101 Market » #OCCUPYSF

Eyewitness accounts of the May 12 SFPD raid on the OSF 101 Market St. encampment bring to light the following.

Between 7 PM and 8 PM on May 12 approximately 25 SFPD police arrived at 101 Market St. in half a dozen squad cars with one paddy wagon, one police flatbed truck and one Department of Public Works (DPW) flatbed truck. The police formed a skirmish line on instructions of two sergeants. Many of the protest occupiers left the scene, anticipating a violent police crackdown. When several of those that remained asked the police why they were there, the were ignored or given conflicting answers.

The one coherent statement by the police was that the encampment had “refused to comply with DPW cleaning the Friday before.” However, as Mama Debra explained, this was inaccurate. In fact, on Friday in the later morning the police had told campers to move their belonging as DPW was shortly to arrive to clean the sidewalks.

Protest occupiers have been always been cooperative in the past with the periodic, but random and unscheduled cleanings by DPW. There has been an established routine for police to request compliance, for the protestors to move their literature tables, protest signs and personal belongings and for DPW to power wash the sidewalks. Although DPW uses chemicals labeled dangerous, protestors are quite naturally pleased with the periodic cleaning.

On Friday, DPW didn’t come till late afternoon, disrupting the protestors free speech activities all day. However, contrary to the police statement to the protestors during the Saturday raid, DPW did in fact power wash on Friday. No one has yet determined if DPW and the police got their wires crossed or if a second Saturday cleaning was a pretext for the raid.

Given the circumstances, several protestors were confused and unhappy. According to Nick Shaw, the police began the raid by removing a cart with a prominent and symbolic OSF Occupation sign that has been with the movement from the beginning. When Nick vocally objected, police immediately took him into custody, zip tied his hands behind his back and put him in the paddy wagon. The police knew Nick by name. Nick has been outspoken, was arrested at the 888 Turk Street action on Mayday and has been targeted by prosecutors as a “ringleader” to be made an example of. Nick is facing a year in jail on trespassing charges stemming from the Mayday action.

Another protest occupier Touché, had begun to sweep the sidewalk when the police arrived to show his willingness to clean the camp and comply. When ordered to put down his broom, he instead broke it over his knee to show he had no intention of using a house broom as a weapon against 25 riot suited SFPD officers. When ordered to drop the broom sticks he did so. He was promptly arrested and zip tied with his hands behind his back. In the process, the police ripped off his watch which fell to the street. He was put in the paddy wagon with Nick and driven to 850 Bryant jail. As of Sunday, Touché has not recovered his prize skateboard which was lost during the raid.

Both Nick and Touché were booked on public drunkenness though neither had been drinking and no sobriety test was administered. They were taken from a general population cell with benches and isolated for four hours in a segregated cell with bare concrete floors and no benches. They were released at 12:05AM the next day with charges dropped.

The Saturday raid took place after Friday’s full compliance with the unscheduled DPW cleanup. When protestors went to DPW to retrieve their belongings, they were first told they could but then after the worker spoke to a supervisor were denied access to the yard where DPW dumps their belongings. As of today, Sunday, all of the protestors food is gone (they had just purchased a stockpile of fresh fruits and vegetables, soup, hot dogs, cheese, and bread) and all of their personal belongings including back packs, sleeping bags, clothes and in one case a laptop and a 12 megapixel 35MM camera are gone. Equally important, all literature tables but one, all chairs, all leaflets, protest signs, buttons, etc. were taken.

On Sat. May 12 at 8:30pm, 15-20 SFPD officers and several DPW (Dept. of Public Works) workers raided OccupySF’s headquarters at the “Federal” “Reserve” “Bank” at 101 Market St., the enduring OccupySF 24/7 demonstration site. After taking all demonstration materials – except for one table, one chair, and some literature – the police were unable to cite a law that authorized the taking and had no comment to the allegation that the police action violated SFPD’s own General Orders. SFPD General Order 8.03 (I)(B)(1) states, “The San Francisco Police Department will not attempt to limit the size, location, time or activity at any demonstration, march, protest or picket…”. Officers refused to provide the demonstrators with property receipts and reports of computers, cell phones, etc. disappearing after confiscation are commonplace. Several people from Occupy Oakland arrived soon after to show their support.

The police had been slithering around 101 Market St. warning OccupySF demonstrators that only one table and one chair would be allowed, as per Police Chief Suhr’s statement from October. The statement reads,

“so long as the sidewalks remain clear enough not to obstruct or prevent pedestrian access, Occupy-SF may have a non-wooden table and a limited number of non-wooden chairs on the pedestrian area provided the table and chairs are used in First Amendment activity.
Police Code Section 168, Civil Sidewalks will not be enforced in favor of the first amendment activity that will continue to be facilitated.”

Despite the notice that PC Sec. 168 “will not be enforced”, SFPD continue to enforce “No Sit/Lie” – which has a First Amendment exception PC 168 (c)(4) – every day at 101 Market St.

SFPD have repeatedly refused to identify what law authorizes the limitation of one table and one chair (notice the statement says “a limited # of…chairs“) in Chief Suhr’s statement or explain the application of No Sit/Lie, contrary to said statement.

