not Forget: Honor Fallen Comrades and Political Prisoners, Saturday, April 7, 1:00pm, West Oakland Library, 1801 Adeline Street. For more information: www.itsabouttimebpp.com, (916) 455-0908.

--Oakland International Film Festival, Sunday, April 8, 3:00pm, Oakland Museum, 1000 Oak Street, at 10th Street. King will be speaking in conjunction with a screening of the new British documentary about the Angola 3, entitled “In The Land of the Free…” For more information: www.oiff.org.

SF - Sun 1/29 - New David Gilbert Book Launch - Love and Struggle

Join us for a Book Launch & Celebration of

Love and Struggle: My Life in SDS, the Weather Underground, and Beyond
By David Gilbert

"Gilbert adds heart and bone to the stuff of history." - Mumia Abu Jamal

January 29th, 4-6pm
518 Valencia

this event is free and wheelchair accessible

with readers/panelists:

Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, historian and author of Outlaw Woman and Red Dirt
Terry Bisson, editor of Love and Struggle
Molly McClure, anti-racist organizer with Catalyst Project
Sanyika Bryant, organizer with Malcolm X
Grassroots Movement and Causa Justa::Just Cause
moderated by Claude Marks, Freedom Archives

About the Book (available now from PM Press and at the event)

A nice Jewish boy from suburban Boston—hell, an Eagle Scout!—David Gilbert arrived at Columbia University just in time for the explosive Sixties. From the early anti-Vietnam War protests to the founding of SDS, from the Columbia Strike to the tragedy of the Townhouse, Gilbert was on the scene: as organizer, theoretician, and above all, activist. He was among the first militants who went underground to build the clandestine resistance to war and racism known as “Weatherman.” And he was among the last to emerge, in captivity, after the disaster of the 1981 Brinks robbery, an attempted expropriation that resulted in four deaths and long prison terms. In this extraordinary memoir, written from the maximum-security prison where he has lived for almost thirty years, David Gilbert tells the intensely personal story of his own Long March from liberal to radical to revolutionary.

Today a beloved and admired mentor to a new generation of activists, he assesses with rare humor, with an understanding stripped of illusions, and with uncommon candor the errors and advances, terrors and triumphs of the Sixties and beyond. It’s a battle that was far from won, but is still not lost: the struggle to build a new world, and the love that drives that effort. A cautionary tale and a how-to as well, Love and Struggle is a book as candid, as uncompromising, and as humane as its author.

Praise:

"Gilbert adds heart and bone to the stuff of history." —Mumia Abu Jamal

"Required reading for anyone interested in the history of radical movements in this country. An honest, vivid portrait of a life spent passionately fighting for justice. In telling his story, Gilbert also reveals the history of left struggles in the 1960s and 70s, and imparts important lessons for today's activists." —Jordan Flaherty, author of Floodlines: Community and Resistance from Katrina to the Jena Six

“David’s is a unique and necessary voice forged in the growing American gulag, the underbelly of the 'land of the free,' offering a focused and unassailable critique as well as a vision of a world that could be but is not yet—a place of peace and love, joy and justice.” —Bill Ayers, author of Fugitive Days and Teaching Toward Freedom

“Like many of his contemporaries, David Gilbert gambled his life on a vision of a more just and generous world. His particular bet cost him the last three decades in prison, and whether or not you agree with his youthful decision, you can be the beneficiary of his years of deep thought, reflection, and analysis on the reality we all share. If there is any benefit to prison, what some refer to as ‘the involuntary monastery,’ it may well look like this book. I urge you to read it.” —Peter Coyote, actor, author of Sleeping Where I Fall

"This book should stimulate learning from our political prisoners, but more importantly it challenges us to work to free them, and in doing so take the best of our history forward." —Susan Rosenberg, author of An American Radical

About the Author:

One of America’s most celebrated political prisoners since his appearance in the Academy Award nominated film, The Weather Underground, David Gilbert is also the author of No Surrender, a book of essays on politics and history. He can be reached at NY’s Auburn Correctional Facility as 83-A-6158.

About Boots Riley (foreword):

A popular leader in the progressive struggle for radical change through culture, Boots Riley is best known as the leader of The Coup, the seminal hip-hop group from Oakland, CA. Billboard Magazine declared the group "the best hip-hop act of the past decade." Riley recently teamed with Tom Morello (of Rage Against the Machine) to form the revolutionary new group, Street Sweeper Social Club.

Product Details:

Author: David Gilbert
Foreword by Boots Riley
Publisher: PM Press
ISBN: 978-1-60486-319-2
Published: January 2012
Format: Paperback
Size: 9 by 6
Page count: 352 Pages
Subjects: Autobiography, Politics-Activism

43 years later, a guilty plea to shooting at South City police

Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth

Nov. 22, 2011 By: Ari Burack | SF Examiner Staff Writer

A 67-year-old man who fled before he could be sentenced more than four decades ago for shooting at South San Francisco police finally admitted to the crime in court Tuesday morning.

Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth re-entered a guilty plea in San Mateo County Superior Court to one count of assault with a firearm on a police officer, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

Under 1969 sentencing guidelines, Bridgeforth could face between one and 15 years in prison, according to Wagstaffe. Prosecutors have not yet decided what penalty they will seek.

“In our book there is a presumption that prison is where that person belongs, but we’ll keep an open mind until we see the pre-sentence report,” Wagstaffe said.

Bridgeforth, who turned himself in two weeks ago, admitted to firing at officers outside a South San Francisco department store. He and two other men had tried to use false credit cards to buy toys and clothes for youth the group had been organizing in San Francisco’s Fillmore district during the civil rights movement, according to his attorney Paul Harris.

Harris has said his client wanted to correct a one-time “aberration” in his life and be a positive example for his sons.

No officers were hit, and Bridgeforth was arrested trying to escape. But before Bridgeforth could be sentenced in 1969, he disappeared.

According to Harris, Bridgeforth had recently been teaching at a community college in Michigan under an assumed name.

A separate charge against Bridgeforth, for his alleged involvement in the 1971 fatal shooting of a San Francisco police sergeant, was dismissed after Bridgeforth turned himself in on the South San Francisco case.

Bridgeforth is out of custody after posting $25,000 bail. Sentencing is scheduled for Feb. 3.

Support Bail for Ronald Bridgeforth

From: "Paul Harris"

dear friends:

My name is Paul Harris, i teach "guerrilla lawyering" at two law
schools in san francisco. http://www.guerrillalaw.com

I am writing on behalf of my client Ronald Bridgeforth, who after 42
years as a fugitive surrendered in court today. We are trying to
raise the bail of ten percent of $25,000. These are the facts:
Ronald, who is 67 years old, married and has two young adult sons,
was charged with the murder of a police officer and conspiracy to
murder law enforcement. That case has been referred to as the San
Francisco 8. The Attorney General's office informed me last night
that they "were not going to proceed against him in that case and
would discharge the warrant for his arrest."

However, Ronald is guilty of a l968 charge of assualt on a police man
with a deadly weapon, when he and two others tried to leave a parking
lot after a failed attempt to use stolen credit cards to buy clothes
and toys for the kids they were working with in the Fillmore district
of S.F. A police car blocked their way and Ronald shot two bullets
into the car, and then was shot by police in the foot. He was the
only one injured. Told by his appointed attorney that he would serve
life in prison, he jumped bail. He has come back of his own accord
to plead guilty and faces, according to the district attorney, five
years to life under the l969 indeterminate sentencing law.

