Refuse to Be Abused

From OccupyOakland:

January 30, 2012 at 12:56 am.

This proposal was just passed through the Occupy Oakland General Assembly!

Occupy Oakland has faced heavy police repression since its inception.  From the first police raid on October 25th, when the camp was violently destroyed and people were brutally tear gassed and shot with rubber bullets, to the recent targeted snatchings and arrests of the last couple weeks, and finally to the attack on Occupy Oakland in its attempt to move into a vacant building which manifested itself in tear gas, rubber bullets, assault grenades and the mass arrest of up to 400 people last night, Oakland’s Police Department and City Government have made it clear that they will continue to target and repress those in Occupy Oakland in the attempt to squash the movement that challenges their exploitation, and oppression of the people of Oakland and the 99%. Often those arrested have had their charges dropped after spending several days in jail due to lack of evidence.  The newest tactic being used by the state is stay away orders, given to those arrested, making it illegal for those arrested to be in the vicinity of Oscar Grant Plaza essentially making it illegal to participate in future Occupy Oakland events. Many of these people have been around since the beginning of occupy and are key organizers for different committees and actions.

While many members of occupy have come to support those arrested at arraignments, picked people up from jail when they were released, called local officials or marched in solidarity with those who have been repressed, Occupy Oakland has yet to have a chance to present our side of the facts in court. Feb 6th will be Occupy Oakland’ s day for that.  On this day,

It will be the first time that lawyers working with Occupy will be able to argue against the repressive tactics used by the OPD and present evidence of unlawful activities and arrests.

We the anti repression committee of Occupy Oakland are proposing a day of action in solidarity with those that have been arrested and targeted by the local government and OPD. We will begin the day with coffee not cops at the Wiley Manuel courthouse starting at 9 am, then at noon we will be organizing a rally at OGP with speakers that will address local and state police repression, and the Prison Industrial Complex. At 1pm, we will march to the courthouse to stand in solidarity with those in court at 2pm.  This proposal is asking for Occupy Oakland to endorse this action.

Additionally, in light of the massive amounts of arrests last night, we have one more thing to add to this proposal. There will be a day of arraignments that come out of last night’s arrests. We want to have a day of action against police repression on the day of those arraignments as well. This day will be planned with a similar schedule as the day of action on February 6^th. This proposal entails that Occupy Oakland endorses that day as well.

We want all of Occupy Oakland to stand in solidarity with those who have been arrested and who have faced any form of police repression. Stand with us on February 6^th!

http://occupyoakland.org/2012/01/occupy-oakland-endorses-february-6th-as-a-day-of-action-against-police-brutality-and-arrests/

Wednesday, February 1, 2012 (SF Gate)

Cognitech, Inc. donates their forensic video enhancement software to the Oakland Police Department in order to assist the Oakland community at large with numerous video footage from the Occupy Oakland protests.

Pasadena, CA (PRWEB) January 31, 2012
Cognitech, Inc. has announced the recent donation of it’s forensic video enhancement Tri-Suite 11 software system to the Oakland Police Department, at the request of the Oakland Law Enforcement, and in the interest of the City of Oakland, CA, community at large with the purpose of forensically enhancing and analyzing video footage from the Occupy Oakland protests in order to find the forensic truth in the recorded incidents/events footage.

The Cognitech, Inc. Tri-Suite 11 software system is comprised of three unique and interoperable software programs, the Video Investigator® software, the VideoActive® software and the AutoMeasure™ software. Cognitech’s Video Investigator tool-set is the first and most comprehensive forensic video/image processing software environment in the world. It has over one hundred proprietary designed, user-friendly plug-ins and facilities that enhance, denoise and deblur, including the ability to a super-resolve zoom of forensic video evidence (e.g. faces, license plates). Cognitech’s VideoActive tool-set is the first real-time forensic video processing software with the world’s only (Cognitech’s U.S. Patent) fully automatic real-time universal de-multiplexing, including real-time track and real-time universal DVR capture. Cognitech VideoActive allows for patented lossless video capture with encoding that doubles video storage, and the ability to perform a video search (e.g. cars and people). Cognitech’s AutoMeasure tool-set is the world’s only automatic forensic photogrammetry software that allows the user to perform accurate bio-metric measurements of a suspect’s dimensions (e.g. height, width, area), including crime and accident scene measurements from video surveillance and photographs. This software is important to the work of police departments as it allows the user to know the suspect’s biometric measurements based on the AutoMeasure calculations which in turn helps the user eliminate and narrow down individuals who might have been considered suspects.

Cognitech, Inc. CEO Dr. Lenny Rudin said, in regards to the donation,

“It is our sincere hope that in donating our forensic video Tri-Suite software
to the Oakland Police Department, we are helping to assist the entire
community through the forensic video enhancement and 3D analysis of
numerous videos that were recorded during the Occupy Oakland, CA protests.
Pictures tell the truth and when enhancing these videos and photos
forensically, unlawful acts will be seen and analyzed clearly and
scientifically, no matter who committed them.”

