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The Mayor thinks I should be ashamed of myself for standing up for my civil rights. Murl Harpham could barely remember his own name but I misidentified the name of a cop and I was pure evil. I corrected that error before proceeding and dismissed my case against the misidentified individual by the way. They claimed we had no community support. Hundreds of people were coming to rallies at Occupy Eureka in October and November. It was police repression that shrank the crowds over time.When a segment of the population held a counter protest we out numbered them 3 to 1. The case has been, "Taken under advisement" and I will hear within the next 30 days. I don't care what the commissioner says in the end. We have already won. We have stood up to an evil repressive regime and said no more. You cannot treat us as serfs we are free people. We have stood together. More then 15 months after the fact people are still coming to support our actions and testify to the wrongs done by the city and by the criminal thieves and killers of the Eureka police department. I am honored to have taken part in the action at Occupy Eureka with comrades such as these. It is the Mayor and the Chief of Police that should hang their heads in shame.
We are not done. Not done fighting this evil regime or fighting for our rights in court. The morning of the 19th of February at 8:30 am Verbena will be proceeding with her civil rights cases. I look forward to seeing you all there.
ALL POWER TO THE PEOPLE
James Decker.

Two Minutes Then STFU

The Board of Supervisors is still trying to take away civil rights in Humboldt County. They passed an ordinance to restrict freedom of speech and of assembly. They got laughed out of court by a jury when they tried to prosecute people for violating it. Ever since they have been trying to dig out from the hole they find themselves in. Today they enlisted the help of the Human Rights commission to try and justify their ignoring basic civics. If there are 3 doors to a building and I am standing in front of 1 of them I am never going to be impeding your entering the building. The medium is the message. The way I choose to express my free speech is in and of itself free speech. Below the photo are my remarks.


"I think it is a very bad idea to let people that have proven themselves to be incompetent to mess around with the most important documents in our society. Humboldt county has the highest poverty rate and shortest life expectancy in California. So the good news is your shitty little life will be short."

Too old to play full court

"Those that prevent peaceful revolution insure a violent one."

That sentiment has been expressed in the past and it was the late President Kennedy that I see it attributed to most of the time. I put it on a sign at Occupy Eureka and the irony deficient police arrested me.
I have been a little remiss of late in my posting and for that I apologize. The time has been short and I have been tweeting short blurbs and using the dreaded Facebook to communicate. So to that end a little update on the journey.
We turned in our signatures. It was a wild scramble to get 15% of the electorate and I am still not sure we made it. We did get far in excess of 10% so at some point we will be running a campaign to pass it. There is of course the opportunity for the city council to just pass it and to let it start working right away but as it isn't a 1/2 million dollar give away to a rich person I am not holding my breath.
Speaking of the city council I spent Friday afternoon with the mayor. It was a little gathering in small claims court. I am suing the city and several of the thugs of EPD. It was nerve wracking to be in a room with that many evil people for that long. We go at it again on Friday morning. The state has screwed with too many of us for too long. Some one had to stand up and at least get it on the record. We were just a little backwoods outpost of the occupy here behind the Redwood Curtain so you wont see us on Court TV. When the trial is over I will give a full report.
I have court as support twice today and Wednesday as well so it would seem that I have moved Occupy inside the courthouse. Rust never sleeps.

You've been served

The lawsuits from occupy Eureka continued, All 4 suits are filed and the defendants served. Started with Murl at the City council last night. Then we finished up at EPD using substitute service and handing 8 different orders to appear for the cops.

Small Claims Occupation.

Occupy Eureka is not done yet.

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.

First Birthday

We celebrated the one year anniversary with a few signs, a tent and several visits from the police. we showed the film below with sound track in the evening. Copyright problems block the soundtrack version on youtube, sorry.

What I would have, will say

I am here today to speak about the state of law enforcement in this county and the lack of accountability.

Last Thursday was Cotton day here in Humboldt County. It has been 5 years since 4 members of EPD beat a man to death while other cops stood silently by. The city lost a multimillion dollar law suit but not one of the killers have been fired.

When you allow killers to go unpunished you create a climate of lawlessness in the institution that rots it at its core. In a free society it is imperative that the integrity of the law enforcement agencies be above reproach. That and the presumption of innocence are the cornerstones of our system of justice. The police are allowed to carry weapons even in places a member of the larger society cannot. In this day and age the police are armed more in the manner of an invading army. When a few people protested outside the court house with tents the police arrived in riot gear with military style weaponry and attacked peaceful protestors exercising their rights granted in both the United States and State of California Constitutions.

We have not purged our departments of those that have disgraced the members that wish to honorably serve their community. By not doing so we have weakened the community. When we erode the faith people place in the institutions we turn those institutions into oppressive forces.
The policeman on the beat unbound by the law in his own mind oversteps his authority and people that have done no harm to society spends weeks in jail for protesting the destruction of our environment or the corruption in our financial sector. People are arrested for riding a bicycle while having an accent.

The making of bad laws undermines that faith as well. When your Board chose to ignore the first amendment and volumes of case law in an effort to remove the right to redress grievances from the people of Humboldt county it made a mistake. The overwhelming public sentiment against that action was ignored and a bad law was passed. A law that many people feel compelled to break because it is an affront to free people in a constitutional republic.

The jurors as part of the system of checks and balances has rejected that law and you are planning to try and amend it. I would like to see that that process is done in a manner open to the public. Repeal the Urgency Ordinance in total, Either abandon the idea that you should try to regulate protesting or Schedule well publicized public hearings in all parts of the county rather then the sham process that has been followed so far.

I would also ask that the Board of Supervisors join members of the community in condemning the Arcata Police department overstepping their authority and acting as an ICE agent, profiling people with accents. It is bad enough that local police would issue citations to obvious tourists that were not causing any harm but simply made a wrong turn while riding their bicycles rather then just give them some directions and help them on their way. To demand papers from someone based on obvious profiling should be grounds for dismissal. That is probably too much to hope for in a county where the police regularly kill with impunity.

Victory for the night

The feeling of victory is sweet. Last night around 9:45 2 deputy sheriffs walked by the front of the courthouse while we held our candle light vigil for first amendment rights. The sheepish looks they gave us when we invited them to join us said it all. Total capitulation by law enforcement. They came back around twice more before we departed at 11:30 and ignored our “criminality” each time.
The Machinations of the small town old boy network are becoming clearer with every action of the power structure. The sheriff decries the district attorney's actions while the acting police chief rails against the “lawlessness in front of the courthouse. All against the backdrop of oppressing the poor at every turn.

Some pictures from the front

Some pictures from the front, a few from our continuing vigils and some from the most recent Art's alive. We are still out front of the courthouse at night 9:30 to 11:30 every night.

Throwing sand in the gears

Spent a couple of hours out at the beach waiting for some space to become available. Part of helping some folks put their lives together. Have to cop to the fact that we have not been very successful. We have far from failed but we still don't have a secure space for them to be in. Life continues to flow and the courts beckon for the next few days. Things have spun off in new directions and I am fatigued. What else is new.