Two arrests were made, during the police action. One arrestee has been released. Corporal Nearly Pantless Nick remains in custody.

OccupySF’s Legal Counselor, Karla Gottschalk a.k.a. Belle Starr, was present and plans to file a federal declaratory action this coming week.

Please, bring any food, water, blankets, sign making materials, etc. to 101 Market St. to show your support for the demonstrators.

Police officers claim they are “cooperating” with us in order to make sure our constitutional rights are protected. Yet, they continue to interpret the law in such a way that chills our rights to assembly and imperils our health. The past week has been a difficult one at the reinvigorated 24 hour Occupy SF protest site, from life-threatening assaults by outsider instigators to rights-threatening assaults on our freedom of assembly by policeman removing a canopy that protected our signs, literature, and ourselves from the rain and the cold. Ironically, the city permits commercial use of the same type canopies within visible distance of Bradley Manning Plaza and elsewhere about The City, and case law in this jurisdiction establishes that constructive notice of a protest is acceptable in lieu of a permit. Furthermore, protests on sidewalks with less than fifty persons do not require permits. The incidents of this week are disturbing, but they are setbacks only, and make us even more determined to assert our rights to free expression and protest.

Last night during the pouring rain, the protestors had tied a tarp from a tree to a pole to protect the protest site, and set up an EZ-up canopy. As the rain was pouring down soaking the protestors, the participants in the General Assembly, and all the signs and literature, police demanded that we untie the tarp from the trees, while they discussed the canopy tent. In response, the occupiers retied the tarp to a cart and a bike locked to a tree; however, the officers were not satisfied and, after a brief deliberation, they demanded the removal of the canopy, too. They claim they are “structures”, illegal under the “anti-lodging” law (PC 647e), though the statute does not contain any language to support this assertion. PC 647e was developed early on last century in order to prevent people from lodging in other people’s structures without permission of the owner. Police officers claim they do not interpret the law, they just enforce it. Who, then, has decided to apply their own interpretation of this vaguely defined statute for the purpose of chilling the people’s right to freedom of expression and assembly during inclement weather?

After one of our occupiers was forcibly pulled from the pole of the canopy, as she and all our literature was soaked, we began our General Assembly in the downpour. Occupy Oakland heard about our plight and sent some of their occupiers over to help us with a solidarity march. We decided to carry one of the few tarps that had not been confiscated by the police over our heads, symbolically, as a banner, since our signs were mostly ruined. We started marching up Market Street, then decided to turn back towards Bradley Manning Plaza (Justin Herman Plaza), where much to our surprise and elation, we discovered a slightly damaged EZ-up canopy frame and fastened our tarp on top of it. With our new “banner” we marched up and occupied the middle of Market Street in front of the Federal Reserve. Within minutes a Sergeant was ordering us to remove the EZ-up canopy from the street. We refused and about twelve officers, quickly, arrived to enforce compliance. A thirty second warning was given and just before they pounced on us, someone said “lift” and we picked up the canopy and scurried to the sidewalk posting ourselves in front of the door of Wells Fargo.

Eventually we received another visit by the Sergeant, ultimately scampering away from his insidious presence, only to be tailed by an unmarked vehicle. We enjoyed a brief sojourn at CitiBank, where one occupier informed a Citibank patron that Citibank had received $356 billion in taxpayer TARP bailouts, only to turn around and lend 8 billion to Dubai, while withholding loans and mortgage modifications for Americans. Eventually, the march made its way back to 101 Market St where we settled the canopy down in the confiscated canopy’s place. Since the officers earlier claimed that canopies became structures if they were placed directly down on the sidewalk, but were not “structures” if they were held up off the ground, we posted four people at the poles of the make-shift canopy. Eventually we got tired of lifting it up, and took it down since it had stopped raining anyway and we did not want to give the policemen an excuse to confiscate any further items. The march was live streamed.

The #OccupySF 24 hour protest site is still up and running and moving forward. The Occupiers are developing and improving the protocols to ensure that incidents such as those of the last two nights does not occur again. Boston is still in the hospital recovering after the Sunday night incident. The second incident occurred last night around 11. A peacekeeper suffered minor injury at the hands of a person unknown to the Occupiers who appeared out of nowhere exhibiting psychotic behavior. Jimbo has already been released from the hospital and suffered only minor injuries. He has re-joined the protest. The Occupiers find it odd that two suspicious and aggressive outsiders appeared at the protest in the last few days seemingly with an intent to harm the physical occupation. Police had been using the laws that criminalize homelessness and the freedom of assembly to harass the occupiers as they slept during the last few weeks but were unsuccessful in causing the dismantling of the revival of the physical occupation. The Occupation will become stronger as a result of these events, as the occupation team refines its protocols, guidelines, and
procedures to keep the protest site safe.

Tonight, March 27, 2012, San Francisco police raided 101 Market Street @ Main Street, taking the tarp and canopy the Occupiers used for protection against the rain.

From Ain't Broke

The rain has stopped and people from all over, including members of Occupy Oakland, are gathering at the site. We will stage a march once more supporters have arrived. Please come on down to support us now! Thank you!