Abby Martin talks to John B. Wells on the widely syndicated Coast to Coast AM radio show about the rise of alternative media, her citizen journalism with Media Roots, Occupy Oakland activism and how the TV show Breaking the Set has managed to piss off people in high places, including Rand Paul, Nestlé and the Israeli lobby.

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Check out Abby’s art at abbymartin.org

MEDIA ROOTS — As U.S. imperialism abroad goes unchecked, Federalised police platoons are cracking down on political dissent at home.  The militarization of local police consists of hundreds of cops in riot gear from multiple forces, aerial support for coordinated assaults, plans for launching surveillance drones against dissenting demonstrators, police brutality, unwarranted methods of crowd control, kettles and mass arrests.  Facial recognition methods seem to be utilised by police to target particular protesters labelled as persons of interest, as done in the U.K. during the recent Tottenham uprisings.

Berkeley Copwatch discusses the continuing violence led by Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and the OPD, elaborating on who’s really in charge of the increasingly Federalised police operations against Constitutionally-protected peaceful protest.

MR

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FLASHPOINTS — “You’re listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio.  My name is Dennis Bernstein.  This is your daily investigative news magazine.

“We’re going to start off by taking another look at what happened over the weekend in Oakland and the incredibly violent Oakland Police Department, cheered on by Mayor Jean Quan.

“And joining us to begin the discussion is our good friend Andrea Pritchett.  She is the founder of Berkeley Copwatch.  She’s been out there watching those folks in Oakland.

“Andrea, welcome back to Flashpoints.”

Andrea Pritchett (c. 2:02):  “Thanks, Dennis.”

Dennis Bernstein (c. 2:06):  “Well, you were out there.  Tell me a little bit.  Give me your overview, as somebody who’s used to watching and documenting and filming.  I know you did some filming of police actions.”

Andrea Pritchett (c. 2:20):  “Yeah, well, Saturday afternoon it was really quite a celebration.  It seemed like, from the amount of stuff that people were carrying, they were quite prepared to move into a building.  And, so, it was, in fact, Move-In Day. 

“So, with the celebration and that atmosphere going on the first thing that happened was that there was a sound-truck that got jammed up by the police.  They got surrounded and they were being detained.  So, that didn’t bode well for the whole attitude of the Police Department towards the protest. 

“The protest, the march went and surrounded the sound-truck and sort of ‘liberated it’ from that situation.  And the march began.

“But what was real clear, with significant air support from the helicopters above, that the police were determined to stop the march at every turn.  And, so, it happened time and again where we would march down the street and meet a line of cops.  And then the march would try to go a different direction to achieve their objective. 

“And what had been laid down pretty clearly is that [liberal Oakland Mayor] Jean Quan and the police had said, ‘You’re not taking anything. You’re not taking any buildings’ and, apparently, they made a decision to say, ‘by any means necessary, we’re gonna stop you from doing that.’

“Now, theoretically, being in an empty building could possibly constitute trespassing or something.  But the use of force, the decision to use force was made long before the protest.”

Dennis Bernstein (c. 3:50):  “And you’re listening to Flashpoints on Pacifica Radio.  Andrea Pritchett of Copwatch in the studio.

“Lali is on the phone.  She just got out of court.  She’s on the line with us.  She was in the line of these arrests.

“Also, joining us is an activist, very active with Occupy Oakland, Christoph.

“But let me start off with you, Lali.  You just got out of court?”

Lali (c. 4:13):  “I did.  I’m actually, right now, standing in front of the Court House on 7^th and Washington and we just came out.  And I can give you an update on what’s happened.

“As we know, somewhere around 400 people were arrested on Saturday [28 Jan 2012], most of them in the mass arrests when they were trapped into Broadway around 24^th Street in front of the YMCA. 

“And some of those people were cited out through the weekend.  And, for most people, actually, most of these people were held cuffed for up to eight to twelve hours during the actual arrests and were not allowed to use the bathroom.  Many people reported to us that they were forced to urinate on themselves.

