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ALL OUT! Wear Black! Rally at 16th BART Station. (PartyPatrol)
On Saturday Jan 17 the Berkeley City Council will be holding a special meeting to discuss “Improving Police/Community Relations.” This meeting will be held at the Ed Roberts Campus, a community facility for disabled people.
We demand an end to the war on black lives! Berkeley Police regularly profile black people with disabilities! Black disabled people have died in Berkeley Police custody!
About the organizers:
We are a group of mostly white, mostly fat, mostly disabled, mostly queer activists. We are responding to a call from the Anti Police-Terror Project (https://www.facebook.com/
Everyone is welcome.
We will be occupying space outside the front and back doors from 9 AM – 11 AM, longer for folks who want to stay. We will be supporting those who are actually speaking during the public comment parts of the meeting, so it is not our goal to shut down this meeting, but to be a steady presence. We will be silent, and our appearance and tone will be militant and disciplined.
9 AM.
Ed Roberts Campus – 3075 Adeline Street, Berkeley, CA 94703
Wear black.
Bring signs that say:
• Black lives matter
• Black disabled lives matter
• Black trans lives matter
• Black deaf lives matter
• Berkeley police regularly profile black people with disabilities
• End the war on black people
• ADA applies to police too
• Police accountability now
• Adopt the Ferguson demands
If you can’t be there, but want to help by making signs, please contact us.
If you are part of another group planning actions during this meeting, feel free to contact us so we can coordinate.
AGENDA
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In our case, to the buses! In SF, we will be having a rally and speak out starting at 12pm at 24th and Mission Sts. At 1pm, we will split into groups and get on buses, BART and through the neighborhood in order to inform our community about the real legacy of MLK and why his struggle is still so important today.
Please read the ANSWER Coalition’s “Call to Action” below for our orientation towards the commemoration of Dr. MLK:
The political establishment, from the White House to City Halls everywhere, will evoke Dr. Martin Luther King’s heroism and his “I Have a Dream Speech” as a way of legitimizing the tradition of dissent in U.S. history. Yet for the millions who have taken to the streets in reaction to the growing national movement against racist police terror, the words and legacy of Dr. King carry a different meaning. Having his life threatened by the FBI and finally being assassinated by the most reactionary elements in the United States, Dr. King was known in his later years as a staunch critic of the U.S. economic and political system that forced upon the Black nation poverty and violence, yet preached “liberty” and “democracy” abroad. Dr. King said, “I am convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin — we must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, extreme materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
Today, after the killings of Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Akai Gurley, Rumain Brisbon, Ezell Ford and so many more – all racist police killings of unarmed Black men who have received no justice by the same system Dr. King condemned years ago – the growing movement against racism and police terror can reclaim the radical tradition of one of the key figures of the civil rights movement.
Across the country, the ANSWER Coalition and scores of other national and local organizations are taking part in speak-outs, actions on public transportation, contingents in parades and more demanding “Stop the War on Black America” and “Stop Racist Police Terror.”
Go to event: http://www.face
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Help us create a garden on the west side of the Berkeley Post Office. Hummingbird flowers, winter vegetables, vertical gardening, heirloom seeds, organic non-GMO and medicinal plants are in the chat… We also need good soil, garden tools, resources food and most of all people who want to garden!
The pre-planting get together will have been held on January 10th.
The Downtown Berkeley Post Office will have been Occupied 75 days on January 17th.
March on the MLK Day weekend to demand:
- Jail Darren Wilson
- Reject the Grand Jury Decision!
- Drop Charges Against All Protesters!
- Create More Jobs and Educational Opportunities!
- Down with the New Jim Crow
- Down with the Police State!
The coming of winter has not cooled the anger of the black community of Ferguson, Missouri–it has only fanned the flames of the demand for justice that is spreading throughout the nation.
Like Ferguson, East Oakland, CA is a community with a strong history of fighting for justice against racist police attacks as well as for the rights and dignity of undocumented immigrant communities. Our movement is strongest when we are taking mass, militant, direct action in the streets.
