occupied oakland tribune, issue 4

8/3/2019 Occupied Oakland Tribune, issue 4

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/occupied-oakland-tribune-issue-4 1/7

Oakland TribuneOCCUPIED

Monday | February 20, 2012 FREE

occupyoakland.org

by Kevin Cooper

It seems that many peopleare glad, and in some cases down-right happy, that the Occupy movements have taken placeacross this country. Many peoplearound the world are asking,“What took so long?” All of them

want it to grow and to include all of the people who are being affectedby the 1% and their policies.

SOLIDARITY WITH PRISONERS

OCCUPY SAN QUENTIN

Jack Bryson of Occupy Oakland (left) with Kevin Cooper of San Quentin (right).

One cannot live on thisplanet and not know the bed capi-

talism lays here within this coun-try. The roots from the tree of greed have spread to damn nearevery part of this world. They havehad an impact, directly orindirectly, on every person in this

world, to one degree or another.Capitalism, and the capital-

ists who run and control it, need very important ingredients to

make it work. They need “TheHaves” and “The Have-Nots.”

These days, as it once was when this country was first formed,it is very easy to tell the differencebetween the two. Some of thepeople, who for most of their livesconsidered themselves the“Haves,” are finding out that they

were living a lie. That now, they are part of the “Have-Nots.” Thisreality is (continued on page 7)



FREE

Monday | February 20, 2012 2

When I heard of the call,

just raised in Oakland, California,

to “Occupy the Prisons”, I gasped.

It was not an especially

radical call, but it was right on time.

For prisons have become a

metaphor; the shadow-side, if you

will, of America, With oceans of words about freedom, and the

reality that the U.S. is the world’s

leader of the incarceration industry,

its more than time for the focused

attention of the Occupy Movement.

It’s past time.

For the U.S. is the world’s

largest imprisoner for decades,

much wrought by the insidious

effects of the so-called ‘drug

war’—what I call, “the War on the

Poor.”

And, Occupy, now an inter-

national movement, certainly has

no shortage of prisons to choose

from. Every state, every rural

district, every hamlet in America

has a prison; a place where the Con-

stitution doesn’t exist, and where

slavery is all but legalized.

When law professor,

Michelle Alexander, took on the

topic, her book, the New Jim Crow,

took off like hotcakes – selling over

100,000 in just a few months.

And where there are

prisons, there is torture; brutal beat-

ings, grave humiliations, perverse

censorship – and even murders –

all under a legal system that is as

blind as that statue which holds aloft

a scale, her eyes covered by a frigid

fold of cloth.

So, what is Occupy to do?

Initially, it must support

movements such as those calling for

the freedom of Lakota brother

Leonard Peltier, the MOVE veter-ans of August 8th, 1978, the

remaining two members of the

Angola 3: Herman Wallace and

Albert Woodfox, Sundiata Acoli,

Russell “Maroon” Shoatz, and

many other brothers and sisters

who’ve spent lifetimes in steel and

brick hellholes.

But, the Occupy Movement

must do more.

As it shifted the discussionand paradigm on economic issues,

it must turn the wheel of the so-

called ‘Criminal Justice System’ in

America, that is in fact, a destruc-

tive, counter-productive, annual

$69 billion boondoogle of repres-

sion, better-known by activists as

the Prison-Industrial-Complex.

That means more than a

one-day event, no matter how

massive or impressive. It means

building a mass movement that

demands and fights for real change,

and eventually abolition of struc-

tures that do far more social

damage than good.

It means the abolition of

solitary confinement, for it is no

more than modern-day torture

chambers for the poor.

It means the repeal of

repressive laws that support such

structures.

It means social change – or

it means nothing.

So let us begin – down with

the Prison Industrial Complex!

Mumia Abu-Jamal is a renown

journalist, author, and activist who has

been in prison since 1981 for allegedly

shooting Philadelphia police officer

Daniel Faulkner. Despite overwhelmin

evidence of his innocence, prosecutoria

misconduct, constitutional violations in

his trial, police coercion of witnesses and

documented racism, he remains on death

row.

