An important Berkeley City Council meeting that will consider several actions promoting police accountability.  Your voice is needed in this conversation.

Tuesday is a beginning of a year-long campaign for change in Berkeley policing.  Please join with us to make history in Berkeley.

Highlights:

Item 14 (Bartlett):  Referral to Peace and Justice Commission to divest from entities involved with creating databases or registries to target immigrants and religious minorities; and prohibit investment in all service providers to ICE. (To sail through on the consent calendar, it is important that no more than three community people speak to this item.)

Item 26 (Harrison/3 co-sponsors): Amend use of force reporting to require all use of force

Item 29 (Worthington, Harrison): Refer to PRC to write Charter Amendment for true police commission

See https://www.dropbox.com/s/4tjrulxjsh526mb/2017-10-31%20Agenda%20Packet%28WEB%29.pdf?dl=0

Item 26: require reporting of all use of force.

The importance of Council Member Harrison’s item is that use of force that does not involve a weapon, such as use of legs or arms, does not need to be reported to department management.  If it is not reported internally, there is no way for the council, PRC, or the public to get a true picture of the overall use of force.This is out of step with all other area departments regionally and most nationally.  This failure has been called out by the Center for Policing Equity in their report on BPD’s racial disparities.

The language on Item 26 has gone through changes over time.  Here is the current summary from Kate Harrison’s office.  It can be found in the Revised Materials, a link under Item 26 on the Agenda.

RECOMMENDATION
1. Direct the City Manager to amend Berkeley Police Department (“BPD” or “the Department”) General Order U-2: Use of Force (“General Order U-2”) to:

a. Enhance BPD’s use of force policy statement; and
b. Create a definition of use of force; and
c. Require that all uses of force be reported; and
d. Categorize uses of force into levels for the purposes of facilitating the appropriate reporting, investigation, documentation and review requirements; and
e. Require Use of Force Reports to be captured in a manner that allows for analysis; and
f. Require that the Department prepare an annual analysis report relating to use of force to be submitted to the Chief of Police, Police Review Commission (“PRC”) and Council.

2. Direct that the City Manager report to the Council by December 12, 2017 on the progress to date and present to the Council by February 27, 2018 a final version of General Order U-2.

3. Prior to implementation, the revised General Order U-2 shall be submitted to the PRC in accordance with BMC 3.32.090(B).

Item 28: Address racial disparities, enhance PRC power in Board of Inquiry process

Council Member Worthington’s item contains six reforms requested a year ago by the PRC.  The first three address racial disparities, and the last three enhance the Board of Inquiry process.

On the issue of racial disparities, the PRC has been drafting detailed analysis and recommendations over the past year.  These should be sent to Council by the end of the year.  Mr. Worthington’s proposed reforms touch on some of the same issues that the PRC will address: tracking yield rates, developing training programs, and consulting/cooperating with communities most affected by observed racial disparities to develop and implement policy and practice reforms.

Therefore, points 1, 2, and 3 are positive and should be supported, and will be helpful when the specific PRC recommendations come up for consideration.

Points 4, 5, and 6 are very important enhancements to the civilian complaint review process. These are beginning steps to restore some level of relevance to the ground-breaking oversight that voters mandated in 1973.  They are:

4. Subject to applicable law, provide the PRC with the same access to all department files and records, in addition to all files and records of other City departments and agencies, as the department’s Internal Affairs Division (IAD). The Department and other city departments and agencies will make every reasonable effort to respond to the PRC’s requests for files and records within (10) days.

5. Use the “Preponderance of the Evidence” as the standard of proof for Board of Inquiry decisions of the PRC.

6. Extend the current 120-day limit on the imposition of discipline to one year, consistent with existing California law.

These points may meet with strong staff and department resistance.  Please contact me for clarification if you want to support these vital changes.

Item 29:  Refer to PRC to write Charter Amendment for a true police commission

It is time to put an issue on the ballot to establish a truly independent commission that cannot be overruled by city management. It will have the power to view any evidence required for the oversight function, and to have more direct power over discipline as well as policy.

