Russell Bates, a well-known East Bay activist and Berkeley CopWatch member has filed suit against the Oakland Police for a beating he received at their batons on May 1st, 2012.
May Day, 2012 was the scene of brutal attacks by the Oakland Police Department on peaceful protesters, beginning around noon when people were attacked just north of 14th & Broadway as police performed “snatch and grabs,” and continuing that night, when police without provocation charged into people in the vicinity of Oscar Grant Plaza after they had marched from Fruitvale Station.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle
Russell Bates, 67, said he was filming a “May Day” protest near 14th Street and Broadway in downtown Oakland about 8:30 p.m. May 1, 2012 when a line of officers began ordering demonstrators to move.
Bates said he did so but paused to shoot video when he saw “police knock someone down and beat him,” according to the suit filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco.
Without warning, one or more officers “clubbed plaintiff in the forehead and took him to the ground, hitting him repeatedly and causing him to lose consciousness,” the suit said. When he came to, people in the crowd were calling, “Stop hitting him!” the suit said.
Bates was arrested on suspicion of failing to disperse and spent eight hours at Santa Rita Jail in Dublin before he was released, the complaint said. Prosecutors never charged him with a crime.
His attorney is Rachel Lederman, one of Scott Olsen’s attorneys who, a month ago, announced a $4.5 million settlement against the City of Oakland in that case.
Another Occupy Oakland lawsuit still outstanding against the City is the January 28th illegal kettling and arrests near the Broadway YMCA.
Occupy related lawsuits have already cost Oakland’s taxpayers some six or seven million dollars, not even counting court costs and City Attorney fees; the total is destined to grow. Oakland’s police have not been held accountable to the taxpayers for what they have perpetrated upon taxpayers, and its budget remains untouchable and continues to grow.
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