Ronald at 20 years old left college to go to Mississippi where he
registered voters for over a year, where he was chased by a mob,
threatened with death, and briefly arrested by Mississippi police
when he went to the station to pay a ticket. He went to S.F. where
he organized for SNCC, bringing Fanie Lou Hamer to the bay area to
speak, and acting as Stokley Carmichael's bodyguard when Stokley
spoke to various colleges and organizations here in the bay area.

In the last 40 years he worked his way up from a custodian to getting
a Masters degree in Counseling. He has been a respected and beloved
counselor and teacher at a community college in Michigan for many years.

Why did he return? Because he wanted to be a father his sons could
continue to be proud of, he wanted to be a model of the man he has
become, not the young reckless man he was on Nov. 5, l968.

Ronald is a dignified, eloquent, spiritual man. He has arthritis in
both hips, and other medical conditions which makes every day in jail
difficult. Any help you can give would be so greatly appreciated.

You may send checks made out to:

Paul Harris
20 Quickstep Lane, # 1
San Francisco, CA 94115.

With all the arrangements of surrendering him and making sure he was
not arrested in these last few days, I did not have time to set up a
nonprofit organization for bail donations.

This is a good man, whose life represents an arc of 50 years of
American history.

thank you, paul harris

Fugitive to surrender in decades-old case

Demian Bulwa,Laura Rena Murray, Chronicle Staff Writer

Nov. 9, 2011 San Francisco Chronicle

A 67-year-old man accused in a pair of long-ago attacks on police officers, including the 1971 slaying of a San Francisco sergeant, is poised to turn himself in this week after more than four decades in hiding, his attorney said Tuesday.

Ronald Stanley Bridgeforth - an artifact of a turbulent era and an alleged former warrior for a violent offshoot of the Black Panthers - plans to plead guilty to firing on South San Francisco officers who tried to arrest him for credit card fraud at a discount store in 1968, said his attorney, Paul Harris.

No longer a young activist and community organizer, Bridgeforth now has a wife, two grown sons, a master's degree and a pair of arthritic hips, Harris said. Last week, Bridgeforth resigned from a job teaching and counseling students at an undisclosed college.

While prepared to accept punishment, Harris said, Bridgeforth will fight more serious charges awaiting him in San Francisco.

There, he was one of eight men charged in 2007 with murdering police Sgt. John Young at Ingleside Station on Aug. 29, 1971. Young was killed when at least three men burst in, with one firing a shotgun through an opening in a bulletproof glass window.

The men, along with a ninth alleged Black Liberation Army veteran, were also charged with conspiring to kill officers over the course of several years.

Case dissolved

Bridgeforth, the alleged getaway driver, remains the subject of a murder warrant, but the landscape of the case has changed radically since the charges were filed.

State prosecutors, who took over the case from the city, never took it to trial, dismissing charges against six men while securing no-contest pleas on reduced charges from two others who were already serving life prison terms for other crimes. The last of the charges against those defendants were dropped in August.

Harris said Bridgeforth was never in the Black Liberation Army and never took part in the killing of peace officers, but was haunted by regret over the earlier South San Francisco incident.

Harris said he and his co-counsel, Jason Cueva, will surrender their client at 8:45 a.m. Thursday at San Mateo County Superior Court in Redwood City.

"He has two sons, and he wants them to be the kind of man he is now, not the kind of man who he was that one day in November 1968," said Harris, who once helped defend Black Panthers co-founder Huey Newton.

Bridgeforth was not feeling the breath of law enforcement on his neck, according to his attorney. "He did not decide to surrender because there was any breach in his security," Harris said. "In fact, most people thought he was dead."

Many investigators who have pursued Bridgeforth for years declined to comment Tuesday, while saying they had no independent confirmation he would surrender.

Lynda Gledhill, a spokeswoman for state Attorney General Kamala Harris, declined to comment on the San Francisco case.

Karen Guidotti, the chief deputy district attorney in San Mateo County, said prosecutors are putting together records from archives in preparation for Bridgeforth's potential appearance.

"We'll wait and see, won't we," Guidotti said. "It will be interesting to find out what Mr. Bridgeforth has been up to since 1969, and what possible motive he may have to surrender himself at this particular time."

Stolen credit cards

Defense attorney Harris said that in the South San Francisco incident, Bridgeforth and two other men - both of whom were later charged in the San Francisco police killing - were confronted after trying to use stolen credit cards at a White Front discount store on El Camino Real.

When a police car pulled up and blocked the getaway car, Harris said, Bridgeforth - who was 24 - jumped out of the backseat and opened fire. He struck the squad car but not the officers, who returned fire and wounded Bridgeforth in the foot before arresting him.

Guidotti said records show that Bridgeforth pleaded guilty to assault with a deadly weapon on March 17, 1969, but jumped bail and did not show up for sentencing less than a month later.

He was briefly detained in San Francisco in 1971, in a car with a gun, but was released before police realized he was a wanted man.

How Bridgeforth spent his years as a fugitive remained a mystery Tuesday. Harris gave a few details, saying his client initially spent a year hiding in Africa, eventually married, raised two sons, worked as a janitor before earning a master's degree, and finally landed the college job.

Echoing an argument that was made by many of the defense lawyers in the San Francisco case, Harris said, "He's lived an exemplary life."

SF8 - Celebrate a People's Victory! Oct. 22nd

We (SF8 Committee) are very pleased to announce a celebration of our
people's victory in the case of the San Francisco 8. The last of six
defendants to have charges dropped was Francisco Torres (Cisco)
bringing to an end a nearly 5-year struggle for their
liberation. While we were not able to free Jalil Muntaqim (Anthony
Bottom) and Herman Bell already incarcerated for nearly 4 decades in
NY prisons, we succeeded in getting 6 elders out of county jail early
on, and ultimately prevented them from being railroaded into the
prison system for the rest of their lives. We're especially glad
that this event coincides with the 45th Anniversary of the Black
Panther Party since most of the brothers were members. See the
Panther website for further details on events taking place between
October 21 - 23 at http://www.itsabouttimebpp.org/.

It's not often we get to win one, so join us to meet and congratulate
our brothers - all will be present:

Saturday, Oct. 22, 7pm
African American Arts & Culture Center
762 Fulton St (at Webster) San Francisco

Poetry, Music, Dancing, Food!
Performers include: Music by Brass Liberation Orchestra,
Troublemakers Union (band), Kaylah Marin (singer), Ras Ceylon
(DJ). Poetry by devorah major and Maisha Quint. For more info, go
to http://www.freethesf8.org/.

