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We need a fucking gang injunction against y’all!
This is video from Occupy Oakland livestreamer and hella courageous citizen Jessica Hollie (aka Bella Eiko), who was apparently downtown for the “Justice for Alan Blueford” rally that had taken place earlier yesterday afternoon at Oscar Grant Plaza. Jessica confronts police who have just detained two young black men at gunpoint. I strongly encourage anyone who has ever fantasized about standing up to the police to watch all 17-1/2 minutes; you’ll get a lesson in defending your rights and a reminder that these thugs are supposed to be accountable to us.
This is not an isolated incident in Oakland; we’ve all seen it happen over and over. Cops jump out of cars with their guns drawn in the middle of a busy intersection, seemingly oblivious to the fact that they are putting everyone in danger. Jessica’s fear that the pigs are going to shoot one of these two men as they try to obey complex instructions to put their hands up and walk backward to the left is not at all misplaced. I suspect her accusation of racial profiling is not misplaced either. It’s not clear what the men were detained for; at least one of them was released within the 17-minute timeframe of this video.
OPD makes the news virtually every day for some new or ongoing outrage. So far this week, they’ve been on TV for posting photos in a patrol lineup room of Oakland Mayor Jean Quan and Judge Thelton Henderson that were defaced in a “racist and inappropriate” manner (Henderson is the African-American judge who will decide whether a federal monitor takes control of the department). And for wasting millions of dollars in technology purchases for items that have gone unused from vendors who have gone out of business—while at the same time laying off police for lack of funds. And it’s only Wednesday; stay tuned.
UPDATE: Jessica is taking a lot of heat for her video, particularly for her language. Here is her response:
22 Comments
Thank you, hotflashcarol.
Thank you, Jessica Hollie.
A very disturbing yet very common, in fact, too common occurrence on our streets, today.
Jessica certainly seems to be a person whom the police cannot easily intimidate …
It would be wise if complaints and concerns about police behavior were NOT handled by the police but by INDEPENDENT entities not subject to coercion or pressure from either the police OR city governments … and it is up to the citizens AND the courts to make and insist upon this means of protecting the civil rights, Constitutionally guaranteed to everyone.
DW
Recommended, of course.
DW
Thank you, DW. Yes, it’s a bit ridiculous to have to complain to the very officers who are committing these egregious acts. Oakland does have a police review board but it is a joke and has no authority; it can only make recommendations. I am not necessarily in favor of federal takeovers of local entities, but in this case I am hard pressed to imagine how the feds could do a worse job of administering the OPD.
After New Orleans, several police departments, on either side of the nation close to the coasts, as it happens, come immediately to mind as regards to needing “intervention”, hfc …
The people must insist that they, “the people”, have control of the police and not the other way around … although I am not certain that the “feds” are truly “on board” with that interpretation of governance, that is, who really has or should have ultimate “power” … so it would be “helpful” if the federal courts came to understand and appreciate, as well as stand for, what is, really, at stake.
DW
The king has no power the People don’t give him.
The people of Oakland have been living under this quasi martial law that allows police to act with impunity for many years. Thelton Henderson has been railing against and threatening OPD for years. The impotence of the police review board has been recognized for years. The cynical and oppressive police culture is supposedly changing under Howard Jordan, yet how can it truly change under command of such a one as he? The man is a gross and absurdly transparent liar.
And Bella Eiko (Jessica Hollie) has been documenting and railing against this state of affairs it seems like forever. She has been a very forceful advocate for the People of Oakland.
But…
Nothing changes. Or rather, nothing changes for the better…
Yup. I don’t see how Henderson has any choice but to put them in receivership.
“Shit; there’s police all over the streets. Gettin’ so ya just don’t feel safe anywhere any more.”
~ Thurgood Stubbs, ‘The PJs’
The cops were more afraid than Bella; guess that’s a lot of what motivates bullies. What assholes.
Thanks, hfc. I just read something lately in which the author said his friends simply wouldn’t believe the extent to which the cops have become such militarized power-trippers.
Did you ever hear what the charges were? I only made it to 13:22.
Yeah – now we always feel less safe when there’s cops around. (Welcome to our world, say people of color).
I don’t know what the charges were, or if there were any. They let one of the men go before the end of the video, and somebody on some other page said both were released without charges. It was never clear whether these two guys were actually suspected of anything other than Walking While Black, or whether it was mistaken identity. Either way, the overreaction by the cops was epic. And typical.
Ya think maybe somebody on Oakland is on the take ?
Only a lot.
Bella is my fucking hero. Look up her speech to the Oakland City Council if you want to see her in action again.
