Represson against peaceful vigil at UC Berkeley

14 Nov 2007

On the night of Wednesday November 14^th a peaceful vigil took place for the “Oak Grove,” which took place with the purpose of protecting this area of the UCB campus. The action was organized by a Bay Area indigenous group, in conjunction with the tree sitters at the Oak Grove. At approximately 11:45pm, the UCB police showed up at the site of the peaceful action with an aggressive and confrontational attitude creating a state of tension and repression among the participants. This was followed by the violent detention of one of the participants who was practicing his right to peaceful protest. Some of the compañer@s asked the officer to stop abusing this person, but response from the police was to turn the repression on the rest of the participants, of which 3 others were arrested.

This action took place at the so called “Oak Grove,” one of the many sacred sites of the indigenous Ohlone people that have been occupied by the local and federal government. In this case, UC Berkeley has had the full intention of destroying the site and cutting down the ancient Oak trees, which have existed for hundreds of years. This sacred site, is now being threatened by a UC Berkeley project to build a sports center, which is an offence to the tradition of our brothers and sisters, native to this occupied territory.

Among those arrested, was a compañera from Oakland who is an adherent to the Other Campaign, who was charged with assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, and violation of a court order. The officers George Hallett and Michael Shipman have declared that they were hit by the compañera, who they claim did so with the full intention of harming them. She has stated that the accusations against her are false.

The other compañeros have been released. Two are out on bail set at 5 thousand and 1500 dollars. The other was released without bail. And all are awaiting their trials.

It is important to note that the bail for the two compañeros and for the compañera was paid at the same time, but the compañera was released at noon today, more than twelve hours after bail was paid. It is not known whether this happened because of the bureaucracy of the justice system or because she is female and Latina.

So we denounce just one more case, of the hundreds that take place in this country and worldwide, of abuse by police forces and the unjust arrests of brothers and sisters whose only crime is to defend their land and right to a dignified life.