Occupy SF Repels Police Eviction

Night of the Barricades

October 6, 2011 Bay of Rage

updated with pictures & links 9:30am

On the night of October 6th San Francisco Police attacked the Occupy SF encampment at the Federal Building on Market and Drum. After a day in which 800 people marched through downtown San Francisco in solidarity with the occupation of Wall Street in New York and elsewhere around the country, hundreds gathered at the site of the occupation. However by evening the police had administered an eviction notice to the occupiers claiming that the police would move in at midnight alongside the Department of Public Works to clear the plaza. Roughly around 10pm the police began to gather a block away from the occupation. Word circulated quickly and as both the occupiers and the police prepared roughly 150 people assembled at the occupation. After a few hours of waiting, debate, and nervous conversations within the occupation the police finally made their first move. Marching down the street, adorned with helmets and batons, the police escorted a line of Department of Public Works Vehicles. Standing between the occupiers and the living spaces that had been created since the occupations’ beginning, Department of Public Works workers were then forced to begin eradicating the space of any materials related to the occupation. The trucks were quickly filled with the same rapidity as the mood in the air began to intensify.

Almost spontaneously a large wooden pallet that the vehicles had not yet managed to collect was brought in front of one of the trucks. Immediately others began to follow bringing bodies and all material left behind in the encampment and surrounded the police and Department of Public Works vehicles. People grabbed anything they could find – garbage cans, street signs, cones and even the police’s own metal barricades to prevent the trucks from leaving as well as corner the police. While the police had tried to encircle and intimidate the occupation those there quickly used the opportunity to encircle and intimidate the police. As the SFPD closed in on the trucks standing off with what was now hundreds of people on market street and beautifully constructed barricades, they began to make way for the vehicles to leave. This created a series of small scuffles. Eventually the vehicles left and the barricades stood proudly on market street between the starry twilight of 230am and the confused fright of the SFPD.

The night was an incredibly powerful reflection of not only what is possible but the emergent potential of the Occupy movement. After the police announced that the occupation was going to be raided the occupiers began to decide what to do. The conversation was disparate, timid and unstable. This was directly caused by a few dominant voices controlling a decision making process in a situation that needed immediate attention. As the police came in this timidity, instability and disparity disappeared as all collectively participated in activity that reflected the needs of the immediate situation. No longer was the conversation dominated, but all voices flourished in the streets. People also held together and refused to be the targets of police violence. Instead people collectively resisted the attacks by the police by directly interfering with their ability to function as police by constructing barricades. Their antagonism towards the police was a direct reflection of the immediate goal of responding to a police raid. This act of self-defense was also an offensive direct action and strengthened both the solidarity amongst the participants and the potential for antagonistic expansion.

If these occupations are to both survive and continue they must be protected from the police by any means necessary.

Read the Statement from Occupy SF regarding the attempted police eviction last night

For immediate release:

Thursday, October 6, 2011

Contact: Occupy SF

Last night the SFPD issued us an unsigned, undated notice that declared we had to pack up our tents without giving us a timeline or else we would risk arrest.

They said that we could remain occupying if we pulled down our tents and complied with their other demands.

We complied with their demands by taking down our tents and beginning to clear-out the rest of our infrastructure that was allegedly in violation of City and/or State laws.

We made a call to action. Our numbers doubled within half an hour.

Occupy Oakland, along with many others, immediately responded when we announced that the cops were here to take us down. Thank you Occupy Oakland and all others!

Yet still, the police, wearing helmets and carrying batons, formed a perimeter around our goods and prevented us from saving anything while they supervised Public Works employees as they stole everything.

Occupy SF and Occupy Oakland surrounded the police cars and Public Works trucks to prevent them from leaving. There, we sang This Land is Our Land and We Will Not Be Moved.

The police stole food, water, shelter, and other necessities of life from the 99% at Occupy SF.

They kidnapped one of our friends.

Officer Pascua (#4014) said to multiple Occupiers that "[He] I can't wait to get the chance to bust your face in."

Another officer struck a woman last night. Let's hold him accountable.

We saw multiple officers with tears rolling down their cheeks. We could tell that they wanted to join us.

John Avalos, member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors now running for Mayor, came out to defend our right to assemble and act as our police liason. Please send him our thanks.

We livestreamed the entire thing.

We are still at the camp indefinitely.

Last night the police took criminal actions. They violated the Constitution. They committed theft, battery, kidnapping, etc.

We are calling on all of the 99% to mobilize ASAP. This occupation must continue to grow.

We need new donations of everything all over again.

We are the 99%. We will not be moved. We love you! We will feed you, clothe you, house you, and massage you. You can equally represent yourself in our directly democratic system.

Join us today!

Indybay Journalist Arrested at #NoFare BART Protest in Powell Street Station

by dave id Indybay.org
Monday Sep 12th, 2011

BART has repeatedly claimed that they do not allow free speech inside of the fare gates of BART stations -- and, indeed, the transit agency arrested numerous demonstrators in August for simply speaking out against their police department's violence from within BART fare gates. BART's "free speech zones" are outside of the fare gates, the agency has made plain. And so No Justice No BART and allied groups called for a "Spare the Fare" demonstration in the non-paid area of the Powell Street station. Despite the pledges of BART board members, police, and administrators that BART respects free speech, and despite the fact that protesters were not blocking fare gates but merely chanting and holding signs, BART riot police gave no official dispersal order in the Powell station and surrounded dozens of demonstrators and journalists for arrest. This reporter was specifically targeted by BART police for arrest, by officers well aware of the over two and a half years of critical reporting on BART-related issues which can be primarily found at http://www.indybay.org/oscargrant.

640_nofare_powellbartstat...
original image ( 1735x577)

[Illustrated above: Powell Street station map with protester, media, and police movements. Click to enlarge. Original source: http://bart.gov/stations/powl/map.aspx]


With their ulterior motives unspoken, BART decided to shut down over one half of the Powell Street station before the announced start of the demonstration (See "A" above). This forced a crowd of protesters, media, riot police, and passengers into the relatively small section of the station adjacent to Hallidie Plaza. With SFPD and BART riot police and DHS officers throughout the station, protesters and media largely began to congregate between the ticket machines and Hallidie Plaza as 5pm approached (See "B" above). As the numbers of protesters and media continued to grow as the protest got underway, BART riot police moved in and blocked the fare gates themselves, allowing passengers to pass through behind them at first, and then closing the gates completely (See "D" red line across fare gates). After some chanting and speaking out, a large group of demonstrators and media marched around the ticket machines one time (See "C" above), until they ran into a new line of riot police blocking their path (See "D" red line between fare gates and ticket machines).

Moments later, an officer S. Christ came from behind No Justice No BART organizer Krystof and grabbed his backpack, lifting him off of the ground, and pushing him forward a few feet. As protesters confronted Christ about the unprovoked assault, BART's riot police moved in closer towards encircling the large group of demonstrators and media assembled (See "E" with red circle above, and "D" red police line moving in).

BART's riot police then fully closed the circle from all directions and notified those kettled/trapped inside that BART police were "investigating" the entire group of protesters and media for violation of California Penal Code 369i. With this detention of dozens of people within the station, this reporter included, the demonstration was effectively over by 5:30pm. Shortly thereafter, the first official dispersal order was heard over BART's loudspeakers, that those in Powell Street station should leave or risk arrest. Those encircled were told they were not free to leave. BART pulled the metal gates across entrances and closed the station to the public for the next two hours. Those outside of the kettle were allowed to exit towards Hallidie Plaza or the Westfield shopping center

Detainee and SF Bay Guardian reporter Rebecca Bowe asked for a show of hands to see who amongst those kettled were media. At least a dozen hands went up, if not more. No one in the group had heard any dispersal order prior to being detained, not this reporter, not Rebecca Bowe, and not SF Chronicle reporter Vivian Ho. Some demonstrators protested their detainment, while both media and protesters attempted to get clarification from the BART police officers surrounding them on the justification for the detainment.

