(Alameda County, CA) Prosecutors file charges against Occupy protesters

[alp227]

Source: San Francisco Chronicle

The Alameda County District Attorney's office filed charges Friday against three people arrested at Occupy Oakland's demonstration this week and said it is seeking to revoke probation on two others who were arrested that day.

Jordan Bard, 22, was charged with felony vandalism as well as a misdemeanor for wearing a mask during the commission of a crime; Stephanie Demos, 54, was charged with resisting arrest and failure to disperse after a declaration of an unlawful assembly; and Isaac Castro, 24, was charged with felony assault on a peace officer.

Prosecutors said they are seeking to revoke probation for Siaosi Aleamotua, 19, who had previous a robbery conviction and was subject to a stay-away order from Frank Ogawa Plaza when police officers said they saw him there.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/04/BAC61ODQO0.DTL

[Lionessa]

1. declaration of unlawful assembly. . . . wow, let that sink in, not constitutional sounding at all

And yet somehow legal, and somehow it's only unlawful when "lefties" do it.

[PatrynXX]

2. the ghost of UBL just laughing away

as he's won beyond the grave. so Oakland etc is stuck somewhere between Iran and China and the more they pull this the last ammo we have against those countries.

[Festivito]

3. Let's be fair. We only have right to peaceful assembly.

As to what constitutes unlawful could make interesting court transcript reading.

[ret5hd]

4. So, as soon as the cops start beating us, the assembly is no longer "peaceful"...

and therefore no longer "lawful".

[Festivito]

5. I'd say that would place the police as not a part of the assembly.

Therefore the assembly would still be peaceful.

Now, if the assembly fought back, it would no longer be peaceful, but the police should face civil rights charges, charges that should exonerate the original assembly -- albeit with the damages of that timing being lost.

Can't stop people or even the police from acting badly. We can exact some form of better-late-than-never justice from the bad guys.