“And all of these 400 people, many of them were not even processed 48 hours later.  Basically, they kind of just disappeared into a black hole of the criminal justice system.  Even as of today, there were people that we still weren’t able to find in the system.  And we came to court for the arraignments of those people that they have held in custody and found, at the end of the day today, that they did not file charges on anyone, except four people for felonies and seven people for misdemeanours.  So, out of 400 people on Saturday that were arrested, most of them had been held for days before being cited out.  Some are still being held.  Close to a hundred are still being held.  And out of all of those, the district attorney was only able to file charges on eleven people here today.  And the rest are gonna be, we assume, released tonight at Santa Rita.”

“So, we have a case here of close to 400 people, and this has been happening to us week after week, with a dozen here, a dozen there.  But now we have 400 people who have been held, many of them two, three nights and no charges are being filed, with the exception of eleven of them.

“And the stories that we’re hearing from the conditions that people are being held in are just absolutely terrifying.  There were a number of people who had serious, serious injuries, that were beaten very badly and we were unable to get medical attention for them.  We had people who needed serious medication that they were on, everything from bacterial infections to all kinds of other issues that were denied their medication.

“There were people who reported that when they refused to be interrogated without a lawyer, that they were placed in solitary.  Many, many of the women we spoke to have said that they were forced to take pregnancy tests in open bathrooms with male guards around.

“So, we’re getting all kinds of stories of what people have experienced in the past few days.  And what we need to remember is that these 400 people, with the exception of 11, have been really, brutally punished by the City of Oakland with no kind of criminal basis.  And I think it’s absolutely atrocious and something needs to be done about this.  OPD cannot continue to file these, kind of, bogus, conflated charges, and hold hundreds of people, and a really dangerous situation when the District Attorney is unable to file charges because there’s actually no legal basis.

“There were up to 50 people who were charged with felony burglary for being inside of the YMCA.  Those people all of them are still being held right now, but no charges were filed against them.  None of those charges were filed.”

Dennis Bernstein (c. 7:51):  “So, they are still being held and no charges are filed?”

Lali (c. 8:05):  “We only have eleven people out of those 400 for whom those charges were filed.  And they had to file charges today because their time is up to hold these people on custody.  So, they have to release them.

“I do want to say, though, that we still are a little bit concerned because they still have up to one year to file charges.  And we’ve now had incidences where people were held in jail for several days we came to the situation.  There were no charges filed ten weeks later.  The District Attorney issued warrants.  So, it’s not that we necessarily know we’re clear and the situation is over.  We’re gonna have to continue to monitor it.  But the police did not provide anything that they were able to actually legally file charges for somewhere around 390 of the people.”

MARJORY COHN ON U.S. VIOLENCE ABROAD AND DOMESTIC REPRESSION AT HOME, NDAA, OM

Marjory Cohn (0:00):  “

Dennis Bernstein (0:00):  “

Marjory Cohn (0:00):  “…U.S. drones are flying over Baghdad to protect the largest U.S. Embassy in the world.  And it still houses 11,000 Americans protected by 5,000 mercenaries and Adnan al-Asadi, the acting Iraqi Interior Minister said, ‘Our sky is our sky, not the U.S.A.’s sky.’ 

“So, here we invade Iraq, an unnecessary war, an illegal war, a tragic war that killed untold thousands, tens of thousands, wounded, even more, and then committed war crimes, such as the Haditha massacre.  There were other massacres, such as in Fallujah, a number of them. 

“And then the Iraqi’s see that there’s no accountability for what happened.”

Dennis Bernstein (0:00):  “Amazing.”

Marjory Cohn (c. 54:11):  “And, of course, this makes people in other countries resent us even more, this and the torture.  And then we wonder why people would want to do us harm.

“By the way, I should say, Dennis, the 24 victims of the Haditha massacre are buried in a cemetery in Iraq, it’s called Martyrs Graveyard.  And there’s graffiti on the deserted house of one of the families.  And it reads:  ‘Democracy Assassinated the Family That Was Here.’