Occupied Oakland Tribune

Editorial and Design

Sarah Morgan

Scott Johnson

Celeste Christie

Legal Counsel

Michael Siegel, Siegel & Yee

In Support Of

Occupy Oakland

Contact:

[email protected]

http://occupiedoaktrib.org

Special Thanks To:all supporters of Occupy

Oakland, 1984 Printing,

Art for a Democratic Society

The Occupied Oakland Tribune

is not in any way affiliated with

the Oakland Tribune or

Bay Area News Group,

its parent company.

Souls on Iceby Mumia Abu-Jamal



Monday | February 20, 2012

“If you had free reign over classified

networks… and you saw incredible

things, awful things… things that

belonged in the public domain, and not on

some server stored in a dark room in

Washington DC… what would you do?” -Quotes from an online chat attrib-

uted to Bradley Manning

Bradley Manning, a 24-

year-old Army intelligence analyst,

is accused of leaking a video show-

ing the killing of civilians, including

two Reuters journalists, by a US

Apache helicopter crew in Iraq. He

is also charged with sharing thedocuments known as the Afghan

War Diary, the Iraq War Logs, and

embarrassing US diplomatic cables,

with the anti-secrecy website

WikiLeaks. The video and docu-

ments have illuminated such issues

as the true number and cause of

civilian casualties in Iraq, human

rights abuses by U.S.-funded

contractors and foreign militaries,

and the role that spying and bribes

play in international diplomacy.

Not a single person has

been harmed by the release of this

information. Defense Secretary

Robert M. Gates has called their

affect on U.S. foreign relations

“fairly modest.” Yet, Bradley faces

22 charges, including “Aiding the

enemy by indirect means,” for

which a conviction could result in

the death penalty or life in prison.

Although Bradley has not yet been

tried, he was held in solitary

confinement for the first 10 months

of his incarceration. During this

time he was denied meaningful

exercise, social interaction, sunlight,and has occasionally been kept

completely naked. These condi-

tions were unique to Bradley and

are illegal even under US military

law as they amount to extreme pre-

trial punishment.

In March 2011, chief US

State Department spokesperson PJ

Crowley called Bradley’s treatment

at the Quantico, Virginia Marine

Corps brig “ridiculous and counter-productive and stupid.” He was

forced to resign within hours.

Bradley’s treatment has sparked a

probe by the United Nations chief

torture investigator Juan Mendez.

According to Mr. Mendez, he has

been, “frustrated by the prevarica-

tion of the US government with

regard to my attempts to visit Mr.

Manning.” After also being rejectedan official visit, Congressman

Dennis Kucinich noted, “What is

going on…with respect to Pfc.

Manning’s treatment is more

consistent with Kafka then the US

Constitution.”

In one week in April 2011,

over a half million people signed a

petition calling on President

Obama to end the isolation and

torture of Bradley Manning, a

those conditions serve as “a chilling

deterrent to other potential whistle

blowers committed to public integ

rity.”

Over 300 top legal scholar

declared Bradley’s conditions o

detention a violation of the Eighth

Amendment’s prohibition again

cruel and unusual punishment and

the Fifth Amendment’s guarantee

against punishment without trial

Among the signatories is Laurence

Tribe, a Harvard professor who

taught Barack Obama. Prof. Tribe

was until recently a senior advisor to

the US Justice Department.

Partially in response topublic outcry, on April 21, 2011

Bradley was moved from Quantico

to Fort Leavenworth, KS, where hi

conditions greatly improved. The

very day he was moved, Presiden

Obama was surprised at a breakfas

fundraiser by a group of protesters

At the end of the fundraiser,

member of the Bradley Manning

Support Network, Logan Price

began questioning him abouBradley’s situation. The Presiden

stated that “He [Bradley Manning

broke the law,” a pretrial declara

tion of guilt that has caused concern

among many legal experts.

Now, at the start of the

second decade in the second

millennium, Bradley Manning has a

growing list of supporters. Included

among them is another famou whistle blower, Daniel Ellsber

who leaked the Pentagon Papers in

1971. We hope that you will join us

as well. See what you can do to

support justice in this historic time.

The above statement is from the Bradley

Manning Support Network. Go

www.bradleymanning.org for more info.

Free Bradley

Manning!



nhumane

Conditions for

ailed Occupiersy Jason Cherkis

Alyssa Eisenberg just

anted her multiple sclerosis medi-

tion that she uses to allay fatigue

d help her concentrate.