This reporter witnessed BART police deputy chief Dan Hartwig assemble a line of riot police behind him, in a straight line away from the detainees just outside of the kettle (See "F" above"). As soon as the line was in formation, Hartwig began to march rapidly through the police line encircling detainees, into the crowd, and began calling out, "Him, him, him…" as he pointed at different people within the detained group for immediate arrest. The officer closest behind Hartwig each time would grab the next "him". This reporter was the first "him," most likely first because I was right at the edge of the group facing Hartwig's police line as they approached. I was most likely chosen for arrest by Hartwig due to my over two and a half years of critical coverage of BART issues which can be primarily found at http://www.indybay.org/oscargrant (along with the reporting of numerous others). My arrest can be heard -- as the crowd objects to my arrest and that of others at the time -- and then briefly seen in Josh Wolf's video starting at 6:50.

Dan Hartwig knows this reporter quite well after two and a half years, as do many BART administrators and directors of the board. The Friday previous to this demonstration, for instance, BART board president Bob Franklin told me that he reads every report I write on Indybay.org about BART. While covering a mundane and tedious meeting of the new police oversight Citizen Review Board just three days prior to the demonstration (as the CRB debated its bylaws), the new police Auditor Mark Smith's assistant was seen reading Indybay on her smart phone. I have had regular conversations with at least three members of the BART board over the last few years. BART's PR team and several administrators know me by name. And I have had regular conversations with Dan Hartwig over the same period. Sometimes it might be humorous banter such as me asking Hartwig if he's having fun while policing a BART protest. Sometimes it might be a more serious exchange around topics such as BART's clampdown on free speech inside of BART stations. One time Hartwig told me that a demonstration inside of Embarcadero station on April 8th, 2010, was the best organized protest to date. Be it at any of the dozens of BART protests or any of the even more BART board and subcommittee meetings I have covered, Hartwig and I generally at least acknowledge each other's presence in an amicable manner. And so it was somewhat shocking that Hartwig would point me out for arrest as he did while I was just standing there with a camera in each hand and my Indybay press pass around my neck.

The arresting BART officer's name is S. Coduti. Even though I have never met him personally nor do I recall having seen him at board meetings or demonstrations, he clearly knew who I was. After roughly pulling me from the crowd and placing handcuffs too tightly around my wrists, I was escorted to the BART police substation within the Powell Street station. Almost immediately after finding a small office in which to place me, Coduti asked me if I was "Dave Id." This is obviously the nom de plume I use on Indybay, of which many at BART are well aware, and only those who know my long history of journalism at Indybay would refer to me as such.

Over two hours after I was first placed in handcuffs, BART police stood me up and replaced the metal handcuffs with the plasti-cuffs in which I was to be transported to San Francisco county jail at 850 Bryant. I could not see the officer who was behind me placing the plasti-cuffs on my wrists, but he stood out as being overly confrontational with me after I had been basically sitting under the watchful eye of officer A. Rudi who was nothing but polite to me. The new officer who I could not see at the time gave me vague orders to spread my legs. I did and then he said, "wider." I did further, and again he said, "wider," and so it went with every instruction he gave. I asked him to be specific so that the process would be easier for both of us, and he taunted me, something to the effect of that I liked to fight or argue. I tried to look back over my shoulder, but could only see his face, not his name badge. I did not recognize him. After I was told to sit down again, I did get a look at his name when he hovered over me at a later point, before I was transported. He was Emery Knudtson, one of the officers on the Fruitvale BART station platform the morning Oscar Grant was shot in the back by Johannes Mehserle. I believe I can safely presume that Knudtson was aware of who I was as well, hence the unnecessarily confrontational stance he took towards me.

Hartwig stopped by the office in which I was being held twice. We spoke for a few minutes each time. Obviously, I objected to his having specifically pointed me out for arrest, knowing full well who I was, and that there had been no dispersal order. In the first encounter, Hartwig lied and said he had not pointed me out for arrest. He added that BART police did not have to issue a dispersal order. He told me that journalists could be arrested, too, if they broke the law. I responded that he knew I had not broken the law, and that he knew I was covering the demonstration as a journalist. Hartwig told me that other journalists had been arrested as well, although at the time I assumed he was completely lying. Other's had been handcuffed, but apparently none of them were cited and all were allowed from leave Powell Street station.

I told Hartwig that he was silencing my journalistic voice, that he was denying my right to cover events as they continued to happen. Loud chants of "Let them go! Let them go!" could be heard from those outside of the station. Hartwig responded that I would be free again in a few hours and could continue reporting then. I told him that indeed I would not be deterred by his having illegally arrested me and would not stop covering wrongdoing at BART.

In my second visit from Hartwig while I was still handcuffed in the BART police substation at Powell, Hartig changed his story somewhat about the dispersal order. He claimed that there had been "several announcements" made, without saying exactly what those announcements had been or when they had supposedly been given. This newer claim mirrored what Dan Hartwig and Jim Allison told the media at a press conference BART staged at just about that same time. This reporter only ever heard one announcement, from an officer with a red bullhorn prior to the beginning of the demonstration. He announced that deliberately blocking fare gates was an arrestable offense. Again, though, no protesters blocked the gates or even came close to doing so. Fare gates were only ever blocked by BART's own police, and it was BART's decision to close the station for two hours.

As I was lined up with other arrestees who were to be sent to 850 Bryant, I could clearly see that none of the journalists with whom I had been in the kettle were present (aside from one who has posted a few reports to Indybay over the last year). I counted twenty-two arrestees at that point, and presumably there were at least a few more. Most of us were transported to 850 Bryant, eight at a time in SF Sheriff's vans, and released not long after arriving at a temporary processing area outside of the jail, once we had each been presented with our 369i citations and had our property returned. Only four arrestees were actually taken inside of the jail, three of whom had been arrested for speaking out in BART stations during the August demonstrations. I was released about 8:30pm and the last few arrestees behind me were out shortly after that. The four who were booked into the jail were out by 3am the next morning.

And so as I was physically prevented from covering and being an eye-witness to further arrests and events at Powell Street station after I had been snatched by Coduti, the photos and story told here cannot directly go beyond this reporter's arrest. Reports of BART police handcuffing other journalists, and misleading SFPD into taking their SFPD press passes by telling SFPD that the journalists had violated the law, can be found through other sources such as http://lafiga.firedoglake.com/2011/09/08/bart-police-arrest-journalists-cite-kgo-ktvu-at-bart-protest-homeland-security-present/.

It is notable that during the BART press conference (to be rhetorically deconstructed on Indybay at a later time), staged while I they knew I was in handcuffs in the police substation, BART began referring to "legitimate" reporters, and Jim Allison as recently as today made a reference to reporters with "agendas" to SF State Journalism professor Justin Beck. As BART has run roughshod over the free speech rights of protesters of late, it has now done the same with journalists to varying degrees. Our U.S. Constitution, along with related U.S. and California law, offers strong journalistic protections, yet BART does not seem to understand that it is not within their authority to sort out "good" and "bad" journalists, nor to attack protesters without warning, simply for expressing views critical of the agency.

