Occupy Legal, National Lawyers Guild, Anti-Repression Committee, Cop Watch and The Bay Area Committee to Stop Political Repression present a day of community education at The Holdout
February 12th 2012
12noon-6pm
The Holdout – 2313 San Pablo Ave, Oakland CA
Join us for a series of workshops and skills shares designed to help empower our movement and community to take the law into our own hands. Topics will include: Know your rights when dealing with the police, documenting/observing police brutality and misconduct, street law, know your rights for building occupiers, investigation techniques for community based accountability efforts and defending our communities against police repression and surveillance.
Lawyers and legal workers will be available from 1-5pm (and after workshops and panels) to share legal information. Literature, Know Your Rights info and other resources on a variety of topics will also be made available.
Food will be provided throughout the day
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Schedule of Workshops and Panels:
12-1pm: Know Your Rights When Dealing With the Police
This know your rights workshop covers interacting with the police, searches, warrants, the court/arraignment process. We use roleplays and real life scenarios to empower activists to assert their rights in protest situations, how to do this effectively but safely and to demystify the legal process.
Hosted by: Occupy Legal and the Occupy Oakland Anti-Repression Committee
1-2pm: Squatting Rights and Strategy with Steve DiCaprio
2-4pm: Investigation Techniques for Community Based Accountability Efforts
This workshop will be presented by Diana Christensen and will focus on how to structure and conduct credible civilian-initiated investigations of police misconduct. Guidelines for conducting and recording interviews, securing physical evidence, or gathering other information and using it in service of accountability will be presented. (Diana Christensen is a former Investigator with the Oakland Police Review Board but also provides trainings on how to conduct trainings at the workplace. )
Hosted by: Copwatch Berkeley
4-5pm: Building a Movement that Can Defend Itself.
This workshop will look at the political process of building a movement that is able to defend itself against repression. We will discuss how various parts of the State: the FBI, the police, courts, Grand Juries, and the press, collaborate to try to split our movements, isolate us from our best support (each other and our allies), and how they use our own words and weaknesses to terrorize and imprison us. We will look at examples of strong political defense combined with strong legal defense- the San Francisco 8 case, the recent case of the 23 people subpoenaed to a Federal Grand Jury in the Midwest, and the frame-up of Carlos Montes in Los Angeles. We will emphasize that our ability to politically defend ourselves against repression is central to building our movements.
Hosted by: CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), San Francisco National Lawyers Guild and The Committee Against Political Repression
5-6pm: Know Your Rights For Building Occupations and Foreclosure/Eviction Defense: This panel and discussion will focus on our rights around political housing actions. Discussion will be centered on building (re)occupations, foreclosure and eviction defense. Lawyers, legal workers and activists will present on what rights we do (and do not) have when engaging in these types of actions and the basics of housing law, foreclosure issues and how these laws can affect the kind of political action we take. The bulk of this workshop will be a guided discussion where housing and occupation activists can share their experiences and knowledge.
Presenters TBA