At least 300 protesters filled the BART Board’s hearing room, plus an overflow room, and the lobby outside on Thursday, January 21st, demanding that the BART Board tell District Attorney Nancy O’Malley to drop the charges against the Black Friday 14 and not to ask for restitution payments.
What they got after three hours of testimony by Black Friday shutdown participants and supporters – ranging from mention of slave patrols to the Montgomery Bus Boycott to Oscar Grant and to Nubia Bowe – was a promise by Rebecca Saltzman, one of the board members, that a proposal with uncertain wording but along those lines would be written and brought before the BART board at some point (the implication being the next BART board meeting).
(Saltzman got in over her head some weeks ago when, on Twitter, she replied to the tweet “Do u think Rosa Parks should have had to do ‘community service?'” with “Rosa Parks did not shut down an entire transit system for hours.”)
On January 20th, 2015, the Berkeley City Council passed a resolution calling for the charges to be dropped. However, there is no similar resolution before the Oakland City Council that is on any agenda; this despite the Oakland City Council having had a six-hour long meeting / town hall on “Black Lives Matter” on Saturday, January 24th. We can only wonder why.
Here is the Berkeley resolution.
BERKELEY CITY COUNCIL RESOLUTION
Whereas, a group of protesters, known as the “Black Friday 14,” chained themselves to a BART train on November 28th disrupting service for hours as part of a Black Lives Matter demonstration protesting a grand jury decision to not indict the white police officer who shot and killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, MO.; and
Whereas, the group has been charged on suspicion of trespassing on railroad property, which could force them to pay up to $70,000 in restitution to BART, a penalty more severe than those face by the hundreds arrested at other recent Bay Area demonstrations; and
Whereas, while most protesters who have disrupted traffic or public transit service have been merely cited and released or charged with minor infractions, the harsh penalties being imposed on the “Black Friday 14” could create a chilling effect for those who wish to exercise their First Amendment Rights to free speech.
Now Therefore Be It Resolved, that the Council of the City of Berkeley urges the Board of Directors of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) District to withdraw their criminal complaint against the 14 protesters involved in the November 28th service disruption, known as the “Black Friday 14” and urges the District Attorney to suspend the restitution being sought from the protesters and dismiss the charges.
Comments are closed.