March on the MLK Day weekend to demand: Jail Darren Wilson and Reject the Grand Jury Decision! Jail the Killer Cops! Drop Charges Against All Protesters! Stop racist attacks by police and ICE on black, Latina/o and other minority communities! No more second-class treatment and no more deportations! Create More Jobs and Educational Opportunities! Down with the New Jim Crow–Down with the Police State!
All supporters are welcome. Bring signs, banners, and be ready to make lots of noise. Our voices will be heard!
Sponsored by BAMN: Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action, Integration and Immigrant Rights and Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary
bamn.com
#MLKshutitdown Bay Love at N. Oakland Farmers Market.
No other information available.
This action is being held by WAS – Workers Against the System; an affinity group of Anti-Police Terrorism Spokescouncil as part of the weekend reclamation of Martin Luther King Jr.’s legacy weekend.
Join us in our action to interrupt business as usual at the Oakland Walmart. We will raise awareness of John Crawford’s murder that happened August 5, 2014 inside of a southern Ohio Walmart store.
We stand in solidarity and remembrance with his family against the injustice the system has served them; by murdering their son and not indicting the officers involved in the shooting.
Wal-Mart is notoriously known for underpaying it’s workers; and in the Bay Area, employing managers that are publicly racist. Wal-Mart also facilitated the murder of John Crawford. We need to remind them that BLACK LIVES MATTER!
More information on Facebook page.
The Domain Awareness Center was constrained last year to the Port of Oakland, and not allowed to come online until a privacy policy was put in place.
The privacy policy has been written, and will come before the City Council beginning on February 10th.
The Privacy Policy Committee and the Oakland Privacy Working Group have been working hard to make sure the privacy policy is very strong and it has become a national model. Now support is needed so that it won’t be watered down by the Council!
The Privacy Policy Committee will also recommend to the City Council that the Privacy Policy for the DAC be extended to Oakland (currently Oakland has no privacy policy), and also that the City Council adopt an “open” surveillance equipment acquisition ordinance.
Come learn more about all of this and how you can help keep privacy alive in Oakland.
Reference: The DAC FAQ
The first portion of the CrytoParty will be the DAC Workshop:
Stop the Spy Center from Encroaching Into Oakland – A Workshop on the DAC, its Privacy Policy and Surveillance Equipment
which begins at 2:00 PM. The usual cryptoparty will begin at 3:30 PM.
Join us for dinner ,outdoor entertainment and a sleep-in.
Everyone deserves a #Right2Rest.
Description (Drama 1984) Directed by Spike Lee – a community responds to the killing of a black man
“Equality demands dignity. And dignity demands a job and a paycheck that lasts through the week.”
“When you have mass unemployment in the Negro community it’s called a social problem. When you have mass unemployment in the white community it’s called a depression”
“We refuse to believe the bank of justice is bankrupt”
— Martin Luther King, Jr—–
Join the Anti Police-Terrorism Project (APTP) for a MLK day march that reclaims the spirit of King and celebrates his legacy of resistance!
There will be performances, speakers, resource booths, face painting, crafts and more!
This is a family-friendly event and a celebration of King’s legacy, Black Lives and the struggle for social justice.
We will gather at the plaza outside of Oscar Grant Station (Fruitvale) at 11 AM. There will be performances, speakers, resource booths, face painting, crafts and more! From there we will march to Coliseum City connecting the dots between police terrorism and economic terrorism – meaning the unjust ways that cops kill unarmed Black people as with Oscar Grant and the unjust way Oakland’s development is either pushing Black and Brown people out of the city and/or not hiring Black and Brown Oakland residents to facilitate or benefit from the new development as with the Coliseum City project.
Stay Tuned for More Details!!!
The APTP is a group of concerned institutions, organizations and individuals committed to ending the state sanctioned murder of Black, Brown & Poor people by police departments across the country.
#BlackLivesMatter. Join us as we discuss the national epidemic of police brutality, misconduct and associasted laws and legal procedures, as well as your rights when facing law enforcement and the state of our modern civil rights movement.
