Tag: occupy

Local News Website Denies Police Claims That Activists Were Warned Before Being Arrested

The most disturbing thing during Mayor Sanders’ “State of the City” address that he delivered last Wednesday night (Jan. 11th), was not the swam song of a lame duck politician, but that four Occupy San Diego activists who interrupted his speech were all charged with felonies.

Usually, disturbing a public assembly, like a City Council meeting, is a simple misdemeanor. But in a spiteful frenzy of vengeance, police have charged Alberto Ordonez, Christopher McKay, Tahra Ludwig – who is an OB Ragster, and Michael Garcia with felony conspiracy to commit crimes. The crime here, of course, was that these activists stood up during Sanders’ speech and called out the human megaphone “Mic check! Mic check!”

In a twist of the law, disturbing an official meeting or speech is a misdemeanor. But if one conspires to commit a misdemeanor with others, that’s a felony. It’s a stupid law, but one that has been on the books for a long time. So, if two people enter a store to stage a petty theft – misdemeanors – and they conspire to do it – it’s a felony.

Keegan Kyle, of the Voice of San Diego, called our well-known by now assistant police chief, Boyd Long, to ask why.

Preparations and Departure – Day 1 Update

Editor: Over a dozen activists from Occupy San Diego are going to Washington, DC, in response to a “call” to “Occupy DC” and Occupy Congress, which is to begin on January 17th, when Congress officially returns. About a dozen of these activists are traveling by Greyhound – and this is the first of many reports by our special OB Rag reporter for the trip, Eugene Davidovich – an OBcean. Other OSD folks are also heading to DC but later this month. Eugene will be sending us periodic reports on this historic 3000 mile journey and about what they find and do in the nation’s capital.

By Eugene Davidovich / Special to the OB Rag / January 14, 2012

On a sunny San Diego Friday afternoon, January 13 2012, a group of eleven dedicated and passionate activists from Occupy San Diego (OSD) embarked on a historic journey by bus, from the West Coast to Washington D.C.

The purpose; to stand in solidarity with a call from the D.C. Occupation for a mass convergence on Congress January 17th. A convergence of all occupations from across the nation to stand in solidarity and speak loudly for social and economic justice.

NEW NEW UPDATE from 1/12/12: A reporter from a local news website who has been researching this story, says this in an email this morning: “He [Jay] died in the line of duty and what he was doing is supper, duper classified,…”

NEW UPDATE from 1/11/12: There is research still going on over this case about whether Jay Polk was killed or not. It is still possibly true that he was killed. To speculate why the DoD has not publicized his death yet, we understand that in certain black ops where lives are still in danger, info is carefully squeezed out – or not at all – until it’s over.

UPDATE FROM EDITOR: Unfortunately for all involved, there have been some real questions raised as to the validity of Jay’s death. Our original source was within Occupy San Diego, but who is now having second thoughts themselves. Their source was reportedly a member of Jay’s family. Others have been making calls and have found NO confirmation of his death, either at the DoD site, Jay’s hometown, there’s no funeral home, no obituary, no report of his death except via this family member. And that person is not returning calls.

Jay Polk – presente! uh, wait …

Sergeant Jay Polk was (maybe) killed while on active duty in the US Army.

In a celebration of its third month anniversary, Occupy San Diego is holding a “March Back Again to Freedom Plaza” – event. It starts off at 4:40 pm, today, Saturday, January 7th, at Children’s Park, located on First Avenue and Island.

Organizers will lead the march through the GasLamp to Civic Center Plaza – renamed “Freedom Plaza” – at Third and “B” Street.

LRAD Corporation Says Sales Of Sonic Blaster Are Booming

10News.com / January 3, 2012

Business is booming for a San Diego company that is making its presence felt – and heard – at protests, including the “Occupy” movement.

The LRAD, or long-range acoustic device, is the creation of the LRAD Corporation, which is based in Carmel Mountain and employs about 40 employees. The device was initially used the military on ships and vehicles to issue warnings. Now, the LRAD is being used by law enforcement during “Occupy” protests.

Recent Police Crackdowns Mirror Infamous San Diego 1912 Free Speech Fight

January 2012 named “Free-Speech Month”

100 years after the San Diego City Council infamously suppressed free speech in downtown San Diego, Occupy San Diego will commemorate this historic event by naming January 2012 as “Free-Speech Month,” and by proposing a ballot measure to amend the City’s municipal code to improve the respect of free speech in San Diego. This amendment will create an explicit exception to the current encroachment law (SDMC 54.0110) to allow for “peaceful picketing, lawful labor activities and peaceful political activities.”

