Update on the Remaining Case from Nov. 9

 

An update from our comrade who continues to face charges from November 9. The next key date for court support will be June 29. In the meantime, let's continue to put pressure on DA Nancy O'Malley! Call her office at 510-272-6222 or 510-268-7500 and let her know how you feel about these bullshit political charges. More contact information is available at the link above. For some background on this case, the Davis Dozen, and the Santa Cruz 11 see occupyca.

This is a long overdue update about my case for supporters. There will be no trial on Monday, June 4. Trial will most likely happen in July and the next courtdate is a motion to suppress on June 29, which will be essentially a probable cause hearing for the May 1 arrest. It could be interesting and would be a good thing to have supporters at. We decided to push off the trial date after they managed to consolidate both cases. The joined cases require more time to prepare for.

As for now, continuing to put pressure on the DA will still help. I hear the Nancy O'Malley is now talking messages about this directly. They are definitely feeling the pressure to drop the Nov. 9 charges to bring the case into line with the others.

I really appreciate all the support, and sorry for the late notification.

Nathan Brown at UC Davis Rally

What will depose this authoritarian administrator is not letters or petitions; it is your direct action on this campus. That direct action must continue until the Chancellor resigns. The Chancellor has said that it is not appropriate for her to resign at this time. We know that the Chancellor is not a very good judge of what is appropriate.

I propose two demands moving forward:

1) The immediate resignation of Chancellor Katehi;

2) All police forces ordered permanently off of UC campuses.

Chancellor Katehi and police forces are the primary threat to the health and safety of our university community.

And Then UCPD Did It All Over Again At UC Davis

Chancellor Linda Katehi calls in riot police to remove peaceful student protestors. Seated students are maced at close range. At about min. 6 students encircle police and then force them off campus. UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and Davis officers are present.

Davis Chancellor’s office (530) 752-2065, UC Davis police (530) 752-1727, The officer who pulled out the pepper spray was Lieutenant John Pike. 530-752-3989 japikeiii@ucdavis.edu.

And after the pepper spray, the batons, and the 10 arrests, an open letter is written to UC Davis Chancellor Katehi:

Without any provocation whatsoever, other than the bodies of these students sitting where they were on the ground, with their arms linked, police pepper-sprayed students. Students remained on the ground, now writhing in pain, with their arms linked.

What happened next?

Police used batons to try to push the students apart. Those they could separate, they arrested, kneeling on their bodies and pushing their heads into the ground. Those they could not separate, they pepper-sprayed directly in the face, holding these students as they did so. When students covered their eyes with their clothing, police forced open their mouths and pepper-sprayed down their throats. Several of these students were hospitalized. Others are seriously injured. One of them, forty-five minutes after being pepper-sprayed down his throat, was still coughing up blood.

This is what happened. You are responsible for it.

You are responsible for it because this is what happens when UC Chancellors order police onto our campuses to disperse peaceful protesters through the use of force: students get hurt. Faculty get hurt. One of the most inspiring things (inspiring for those of us who care about students who assert their rights to free speech and peaceful assembly) about the demonstration in Berkeley on November 9 is that UC Berkeley faculty stood together with students, their arms linked together. Associate Professor of English Celeste Langan was grabbed by her hair, thrown on the ground, and arrested. Associate Professor Geoffrey O’Brien was injured by baton blows. Professor Robert Hass, former Poet Laureate of the United States, National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winner, was also struck with a baton. These faculty stood together with students in solidarity, and they too were beaten and arrested by the police. In writing this letter, I stand together with those faculty and with the students they supported.

[...]

Your words express concern for the safety of our students. Your actions express no concern whatsoever for the safety of our students. I deduce from this discrepancy that you are not, in fact, concerned about the safety of our students. Your actions directly threaten the safety of our students. And I want you to know that this is clear. It is clear to anyone who reads your campus emails concerning our “Principles of Community” and who also takes the time to inform themselves about your actions. You should bear in mind that when you send emails to the UC Davis community, you address a body of faculty and students who are well trained to see through rhetoric that evinces care for students while implicitly threatening them. I see through your rhetoric very clearly. You also write to a campus community that knows how to speak truth to power. That is what I am doing.

I call for your resignation because you are unfit to do your job. You are unfit to ensure the safety of students at UC Davis. In fact: you are the primary threat to the safety of students at UC Davis. As such, I call upon you to resign immediately.