Panelists: John Burris, Adante Pointer, Paul Henderson, Cephus Johnson
Performance: Prentice Powell, spoken word artist.
Please come at 9am and 2pm to support folks arrested at a march during MLK weekend. Let’s come out and support each other!
Always check the event page and Antirepression for last minute changes.
Surveillance technologies such as automated license plate readers, body cameras and drones, to name a few, have the potential to give law enforcement an edge in fighting crime and bringing wrongdoers to justice. Yet the same technologies also raise serious concerns about privacy and civil liberties. Throughout California, elected representatives and law enforcement leaders are faced with the task of finding a balance that serves their community.
At this Forum, speakers from California and elsewhere will discuss how law enforcement is procuring and using these technologies, how local communities are addressing the related policy issues and how to develop best practices for balancing the need to keep our communities safe while at the same time respecting privacy rights and civil liberties.
Refreshments provided courtesy of The Lares Institute, a think
tank on technology, privacy and information governance.
Register by email to AGforum@doj.ca.gov
Attorney General Kamala D. Harris presents
Featured Speakers
M. Ahsan Baig
Division Manager, Public Safety Services & Business Applications, City of Oakland
Renee Domingo
Director of Emergency Services and Homeland Security, City of Oakland
Michael Downing
Deputy Chief, Commanding Officer, Counter-Terrorism and Special Operations Bureau, Los Angeles Police Department
Brian Hofer
Chair, Domain Awareness Center Ad Hoc Advisory Committee on Privacy and Data Retention, City of Oakland
Jennifer Lynch
Senior Staff Attorney, Electronic Frontier Foundation
Deirdre Mulligan
Professor, School of Information, University of California, Berkeley
Nicole Ozer
Technology and Civil Liberties Policy Director, ACLU of Northern California
Cynthia Renaud
Police Chief, City of Folsom
And a representative of the Police Executive Research Forum
Protecting Our Communities, Respecting Our Liberties
Join us on the 5th anniversary of the infamous Citizens United decision for the “Mourning in America” March and Rally. The 3.1 mile march will be kicked off by well known hip-hop artist for change, Khafre Joy. Marchers will be led by effigies of five of the Supreme Court Justices, and followed by a spirited band and a coffin with Uncle Sam inside. The rally will begin at 4:30 at at the Federal Building, the end-site of the march. Speakers will include Gayle McLaughlin, former mayor of Richmond who stood up to Chevron and won, and Bill McKibben of 350.org. There will be musicians, street theater and the lighting of a building with our message.
Can you join us in San Francisco on Wednesday?
Click below for more details and to RSVP:
Yes, I’ll be there!
Sorry, I can’t make it, but I’m interested in getting more updates.
Join a march and rally—in fact, a memorial service— to mark the 5th anniversary of the death of democracy. On this day in 2010, the US Supreme Court issued its “Citizens United” ruling, which allows corporations and their billionaire masters to strangle democracy.
Statement of the event organizers, Money Out! People In!:
On this the anniversary of the Citizen United we:
• Mourn the Supreme Court decisions granting corporations unlimited campaign spending rights.
• Mourn our lost American democracy,
• Mourn the loss of government that no longer works for us.
• Vow to recreate a government by the people.
• And find hope that democracy will be resurrected in America
Our call to action:
1. Demand an amendment to the US Constitution — We the People must clearly affirm that corporations do NOT have the same rights as people and money is NOT protected as free speech (www.movetoamend.org / www.freespeechforpeople.org).
2. Pass anti-corruption legislation in your city. Corruption has been legalized. (represent.us/local-anti-corruption-act). End the revolving door between lobbying and any government work, including political office. Hold politicians accountable.
3. Volunteer with a local group working to get big money out of politics (www.moneyoutpeoplein.com).
4. Broaden the movement. Have your union, congregation, non-profit, or other organization endorse Move to Amend and/or Free Speech for People.
5. Learn about and advocate for the California DISCLOSE Act and the Federal DISCLOSE Act to require transparency in political ads and neutralize super PACs and billionaires.
