This essay was originally published by “Will S” on IndyBay.
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It began, as it usually does, with stupidity. Official stupidity.
Instead of behaving like a civilized human being, Alameda City Official Bob Haun took it upon himself to shove with both hands a 68 year old Alameda Rental Coalition member protesting rent hikes, causing the protester to fall to the ground. This led to a chain of events in which Haun himself then fell in an undetermined manner (and reportedly suffered a hip injury), a protest organizer was arrested, and the original protester, the one trying to gain access to the Council Chamber and who was repelled by Mr. Haun, was grabbed by two Alameda Police officers and then slammed to the ground, ultimately leaving behind the blood you see to the right.
All because some greedy landlords are pushing rents up sky high and/or evicting people out of the homes they’ve been able to afford for decades. All because the Alameda City Council, which has known about the rent crisis for at least a year, had refused to do anything about it. Until push came to slamdown and arrest. one blogger put it:
…the City Council did not realize the magnitude of the issue in front of them… there is a level of desperation to the renters community after hearing story after story of evictions and rent hikes.
Alameda can no longer look through the Webster tunnel and snicker at Oakland’s troubles with its police. As otherwise oppressive as they are, the Oakland Police have yet to figure out the benefit of attacking a sixty-eight year old transgender person within a few feet of City Council chambers during a Council meeting and leaving the person’s blood on the floor of City Hall.
You can watch the ABC News 7 video, taken from inside the Council chamber, showing Mr. Haun showing the protester. You can see Haun then fall, and determine for yourself whether it is plausible that the protester was somehow responsible for Haun’s fall – as the criminal charges against the person state. (As of this writing, these charges have not been officially filed in court, and the protester is no longer in jail.)
You can see two other videos, taken from outside the chamber, which show the large group of protesters in the corridor, events at the door to the chamber from the other side, and the takedown and arrest of the protester by the Alameda police.
You can read one reporter’s account of the incident in the East Bay Express.
There is no excuse for violence against a bunch of people waving signs and wanting to exercise their constitutional rights and rights under the California Brown Act to speak at a public meeting. The lone policeman at the door seemed to have behaved with restraint, but the two he called for backup went berserk when they tried to arrest the aged protester – this in a tight and confusing situation with older people and children immediately near. Had the crowd been of a different mood, those police through their intemperate actions could have precipitated a riot.
They both should be fired immediately, and Mr. Haun should be charged with assault.
The smeared blood was mopped up…
but the Alameda City Council is going to have to live with having had blood spilled on its own floor, through its own inaction, for some time to come.
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