About Cognitech, Inc.:

In 1988, Cognitech, Inc. was the first company in the world that designed and developed the unique Video Investigator® hardware and software products for professional forensic CCTV video processing and analysis. In 2010, Cognitech, Inc. received the American Technology Award, the highest award given in the United States for Government Technology accomplishment.

Cognitech is the only forensic video company in the world that designs and manufactures both proprietary forensic video acquisition hardware and scientific forensic software. The latest from Cognitech is the Forensic Video Tri-Suite11, the most scientifically advanced and comprehensive forensic video processing and 3D analysis software in the world. Tri-Suite11 is comprised of the Video Investigator® software, the VideoActive® software and the AutoMeasure™ software. Cognitech’s Video Investigator® software, which among other Cognitech proprietary modules contains Cognitech’s patented FrameFusion® SuperResolution and Denoising, is based on state-of-the-art patented algorithms that deliver super fast/Real-Time results. The High Definition video is captured, processed, and super-compactly stored with Cognitech’s revolutionary lossless Cognitech VideoZipper®, Cognitech’s patented proprietary algorithm and codec for lossless video data. Cognitech’s software and hardware products are routinely used by thousands of law enforcement technical forensic investigators in the United States and throughout the world.
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http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/g/a/2012/01/31/prweb9156548.DTL

For the original version on PRWeb visit:
www.prweb.com/releases/prweb2012/1/prweb9156548.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KimnyhXa9BY&context=C328408eADOEgsToPDskLxl03aHSDY6_-Rquu-FhmE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGTBPYRaHrU&context=C3930ad3ADOEgsToPDskLz6Q98GQTrI7ve3MNevRar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VokfyKJWjQk&context=C3375980ADOEgsToPDskJ5NPCR8q6wCKkhmZ4ytEvf

January 28, 2012 at 5:34 pm. Posted by Liberate Oakland

http://occupyoakland.org/2012/01/march-to-civic-auditorium-met-by-police-regrouping-at-oscar-grant-plaza/

A spirited march to the long-closed civic auditorium by Lake Merritt was met by riot police who derailed the first move-in attempt.  Move-in assembly after regrouping  at Oscar Grant Plaza for dinner and rest break as of 5:30 pm march is on the move in downtown Oakland.Link: Empty Auditorium reveals cities 1% spending priorities

http://occupyoakland.org/2011/11/neighborhood-reclamation-proposal-occupy-the-oakland-municipal-auditorium/

OAKLAND (Reuters) – Riot police arrested more than 100 anti-Wall Street protesters during a series of clashes in the streets of Oakland on Saturday that saw officers in riot gear firing tear gas at activists who tried to take over a shuttered convention center.

Three officers were injured during the running confrontations, which police said first erupted when the crowd began destroying construction equipment and tearing down fencing at the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center in downtown Oakland in the early afternoon.

“Officers were pelted with bottles, metal pipe, rocks, spray cans, improvised explosive devices and burning flares,” the Oakland Police Department said in a statement. “Oakland Police Department deployed smoke and tear gas.”

The scuffles marked the latest confrontation between police and Occupy activists seeking to regain lost momentum in their movement against economic inequality after authorities cleared protest camps across the country late last year.

Occupy Oakland organizers had vowed to take over the fenced-off building to establish a new headquarters for their movement and draw attention to homelessness in a move seen as a challenge to authorities who have blocked similar efforts before.

Police said 19 people were arrested near the convention center and another 100 taken into custody after they were corralled by officers outside a YMCA in downtown Oakland.

“The one percent have all these empty buildings, and meanwhile there are all these homeless people,” protester Omar Yassin told Reuters at the scene.

Near the convention center, several dozen police officers declared an unlawful assembly and confronted the demonstrators at a fence, firing smoke and tear gas canisters into the crowd after telling protesters to disperse through loudspeakers.

AMERICAN FLAG BURNS

Some activists, carrying shields made of plastic garbage cans and corrugated metal, tried to circumvent the police line, and surged toward police on another side of the building as more smoke canisters were fired.

“The City of Oakland welcomes peaceful forms of assembly and freedom of speech, but acts of violence, property destruction and overnight lodging will not be tolerated,” police said in a statement.

Later, hundreds of demonstrators regrouped and marched through downtown Oakland, where they were repeatedly confronted by police in riot gear. Police at several points fired flash-bang grenades into the crowd and swung batons at protesters.

Later a group of demonstrators made their way to City Hall, where they brought out a U.S. flag and set it on fire before scattering ahead of advancing officers.