This event is organized by Money Out! People In! – a Northern California coalition dedicated to getting big money out of politics. Visit their website at www.moneyoutpeoplein.com
Download Statement of Principles for a 21st Century Democracy (PDF), from Money Out! People In!
San Leandro, like other cities in the Bay Area, wants to acquire a tank. Well, not a tank exactly; more like (actually, exactly like) an armored personnel carrier. The kind you see in war movies and Iraq footage.
On January 8th a rally against the tank, followed by a San Leandro City Council meeting in which much opposition to the acquisition of this vehicle was voiced, was held. (The City Council plans to hold a vote sometime in February). Most of the voices opposed were San Leandro Citizens, and a few members of the Oakland Privacy Working Group and the Bay Area Civil Liberties Coalition spoke against the vehicle.
Here is a letter a San Leandro resident, Tim Holmes, sent to the Council, finishing the thoughts he did not have time to express at the City Council hearing that evening. It is a good read and very powerful.
To the members of the San Leandro City Council:
I attended the recent community meeting regarding the plans to obtain a Bearcat, I wasn’t able to complete my comments in the time allotted, so I’m including them in full here.
I am asking you vote no and to NOT accept this vehicle.
Tools only seem neutral. You pick one up, you use it and put it back. But the tools at your disposal determine how you solve a problem. “Give someone a hammer and everything begins to look like a nail.” This tool is not neutral.
This tool CAN be used as a medical vehicle, but it is, by any real-world definition, a tank. It’s a vehicle custom-built and sold as a military vehicle, with an oxygen canister, two folding stretchers, and a “MedEvac” sticker thrown in to put a veneer of humanitarian aid to get in through the door.
It CAN be used as a shield, but any shield with holes built-in was built as a firing platform first and foremost and a shield second.
There is no question this tool will be put to use, as any tool is. And, were you to be given a attack helicopter, that too would assist in pursuing bad guys, but when going down that path justifies any tool. Brick by brick we build the world we will live in. That’s the larger picture you need to keep in mind as your decisions will impact generations to come and shape the world they live in, without their participation or permission.
We all draw a line somewhere, a line over which we feel we lose our freedoms. There are countries, now and in the past, who have taken that path, but I don’t know anyone who considers those countries better for it.
That line differs for everyone, but the discussion about where that line is for this community is being denied. Instead our police department has already decided without public input, and is creeping that line forward more and more. The ever increasing and undisclosed number of license plate cameras, community surveillance cameras, with surprise microphones no less, the proposal for the Bearcat, and more. All of this is occurring without an open debate on the tradeoffs, while the police have pat answers to every concern, never even acknowledging that there is indeed a cost, a human cost, and a cost to our individual rights.
We must govern and make decisions under the assumption that people you do not trust will in charge, because the decisions you are making will affect our grandchildren and had somebody made these decisions 30 years ago, we would live in the free society we do today, even with the legacy of abusing the rights of minorities.
People feel the comparison to Ferguson is inappropriate, but it was only a few decades ago when being black in San Leandro was more dangerous than being in Ferguson today, and our police department followed the orders of our city’s culture of racism and abuse of powers. What would those elected officials and those police officers do with this vehicle… You must make laws to protect us from their sentiments now just as we needed that then. You are hearing about police abuse of power because it happens. It happens in the Bay Area today, not just in Ferguson and not just in our past. It really happens and citizens are justifiably fearful.
Because as things stand, the only way to ensure we aren’t the ones being persecuted is to lie low, stay quiet, and not raise trouble and in a democracy that’s not an acceptable trade off, for me and many others…. that’s unacceptably over the line. That’s our reality.
As a citizen of your city, a voter, a parent, local business owner, donor, community activist, and volunteer, I ask you to vote against accepting this vehicle.
Don’t allow us to be dragged back to a time when police cars sat on the border of Oakland, where minorities were unwelcome and discriminated against, and where our police were the stooges of those whose agenda isn’t American, isn’t moral, and which does not represent the people of San Leandro, the majority of whom are already discriminated against and fear the police, and yet make up the majority population of the city.