Last Tuesdays of the month are general orientation meetings for new volunteers. (The first three Tuesdays of the month are open hacknights – we stay focused! )

Our goal is to create a wireless mesh network that is owned and operated by the community.

Want to help create an alternate means of digital communication that isn’t governed by for-profit internet service providers? We need people with both technical and non-technical backgrounds to help with everything from local community involvement and crowdfunding to mounting wifi routers on buildings and developing software!

Learn more at: http://sudomesh.org/

The Eviction Defense Collaborative would be honored by your presence at our 22nd Annual Fundraiser – a fun & inspiring evening dedicated to preventing homelessness, preserving affordable housing, and protecting the diversity & character of San Francisco:

We will feed you delicious food!
We will serve you delicious drinks!
We will honor local heroes of the Housing Justice movement!
We will show a new short film about the impact of the housing crisis on our most vulnerable neighbors.
We will dance the night away to live music by amazing local artists!

You obviously don’t want to miss this. Buy your tickets today!

All proceeds will directly benefit San Francisco tenants facing eviction, displacement & homelessness.

In this edition of Bread and Roses, food for thought will come from EBDSA member John Pearson RN. He’ll talk about a recent member-driven campaign that won breaks and back pay for nurses at Highland Hospital in Oakland. Come break bread and hang with East Bay Labor activists!

Open to East Bay Labor activists, union members and workplace organizers in and outside of DSA.

$16 buffet available at the social.

Come by our open Delegates Meetings every First and Third Thursday of the month at 7pm! We’ll give space to brief announcements, updates from working groups, proposals up for consensus, and discussion around important issues. The schedule is created weekly at the following url: https://pad.riseup.net/p/omninom

SF Police Commission making final decision on use of #Taser on 11/3 at 5pm. #NoTasersSF https://t.co/HCC625DnRD

— Media Alliance (@twrling) October 28, 2017

4:00pm, � RALLY In Front of City Hall

The Sf Police Commission will be voting on whether SFPD will have tasters! It is Critical to get AS MANY PEOPLE POSSIBLE and pack the room! Tasers are dangerous weapons that do not belong in our city!!

The San Francisco Police Commission will be holding its last public hearing on purchasing stun guns for San Francisco police officers. Although there has been much discussion on the topic, there remain many misconceptions about the weapon under consideration and its potential impact on policing in the city.

I’ve heard many people – young and old –  say that they’d rather be stunned than shot with a bullet. This is a logical response. Unfortunately it’s based on misunderstandings about how conducted electrical weapons (CEWs) work.

Even the San Francisco Police Officers Association (POA) has repeatedly asserted after officer-involved shootings that SF police officers need CEWs to use as an alternative to guns.

To be clear, CEWs cannot be substitutes for guns because there are inherent limitations in how they function that render them unreliable for being used in deadly force situations.

The leading manufacturer of CEWs specifically states in its training materials, “CEWs do NOT replace deadly-force options.” Most departments that have CEWs instruct officers NOT to use them in deadly force situations because they cannot be relied upon to stop a threat.   Many factors can cause the CEW be ineffective  – how thick the person’s clothing is, whether both probes hit the person, and whether the CEWs electrical charge captures enough muscle to incapacitate, to name a few.

The law permits officers to use their firearms in deadly-force circumstances, which involve a threat of death or great bodily harm. The manufacturer’s training materials advise officers that the optimal range for CEW deployment is seven to 15 feet. To use a CEW in a situation in which an individual is armed or violent or aggressive would require the officer to be just seven to 15 feet from the individual. Alarmingly, CEWs have been found to fail often, in fact the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) reported a 47% failure rate in 2015.

The SFPD adopted a new Use of Force policy in December 2016 stating the commitment to accomplish the “mission with respect and minimal reliance on the use of force by using rapport-building communication, crisis intervention, and de-escalation tactics” including time and distance. Bringing in a weapon that requires officers to be within seven to 15 feet of an aggressive individual would undermine the tenets of the policy and the training that has been instituted. And, should the weapon fail, officers would be in jeopardy and would have no choice but to escalate to lethal force.