To begin to seek redress for my wrongful arrest, I will be filing formal complaints with both BART's new police Auditor and Citizen Review Board. I will publish updates to Indybay regarding whatever may come of those. Thus far, there is little reason to hope for justice of any kind for anyone from either of these new "oversight" entities. Nevertheless, it is important that those who feel they have been treated unfairly or illegally by BART police stand up for themelves, create a public record, and likewise file complaints -- be they journalists, protesters, or victims of police violence.




League of Pissed Off Voters with #NoFare Protest Arrestee Dave Id of Indybay & Rebecca Bowe of SFBG
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/10/18689870.php

A Talk Show With Arrested Protesters From The NoFare Protest At Powell BART Station
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/10/18689907.php

KPFA Morning Mix for September 7th with Krystof of NJNB and Dave Id of Indybay
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/07/18689678.php



For more information:

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Amongst the last of the passengers allowed to exit toward Stockton and Ellis

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Green vest in action directing commuters to Hallidie Plaza exit

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Passengers denied entrance to BART on Stockton end traverse hallway to Hallidie fare gates

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

This hallway and all street-level entrances in that direction were shut down by BART police shortly thereafter (See "A" above").

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Didn't know at the time that officer S. Coduti (inset) would be arresting me in 45 minutes

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Disarm Cops - Arm Feminists

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Green vest who pushed protesters on 7/11 and riot police suit up for BART's war on free sp

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

BART employee attempted to use his girth to push protesters out of doorways many times
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/07/18/18685160.php#18685173

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Disb@nd BART Cops (See "B" above)

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§SFPD stands guard at Powell Street MUNI entrance

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Only announcement heard before kettling was this officer saying fare gate blockage arrestable

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

No fare gates were ever blocked, or even close, at this demonstration as protesters' only movement was around ticket machines (See "C" above").

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§RIP Jerrold Hall, Bruce Seward, Oscar Grant, Fred Collins, Robert Geer, Charles Hill

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Handing out fliers

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§A moment of levity

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Makeshift bullhorn

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§After circling ticket machines, police draw line to prevent further movement (See "D" above)

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§BART officer S. Christ confronted for having grabbed and shoved No Justice No BART's Krystof

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Dan Hartwig runs around frantically, whispering in officers' ears after kettle closed (See "E" above")

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§BART officer questioned about detainment of dozens without dispersal order

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Powell Street station gates closed

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Still large number of demonstrators and media in station outside of kettle

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:49 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§Journalists and NLG in green hats pushed back towards Westfield shopping mall

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:56 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

National Lawyers Guild - San Francisco chapter
http://www.nlgsf.org/

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

§This is the direction Dan Hatwig lined up riot police for first arrests (See "F" above)

by dave id Monday Sep 12th, 2011 3:56 PM

nojusticenobart_sparethef...

http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2011/09/0...

Cellphones blocked in SF to hinder transit protest

By PAUL ELIAS - Associated Press | Aug. 12, 2011

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Transit officials said Friday that they blocked
cellphone reception in San Francisco train stations for three hours to
disrupt planned demonstrations over a police shooting.

Officials with the Bay Area Rapid Transit system, better known as BART,
said they turned off electricity to cellular towers in four stations from
4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Thursday. The move was made after BART learned that
protesters planned to use mobile devices to coordinate a demonstration on
train platforms.

"A civil disturbance during commute times at busy downtown San Francisco
stations could lead to platform overcrowding and unsafe conditions for
BART customers, employees and demonstrators," BART officials said in a
prepared statement.

The statement noted that it's illegal to demonstrate on the platform or
aboard the trains. BART said it has set aside special areas for
demonstrations.

The American Civil Liberties Union questioned the tactic.

"Shutting down access to mobile phones is the wrong response to political
protests," the ACLU's Rebecca Farmer said in a blog post.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation said on its website that "BART
officials are showing themselves to be of a mind with the former president
of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak." Mubarak's regime cut Internet and cellphone
services in the country for days early this year while trying to squelch
protests demanding an end to his authoritarian rule.

BART officials were confident the cellphone disruptions were legal. The
demonstration planned Thursday failed to develop.

"We had a commute that was safe and without disruption," said BART
spokesman Jim Allison.

The demonstrators were protesting the July 3 shooting of Charles Blair
Hill by BART police who claimed Hill came at them with a knife.

A July 11 demonstration disrupted service during the rush-hour commute,
prompting the closing of BART's Civic Center station. Several arrests were
made.

Sat - SF Rally to Support Pelican Bay Hunger Strike

Rally to Support Pelican Bay Hunger Strike!

Prisoners at the Security Housing Unit (SHU) at Pelican Bay have gone
on an indefinite hunger strike to protest the tortuous and inhumane
conditions of their imprisonment.

Around the world, supporters inside and outside of prisons have come
together to show their support for the hunger strikers. At least
6,600 prisoners in at least 13 prisons throughout CA have joined the
hunger strike for varying lengths of time in solidarity with the
prisoners at Pelican Bay and their demands.

Please come us for a rally and show your support:

Saturday, July 9th

UN Plaza (Civic Center Bart)

San Francisco

11am-1pm

GROUPS MARCH AND RALLY ACROSS THE STATE TO END MASS INCARCERATION AND 40 YEAR WAR ON DRUGS

For Immediate Release

June 14th, 2011

GROUPS MARCH AND RALLY ACROSS THE STATE TO END
MASS INCARCERATION AND 40 YEAR WAR ON DRUGS

Contact: Emily Harris
Statewide Coordinator, Californians United for a Responsible Budget
Cell: 510-435-1176

San Francisco: June 17th, 12:00pm press
conference at San Francisco's City Hall, followed
by a march featuring music from the Brass
Liberation Orchestra, large puppets and other
art, as well as a community speak out

Fresno:  June 17th, 11:00am rally at the State Building

Bakersfield: June 17th, 4:00pm rally at the Courthouse at Chester and Parkston

Madera, June 17th, 5:00pm rally at 200 Ford St. across from Courthouse

Visalia, June 18th, 2:00pm rally at Mooney and Caldwell

Los Angeles: June 18th, 1pm at the Chuc's
Justice Center, featuring two panels of community
leaders, a press conference at 4pm, live music and a candlelight vigil.


California - Beginning on Friday June 17th, the
40th anniversary of the "war on drugs," hundreds
will come together to hold "Communities Rising"
actions and rallies in communities across
California. Over 40 organizations working with
the Californians United for a Responsible Budget,
or "CURB," alliance will send a strong message
from different parts of the state to Governor
Brown and the state legislature, calling for the
State to take active steps to end its
participation in the 40-year-old "war on drugs",
and to prioritize vital social services over prison spending.

"Spending on prisons has grown from five percent
to ten percent of our General Fund spending,
doubling in the past decade," said Lisa Marie
Alatorre of Critical Resistance, a CURB member
organization. "Locking up too many people for too
long does not contribute to public safety and is
draining essential resources from education and
health care " programs that make a real
difference to Californians."  California remains billions of dollars in debt.