ON THE NDAA (S.1867) AND THE RIGHT TO DISSENT IN THE U.S.
Dennis Bernstein (c. 54:41):  “Wow.  Let me tell people:  You’re listening to Marjory Cohn.  She is a Professor at Thomas Jefferson School of Law, a former President of the National Lawyers Guild.  She’s the author of a number of books in this context.  Her most recent book, The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse. 

“We only have a couple of minutes left, but I guess what really makes me nervous is we’re seeing in the United States the militarisation, the organisation of local police departments in regional structures.  And now they’re getting equipment from the military directly.

“There’s a new Federal law.  We see extraordinary training programmes that cover entire regions.  We see police departments now buying drones. 

“Are you concerned about this militarisation and what we see in Haditha we might be seeing in Oakland some time?”

Marjory Cohn (c. 55:43):  “I am very concerned.  And if you saw the excessive force and police over-reaction in Oakland recently, the Occupy Movement.  I understand they will start using drones for surveillance.  I don’t think they’ll be armed; of course, that comes next.

“And then we have the National Defense Authorization Act, which Obama signed on New Years Eve, which authorizes the indefinite detention, even of U.S. citizens.  That means the rest of your life locked up with no charges.  This is illegal.  It’s illegal under the International Coven on Civil and Political rights, which we ratified.

“And this is the kind of thing that we criticise other countries for doing.  And, yet, Obama said, ‘I really didn’t wanna sign it, but I had to.’  You know, just did not show any backbone at all, just went ahead and signed that law.  That’s very, very worrisome.  And it’s more in a long line of restrictions that started, well it’s happened throughout our history, but it really reached, kind of, an apex during the Bush Administration under the guise of the ‘War on Terror.’  And, now, Obama is continuing a lot of that as well and preventing accountability, both criminal and civil accountability for people who were subjected to extraordinary rendition, torture, etcetera.”

Dennis Bernstein (c. 57:06):  “You know, Marjory, we have a Council Member here, Ignacio De La Fuente who is already talking ‘terrorism,’ talking ‘national security,’ talking, this liberal, this Democrat, talking like maybe it’s time to use these new Federal Defense Authorisation against Occupy.”

Marjory Cohn (c. 57:30):  “That’s what I’m saying.  I mean it could be.  One of the things that’s really important to know about torture, and this is just covered in the preface to the United States and Torture by Sister Dianna Ortiz, who was a Catholic nun who went to Guatemala in the ‘80s and was viciously tortured.  The Americans were leading the torture there.  You know?  We were supporting these vicious dictatorships in Latin America.  And she says, ‘It’s done openly, notoriously, and it’s done to send a message to people that this will happen to you, if you challenge the status quo.

“And the stronger Occupy gets and the more influential and the more it spreads, you’re gonna see the repression grow commensurate with the strength of the Occupy Movement.  That’s gonna happen.”

Dennis Bernstein (c. 58:19):  “Okay, we’re out of time.  I’m sorry Professor Cohen, but we’re out of time.  This is a subject we wanna come back and talk to you more about. 

“Again, I recommend if people wanna check out you latest book, it is called The United States and Torture: Interrogation, Incarceration, and Abuse.  You teach at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law down south in Southern California.  Thanks for joining us.”

Marjory Cohn (c. 58:41):  “Thank you, Dennis.”

Dennis Bernstein (c. 58:45):  “And that does wrap it up for another edition of Flashpoints.  My name is Dennis Bernstein.  I produce this show with Free Wheelin’ Franklin Sterling.  And we are very privileged to have these free speech airwaves. 

“Tomorrow, tune in.  We’re gonna go back to our foreclosure on-air clinic.  If you’re getting closed out of your house, if you have a friend who is, check us out tomorrow on Flashpoints.”

Transcript by Felipe Messina for Media Roots.

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MEDIA ROOTS — In apparent small-scale warfare waged by Oakland police against First Amendment activity, hundreds of people were kettled, brutalised with batons, tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and arrested during Occupy Oakland (OO) demonstrations on Saturday, January 28, 2012, in the first major action by OO since the Oakland Port shutdown. 