In considering adopting CEWs it is prudent to ask, “Have CEWs been shown to stop or reduce officer-involved shootings in other law enforcement agencies?” Recent reports from Los Angeles and San Jose, both cities that have deployed CEWs for many years, register significant numbers of officer-involved shootings. LAPD reports 34 officer-involved shootings to date in 2017, and San Jose registered its eighth officer-involved shooting in September. CEWs clearly do not prevent officers from using guns. SFPD has had ongoing issues with disparate use of force, including deadly force, on persons of color. The findings of the DOJ Collaborative Reform Assessment of the SFPD and the Blue Ribbon Panel Report detail racial inequalities in many areas from stops, searches, and arrests, to officer-involved shootings.

San Francisco is not the only city with disproportionate use of force patterns.   Other cities that have similar problems report disparities in officer-involved shootings as well as CEW use.   For example, a 2016 Chicago study documented that Chicago officers shot and used CEWs on African Americans at disturbing rates, and a Houston studyreported that CEWs were used disproportionately on African Americans.

The question of CEW efficacy is further complicated by the fact that the weapon under consideration for purchase by SFPD at this time, the Taser x2, is a new model that has had very little study or research to verify its reliability. The City of Houston has had several incidents that raise serious questions about the Taser x2.   A lawsuit filed this year by Houston Officer Karen Taylor after she was severely injured in a failed Taser x2 incident details how the newer CEWs, while possibly less dangerous to suspects than previous models, are more risky for officers because they are less effective. In one weekend in March, 2016, in three separate incidents Houston officers shot suspectsafter failed Taser x2 deployments.

Tragically, CEWs, the “less lethal” weapons, kill far too often. In a series published this past summer a Reuters Report examines 1,005 deaths since 2000 involving Tasers and states, “Many who die are among society’s vulnerable  – unarmed, in psychological distress and seeking help. In the city of San Jose alone there have been eight deaths after CEWs have been used-  some linked to the CEWs, and some from other contributing factors. In all of the cases, use of the CEW did not result in safely taking a suspect into custody.

Would we support our city purchasing new, untested cars for employee use that reputedly fail nearly 50% of the time, that randomly kill people (particularly vulnerable populations and people of color) even when used as directed, and would certainly result in costly lawsuits? Of course not.

Before obtaining a new problematic weapon that would most likely be used disproportionately on people of color and vulnerable populations, the city and the SFPD must focus on de-escalation of force and ensuring that policing in San Francisco is equitable and fair and functions at the stated SFPD “highest priority (of) safeguarding the life, dignity and liberty of all persons.”  SFPD General Order 5.01 Use of Force

Barbara Attard is a police accountability consultant, former president of the National Association for Civilian Oversight of Law Enforcement (NACOLE), and co-author of the Police Misconduct Complaint Investigations Manual.

8:00 –  DEFENDER – Jeff Adachi and Jim Choi – Documentary – 75 min.                                                                 

This insightful documentary focuses on San Francisco Public Defender Jeff Adachi as he and his team, take on the high-profile case of 22-year-old Michael Smith, who pleads not guilty after he is charged with nine counts of resisting arrest. Pulled off a BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) train along with his girlfriend, Smith is wrestled to the ground, the arrest captured on the attending officers’ body cameras. 

Happy November, #Alameda! 🍂 Join us Sat. Nov. 4th 2-4pm: @Alameda_Renters General Meeting at @theAlamedaPoint Collaborative! #JustCauseNow pic.twitter.com/pvn3ZoAi09

— Alameda Renters (@Alameda_Renters) November 2, 2017

VOICES FOR FREEDOM:The Hyers Sisters’ Legacy – Documentary – Susheel Bibbs – 30 min              

In 1877, when nightriders terrorized African-Americans and black-face minstrels ridiculed them across the land, The Hyers Sisters (African-American, opera prodigies) arose to become Voices For Freedom.  Q&A Follows   

4:00 – Citizen Clark… A Life Of Principle – Joseph C. Stillman – Documentary – 90 min. Q&A Follows  Introduction of the film by Alice Walker, in person.
This is a film about former U.S. Attorney General and Humans Rights Activist Ramsey Clark. Narrated by Martin Sheen. This is a ‘work in progress’.