Protesters in Oakland loosely affiliated with the Occupy Wall Street movement that began in New York last year have repeatedly clashed with police during a series of marches and demonstrations.

In October, former U.S. Marine Scott Olsen was left in critical condition with a head injury following a confrontation with police on the streets of Oakland in which tear gas was deployed.

Organizers said Olsen was struck in the head by a tear gas canister. Authorities opened an investigation into that incident but have not said how they believe he was hurt.

Elsewhere, the National Park Service said on Friday it would bar Occupy protesters in the nation’s capital, one of the few big cities where Occupy encampments survive, from camping in two parks where they have been living since October.

That order, which takes effect on Monday, was seen as a blow to one of the highest-profile chapters of the movement.

(Writing by Dan Whitcomb and Mary Slosson; Editing by Cynthia Johnston)

http://news.yahoo.com/police-smoke-grenades-occupy-oakland-protesters-000545184.html

No one has ever died from smoking marijuana. But getting busted with a small amount of marijuana has led to countless tragic deaths.

from Alternet January 13, 2012 | Tony Newman

This week, Shelley Hilliard, a 19-year-old woman from Detroit, was killed after working as a police informant. On October 20, Hilliard was arrested for a small amount of marijuana. The police offered her a way out: She could set up a drug deal. She called a drug dealer and said she had someone who wanted to buy $335 of cocaine and marijuana. When the dealer showed up he was arrested. The dealer was released, and three days later Hilliard was found dead in the streets. The dealer has been charged with murder.

Hilliard’s tragic death brings back memories of Rachel Hoffman, the 23-year-old, Florida State graduate from Tallahassee who also worked as an informant after she was busted with a small amount of marijuana and Ecstasy. Hoffman was sent alone on a “buy and bust” and was given $13,000 to buy Ecstasy, cocaine and a gun. The men shot Hoffman five times, stole her car and credit card, and dumped her body into a ditch. This week Tallahassee approved a $2.6 million settlement  with Rachel’s parents.

These two women should still be with us on this earth, but were instead pawns in an unwinnable drug war that led to their violent deaths.

There are so many sick aspects of the failed drug war, but law enforcement’s forcing people with a drug arrest to choose between draconian prison sentences or becoming an informant is one of the most nauseating. My friend and colleague, Anthony Papa, was sentenced to 15-years-to-life after a bowling buddy convinced him to drop off an envelope of cocaine in exchange for $500. The bowling buddy had been busted for drugs and the police said he was facing a long mandatory minimum drug sentence unless he could help them bust more people. The more people he helped them set up, the less prison time he would get. So he ruined his friend Papa’s life (and many others) by setting him up in a drug sting.

There are more than 1.6 million drug arrests in the U.S. every year – the vast majority for mere possession. So many deaths and so many people are behind bars because police use people who get caught with small amounts of drugs to set up family, friends and strangers.

http://www.alternet.org/story/153768/get_busted_for_marijuana%2C_work_as_police_informant%2C_get_killed_how_the_drug_war_turns_arrests_into_deaths?akid=8138.198175.VHaodd&rd=1&t=21

by Liberate Oakland

January 8, 2012

Re-posted from HellaOccupyOakland.org

On January 7, 2012, Occupy Oakland supporters participated in an “Anti-repression / Fuck the Police” march to the Oakland police station in order to condemn the series of outrageous and violent arrests committed by the Oakland Police Department during the past week. Also referred to as “Occububbles”, the march was attended by people who brought out mini-teepees, blew bubbles, and played drums.

At the police station protesters were met by a large group of police in riot gear. Police began advancing toward the protesters, and, failing to follow their own “use of force” guidelines, gave no warning to disperse before they began beating protesters who could not run away fast enough. It was not until 16 minutes after the OPD began beating protesters that the first dispersal was given.

A medic reported treating one protester with a broken leg, who had also been shot in the face with a “non-lethal” round. A young woman was clubbed. There were reports that a police officer threw a bike at a medic who was giving medical attention to an injured protester. According to police reports, not a single officer was injured. The total number of injured protesters is unknown.

This week, the National Lawyers Guild issued a statement demanding that the Oakland Police and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Departments end harassment of Occupy Oakland protesters. Members of Occupy Oakland call on the city and the DA to release political prisoners who are facing felony charges for “crimes” no more severe than sitting peacefully in a public space.

Tonight’s protest was also called “Film the Police” march. Numerous community citizens livestreamed the protest and confrontation. Livestreamers who tweet as @OakFoSho @punkboyinsf @BellaEiko @Eyeslam and @JeffKloy provided live coverage of the rally, as no mainstream media were present. Livestream viewers numbered in the thousands.

http://hellaoccupyoakland.org/ftp-anti-repression-march-opd-uses-excessive-force-again/

http://occupyoakland.org/2012/01/police-beat-anti-police-protestors-arrest-six-multiple-injuries/