A member of Occupy Oak-

nd, she had been caught up in last

aturday's police kettling and trans-

rred to the Santa Rita jail. Police

fused to let her keep her meds,

hich she takes a few times a day,

e said. Once inside, a guard

smissed her distress, she said,

ling her, "It doesn't look like

ou're having a medical emer-

ncy."

Eisenberg, 44, who claims

e was arrested without warning,

ent 18 hours in the Santa Rita jail.

efore her release, the guards told

r she could get access to her

edication only if a nurse observed

r for a few hours, she said, adding

at they implied that if she took

em up on the offer, her release

ould be delayed a day.

"It was so frustrating trying

understand what was going on,"

id Eisenberg, who became disori-

nted during what had already been

cramped, chaotic ordeal. "That's

e part that stuck with me," she told

he Huffington Post . "That's because

ey didn't give me my medicine."

In the wake of last

aturday's police actions, Occupy

akland and city officials are going

rough the now familiar routine of

sides expressing outrage. But this

me, the investigations won't end

th tracing the last tear gas canister

ed and last activist led away in

plastic cuffs. The controversy

extends to what occurred inside

both the Santa Rita jail and the

Glenn E. Dyer Detention Facility

after Saturday's arrests. Activists like

Eisenberg allege a range of miscon-

duct on the part of jail personnel,

from denial of critical treatment to

inhumane conditions.

None of the protesters

interviewed by The Huffington Post

were part of the unruly events that

took place in Oakland that night,

including a flag-burning and vandal-

ism to city hall, they said.

Incarceration violated law

Dan Siegel, Mayor JeanQuan's former adviser who quit her

administration over her handling of

Occupy Oakland's eviction in Octo-

ber, said incarcerating the activists

violated state law. "What is outra-

geous is that ... people were jailed

all weekend instead of cited and

released as required by California

law," he wrote in an email to The

Huffington Post .

Some activists were charged

with burglary for trying to escape

the mass arrest by running inside

the nearby YMCA building, Siegel

said. "Burglars generally enter to

commit theft," he wrote. "At most,

they trespassed. People say they

were invited in, so there was no

offense at all."

Rachel Lederman, an Oak-

land civil rights attorney with theNational Lawyers Guild, told The

Huffington Post she's received reports

that some of the activists had been

cuffed and left on the police buses

for as long as six hours without

access to a bathroom. One woman,

she said, reported nerve damage in

her hand.

Once inside, the activists

claimed to have been crammed into

Monday | February 20, 2012onday | February 20, 2012 4

shower rooms with no beds, no

blankets, no heat and not a single

chair, Lederman said.

Quan's office deferred a

request for comment to the Oak-

land Police Department. The

department did not answer the

request.

Sgt. J.D. Nelson, the

spokesperson for the Alameda

County Sheriff's Department,

which oversees the Santa Rita and

Dyer facilities, did admit to The

Huffington Post that the jail cells were

crowded and some services might

have been slowed. Santa Rita took

in more than 250 protesters, while

Dyer received 110.

The arrestees were not

denied care, Nelson said. "Every-

body that comes in sees a medical

staff," he explained. "Our job and

our issue is that people come in and

make all kinds of claims. We have

to verify those claims before hand-

ing out medication. You can't just

take everything at face value."

If conditions were tough at

Santa Rita, Nelson said, it was

because police decided to divert

more arrestees to that facility after

Occupy activists attempted to block

the entrance to Dyer.

Sean Keaveny, 32, told The

Huffington Post the sign in his cell

listed capacity at seven inmates. Asmany as 20 were crammed inside,

the water fountain did not work and

the cell went without toilet paper for

as long as 12 hours, he said.

The guards were constantly

moving people in and out of cells,

one of which contained at least 50

activists, Keaveny said. There was

no toilet paper and the only water

they had access to was scalding, he

said. "We requested water for hours

and hours before we gave up."

Denied HIV medication

"I saw a gentleman with

HIV who was asking again and

again for his HIV medications,"

Keaveny said. Every time a guard

would walk by, the man would ask for his meds; eventually, Keaveny

and others joined in, he said. At

one point, they began kicking

against a door to get the guards'

attention, Keaveny said, adding that

the man never got his HIV meds.