6:00 –  An Exploration of Our History – Doug Harris – Documentary – 10 min. Q&A Follows                                         

Berkeley  filmmaker, Doug Harris, discovers his family’s history of escaping slavery in 1855 from Virginia to Canada through the Underground Railroad.                                                                            

The Fifth Annual Aaron Swartz Day International Hackathon and Evening Event.

The event will take place following this year’s San Francisco-based Aaron Swartz International Hackathon, which is going on Saturday, November 4, 2017 from 10-6 and Sunday, November 5, 2017 from 11am-6pm at the Internet Archive.

Hackathon Reception: 6:00pm-7:00pm – (A paid ticket for the evening event also gets you in to the Hackathon Reception.)

Come talk to the speakers and the rest of the Aaron Swartz Day community, and join us in celebrating many incredible things that we’ve accomplished by this year! (Although there is still much work to be done.)

We will toast to the launch of the Pursuance Project (an open source, end-to-end encrypted Project Management suite, envisioned by Barrett Brown and brought to life by Steve Phillips).

Migrate your way upstairs: 7:00-7:30pm – The speakers are starting early, at 7:30pm this year – and we are also providing a stretch break at 8:15pm – and for those to come in that might have arrived late.

Speakers upstairs begin at 7:30 pm.

The purpose of the evening event, as always, is to inspire direct action toward improving the world. Everyone has been asked to speak about whatever they feel is most important.

Speakers in reverse order (speaker bios are at the bottom of this invite):

Chelsea Manning (Network Security Expert, Former Intelligence Analyst)

Lisa Rein (Chelsea Manning’s Archivist, Co-founder, Aaron Swartz Day & Creative Commons)

Daniel Rigmaiden (Transparency Advocate)

Barrett Brown (Journalist, Activist, Founder of the Pursuance Project) (appearing remotely)

Jason Leopold (Senior Investigative Reporter, Buzzfeed News)

Jennifer Helsby (Lead Developer, SecureDrop, Freedom of the Press Foundation)

Cindy Cohn (Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation)

Gabriella Coleman (Hacker Anthropologist, Author, Researcher, Educator)

Caroline Sinders (Designer/Researcher, Wikimedia Foundation, Creative Dissent Fellow, YBCA)

Brewster Kahle (Co-founder and Digital Librarian, Internet Archive, Co-founder Aaron Swartz Day)

Steve Phillips (Project Manager, Pursuance)

Mek Karpeles (Citizen of the World, Internet Archive)

About the Speakers:

Chelsea Manning – Network Security Expert, Transparency Advocate

Chelsea E. Manning is a network security expert, whistleblower, and former U.S. Army intelligence analyst. While serving 7 years of an unprecedented 35 year sentence for a high-profile leak of government documents, she became a prominent and vocal advocate for government transparency and transgender rights, both on Twitter and through her op-ed columns for The Guardian and The New York Times. She currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area, where she writes about technology, artificial intelligence, and human rights.

Lisa Rein – Chelsea Manning’s Archivist, Co-founder, Aaron Swartz Day (& Creative Commons)
Lisa Rein is Chelsea Manning’s archivist, and ran her @xychelsea Twitter account from December 2015 – May 2017. She is a co-founder of Creative Commons, where she worked with Aaron Swartz on its technical specification, when he was only 15. She is a writer, musician and technology consultant, and lectures for San Francisco State University’s BECA department. Lisa is the Digital Librarian for the Dr. Timothy Leary Futique Trust.

