[Fresh Ink] Real America

[Richard Menec]

DENVER--Police in Denver arrested an ABC News producer today as he and a 
camera crew were attempting to take pictures on a public sidewalk of 
Democratic Senators and VIP donors leaving a private meeting at the Brown 
Palace Hotel.

Police on the scene refused to tell ABC lawyers the charges against the 
producer, Asa Eslocker, who works with the ABC News investigative unit.

A cigar-smoking Denver police sergeant, accompanied by a team of five other 
officers, first put his hands on Eslocker's neck, then twisted the producers 
arm behind him to put on handcuffs.
..............
Eslocker and his ABC News colleagues are spending the week investigating the 
role of corporate lobbyists and wealthy donors at the convention for a 
series of Money Trail reports on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.

Watch the not so surprising video at: 
<http://abcnews.go.com/video/playerIndex?id=5670682',%20'popup',%20800,%20635,%20'status=1,%20resizable=1'>

Original Links at: 
<http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/Conventions/story?id=5668622&page=1>

==================

Police Trap Peaceful Protesters in Denver

A calm political protest quickly turned chaotic as anxious Denver police 
surrounded protestors peacefully marching toward the Democratic National 
Convention Center. After trapping the crowd between two buildings, hundreds 
of officers used pepper spray, batons and unwarranted aggression. After 
being surrounded for 20 minutes, two ANP producers managed to escape after 
recording the whole affair.

See video at: http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/08/26-14

==================

http://thelonghaul.org/

Longstanding Berkeley Community Center Raided by FBI

Wednesday, August 27th, 2008

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>

====================================================================

<http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-08-21/article/30943?headline=Campus-Police-Raid-Long-Haul-Seize-Computers-Disks-Drives>

Berkeley Campus Police Raid Long Haul, Seizing Computers, Disks, Drives

By Richard Brenneman

Wednesday August 27, 2008

UC Berkeley campus police, guns drawn, raided the Long Haul Infoshop 
Wednesday morning, seizing 13 computers and other gear, but the reason 
remains a mystery.

The building, which houses a collection of individual organizations ranging 
from the Needle Exchange to the East Bay Prisoner Support, was targeted by a 
team of at least seven officers.

According to the search warrant obtained by UC Berkeley Police Detective 
Bill Kasiske, officers believed the computers inside the officers at
3124 Shattuck Ave. contained evidence of felonies.

The document did not describe the alleged crimes nor did it name any 
perpetrators, and no arrests were made at the time of the raid.

In addition to computers and data storage media, the warrant targeted all 
written, typed or electronically stored documents containing information of 
people who used the computers inside the building.

Pattie Wall, an attorney for the Homeless Action Center (HAC), was working 
in her office next door at 3126 Shattuck when police knocked at the door. 
"They asked me if I had a key, and I said no."

Wall told the officers to check with the landlord, the Northern California 
Land Trust, but the trust's director wasn't in, so the officers returned, 
telling Wall they didn't need a key.

After they asked if there was a rear entrance, the officers went down the 
center hallway at HAC, drawing their pistols as they neared the rear door, 
said Wall.

Then the officers walked out the door and to the back door of Long Haul and 
made their entry.

Meanwhile Wall called staff at the Long Haul, who rushed to scene, also 
bringing civil rights attorney James B. Chanin, who has an office in the 
block to the north.

Chanin said he was surprised by the warrant, since it didn't identify any 
specific organization.

"I can't imagine the judge knew that the building housed many different 
organizations," he said. "It would shock me if the judge knew that."

Chanin said that a warrant that targeted a specific group wouldn't allow 
police "to go into a building and take everybody's stuff. But that's what I 
believe happened, and that's not right."

Ian Winters, executive director of the land trust and Long Haul's landlord, 
said the raid was the first in his memory, "and we never had any problems 
even while Long Hail had the marijuana club here."

In addition to offering a home to individual groups, Long Haul board member 
Greg Horton said the building's Internet room provided computers to give 
on-line access for those otherwise unable to afford it.

By the time the raid was over, only monitors, keyboards and disconnected 
cables were left.

Kathryn Miller, another board member, said the seizure would prevent 
publication of the next issue of the radical newspaper Slingshot, given that 
all the material for the edition was stored on the computers.