Noah Zimmerman, 31,

remembered hearing activists

chanting for some assistance for the

activist with HIV. Michael, 21, who

did not want his full name used,

remembers the HIV-positive man

asking for his meds as well.

Sgt. Nelson did not recall a

specific issue with an activist who

has HIV. "Just because somebody

comes in and says they need HIV

meds, we're not just going to start

handing out HIV meds," he said.

Salon reported that there

may have been one other HIV-positive activist who was denied

medication.

Michael told The Huffington

Post that at one point, women

nearby began chanting for a medic

since a protester had gone into a

diabetic seizure after not getting

enough food. "They were screaming

for a medic, going 'medic! medic!

medic!' and banging on the door,"

he said. "That happene

times."

Activist women de

sanitary napkins for an inm

had her period, Keaveny r

"They were singing the ent

chanting, banging," he said

slammed and banged

demanded tampons for h

took hours for them to get

toilet paper."

Keaveny was inca

until Wednesday at 5 a

claimed that he never had

a lawyer, had his Mirand

read, or was given a priso

"What we endured in Sant

suffered every day by miinmates in the United State

system."

Activists said they

similar conditions at Dyer

ney Wentz, 31, a preschool

who served as a medic

march before being snare

mass arrest, said she got pla

10-foot-by-10-foot holding

more than 20 other

During one inmate count,

went around and threw ou

food they had just been

Wentz said.

Matt Smaldone, 37

was placed in a shower r

seven hours. "One guy

broken wrist," he said. "H

asking for assistance. He d

looked at until 8 a.m. Th

him like a wrap with an icSmaldone said others with

were placed in isolation.

Jason Cherkis is a reporter and

for The Huffington Post . H

ously worked at the Washing

Paper where he covered socia

and law enforcement. This a

originally printed in The Hu

Post. Reprinted with permissioPolice kettle protesters at the Oakland YMCA. Photo from Occupy Oakland Media.




Between 1990 and 2000,

the rate of female incarceration

increased 108%. Despite the fact

that the number of women incarcer-

ated is increasing more rapidly than

that of men, interest in women

prisoners’ organizing around their

conditions of confinement remains

much lower than that of their male

counterparts.

Why the cloak of invisibil-ity? Like their outside counterparts,

women in prison are perceived as

passive. Such neglect leads to the

definition of prison issues as mascu-

line and male-dominated, dismiss-

ing both distinctly female concerns

(i.e. the scarcity of sanitary hygiene

products, the lack of medical care

specifically for women, especially

prenatal care, threats of sexual

abuse by guards, etc.) and any actions, which women take to

address and overcome these

concerns. Thus, researchers and

scholars do not search out acts of

defiance among the growing female

prison population. Furthermore,

while male prisoners have well

known examples of figures like

George Jackson, and instances like

the Attica uprising among other well-publicized cases of prisoner

activism, women have limited

resources and well known people

or events that are relevant to them.

On the 28th of August

1974, inmates at Bedford Hills, an

all women’s prison, protested the

beating of a fellow inmate by hold-

ing seven staff members hostage for

two-and-a-half hours. However, the

“August Rebellion” is virtually

unknown today. All male state

troopers and (male) guards from

men’s prisons were called to

suppress the uprising. Twenty-five

women were injured and twenty-

four others were transferred to

Matteawan Complex for the Crimi-

nally Insane without the required

commitment hearings. This event

was virtually ignored because it

lasted only two-and-a-half hours,

and no one was killed. The story

was relegated to a paragraph buried

in the back pages of The New York

Times. The “August Rebellion” is

seen as less significant than the

Attica Rebellion. The women at Bedford Hills also did not have any

opportunity to contact media, big-

name supporters and politicians,

whereas the men incarcerated at

Attica were able to gain public

attention. The “August Rebellion”

is easily overlooked by those seek-

ing information on prisoner

protests and disruptions.

Similarly, women in a

California prison held a “Christmasriot” in 1975 to protest the cancella-

tion of family holiday visits and

holiday packages, inmates gathered

in the yard, broke windows, made

noise and burned Christmas trees

in a “solidarity” bonfire. Once

Invisibility of

Women Prisoner

Resistanceby Victoria Law

again, because there were no

blatant acts of violence, this was not

considered a major act of distur-

bance. This act is overlooked by

anyone researching prison distur-

bances.