Daniel Rigmaiden – Transparency Advocate
Daniel Rigmaiden became a government transparency advocateafter U.S. law enforcement used a secret cell phone surveillance device to locate him inside his home. The device, often called a “Stingray,” simulates a cell tower and tricks cell phones into connecting to a law enforcement controlled cellular network used to identify, locate, and sometimes collect the communications content of cell phone users. Before Rigmaiden brought Stingrays into the public spotlight in 2011, law enforcement concealed use of the device from judges, defense attorneys and defendants, and would typically not obtain a proper warrant before deploying the device.

Barrett Brown – Journalist, Activist, and Founder of the Pursuance Project

Barrett Brown is a writer and anarchist activist. His work has appeared in Vanity Fair, the Guardian, The Intercept, Huffington Post, New York Press, Skeptic, The Daily Beast, al-Jazeera, and dozens of other outlets. In 2009 he founded Project PM, a distributed think-tank, which was later re-purposed to oversee a crowd-sourced investigation into the private espionage industry and the intelligence community at large via e-mails stolen from federal contractors and other sources. In 2011 and 2012 he worked with Anonymous on campaigns involving the Tunisian revolution, government misconduct, and other issues. In mid-2012 he was arrested and later sentenced to four years in federal prison on charges stemming from his investigations and work with Anonymous. While imprisoned, he won the National Magazine Award for his column, The Barrett Brown Review of Arts and Letters and Prison. Upon his release, in late 2016, he began work on the Pursuance System, a platform for mass civic engagement and coordinated opposition. His third book, a memoir/manifesto, will be released in 2018 by Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux.

Jason Leopold, Senior Investigative Reporter, Buzzfeed News

Jason Leopold is an Emmy-nominated investigative reporter on the BuzzFeed News Investigative Team. Leopold’s reporting and aggressive use of the Freedom of Information Act has been profiled by dozens of media outlets, including a 2015 front-page story in The New York Times. Politico referred to Leopold in 2015 as “perhaps the most prolific Freedom of Information requester.” That year, Leopold, dubbed a ‘FOIA terrorist’ by the US government testified before Congress about FOIA (PDF) (Video). In 2016, Leopold was awarded the FOI award from Investigative Reporters & Editors and was inducted into the National Freedom of Information Hall of Fame by the Newseum Institute and the First Amendment Center.

Jennifer Helsby, Lead Developer, SecureDrop (Freedom of the Press Foundation)

Jennifer is Lead Developer of SecureDrop. Prior to joining FPF, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the Center for Data Science and Public Policy at the University of Chicago, where she worked on applying machine learning methods to problems in public policy. Jennifer is also the CTO and co-founder of Lucy Parsons Labs, a non-profit that focuses on police accountability and surveillance oversight. In a former life, she studied the large scale structure of the universe, and received her Ph.D. in astrophysics from the University of Chicago in 2015.

Cindy Cohn – Executive Director, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Cindy Cohn is the Executive Director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. From 2000-2015 she served as EFF’s Legal Director as well as its General Counsel.The National Law Journal named Ms. Cohn one of 100 most influential lawyers in America in 2013, noting: “[I]f Big Brother is watching, he better look out for Cindy Cohn.”

Gabriella Coleman – Hacker Anthropologist, Author, Researcher, Educator
Gabriella (Biella) Coleman holds the Wolfe Chair in Scientific and Technological Literacy at McGill University. Trained as an anthropologist, her scholarship explores the politics and cultures of hacking, with a focus on the sociopolitical implications of the free software movement and the digital protest ensemble Anonymous. She has authored two books, Coding Freedom: The Ethics and Aesthetics of Hacking (Princeton University Press, 2012) and Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy: The Many Faces of Anonymous (Verso, 2014).

Caroline Sinders – Researcher/Designer, Wikimedia Foundation
Caroline Sinders is a machine learning designer/user researcher, artist. For the past few years, she has been focusing on the intersections of natural language processing, artificial intelligence, abuse, online harassment and politics in digital, conversational spaces. Caroline is a designer and researcher at the Wikimedia Foundation, and a Creative Dissent fellow with YBCA. She holds a masters from New York University’s Interactive Telecommunications Program from New York University.