In response to the Supreme Court's decision to
uphold a lower court rulings in Brown v. Plata,
California has been ordered to reduce its
lethally crowded prison system in the next two
years. The Governor's plan is to shift tens of
thousands of prisoners to county jails, building
tens of thousands more jail cells and thousands
more high-security prison cells.  "It looks like
Governor Brown wants to do nothing but repeat the
mistakes of the last 30 years," said Debbie Reyes
of California Prison Moratorium Project, another
CURB member organization. "We built 23 massive
prisons and that didn't solve overcrowding. Now
he wants to extend that failed effort by
expanding county jail systems. Like the Supreme
Court said, you can't build your way out of this problem."

Organizations and residents across the state are
frustrated by the impacts of the State's economic
and social priorities.  "For years we've been
cutting back on state programs that save lives
and build decent futures for the next
generation," said Amanda Vela of Madera Citizens
for Better Community and Schools, "Now Gov. Brown
is asking voters to raise state revenues to pay
for more jail cells? We have to stop the cuts and
re-channel funds away from prisons and jails and
back into programs that make a difference for us and our kids."

The various rallies, marches, speak-outs, and
other actions across the state fall on the forty
year anniversary of President Richard Nixon's
declaration of a "war on drugs", a policy that
many experts have shown to wreak havoc in low
income communities and communities of color. "The
Plata decision is a real opportunity for our
state to reverse decades of racist
"tough-on-crime" policies," says Rodrigo "Froggy"
Vasquez of Students for Sensible Drug Policy. "We
are tired of being politically ignored. We need
leadership in Sacramento with the guts to get
smart, end the war on drugs, and decriminalize drug possession."

Texas, New York, and Michigan, among other states
have successfully reduced their prison budgets
and populations while increasing public safety.
CURB argues California could do the same by
implementing parole and sentencing reforms such
as amending or repealing three strikes laws.

Communities Rising Actions include:
   * San Francisco: June 17th, 12:00pm press
conference at San Francisco's City Hall, followed
by a march featuring music from the Brass
Liberation Orchestra, large puppets and other
art, as well as a community speak out
   * Fresno:  June 17th, 11:00am rally at the State Building
   * Bakersfield: June 17th, 4:00pm rally at the
Courthouse at Chester and Parkston
   * Madera, June 17th, 5:00pm rally at 200 Ford St. across from Courthouse
   * Visalia, June 18th, 2:00pm rally at Mooney and Caldwell
   * Los Angeles: June 18th, 1pm at the Chuco's
Justice Center, featuring two panels of community
leaders, a press conference at 4pm, live music and a candlelight vigil.


Sponsoring organizations across the State
include: A New Path - LA, A New Way of Life, All
of Us or None, American Civil Liberties Union of
Northern California, American Civil Liberties
Union of Southern California, American Friends
Service Committee, Berkeley Needle Exchange
Emergency Distribution, Blacksmith Records Inc.,
California Coalition for Women Prisoners,
California Partnership, California Prison
Moratorium Project, Californians United for a
Responsible Budget, Center for Non-Violence,
Community Justice Network for Youth, Cop Watch -
LA, Critical Resistance, Dolores Huerta
Foundation, Drug Policy Alliance, Enlace,
Families to Amend California's Three Strikes,
Fresno Brown Berets, Harm Reduction Coalition,
Hip Hop Not Bombs, Homies Unidos, Justice by
Uniting Creative Energy, Justice Now, Law
Enforcement Against Prohibition, Leadership
through Empowerment Action and Dialogue, Legal
Services for Prisoners with Children, Madera
Citizens for Better Community and Schools,
October 22nd Coalition - LA, Oasis Clinic, Pico
Youth and Family Center, SF Drug Users Union,
Students for Sensible Drug Policy, TGI-Justice
Project, These Cuts Won't Heal, United for Drug
Policy Reform and Youth Justice Coalition.

More information about actions, prisons, the
budget crisis and realignment can be found at:
http://www.curbprisonspending.org/

Reminder - SF, June 11 - Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid

International Day of Solidarity with Political Prisoners Marie Mason
and Eric McDavid

Please join us on Saturday, June 11th for the sneak peek Bay Area
screening of the 2011 Sundance Film Festival award winning
documentary If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front.
The documentary tells the story of Daniel McGowan, a political
prisoner who is currently serving out a seven year sentence at the
Control Management Unit at FCI Terre Haute in Indiana for his role in
two multi-million dollar arsons against Oregon timber companies.

This screening will be done in conjunction with the International Day
of Solidarity with Political Prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid.
Cities worldwide will be holding events to highlight the cases of
Marie and Eric, who share the unfortunate distinction of having the
longest standing sentences of any persons imprisoned for their
environmental advocacy in the United States. Both are serving
sentences of 20 years or more as a result of the government's
sweeping campaign against earth and animal liberation activists.

In addition to the film screening, we will have scrumptious treats
for sale and amazing items up for auction. All proceeds from this
event will go directly to Marie's and Eric's support funds.

Come out to learn more about Marie and Eric's cases and to show them
that we have not forgotten them.

Free Marie and Eric!

Saturday, June 11th - 7 pm sharp!
$15.00
The Women's Building
3543 18th St (in between Valencia and Guerrero St.)
San Francisco

http://www.june11.org/
http://supportmariemason.org/
http://supporteric.org/

Spies in blue

Sarah Phelan sfbayguardian.com April 26, 2011

A secret memo indicates that SF cops may be
working as FBI spies ­ with no local oversight

<mailto:sarah@sfbg.com>sarah@sfbg.com

San Francisco cops assigned to the FBI's
terrorism task force can ignore local police
orders and California privacy laws to spy on
people without any evidence of a crime.

That's what a recently released memo appears to
say ­ and it has sent shockwaves through the civil
liberties community.

It also has members of the S.F. Police Commission
asking why a carefully crafted set of rules on
intelligence gathering, approved in the wake of
police spy scandals in the 1990s, were bypassed
without the knowledge or consent of the commission.

"It's a bombshell," said John Crew, a long-time
police practices expert with the American Civil
Liberties Union of Northern California.

The ACLU obtained the document April 4 under the
California Public Records Act after a long
battle. It's a 2007 memorandum of understanding
outlining the terms of an agreement between the
city and the FBI for San Francisco's
participation in the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

And, according to Crew, it effectively puts local
officers under the control of the FBI. "That
means Police Commission policies do not apply,"
Crew said. "It allows San Francisco police to
circumvent local intelligence-gathering policies
and follow more permissive federal rules."

Veena Dubal, a staff attorney at the Asian Law
Caucus, agreed: "This MOU confirms our worst fears,"
she said.

Dubal noted that in the waning months of the Bush
administration, the FBI changed its policies to
allow federal authorities to collect intelligence
on a person even if the subject is not suspected
of a crime. The FBI is now allowed to spy on
Americans who have done nothing wrong ­ and who
may be engaged in activities protected by the First
Amendment.

FBI activity under this new "assessment" category
has since come under fire, and a recent report in
The New York Times showed that the FBI has
conducted thousands of assessments each month,
and that these guidelines continue under Obama.

And if the feds do control San Francisco police
policy, then the San Francisco cops could be
spying on innocent people ­ a dramatic change
from long standing city policy. "The MOU is
disturbing," Police Commission member Petra
DeJesus told the Guardian. "The department is
assuring us that local policies are not being
violated ­ but it looks as if it's subject to
interpretation."

It's the latest sign of a dangerous trend: San
Francisco cops are working closely with the feds,
often in ways that run counter to city policy.