Participants have charged they weren’t given clear dispersal orders by police, preventing many from avoiding arrest, as well as kettling people and using the hammer and anvil police formation.  According to Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan, almost 400 hundred people were arrested during Saturday’s OO demonstrations.

Occupy Oakland reported:

“Many people who have medical needs were unable to prevent themselves from being arrested, or to retrieve their medication, because the police did not give a dispersal order—they just kettled.”

This tactic of kettling is a consistent tactic used by police against the Occupy Movement to corral all demonstrators, even passersby and journalists.  This is apparently intended to discourage participation by those unable to risk arrest or those interested in witnessing the demonstrations as neutral observers or independent journalists (corporate press often rely solely on police accounts, rather than direct observation).  OO has noted the tactic is illegal; indeed, it amounts to entrapment when people are ordered to disperse and, yet, not allowed to do so.  U.K. courts have found the tactic to be clearly illegal.

The activities on Saturday were intended to kick off “a weekendlong festival,” according to OO, starting with “the takeover of an empty building where it will host workshops, panels, a film festival, live music, assemblies and more”—“including former Black Panther Party leader Elaine Brown, anarchist anthropologist and member of Occupy Wall Street David Graeber, feminist, revolutionary & historian Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz…”

Pacifica Radio’s Northern California sister-station, KPFA, also covered OO demonstrations. 

“The Morning Mix” aired a special broadcast with Dennis Bernstein this morning.  It was reported that many demonstrators were badly beaten, at least one was hit with a stun gun, another had teeth knocked out by a police baton, another was thrown through a plate glass window, people were thrown down the stairs, and another was hospitalised for internal bleeding as a result of rioting cops swinging their batons at people, in violation of their own policies.

Franklin Sterling “was out there in Oakland where the police deployed hundreds of officers in riot gear over the weekend, so as to prevent OO from putting a vacant building, which has sat vacant for six years,” and for which the City of Oakland has no current plans.

Dennis Bernstein also invited various guests to discuss OO “and why the violent Oakland Mayor” Jean Quan “feels so much camaraderie with the Oakland Police,” which have been working overtime to undermine the First Amendment rights of the people, as she turns “her back on the people who elected her.”

“Letters and Politics” was also on the scene Saturday capturing audio for today’s broadcast. 

Note:  Pam Drake, the conflicted OO member interviewed by LAP this morning who wrote an article about breaking up with the Occupy Movement, claimed OO didn’t ratify the Move-In Day occupation of an empty building.  Yet, Occupy Oakland indicates, the “Occupy Oakland GA passed a proposal calling for the [vacant building] space to be turned into a social center, convergence center and headquarters of the Occupy Oakland movement.”  In conclusion, Drake, a ‘SaveKPFA’ faction-aligned KPFA Local Station Board Member said she still considered herself a member of OO, oddly rendering her entire position moot. 

Although, there have been reports of OO demonstrators breaking into Oakland’s City Hall and causing damage, even by the ostensibly radical KPFA News (aligned with the less radical KPFA faction above), audio reports from LAP today describe how the doors were left open, people were hesitant to go inside, with only a few entering.

What is not disputed are the flag burnings that took place after U.S. and California flags were taken from Oakland City Hall and burned by demonstrators in a Constitutionally-protected act of free speech, albeit with appropriated City Hall property.

Ultimately, OO was prevented by police in riot gear from occupying the building, which has been vacant for six years now, and which OO decided to convert into a community centre and new home for the OO Movement.  Mass actions in solidarity with the police state repression against OO have been planned in dozens of cities across the nation.

MR

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Occupy Oakland demonstrations, January 28, 2012

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ANOTHER OCCUPY OAKLAND MARCH ATTACKED BY POLICE

Oakland, CA–Saturday, January 28, 2012, Sheila and I joined about 1,500 members of Occupy massed at 14^th and Broadway in downtown Oakland. Occupy Oakland’s announced intention was to march to and occupy a long vacant building “somewhere” in the city to re-create a living, working, and coordinating center for this young “politics on the fly” movement for the rights of the 99%. As you probably know, previous occupations of public space from coast to coast have been destroyed and precluded by Government ordered police actions, making community development, collaboration and participatory mass democracy yet more difficult.  

