‘Occupy Cal’ protesters on the UC Berkeley campus on November 9, 2011. (CBS)
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Students and community members filed a lawsuit in federal court Tuesday alleging that police used excessive force against them during an “Occupy Cal” protest at the University of California at Berkeley on Nov. 9.
Attorney Ronald Cruz of the group By Any Means Necessary said 24 plaintiffs are named in the suit but he expects that number to increase because he believes many people suffered at the hands of police during the protest, which involved hundreds of people.
KCBS’ Chris Filippi Reports:
Cruz said the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, seeks unspecified general and punitive damages for the physical and emotional injuries the protesters suffered.
Named as defendants are UC Berkeley Chancellor Birgeneau, other senior university administrators, UC Berkeley Police Chief Mitchell Celaya, Alameda County Sheriff Chief Gregory Ahern, Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan and several police officers.
Cruz said the 41-page complaint includes detailed accounts of peaceful protesters being clubbed in the face, yanked by their hair, forcefully jabbed in their chests, stomachs, and groins, and beaten while lying on the ground.
Cruz said police continued to beat protesters even after they destroyed the protesters’ tents.
UC Berkeley spokeswoman Janet Gilmore said university officials can’t comment on the lawsuit’s allegations because they haven’t yet seen the suit.
Gilmore said there are several investigations into police officers’ actions during the protest and university officials “are looking forward to the outcome” of those probes.
(Copyright 2011 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
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4 Comments
Liberal, Neo-conservative useful idiots and critics of Assembly, and frankly haters of truth and freedom, exist by feeding on the entrepreneurial, middle class.
Which explains why the nation’s respect and admiration are with the dissidents being victimized by such Zionist apparachiks of the Fed, IMF and World Bank. And with the Anonymous and Wikileaks brigades.
For they know, proletariat’s bad children and parasites will never admonish the Crony Capitalism feeding the latter’s addictions and narcissism. A special interest needful and earnest of all the hearty, steamy excrement patriots can provide. Sh!t and p!ss on, noble flea-baggers, lest the streets flow with blood.
November 29, 2011 at 9:52 pm | | Report comment
Has anyone else notice how much advertising this site has. All the sliding pages and pop up stuff it real distracting- Makes it a pain to view the news articales.Also make loading the pages slow
I’m going to have to use a web browser with graphics and pictures disabled so I do not have to deal with all this advertising BS from this site.
In your face spam- how annoying
November 29, 2011 at 10:19 pm | | Report comment
The protesters are just a bunch of selfish cry babies that need to get over it and move on. This lawsuit is a waste of the court’s time and it only fattens the lawyer’s wallet, nothing else.
November 30, 2011 at 1:38 am | | Report comment
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