Brewster Kahle, Founder & Digital Librarian, Internet Archive
Brewster Kahle has spent his career intent on a singular focus: providing Universal Access to All Knowledge. He is the founder and Digital Librarian of the Internet Archive, which now preserves 20 petabytes of data – the books, Web pages, music, television, and software of our cultural heritage, working with more than 400 library and university partners to create a digital library, accessible to all.

Steve Phillips, Project Manager, Pursuance Project

Steve Phillips is a programmer, philosopher, and cypherpunk, and is currently the Project Manager of Barrett Brown’s Pursuance Project. In 2010, after double-majoring in mathematics and philosophy at UC Santa Barbara, Steve co-founded Santa Barbara Hackerspace. In 2012, in response to his concerns over rumored mass surveillance, he created his first secure application, Cloakcast. And in 2015, he spoke at the DEF CON hacker conference, where he presented CrypTag. Steve has written over 1,000,000 words of philosophy culminating in a new philosophical methodology, Executable Philosophy.

Mek Karpeles, Citizen of the World, Internet Archive

Mek is a citizen of the world at the Internet Archive. His life mission is to organize a living map of the world’s knowledge. With it, he aspires to empower every person to overcome oppression, find and create opportunity, and reach their fullest potential to do good. Mek’s favorite media includes non-fiction books and academic journals — tools to educate the future — which he proudly helps make available through his work on Open Library.

Don’t miss hearing firsthand accounts of how nonviolent power overcame oppression and authoritarian rule all over the world!
“A veritable manual on how to mount a successful nonviolent resistance movement …stark footage and personal stories add drama to the history of a 20th century movement.” LA Times

“The film is a work of art because, first, it is a work of fact.” National Catholic Reporter
“Outstanding! …rich in archival footage and thoughtful interviews….The stories are inspiring, sometimes awesome.” Washington Post

We’d like a full house, and your presence is very much wanted!
BFUU’s Social Justice Committee presents films that engage our hearts and minds, followed by discussion.

For more info: http://www.aforcemorepowerful.org/films/index.php

Sponsored by BFUU Social Justice Ctee

Sliding scale at the door—no one turned away for lack of funds.
Wheelchair accessible.

Maximum Rocknroll and the Anti Police-Terror Project present…

The Evaluate What You Tolerate tape release party and mixer!

DJ tba — let’s dance
Silent Era — silenterabayarea.bandcamp.com
Preening – preening.bandcamp.com
MANE — manesf.bandcamp.com

All proceeds to APTP. 21+. An all ages show is planned for the new year. Flyer and set times to come.

Come meet and hang out with some great comrades. Everyone is welcome. Get the November issue of MRR featuring an interview with APTP’s Cat Brooks for FREE when you pick up a comp. 

No non-sense and fuck nazis.

————————–——————-

This Fall, 50 bay area punk bands came together on ‒ Evaluate What You Tolerate: a two volume compilation and zine against white supremacy, racism and hate ‒ to raise $$ for the Oakland-based Anti Police-Terror Project (APTP) and their work to a create strong community support system for Black, Brown and Poor people.

Evaluate What You Tolerate was made in solidarity with people who are profiled, left unsupported, pushed out of their homes, murdered by police, made to feel like they don’t belong, deported and targeted. It’s a nod to the importance of community care/defense and sustained resistance against the brutalization of our friends, family and communities.

All proceeds from Evaluate What You Tolerate will benefit the Oakland-based Anti Police-Terror Project, a group of concerned and committed institutions, organizations, and individuals dedicated to ending state-sanctioned murder and violence perpetrated against Black, Brown and Poor people. They’re a Black led, multi-racial, multi-generational coalition that organizes to resist police terror and to create a strong and sustainable community support system.

Made with much love and rage on Ohlone Lands.

Did you have a baby at Alta Bates?
Know someone born at Alta Bates?
Join Nurses to Help Stop the Alta Bates Closure!