I linked to her speech in one of my previous diaries. It was a masterpiece and a meltdown all in one. She’s the real deal and Oakland is driving her insane. Given what she’s been doing, she’d be nuts if it didn’t.
hfc–
Thank you for this excellent diary and chilling video (and I did listen to it). Seems to me (and I’m no where near Oakland) that there is a major problem with police brutality, there.
Highly recommended.
Blue
recommended! fuck! it is so heartbreaking. fuck!
Thanks Blue.
greenwarrior, it is heartbreaking. I can’t begin to imagine what it is like to be a young black or brown man in Oakland and have this threat hanging over your head 24/7.
It’s important to keep in mind that not all cops are stupid, corrupt, incompetent bullies, but seeing videos like this plastered all over the internet does make that tough to believe I admit.
Everyone should just be aware of her rights, and have those cell phone cameras ready.
Police apparently pointed a gun at the camera Journalist. So much for Freedom of the Press.
The cowardly police seem to be threatening to Murder the Black men over and over as they scream at the unarmed Black men.
Officer Compost pulled out a Torture device to Torture the Journalist and the Witnesses.
This criminal [Compost] should be arrested immediately.
jgordon, there is a saying in Oakland that we abbreviate to ACAB (All Cops Are Bastards). And the reason we have that saying is that it is very tempting to let your guard down when dealing with what appears to be a reasonable, even sympathetic, individual officer. But what we are seeing across the country, as if it is some sort of contagion, is that when commanded to do so, Officer Friendly will point his pepper ball rifle at the nice middle class white lady for standing in the wrong place or holding up a poster. Or throw her off her bicycle and smash her face into the ground. And that pales in comparison to what they do on a daily basis to people of color. There has been a paradigm shift since 911 and it has ramped up considerably since Occupy started having the nerve to get people back out into the streets. Police are not our friends. Period.
Officer Compost! I love it. Wonder if Officer Campos gets that all the time. Most, if not all, OPD officers are quite familiar with Jessica. She’s a beautiful young black woman who does not suffer fools gladly. She’s had OPD rifles pointed at her before and, despite apparent bravado, it has scared her to death. I don’t know Jessica well, but I’ve been there in person or watched her say as much on her livestream. Her courage and commitment are problems for OPD and the only solution is for them to stop harassing and brutalizing people.
Bella Eiko at the Oakland City Council January 17, 2012:
http://youtu.be/mr0HIJW1m-4
Bella Eiko at the Oakland City Council Public Safety Committee meeting May 22, 2012:
http://youtu.be/0L829VaHRek
Like many others, she’s been radicalized by what she’s experienced and witnessed over and over and over again compounded by the continuing indifference of public officials to it.
Do you realize that in the official report of the October 24th/25th police assault on the Occupy Oakland encampment and the subsequent citizens’ protest, “lynch” is the term used to describe the practice of rescuing people (“de-arresting” them) from the police?
That’s just one egregious insult among so many that the citizens of Oakland (and not just Oakland) face far too often.
People who routinely witness the kinds of abuse of authority documented in the video are traumatized by it no less than those who experience being threatened with guns and ordered to comply with conflicting commands.
The trauma is the intent.
Of course, this sort of thing almost never affects anyone who is white or Asian, who is groomed and dressed fashionably, and who lives in the Oakland Hills. They don’t see these actions by the police as abusive and traumatizing because it never happens to them. Just as the residents of Anaheim Hills don’t see the actions of the police in the flatlands as abusive or traumatizing — even when those actions include firing “less lethal” munitions on women and children or outright murder. It never happens to them.
The complete indifference of the police and the council to the outrage of the witnesses and victims of this treatment is cynical but par for the course. They figure that all they really have to do is protect those people in the Hills. And so they do. The outrage in the flatlands may get a “hearing” but that’s it.
As far as officials are concerned, the abuse will continue until people like Bella Eiko turn off their cameras, sit down and shut up.
As Mrs. Kernighan says (smirking) to Bella Eiko at the May 22 Public Safety Committee meeting:
“I’m sorry about your mom and you should probably be there.”
Absolutely no recognition of anything else…
I’m well aware of the bizarre “lynching” terminology. I was there in December, if I remember correctly, when Tiffany Tran was arrested. She has been charged with lynching (and is Asian American, so there are some exceptions); her trial has been pushed to November.
The Oakland City Council is incredibly disrespectful, with few exceptions. Kernighan’s sincere sympathy is reserved for those in the hills. I think we’ve all been radicalized by many things, including seeing how quickly and how completely people like Rebecca Kaplan and other supposed radicals have sold out.
I updated the diary to include a new video from Jessica, in response to people who are too delicate to deal with her saying Fuck to the police.
She put that statement wonderfully.
But then, her tirades are pretty wonderful, too.
There’s a place for nonviolent communications, but there is also a place — and a necessity — for rage. Jessica can handle both equally well.