And it raises a far-reaching question: With a
district attorney who used to be police chief, a
civilian commission that isn't getting a straight
story from the cops, and a climate of secrecy
over San Francisco's intimate relations with
outside agencies, who is watching the cops?


SPIES LIKE US

San Francisco has a long ­ and ugly ­ history of
police surveillance on political groups. SFPD
officers spied on law-abiding organizations
during the 1984 Democratic National Convention;
kept files in the 1980s on 100 Bay Area civil,
labor, and special interest groups; and carried
out undercover surveillance of political groups
focused on El Salvador and Central America. {not
to speak of the 'red' squad, Cointelpro, the
coordinated attacks on groups like the Black Panthers - cm}

Those abuses led the Police Commission to develop
a departmental general order in 1990 known as DGO
8.10. The local intelligence guidelines require
"articulable and reasonable suspicion" before
SFPD officers are allowed to collect information on anyone.

Even those rules weren't enough to halt the spies
in blue. In 1993, police inspector Tom Gerard was
caught spying on political groups ­ particularly
Arab American and anti-apartheid organizations
and groups Gerard described as "pinko" ­ and
selling that information to agents for the Anti-Defamation
League.

As the ACLU and Asian Law Caucus noted in a
December 2010 letter to Cdr. Daniel Mahoney:
"That scandal was not just about the fact that
peaceful organizations and individuals were being
unlawfully spied upon and their private
information sold to foreign governments, but that
the guidelines adopted in 1990 had never been
fully implemented by SFPD. No officers had been
trained on the new guidelines and no meaningful
audit had ever been implemented."

Over the years, the commission has tried to keep
tabs on police intelligence and prevent more spy
scandals. The general order mandates that local
police officials have to request general
authority from a commanding officer and the chief
to investigate any activity that comes under
First Amendment protections ­ and must specify in
the request what the facts are that give rise to
this suspicion of criminal activity. The order
also states that the chief can't approve any
request that doesn't include evidence of possible
criminal activity.

Those requests are reviewed monthly by the Police
Commission and there are annual audits of the
SFPD files to monitor compliance ­ so the notion
that the local cops are joining the FBI spy squad
without commission oversight is more than a little
disturbing.

Officials with the FBI and SFPD are doing their
best to reassure the local community that there's
nothing to worry about. But so far their replies
seem to duck questions about whether FBI
guidelines trump local policies. For example, the
MOU states that "when there is a conflict, [task
force members] are held to the standard that
provides the greatest organizational benefit."

We asked Mahoney to clarify: does that mean the
local cops could be held to the FBI's standards?

"The San Francisco Police Officer(s) who are
assigned to the Joint Terrorism Task Force always
have and continue to be required to follow all
SFPD's policies and procedures," Mahoney replied
in a statement.

That's confusing; do they follow SFPD policies,
or obey the MOU?

We asked FBI special agent-in-charge Stephanie
Douglas whether SFPD officers are involved in
surveillance and "assessments" (that FBI code
word for creating spy files on individuals and
groups) and whether they are identifying as SFPD
or FBI officers.

"The FBI only initiates investigations on
allegations of criminal wrongdoing or threats to
our national security," Douglas replied April 21.
"Our investigations are conducted in compliance
with the Constitution, the laws of the United
States, the Attorney General Guidelines, the
Domestic Investigation and Operations Guide,
and all other FBI policies."

Okay, that's typical FBI-speak. Here's more: "The
JTTF is a task force comprised of FBI special
agents, agents from other federal agencies, and
local police officers who have been officially
deputized as federal task force officers (TFOs)
who have the power and authority of a federal
agent. Because all JTTF TFOs are actually de
facto federal agents, they are required to
operate under federal laws and policies when
involved in a JTTF case."

So the cops are actually feds. But wait: "Our
standard JTTF MOU recognizes, however, that the
JTTF TFOs do wear two hats, as it were, and
directs JTTF TFOs to follow his or her own
agency's policy when it is stricter than the FBI
policy under certain circumstances," Douglas concluded.

Again: not exactly clear, and not exactly reassuring.

"At some point they need to say whether SFPD
officers are engaged in assessments," Crew said.

These questions have spurred the Police
Commission and Human Rights Commission to
schedule a joint hearing in May to discuss what
the document means, why SFPD never alerted the
civilian oversight authorities, and whether a
clarifying addendum can be tacked onto the agreement.


SPY FOR US OR LEAVE

The concerns are likely to be intensified by
recent developments in Portland, Ore.

Portland dropped out of the Joint Terrorism Task
Force in 2005 over concerns that local cops would
be violating privacy laws. But in November 2010,
the FBI thwarted a bomb plot allegedly linked to
terrorists, and city officials came under pressure
to rejoin the JTTF.

But Mayor Sam Adams has insisted on language that
would bar local cops from doing surveillance and
assessments, which, apparently, won't fly with the feds.

On April 20, Willamette Week, the Portland
alternative paper, wrote that Adams "effectively
scuttled" Portland's reentry into its local JTTF
because of his anti-spying language.

In an April 19 letter to Adams, U.S. Attorney for
Oregon Dwight Holton stated that Adams' proposal
of only allowing officers with the Portland
Police Bureau to be involved in investigations
and not in FBI assessments was a deal-breaker.

"Unfortunately, as currently drafted, the
proposed resolution does not provide a way in
which the PPB can rejoin the team," Holton wrote.
"There is a single provision that stands as a
roadblock to participation ­ specifically the
provision that seeks to have the City Council
delineate only certain investigative steps a task
force officer can take part in. Specifically, the
resolution seeks to dictate for the JTTF which
stages of an investigation task force officers
from the [Portland police] can work on."

"Investigation and prevention of complex crimes
and terrorism are typically fluid and
fast-moving," he added. "It makes no sense to ask
[Portland police] officers to be in for one part
of a conversation, but out for another part of
the same conversation as investigators discuss
findings from assessments, investigations, etc.
in evaluating and addressing terrorist threats in
Portland and beyond."

The message isn't lost on San Francisco civil
liberties activists. If you don't let your cops
join the spy squad, they can't be a part of the task force.

"It was one thing to join the JTTF 10 years ago
when they were operating under guidelines that,
while not to the ALCU's taste, were at least tied
to some level of suspicion," Adams said. "But
they have taken their procedures and guidelines
and moved them to the far right. It's one thing
to say that it's necessary for the FBI to do
that, and quite another to say that local
agencies have to forfeit their own policies ­ and
with no public debate or decision-making."


ASK THE FEDS FIRST

Further complicating the question of police
oversight is the fact that George Gascón, who was
police chief when civil liberties groups started
asking for a copy of the MOU last fall, refused
to turn over the document without asking the feds first.

In a Jan. 4 letter to the ACLU and ALC, Gascón
and Mahoney stated that the SFPD could not speak
to information about the duties, functions, and
numbers of officers assigned to the Joint
Terrorism Task Force "without conferring with our
partners in the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

"I am sure you can appreciate the delicate
balance we hold in crafting policy that not only
supports our mission in the ultimate protection
of life, but also in advancing democratic values
through collaboration with the communities we serve,"
Gascón and Mahoney wrote.

And Gascón is now district attorney.