“As San Diego gears up to commemorate the now infamous Free Speech Fights of 1912, Occupy San Diego will present the San Diego City Council with the choice to protect free speech or to repeat the mistakes of a hundred years ago and continue to allow the arrest and imprisonment of peaceful citizens exercising their First Amendment rights in San Diego,” said Martha Sullivan, an active San Diego community volunteer and supporter of Occupy San Diego.

By William Gagan / Special to the OB Rag

A parade that was originally founded by a group of social and economic magnates in the late 1800’s, was for the first time in history, occupied by protesters speaking out against large corporations and big banks early Monday. They were members of local Occupy Wall Street groups from southern California and neighboring states. Some even came from as far away as New York and Atlanta.

They came together to form what was a sizable but inspiring tail section to the notorious Rose Bowl Parade. The goal behind joining the parade was to bring the Occupy Wall Street movement cause to almost 40 million television viewers nationally. The City of Pasadena had negotiated with organizers of the event to allow them to march behind the last float in the parade.

In response to constant police surveillance, violence, and arrests, Occupy Wall Street protesters and legal observers have been turning their cameras back on the police.

By Noel Sharkey and Sarah Knuckey / AlterNet / December 22, 2011

The police may soon be watching you in your garden picking your vegetables or your bottom. As police plans for increasing unmanned aerial surveillance take shape, there is a new twist. Private citizens can now buy their own surveillance drones to watch the police.

This week in New York, Occupy Wall Street protesters have a new toy to help them expose potentially dubious actions of the New York police department. In response to constant police surveillance, police violence and thousands of arrests, Occupy Wall Street protesters and legal observers have been turning their cameras back on the police. But police have sometimes made filming difficult through physical obstruction and “frozen zones”. This occurred most notably during the eviction of protesters from Zuccotti Park in lower Manhattan, where police prevented even credentialed journalists from entering.

By Nadin Abbott / December 23, 2011

During the early morning hours of December 23rd the Occupy San Diego encampment was raided by San Diego Police, and three people were arrested, at least two of them seemingly without cause.

Later that day, the American flag that’s been guarded by Occupiers at Civic Center Plaza (dubbed “Freedom Plaza” by occupiers) was confiscated from a Marine Corp veteran of the Gulf War, John Canter. Carter stated “I was guarding the flag during the raid. They took anything not held.”

The bogus arrests of Occupy San Diego activists continue. Within the last 24 to 36 hours, a man was arrested for burning sage in the Plaza, a man videotaping another’s arrest was grabbed by the neck, choked, and brought down by three officers, a veteran carrying an American flag had the flag taken from him, two others awake in sleeping bags were roughly arrested.

Freedom Plaza has now been “cleared” of those demonstrators. And we have Police Chief William Lansdowne to thank – as well as his boss, Mayor Jerry Sanders. Sanders is a lame duck and a burnt out politician.

Lansdowne takes his orders from Sanders, but Lansdown could object to the ridiculous and unconstitutional manner his troops are ordered to harass and arrest peaceful demonstrators trying to exercise their First Amendment rights.

By Steven Cuevas / KPCC /Dec. 16, 2011

Occupy protests have spread to nearly 150 locations equally distributed between Northern and Southern California. Researchers at UC Riverside used social media sites like Facebook to track the movement’s growth from large urban centers to remote mountain towns.

Sociology professor Christopher Chase-Dunn and graduate student Michaela Curran-Strange manned the study, which has traced the Occupy movement to some far-flung locations.

It was five minutes after midnight this morning (Dec 22) when five San Diego Police officers walked into Freedom Plaza and began making arrests of peaceful Occupy San Diego protesters keeping vigil.

They walked up on Alan who was laying down – not sleeping as he had a cigarette going – yanked the cig out of his mouth and threw it on the ground, placed handcuffs on him as he sat there, then pulled the tall peaceful protester out of his sleeping bag and took him.

Other protesters asked the officers what the charges were – repeatedly – and no officer answered.

Then as occupier Chris was videotaping Alan’s arrest, police moved up to Chris, grabbed him, pulled him off his feet while choking him, and then altogether three of them wrestled him to the ground.