Thursday, April 2nd, 2015, in the matter of City of Berkeley v USPS, Berkeley’s lawsuit to stop the sale of its downtown Post Office, United States Postal Service lawyers notified Judge William Alsup that they will continue to disregard common sense, the will of the people and federal law by refusing to say that they are halting the sales process of the Main Berkeley Post Office at 2000 Allston Way.
The Post Office’s lawyers stood before Judge Alsup on March 26th in Federal Court and repeatedly asked him to dismiss Berkeley’s lawsuit against the sale on the grounds that a sale was no longer under consideration by the Postal Service. Yet one week later – after being asked by Judge Alsup to “put that in writing” – they refused.
Berkeley Post Office Defenders occupied the exterior of the century-old Post Office building at 2000 Allston Way in August of 2013 in protest over USPS’s announced intention to sell and in opposition to the privatization of the Postal Service. We have supported the First They Came For the Homeless occupation and information booth since it began in November, 2014. And today we denounce this USPS doublespeak non-decision. We point to a two and a half year struggle by the Berkeley community, and the prospect of more years of fighting and litigation, as reason enough for Post Office officials to have come to their senses. Berkeley’s City Attorney, in their reply brief on Friday, described the USPS response as a “convoluted mirage” and “blatantly inconsistent.”
On all these bases, Judge Alsup should have an easy time deciding that the lawsuit must be allowed to proceed, and that this theft of our heritage must not be allowed to happen.
Berkeley’s Post Office belongs to the people. The privatization of our commons does not serve the interest of anyone except the 1%. We will continue the fight to preserve this vital component of our public infrastructure.
The text of the USPS Attorneys reply to Judge Alsup’s request can be seen here:
https://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/2015/04/03/usps-sends-judge-alsup-a-no-response-response/
Background: “It’s An Interesting Case.” The Sale (Or Not) of the Berkeley Post Office
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999?ref=br_tf
BPOD is affiliated with Strike Debt Bay Area: http://strike-debt-bay-area.tumblr.com/
USPS mission: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/39/101
For more on the privatization of the USPS:
– Saving the United States Postal Service as a Public Enterprise: http://tinyurl.com/ltqq7ng
– Privatization Is Social Cancer; Saving the US Postal Service: http://tinyurl.com/mbcbzrf
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