Sutter Health wants to close Alta Bates Medical Center — Berkeley’s only acute-care hospital — a mother and
infant-care center of excellence for more than a century! Sutter is crippling nurses’ ability to care for the community right now with unsafe short staffing! Closing Alta Bates will leave Berkeley and other cities along the Interstate 80 corridor, through the Caldecott Tunnel, without access to a full-service, acutecare hospital, putting lives at risk.

Berkeley and East Bay Communities Need Alta Bates!

Bring friends, families, and neighbors — and all available STROLLERS (no baby required) — for our march to save Alta Bates hospital!

The East Bay Must Rise Up to Save Alta Bates in Berkeley!

CNA: A Voice for Nurses. A Vision for Healthcare.

The Occupy Oakland General Assembly meets every Sunday at 3 PM at Oscar Grant Plaza amphitheater at 14th Street & Broadway near the steps of City Hall.  If for some reason the amphitheater is being used otherwise and/or OGP itself is inaccessible, we will meet at Kaiser Park, right next to the statues, on 19th St. between San Pablo and Telegraph.  If it is raining (as in RAINING, not just misting) at 3:00 PM we meet in the basement of the Omni Collective, 4799 Shattuck Ave., Oakland.  (Note: we meet at 3:00 PM during the cooler months,  once Daylight Savings Time springs forward we tend to assemble at 4 PM).

On every ‘last Sunday’ we meet a little earlier at 2 PM to have a community potluck to which all are welcome.

OO General Assembly has met on a continuous basis for over five years! Our General Assembly is a participatory gathering of Oakland community members and beyond, where everyone who shows up is treated equally. Our Assembly and the process we have collectively cultivated strives to reach agreement while building community.

At the GA committees, caucuses, and loosely associated groups whose representatives come voluntarily report on past and future actions, with discussion. We encourage everyone participating in the Occupy Oakland GA to be part of at least one associated group, but it is by no means a requirement. If you like, just come and hear all the organizing being done! Occupy Oakland encourages political activity that is decentralized and welcomes diverse voices and actions into the movement.

General Assembly Standard Agenda

1. Welcome & Introductions
2. Reports from Committees, Caucuses, & Independent Organizations
3. Announcements
4. (Optional) Discussion Topic

Occupy Oakland activities and contact info for some Bay Area Groups with past or present Occupy Oakland members.

Occupy Oakland Web Committee: (web@occupyoakland.org)
Strike Debt Bay Area : strikedebtbayarea.tumblr.com
Berkeley Post Office Defenders:http://berkeleypostofficedefenders.wordpress.com/
Alan Blueford Center 4 Justice:https://www.facebook.com/ABC4JUSTICE
Oakland Privacy Working Group:https://oaklandprivacy.wordpress.com
Prisoner Hunger Strike Solidarity: prisonerhungerstrikesolidarity.wordpress.com/
Bay Area AntiRepression: antirepression@occupyoakland.org
Biblioteca Popular: http://tinyurl.com/mdlzshy
Interfaith Tent: www.facebook.com/InterfaithTent
Port Truckers Solidarity: oaklandporttruckers.wordpress.com
Bay Area Intifada: bayareaintifada.wordpress.com
Transport Workers Solidarity: www.transportworkers.org
Fresh Juice Party (aka Chalkupy) freshjuiceparty.com/chalkupy-gallery
Sudo Room: https://sudoroom.org
Omni Collective: https://omnicommons.org/
First They Came for the Homeless: https://www.facebook.com/pages/First-they-came-for-the-homeless/253882908111999
Sunflower Alliance: http://www.sunflower-alliance.org/
Bay Area Public School: http://thepublicschool.org/bay-area

San Francisco based groups:
Occupy Bay Area United: www.obau.org
Occupy Forum: (see OBAU above)
San Francisco Projection Department: http://tinyurl.com/kpvb3rv

The Ito Sisters – Antonia Grace Glenn –  Documentary – 83 min. Q&A Follows                                                          

The Ito Sisters is a documentary film capturing rarely told stories of the earliest Japanese immigrants to their United States and their American – born children.