Since the 7 of October I have been down on the curb at 5th and I street in Eureka California occupying the county courthouse lawn. Like most places the movement here has been subjected to constant police harassment and denial of 1st and 4th amendment rights. So much so that they have fenced us off the lawn and away from much of the building. The situation here is not unique, we have lots of folks with no home and a plethora of problems that we are trying to help survive while trying to convince the community to wake up and smell the fascism much as many of the small town occupations are doing. I write this diary to raise awareness about our DA and a brand of paranoia that may be comming to your town.
We were doing our best to create a thriving community when the police raids began. We are less then 50 people and have had now over 60 arrests along with multiple incidences of large groups of people being handcuffed, detained and released after our structures were removed. Only one case has come to trial and it was dismissed after the jury hung 10 to 2 to acquit. in preparing for our defenses we acquired an interesting Email from or District Attorney that I would like to share here.
Gallegos, Paul
Wednesday,November 02,201112:53 PM
Downey,Mike;Smith-Hanes,Phillip
Ruth,Carolyn;Chaitin,Wendy;Neel,Kelly
Tents Outside of the Courthouse
Mike/Phil:
Please be advised,I believe the continued presence of tents outside of the courthouse presents a profound public safety risk. Specifically,the courthouse Is,in effect,the seat of all Humboldt County government. Directly outside the seat of all Humboldt County government are several tents that are occupied,or not,that contain items and/or materials that we do not know of. Nor are we aware of who occupies those tents. While I do not suspect that any of those tents contain any explosive or otherwise dangerous materials,I cannot confirm that they do not and I do not believe that we can allow the risk of such an occurrence to continue. Further,while I do not believe that any individual out there intends to do any harm to the county government,county property or any Individual,I cannot confirm that they do not and I do not believe we can allow the risk of such an occurrence to continue.
While I do not wish to appear to be an alarmist,any one of those tents could contain materials that are harmful to individuals and/or property. Further,any one of the Individuals out there could desire to harm Individuals,county government or governmental property. If one of them did and injuries and/or death to individuals or destruction of governmental property occurred we would be in the unenviable position of having allowed that situation to occur. I do not believe we can allow that.
Therefore, I am asking that those tents be removed from outside of the county courthouse as promptly as possible.
Paul V. Gallegos
District Attorney
Office of the District Attorney
Humboldt County
(707) 445-7411
The following is part of our response that will be read at a Press conference at the courthouse at 1pm pacific time.
The attempt by the district attorney to paint nonviolent protest as something sinister, to equate peaceful assembly with truck bombing is slanderous. We are demanding a formal apology from Mr. Gallegos to all participants in Occupy Eureka and that this spate of spurious charges against Occupiers dismissed immediately.
We will not allow public officials paid with our tax dollars to smear patriotic Americans trying to fix the problems facing this nation.
The Police wandered through our protest at will with no regard to peoples privacy rights so to claim that they didn’t know what was going on in the area of the protest is laughable. Creating a climate of fear; the same tactic used by the corupt in power to start an illegal war and to steal billions in nobid contracts from homeland security are now being used in an attempt to stiffle peaceful dissent.
The government cheers it in Egypt, bombs for it in Libya and imprisons it in America. This cannot be tolerated if we are going to hold any pretense to being a free society. When the Tea Party brought their guns to demonstrations they were applauded. We bring tents and are beaten.
Have we become so craven as a country that merely wishing to speak makes you dangerous in the minds of government officials?
With the current administration doing all it can to criminalize any dissent claiming the power to detain anyone indefinitely it is frightening that public officials are trying to slander the movement in this manner. It could be coming to an Occupy near you.
I will be busy with the press conference but will address comments late this evening.