The atmosphere was festive and gay, resembling what the counter culture of the 60s used to call a “be-in.” People of all ages, got up in all kinds of costumes, wheeling large platform dollies with furniture, mattresses, sleeping bags, grills, electronics, crates of canned foods, loaves of fresh bread and almost anything you can think of you might need in your new home, through the streets of the city. A drumming corp and a brass band separately did their thing. Within the march itself, music also blared from a powerful high quality sound system on a flatbed truck draped with young people. A famous recycled and refurbished AC Transit “Occupy” bus was ambushed out of the demo and occupied by the police. When one of the marchers’ platform dollies lost a wheel in a BART grating dozens of people came to the rescue, each picking up something from the load of materiale and carrying the stuff along the march. Sheila grabbed a box weighing about 15 pounds, which may have contained large plastic bags (at least according to its original printed label). We saw an old friend, Helen, in the drum group, pounding out a pulsing beat on a large drum strung from her waist. Young people smiled, swayed and danced their way snakelike through downtown until the march reached Laney College. There were also bicyclists, children in carriages pushed by parents, people of various ethnicities often in small social groups, and the always present minority of young anarchists with shields and masks.  

Slowly the police began to mass around the march perimeters. At Laney the march was blocked by a police line to the left and had to enter the campus; and when it tried to exit we found most of the ways off campus barred by battle ready police lines. Exiting at the Southeast edge of campus the march tried to track back toward downtown, only to be fenced in and blocked by chain link fencing and police lines. With nowhere to go the march stalled for a short while until, without provocation, Oakland’s finest began lobbing numerous (probably about 10) smoke/flash grenades into the dense crowd. People scattered briefly without any panicking and then reassembled. About 10 minutes after the smoke cleared, the police from a cruiser speaker declared an unlawful assembly and issued a disperse order. We left the demonstration, backtracking our way out at that point to avoid arrest or being beaten. However, the police apparently did not attack the full demonstration at that time (from what we later learned) and you’ll have to find out what then transpired from some other intrepid reporter. One of those, still among the crowd when we left was Mitch Jeserich (in his wheelchair), undaunted and apparently recording for his KPFA Letters and Politics program (Mondays-Fridays 10 a.m. at 94.1 FM the SF Bay Area).  

A 5 p.m. local newscast on Channel 7 (ABC) stated that police were forced to use grenades and teargas because an unruly crowd attacked them. If this happened it wasn’t while we were there. Although we were right in the middle of the crowd, we saw no attacks against the police, only the smoke grenade attack by the cops, although a few young men pushed down parts of the chain-link fences in a couple of places. From the way the crowd was blocked an uninvolved observer might well conclude that any confrontations were in response to the police decision to trap the march. The police and the ABC media coverage suggest that the aim of the 1%’s armed and responsive police was to create just enough chaos to: 1) prevent the Occupiers from reaching their objective location, 2) to justify some arrests, 3) provoke some skirmishes that would allow demonization of the 99% movement via the 1%’s wholly owned corporate capitalist media. We’ve all seen these tactics used against the Black and Latino communities and against immigrants.  

In a perhaps unrelated provocation a couple of counter pickets held a huge printed sign at the start of the march with the slogan: Occupy attacks Workers Rights. No one paid them any attention. Later I overheard one marcher tell another: “The media and politicians always claim we are costing the city all this money for the police. But why are they calling out hundreds of cops? We aren’t destroying anything or hurting anyone. We don’t want them spending public funds on cops to attack us and prevent public discourse either. They do it to protect the monopoly of power of the 1%.”

Written by Marc Sapir

[Marc sent this via email to a mutual KPFA friend (whilst sending it to the Berkeley Daily Planet).  This is taken from that email.]

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Photo by flickr user Mark Z