Mainstream ideas about

prisoners are gendered masculine:

the term “prisoner” usually calls

forth an image of a young, black

man convicted of a violent crime

such as rape or murder. Politicians

seeking votes, as well as media

seeking specific audiences play on

this representation, whipping the

public into hysteria to get tougher

on crime and build more prisons.

The stereotype of the male felon,makes invisible the growing

number of women imprisoned

under the various mandatory

sentencing laws passed within the

past few decades. Because women

do not fit the media stereotype, the

public does not see them and are

not then aware of the disturbing

paradoxes of prisoners as mothers,

as women with reproductive rights

and abilities, and as women ingeneral.

A longer version of this article wa

originally published at Women and

Prison: A Site for Resista

womenandprison.org




FREEFREE

SAN QUENTIN, continued from page 1

causing them, or at least some of

them, to become part of this

Occupy movement, and under-

standably so.

I have never considered

myself to be a “Have” nor has this

country ever treated me as a

“Have.” No man or woman on

death row in this state, or any other

state, is a “Have.” We are the

“Have-Nots.” We are the bottom

1%, who damn near everyone shits

on. We are scapegoated, ignored,

humiliated, disowned, and ritually

tortured and murdered by, and at

the hands of, the top 1%, and some

of the 99% as well!Those people who are truly

the “Haves” within this country

have not made it to any death row.

For the most part, they never have

and they never will. America has a

deep seeded philosophy in which it

only allows for the execution of its

poorest people. These seeds have

taken root and have grown in such a

way that no person who this system

sees as a “Have-Not” is safe from itsdeath machine. Whether they are

within this building, or on a BART

platform.

It seems that the 1% are

immune from the sentence of

death, even when their policies in

war, or peace, have killed untold

numbers of people around the

world. The bottom 1% is not

immune, and seems to be used aspart of entertainment, from the

media to the politicians.

While these truths must be

known to the 99% who are now

saying that they are the “Have-

Nots,” these truths are not acknowl-

edged by the majority of them. We

who are the bottom 1%, the histori-

cal “Have-Nots,” the ones who are

paraded before the public and

humiliated, strapped to a gurney,

tortured and murdered by the

powers that be; we ask “Why aren’t

we included in this Occupy move-

ment?”

While people are, and

should be, occupying Wall Street

and every other money street in the

country, as well as occupying every

city that they can, I ain’t hearing no

one say, "Occupy death row!"

Nonetheless, I have been

doing so since 1985. And death

row itself has been occupying this

country since even before this land

became a country. The various

ways that poor people have been

executed throughout the yearsprove that executions are part of

this country’s DNA.

So, I now respectfully ask

this to those of you who are part of

this occupy movement: Will you

please not make the same mistake

that was made by previous move-

ments seeking civil, or any other

type of rights? That mistake was

not to include the ending of capital

punishment as part of the demands.Our fight, and our plight

from here on death row is just as

important to us, as your fight and

your plight is to you! We under-

stand this and respect this. All we

ask, and all we have the right to ask,

is that you not leave us behind,

and/or out of the conversation. Any

house, even a house full of “Have-

Nots,” divided upon itself cannot,

and will not, stand. We must unite!

In Struggle and Solidarity

from Death Row at San Quentin

Prison.

Kevin Cooper is an innocent man on

Death Row in San Quentin prison. For

more information on his case, or to

support his struggle for freedom, go to

savekevincooper.org

National Occupy Day in

Support of Prisoners

February 20, 2012

Partial list of endorsers:

Organizations: All of Us or None, California Coalition

for Women Prisoners, California

Prison Focus, Californians United for a

Responsible Budget, Campaign to End

the Death Penalty, Committee to Free

Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald, Critical

Resistance, December 9th Georgia and

International Prisoners’ Movement,

Decarcerate PA, DRIVE Movement,

Freed Woman Empowerment Associa-

tion, International Coalition to Free the

Angola 3, International Committee for

the Freedom of the Cuban 5, Interna-

tional Socialist Organization, Iraq

Veterans Against the War, San

Francisco Bay Area Chapter, Justice for

Shifa and Haris Support Committee,

Justice Now, Kevin Cooper Defense

Committee, Labor Action Committee

to Free Mumia Abu Jamal, Labor for

Palestine, Legal Services for Prisoners

with Children, Life Support Alliance,

Lynne Stewart Defense Committee,

Maine Prisoner Advocacy Coalition,

Mobilization to Free Mumia Abu

Jamal, National Coalition to Protect

Civil Freedoms, National Committee to

Free the Cuban Five, Oscar Grant Committee Against Police Brutality and

State Repression, Prison Radio, Prison

Watch Network, Prisoner Hunger

Strike Solidarity, Prisoners Are People

Too, Inc., Project NIA, Stanley Tookie

Williams Legacy Network

Individuals: Angela Davis, Anne Weills, National

Lawyers Guild (NLG), Barbara Becnel,

founder, STW Legacy Network,

Michelle Alexander, author of "The

New Jim Crow,” Carole Seligman,

Kevin Cooper Defense Committee,

Elaine Brown, Diana Block, California

Coalition for Women Prisoners, Kevin

Cooper, Michael Letwin, Former

President, Assn. of Legal Aid

Attorneys/UAW Local 2325, Noelle

Hanrahan, Project Director, Prison

Radio, Rabbi Michael Lerner, Sarah

Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer,

former hostages in Iran and human

rights activists, Stanley Tookie

Williams IV, Corcoran SHU



Education Not Incarceration!

FREE

by Dana Blanchard and Jesse Hagopian

One in 31.

As a public school teacher, I

am quite familiar with this figure –

it's a typical teacher-to-student ratio

in the classroom in California. In

recent years that proportion has

taken on new significance: a report

released on March 2, 2009 by the

Pew Center on the States found that

one in every 31 adults reside in the

U.S. corrections system – now total-

ing over 7.3 million people. That

means roughly one student per

classroom in America will end up in

prison, on parole or on probation.

In recent decades the U.S. has

experienced a surge in its prison

population, quadrupling since 1980

while at the same time violent crimeand property crime have declined

since the early 1990s.

In addition to adults, there

were 86,927 held in juvenile facili-

ties as of the 2007 Census of Juve-

niles in Residential Placement

(CJRP), conducted by the Office of

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention. In California the typical

cost to keep a juvenile incarcerated

for a year is around $90,000. Many of us are also familiar with the idea

that California politicians use 3rd

grade reading scores across the

State to determine how many jail

cells to build in the future. The

prioritization of funding for prisons,

not for schools has meant that since

the 1980’s California has invested

in a dozen new correctional facili-

ties and no new institutions of

higher education.By putting massive amounts

of money into prisons for youth and

adults and starving our public

education system the state of has

made its priorities clear. If you like

these policies of planning prison

construction based on elementary

reading levels, of closing schools

while opening jails, you might

consider a couple of other equally rewarding ventures: smashing holes

in your boat and investing in buck-

ets to bail out the water, or, equally

clever, slashing holes in the tires of

your car and subsequently investing

in tire patches. We all know that

funding essential services and

education are crucial to building the

future we all want to see. If

we don’t change these priorities

now we will be dealing with a bleak

future for ourselves and our

children.

What can we do to advocate

for schools not jails?

A big first step towards this

is that teachers, students and

parents need to get organized and

demand California stop closing

schools, start closing prisons, and

tax the rich in order to get more

money for the things we need, like

public education and public

services. This is a fight that speaks

to the goals of the Occupy move-

ment: we are the 99% and we

cannot abide any longer with the

priorities of the 1%.The Occupy Education

movement in California is calling

for two days of action in March to

demand that the state fully fund

public education and social services

and that the rich pay their fair share.

March 1 is a national call for action

and will consist of local actions

across the country. In Oakland,

people will be protesting banks to

raise awareness of how they gotbailed out while local schools got

sold out – and closed. On March 5

Occupy Education is organizing a

statewide occupation of the Capitol

in Sacramento. The protests and

occupation in Sacramento will

demand that state education policy

makers and politicians stop cutting

public education and social services

and support tax initiatives to makethe rich pay their share in our state.

This is an important step in chang-

ing the narrative in California that

jails are a replacement for quality

education and services.

The authors of this article are public

school teachers in Berkeley and Seattle.


Children have the right idea. Source: Katie Stafford Strom

occupied oakland tribune, issue 4

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