The Slingshot is produced by one of four collectives that are listed on the 
Long Haul's web page. The others are the Long Haul Infoshop, the bicycling 
advocacy group Cycles of Change and the Anarchist Study Group.

The raid drew a small crowd, with many of the observers taking pictures of 
the officers through the building's front windows and later as they carried 
out the computer hardware.

Soul, a long-time broadcaster on Berkeley Liberation Radio, said the 
underground radio station had been impacted by the raid. "We had some of our 
stuff there," she said. "They got our hard drive, and that really concerns 
us."

"This is really amazing," she said. "During all the resistance to the Gulf 
War and other times they never raided the Long Haul. It's the church we go 
to. It's the heart of anarchy in Berkeley."

Soul said she believed the raid stemmed from the UC Berkeley campus police 
pressure on the treesit at the Memorial Stadium oak grove. "They know we've 
been associated with the treesitters."

She also pointed to a Feb. 17, 2004, City Council resolution urging federal, 
state and local law enforcement agencies to refrain from taking any action 
to interfere with Berkeley Liberation Radio.

Chanin said he had contacted the National Lawyers Guild on behalf of the 
Long Haul tenants.

"I'm a neighbor, so they came to me," he said.

The raiders were comparatively neat, taping severed locks and screws removed 
from lock hardware neatly on the walls next to the place where they'd been 
removed.

Several items, including a petty cash envelope, had been left neatly 
arranged in a doorway, apparently after officers had photographed them.

At the end of the raid, Detective Kasiske decline to say what police were 
seeking, and referred question to Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya, who had not 
returned calls by deadline time.

Dan Mogulof, the university's executive director of public affairs, said he 
was unaware of the raid.

Zachary Running Wolf, the first of the treesitters at the Memorial Stadium 
Grove, was at the scene later in the morning, declaring that he believed he 
may have been a target.

The building had once housed a medical marijuana clinic, but that facility 
had closed months earlier, leaving many at the scene to speculate that the 
raid may have stemmed from animal rights activism.

The UC chancellors recently signed a joint letter deploring attacks on 
researchers who conduct animal experimentation in the wake of two Aug. 2 
firebomb attacks aimed at UC Santa Cruz researchers.

Berkeley researchers have also been targeted by protesters, including 
confrontations at their homes and vandalism.

For more information on Long Haul see their web page.

==========================================================================

http://www.mercurynews.com/breakingnews/ci_10321013?nclick_check=1

UC Berkeley police, FBI raid activist cooperative

Investigators searched for the source of threatening e-mails

By Doug Oakley, Staff Writer

Article Launched: 08/27/2008 09:53:56 PM PDT

BERKELEY - UC Berkeley police with the help of the FBI and Alameda County 
Sheriff's deputies raided a cooperative in Berkeley on Wednesday, seizing 14 
computers.

"We were investigating threatening e-mails we tracked to computers there," 
said UC Berkeley spokesman Robert Sanders.

"The details of the e-mail are confidential because it is related to an 
investigation." Sanders has been the university's spokesman on 
investigations into animal rights activists who are harassing researchers at 
the school. He declined to comment further on the warrant.

The warrant served on the Long Haul Infoshop on Shattuck Avenue just south 
of Ashby Avenue said police are seeking evidence that could be used to 
commit a felony, according to a man who answered the phone at the office 
space who gave his name only as "B."

According to B, police might have been looking for information on animal 
rights activists or tree sitters at the UC Berkeley Oak grove who are 
protesting the construction of a $125 million student athletic training 
center.

"All kinds of groups come through here, and I wouldn't be surprised if in 
the last 30 years an animal rights group came through here," said B.

"But people who are on the road use our computers too. We have a bunch of 
computers and make them available to anybody who wants to use them."

The Long Haul is an "open activist space," B said and is used by groups such 
as Berkeley Liberation Radio, individual tree-sit supporters, a needle 
exchange group, Slingshot newspaper, East Bay Prisoner Support and Cycles of 
Change.

"The police came in with their guns drawn, cut all the locks off all our 
doors, rifled through our mail and took every computer and flash drive and 
left," he added.

A UC Berkeley police spokesman did not return phone calls for information on 
the warrant.

Reach Doug Oakley at doakley at bayareanewsgroup.com.

==============
Fresh Ink is an alternative news service
and sister project of Booksinternationale.com.
Join us! https://booksinternationale.info/mailman/listinfo/freshink
==============