"It raises the question of accountability," said
Public Defender Jeff Adachi "We want to make sure
that police officers working in the city,
regardless of whether it be for the feds or the
SFPD, are complying with general orders and
policies established by the department. But when
officers go on an assignment with the feds, we
don't know if they are operating under parameters
set by local law."

Unearthing the FBI's hitherto clandestine MOU
with the SFPD appears to be yet another sign that
local police are increasingly being subjected to
federal policies not in keeping with local procedures.

As the Guardian previously reported, the 2008
decimation of San Francisco's sanctuary city
legislation and the 2010 activation of the
federal government's controversial Secure
Communities program, which both happened during
former Mayor Gavin Newsom's tenure, means that
the city of St. Francis now ranks among the top
38 counties nationwide that are deporting "noncriminal
aliens."

Dubal also noted that the FBI came to the SFPD in
1996 asking for help with the task force, but
also sought a waiver from the Police Commission
so officers could participate without having to
follow local rules. "And within two weeks, then
Mayor Willie Brown said, not in our town," Dubal
said. "So in 1997, the SFPD said we are not going
to join unless we can follow our own rules. And
in 2001, when the SFPD joined, it was under an
MOU that required them to comply with SFPD rules
and was signed in 2002 by then-SFPD Chief [Earl]
Saunders."

Dubal said that after local law enforcement
agencies sign an MOU with the FBI, they designate
and assign officers to work from FBI
headquarters. "In the past, two SFPD officers,
paid with San Francisco tax dollars, physically
worked in the FBI's office in a secure room where
you can only go if you have security clearance.
But they still can't spy without reasonable
suspicion, and they also need audits."

Crew and Dubal said that in a recent meeting,
SFPD officials assured them that local police
were following General Order 8.10, but that they
are open to creating an MOU addendum to clarify this.

Crew and Dubal remain unsure if the FBI would be
agreeable to signing off on that. They note that
the FBI has previously stated that its JTTF has
sensitive investigations going on so it can't
give the public all the information. "Fine, but
the issue is, Are these investigations based on
suspicion, or are they based on religious
background, associations, ethnicity, and travel
patterns?" Dubal said.

They also doubt that the MOU would even have
surfaced if not for comments that then SFPD Chief
Gascón made, first in October 2009, then in March
2010, that triggered an uproar in the local
Muslim, Arab, and Pakistani and Afghani communities.

At the time, Gascón, who has a law degree and
graduated from the FBI Academy, had just landed
in San Francisco fresh from a stint as police
chief for Meza, Ariz., where he drew praise for
speaking out against Maricopa County Sheriff Joe
Arpaio's inhumane treatment of undocumented
immigrants Given this seemingly progressive
stance, Gascón shocked civil libertarians in San
Francisco when he said he wanted to unearth
SFPD's intelligence unit, which was disbanded amid
scandal in the early 1990s.

"We have to realize that in the post-9/11 world,
San Francisco is an iconic city, like New York,
Washington. and Los Angeles," Gascón said. "If
somebody wanted to make a big statement about
something they disliked about America, doing it
here would definitely get attention. We need to
know what is going on under the surface of the city."

But Gascón did not say how a revived police spy
unit, which had been shut down in large part due
to Crew's work, would operate. And six months
later, he upset Bay Area Muslims during a March
2010 breakfast by reportedly saying that the Hall
of Justice building was not just susceptible to
earthquakes, but also to an attack by members of
the city's Middle Eastern community who could
park a van in front of it and blow it up.

Gascón subsequently claimed that he "never
referred to Middle Easterners or Arab Americans,"
but that he had instead singled out the
Afghanistan and Yemen communities because they pose
"potential terrorism risks"

"In light of Gascón's comments and his desire to
resurrect the intelligence unit, people were
asking, 'Is it possible that the SFPD is also
doing the same thing?'" Dubal asked, noting that
she started getting complaints in 2009 and throughout
2010 about the FBI.

"Folks were saying that the FBI was asking about
their religious identity, their family situation,
and their political activities," she recalled. "I
certainly saw an upswing in innocent people being
contacted. People were saying, 'What the hell? ­
the FBI knocked on my door at 5 a.m.'"


COMMUNITIES UNDER SIEGE

A 2011 Human Rights Commission report documents
frequent complaints from Arab, Muslim, and South
Asian communities facing racial and religious
profiling while traveling and unwaranted
interrogation, surveillance, and infiltration by
local and federal law enforcement personnel at
their homes, places of worship, and workplaces.

The report recommended asking the supervisors and
the Police Commission to "ensure that all SFPD
officers, including those deputized to the Joint
Terrorism Task Force, follow and comply with
local and state privacy laws, including DGO 8.10."

On April 5, the Board of Supervisors voted 10-0
to approve a resolution, sponsored by Sup. Ross
Mirkarimi and cosponsored by Sups David Chiu,
Eric Mar, David Campos, and John Avalos, to endorse
the HRC report.

All this is happening against the backdrop of FBI
guidelines that have been loosened twice since
September 2011, first by U.S. Attorney General
John Ashcroft in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist
attacks, then by Attorney General Michael Mukasey
in the dying days of the Bush administration, and
now by the Obama administration.

And as The New York Times reported in March,
records obtained through a Freedom of Information
Act request show that between Dec. 2008 and March
2009, the FBI began 11,667 assessments of people
and groups for criminal/terror links, completed
8,605 assessments, and launched more than 400
intensive investigations based on the
assessments. The FBI also told the Times that
agents continue to open assessments at about the
same pace

Crew noted that Mukasey's guidelines marked the
first time since 1976 that the FBI has been
allowed to do assessments and collect files
without a suspicion that a crime has occurred.

Dubal observed that the most relevant documents
to emerge from a recent FOIA request to determine
if the FBI has engaged in disturbing intelligence
gathering activities are those related to "geomapping."

"The materials are not particular to Northern
California, but they show how FBI maps
communities based in ethnic concentrations," Dubal said.

Dubal also pointed to the case of Yasir Afifi, an
Egyptian American student from Santa Clara, who
found an FBI tracking device on his car when he
took it in for an oil change. In March 2011, CAIR
filed suit in Washington, D.C., alleging that the
FBI violated Afifi's First, Fourth, and Fifth
Amendment rights by failing to obtain a warrant.

DeJesus recently told the Guardian that the
Police Commission was never made aware of the
MOU's existence. "The chief should have checked
in with the commission president, at the very
least," she said. "The idea that they were not
reporting this to anyone is disconcerting."

"The SFPD does not have the authority to enter
into a secret agreement with the FBI whereby some
of its officers are allowed to conduct
intelligence operations in violation of the
Police Commission's General Order 8.10," Crew added.

In a Jan. 25 letter to Mahoney, representatives
from the ACLU and the ALC noted that "in the
past, the SFPD had not previously deferred to the
FBI on whether or how to openly address how San
Francisco police officers will be supervised and
held to well-established and painstakingly and
collaboratively crafted San Francisco general orders."

"These are low-level investigations that require
no criminal predicate, meaning that when
initiating an assessment, FBI agents can conduct
intrusive forms of investigation without any
criminal suspicion," Dubal said. "These include
interviewing innocent Americans, infiltrating
organizations, using open source data to spy and
surveil, going into religious centers such as
mosques to spy and surveil, and recruiting and
using informants."