14 Faith Leaders Arrested Demanding O’Malley Drop the Charges Against the Black Friday 14.

Posted by

Categories: Front Page, Open Mic

blackfriday14-faith-sitinWednesday, at 1:30 PM in front of the Wiley Manual Courthouse in downtown Oakland approximately 150 people gathered in solidarity with the Black Friday 14. They were there to demand that the District Attorney “Drop the Charges” from a year ago when the 14 stopped BART trains at the West Oakland BART Station in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Along with the solidarity ceremonies by various faith leaders and supporters outside, fourteen members of the faith community went inside the courthouse and conducted a sit in from 1:30 PM until closing time of 4:30 PM. At that point, after several orders to disperse from deputies were joyously ignored, the 14 were arrested. They were taken to be processed to Glen Dyer, just next door, and released one by one as the night wore on. Below are tweetpics of the 14 faith leaders.

This action follows a similar November 10th sit-in in the District Attorney’s offices by 14 labor leaders. None of those 14 were arrested – theyleft voluntarily after a time.

Saturday, November 28th, 2015 will represent exactly one year since the Black Friday 14 shut down BART service at West Oakland. The District Attorney has one year to file misdemeanor charges and it is unclear whether, officially, charges have been filed. Upon presentation of a petition demanding that the charges be dropped just a week ago, signed by four hundred local attorneys, the District Attorney was reported to have said “Well, technically, I haven’t charged them yet.” Nonetheless, the Black Friday 14 already appeared in court on September 16th, 2015, where the case was continued, and they are scheduled to appear in court on December 10th to enter please.

60043

Comments are closed.