On December 4th and 5th 2012 a number of Lawsuits were filed by members of the Eureka Occupation for violations of civil rights that occurred last November.
We decided to serve the city in public at the meeting of the city council. Several members were not able to file until tomorrow so they will be conducting service over the next few days.
I spoke to the city council. You can read my prepared remarks here. I will post the link to video when it is posted.
I have some papers for the clerk. This is a suit filed today naming the city of Eureka and 3 police officers, Murl Harpham, Patrick O'Neil and Stephen Watson as defendants. Others are here tonight to serve more suits and still more will be filed tomorrow. These are in response to the absolute total disregard for civil rights by the Eureka police department during the Occupy Eureka protest in front of the Humboldt County Courthouse beginning on October 7th of 2011. Hundreds of community members participated over a period of 9 months in an attempt to reform the corrupt capitalist system of socializing risk and privatizing profit. That system continues unfortunately as a rich company owner will get more then ½ a million dollars in subsidies paid for on the backs of the poor.
During my time in front of the courthouse I witnessed the casual disdain for the the poorest members of our community the police exhibit constantly. I witnessed a constant assault on first amendment freedoms by officers of the Eureka Police Department and the Humboldt County Sheriff's department.
Today we live in a country that is operating as a police state with indefinite detention threatened by our federal government and the militarization of local police and Sheriffs. The worst aspects of that trend were on display in front of the courthouse during Occupy Eureka. The slanderous email thread with the Rumsfeldian “we don't know who is in those tents” and the insinuation the some “professional protesters” were planning nefarious activities. Then those people Identified were arrested on false charges and held in some cases for over a week. This violation of personal liberty will not tolerated by the people of Eureka. You were given the opportunity to deal with these problems in the form of claims filed earlier and in the matter of hiring a new chief for Eureka PD. You made the wrong decision in both cases.
We also served the Chief of Police with more cops to be served in the weeks to come. It is a long struggle we are engaged in and Occupy Eureka is not any where near done yet.
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