West coast port blockade on Monday

westcoastportshutdown.org

Oakland and Alameda County cops trained by Middle Eastern occupation forces to violently repress Occupy Oakland

A month before riot police violently raided the Occupy Oakland camp using chemical weapons, rubber bullets and flash grenades – a raid which led to a protest where riot police critically injured Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen when they shot him in the face with a tear gas grenade launcher gun – the Oakland Police Department and the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department trained alongside a military unit from Bahrain and an Israeli Border Police unit.

The occasion was Urban Shield 2011, an annual training competition which gathers heavily militarized police from the United States and across the globe to explore the latest in tactical responses and to promote collaboration. It’s a training that northern California police departments credited for their “effective teamwork” in dealing repressively with Occupy Oakland.
-AlterNet

The Iraeli goon squad, the Yamam, specializes in extra-judicial assassinations, while the Bahraini soldiers were from a unit that recently shot live rounds at unarmed, peaceful protestors in that country.
You can bet that this isn't just cops in Oakland, and police forces across the United States will only increasingly become more militarized and more brutal...they are learning from the most experienced assassins and thugs in the world.

Cops are banksta lapdogs...duh.

1033 Program

“It’s totally contrary to what we think is good policing”
-Joseph McNamara
Former Police Chief in Kansas City, Mo., and San Jose, CA

The 1033 program, passed by Congress in 1997, was created to provide law-enforcement agencies with tools to fight drugs and terrorism. Since then, more than 17,000 agencies have taken in $2.6 billion worth of free equipment, paying only the cost of delivery. This year alone, more than $500 million of military gear was given to U.S. police forces, and next year’s orders are up 400%.
The hand-me-downs are supposed to help law-enforcement fight terrorism and drugs, but amidst a 40-year low in violent crime, what are they really being used for?

“If we’re training cops as soldiers, giving them equipment like soldiers, dressing them up as soldiers, when are they going to pick up the mentality of soldiers?” he asked.
“If you look at the police department, their creed is to protect and to serve. A soldier’s mission is to engage his enemy in close combat and kill him. Do we want police officers to have that mentality? Of course not.”
-Arthur Rizer
Lawyer who has served as both a military and civilian police officer

Mehserle on trial for police brutality

The former BART cop who was caught on multiple cell phone cameras murdering Oscar Grant at the Fruitvale train station on New Year's morning in 2009 is once again on trial for excessive force.

Less than two months before he executed Grant at pointblank range in an Oakland, California train station, the ex-officer allegedly used excessive force and violated the constitutional rights of Kenneth Carrethers at a separate Bay Area Rapid Transit hub.
Carrethers’ attorneys say that on November 15 2008, their client was angry over the BART cops’ lack of help in a case of vandalism that targeted his car. Carrethers says that he called the police force “useless,” and from there Mehserle and a handful of other offices became irate. According to court filings, Mehserle used a leg sweep to take Carrethers to the ground, then punched and kicked him while he was on the pavement.
The complaint continues that cops tied up Carrethers’ arms and legs before hauling him away.
"Well, have you learned not to mess with police officers?" Mehserle allegedly asked him.
-Russia Today

Democracy is dead

The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012 (S. 1867, Levin), which passed the Senate late Thursday night by a vote of 93-7, declares the entire United States of America a battleground. The bill, or a companion one similar to it, is now being debated in the House.
If passed out of the House and signed into law, the U.S. Military would be allowed to operate with impunity, having been granted the unchecked power to arrest, detain, interrogate, and even assassinate United States citizens (or anyone else in the world) with impunity.
In a nutshell, almost every right under the Bill of Rights would be stripped away from American citizens.
Senator Al Franken (D-Minn.) said that the act "denigrates the very foundations of this country."
Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) added, "it puts every single American citizen at risk."
Although authored by Senator Carl Levin, Sentors John McCain, Lindsay Graham, and Joe Liebermann have been major supporters.

Recall Quan campaign update

A third draft of the petition to recall Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is "almost" ready to be signed by City Clerk LaTonda Simmons. After that, petition author Gene Hazzard will have 160 days to gather 19,109 valid signatures (10% of the residents who voted in the last election) to qualify the measure for the November 2012 ballot.
Just 11 months into her first term, Quan is being blamed by conservatives for layoffs in the Oakland Police Department at a time when the crime rate is rising. She is also being criticized from all sides regarding her handling of the Occupy Oakland movement.
In a nutshell, Quan is being scapegoated for the inevitable collapse of the global infinite-growth paradigm.

"It's so unfair," she said. "I'm the first Asian-American mayor of a major American city. They are not going to take me out without a fight."
-Inside Bay Area

December 12

As of November 27, 2011, the Occupy movement in every major West Coast port city: Occupy LA, Occupy San Diego, Occupy Portland, Occupy Tacoma, Occupy Seattle have joined Occupy Oakland in calling for and organizing a coordinated West Coast Port Blockade and Shutdown on December 12, 2011. Other West Coast Occupies, including Occupy Anchorage and Vancouver, Canada are planning to join the economic blockade and disruption of the 1% on that date, according to organizers.

“We’re shutting down these ports because of the union busting and attacks on the working class by the 1%: the firing of Port truckers organizing at SSA terminals in LA; the attempt to rupture ILWU union jurisdiction in Longview, WA by EGT. EGT includes Bunge LTD, a company which reported 2.5 billion dollars in profit last year and has economically devastated poor people in Argentina and Brazil. SSA is responsible for inhumane working conditions and gross exploitation of port truckers and is owned by Goldman Sachs. EGT and Goldman Sachs is Wallstreet on the Waterfront” stated Barucha Peller of the West Coast Port Blockade Assembly of Occupy Oakland.

“We are also striking back against the nationally’ coordinated attack on the Occupy movement. In response to the police violence and camp evictions against the Occupy movement- This is our coordinated response against the 1%. On December 12th we will show are collective power through pinpointed economic blockade of the 1%.”

Each Occupy is organizing plans for a mass mobilization and community pickets to shut down their local Port. The mobilization of over 60,000 people that shut down the Port of Oakland during the general strike on November 2, 2011 is the model for the West Coast efforts. Organizers state that a police attempt to disrupt the port blockade or police violence against any city participating will extend duration of the blockade on the entire coast.

“These Ports are public. People have a right to come to the Port and protest. The ILWU has historically honored picket lines at the Port.” stated Clarence Thomas, a member of ILWU Local 10.

ILWU longshore workers are involved as individuals in the planning of the Shutdown. “I am a longshoreman and I support the December 12th Blockade against EGT. EGT is a threat to the survival of the ILWU,” stated Anthony Leviege, a member of Local 10. Dan Coffman, the president of Local 21 in Longview, has publicly thanked the Occupy movement and Occupy Oakland for its actions on November 2nd.

Further interviews and details can be obtained through local Port Blockade committees and the Oakland West Coast Port Blockade Assembly.

http://westcoastportshutdown.org/

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