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Defend People’s Park

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Have the Regents at UC Berkeley and the Berkeley City Counsel lost their collective minds? Are they really so arrogant that they think they can ignore their own history? Can’t they realize that any attempts to destroy our park will inevitably be met with incandescent violence.

We are not advocating violence anymore than we advocate water running downhill. But the moment the first fences go up, Wingnuts will try and pull them down. The Police will react violently against the Wingnuts, causing the Wingnuts to react violently against the police. Then Alt-right Nazis will descend on Berkeley to violently defend whatever it is they think needs defending against Wingnut radicals. Anti-fa will mobilize and violently confront the Nazis. All of this resulting in a shit show that will make the 1969 and 1991 riots look like an afternoon soiree of tea and crumpets.

Then, even if the Regents win, they lose. Those dormitories will suffer the same disgusting fate as the volleyball courts they built after the last riots;. They’ll be inundated with broken glass, dog shit, and whatever vomitous gee-gaws people can throw. But with one difference… Students didn’t have to live in the volleyball courts.

People’s Park is one of the longest continuous occupations in US history. It has been sanctified with the blood of James Rector, Rosebud Denovo, and our own tears, sweat and laughter. We know that the Park can be sometimes scary, sorta creepy and nowhere near its full potential (kinda like your insane, crusty-punk cousin). But it’s totally amazing at other times and we love it regardless. To quote our Friends and Virtual Wingnuts at Anonymous: “We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget.

Let’s try to stop this insanity before it begins!

Please text “SAVETHEPARK” to 74121 to join the Bulldozer Alarm text list so we can mobilize fast to defend the park.

Also check out DefendThePark.org (defense organizing) and PeoplesPark.org (general info), if you have instagram you can follow @peoplesparkberkeley.

You can also your local city council member and/or Berkeley mayor Jesse Arreguin at (510) 981-7800 and/or UC Chancellor Carol Christ at (510) 842-7464.

Longstanding Berkeley Community Center Raided by FBI

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More than a dozen computers seized in questionable search

*Berkeley, CA* — At 10:30 am on Wednesday, August 27th, the UC Berkeley police, plainclothes FBI agents, and an Alameda County sheriff raided at gunpoint the Long Haul, a long-standing community library and info shop. Police spent at least an hour and a half searching the premises without allowing Long Haul members entry to their building. More than a dozen computers and other equipment were seized in the morning raid. Having made no attempt to contact Long Haul members, agents forced their way into the building by entering a neighboring non-profit office with guns drawn. Police refused to provide a search warrant until after the raid was over and property was seized.

“This is an outrageous abuse of authority by the federal government,” said TKTK, a member of the Long Haul. “What cause could the police have to come into a community center like the Long Haul and seize information belonging to the people of Berkeley? They must return our property immediately.” The police went through every room, both public and locked – cutting or unscrewing the locks – and removed every computer from the building. Most of the computers taken were removed from an un-monitored public space where people come to use the computers just as they would at a public library. The remaining computers were taken from closed offices where they are needed for the day-to-day operation of the work done by members. Offices were rifled through, and a list of people who had borrowed books from the library was checked, as was the sales log. The warrant, which was produced after the raid, had little relevant information (claiming the officers were searching for 1 – Property or things used as a means of committing a felony; 2 – Property or things that are evidence that tends to show a felony has been committed, or tends to show that a particular person has committed a felony).

The Long Haul has been a community resource for 25 years, offering accessible meeting space to radical groups, access to alternative magazines and journals, a lending library and a historical archive of independent media. Long Haul also produces the well-known slingshot organizer pocket calendar. Multiple groups have met and continue to meet there as one of the few remaining inexpensive radical venues in the increasingly gentrified bay area. The same pattern of abuse was experienced recently when the convergence space for protesters against the Democratic National Convention in Denver was raided and supplies seized. Since the Long Haul raid occurred, lawyers have been working to seek the immediate return of the seized property, though the Long Haul continues to welcome legal support. The Long Haul is also in urgent need of computers to replace what was taken, while the fight continues to get the hard drives returned.

Long Haul members have vowed to protest this latest act of political repression. Check the Long Haul website (www.thelonghaul.org <http://www.thelonghaul.org/>) for more information as it becomes available.

Pictures and video of the Long Haul and of the officers involved are online at http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/08/27/18530389.php <http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2008/08/27/18530389.php>

keep this info handy

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re: know your rights

one: don’t talk to the police without a lawyer present. while it’s easy to say that to ourselves, it’s much more challenging to keep in mind when you are confronted by imposing (or apparently charming) officers who are trained extensively to get you to think you have to talk.

for more info – there is a surprisingly good video at this link. (both parts of this video are useful.)

two: if you are subpoened for anything to do with the long haul it is important to contact the National Lawyer’s Guild hotline (415-285-1041) and speak to someone or leave a message. also encourage anyone you know who has been subpoened to do the same. even if you don’t want the NLG’s help, they need to know as much about what is going on in the case as possible.