KTVU footage from the Occupy Oakland protest, October 25th, 2011. After protesters ran to the aid of Iraq War Veteran Scott Olsen, Oakland Police deliberately lobbed a flash grenade into the crowd. Whatever you think of the Occupy movement, police behavior of this kind is criminal and should be prosecuted.
From Christopher Cook, Coordinator, Writers for Free Speech
October 26, 2011
Dear editors and reporters:
Today, just hours after last night’s Oakland police actions, more than 50 writers — including Michael Pollan, Dave Eggers and Rebecca Solnit — released a statement (below) denouncing a “crackdown on free speech” by Oakland police and Mayor Jean Quan. The list of authors, filmmakers and artists, from the Bay Area and nationwide, is growing by the hour.
For more information, please contact Christopher Cook, Author and journalist, coordinator of Writers for Free Speech.
Writers for Free Speech Statement and Signers
Dear Mayor Jean Quan:
The violent crackdown on peaceful, nonviolent “Occupy Oakland” protesters by your city police department is an outrage and a disgrace. As writers, authors, editors, filmmakers and artists from across the country, we believe free speech and assembly are paramount to democracy. We urge you to cease the police crackdowns immediately, and stop trampling on protesters’ First Amendment rights. As Mayor, you are ultimately responsible for the actions of your police department, and by all accounts they have behaved shamefully—attacking, beating, and tear-gassing people who were assembled peaceably in nonviolent protest. Mayor Quan, let free speech and assembly have its day, and its night, and stop your police from these terrible and entirely unnecessary attacks. The country is watching. Let the protesters speak and assemble, and end the attacks—now.
Christopher Cook, Author of Diet for a Dead Planet: Big Business and the Coming Food Crisis (San Francisco)
Media Alliance, 425-member advocacy organization for media democracy (Oakland)
Michael Pollan, Author of The Omnivore’s Dilemma (Berkeley)
Dave Eggers, Author of Zeitoun (San Francisco)
Raj Patel, Author of Stuffed and Starved (Oakland)
Rebecca Solnit, Author of Hope in the Dark (San Francisco)
Norman Solomon, Author of War Made Easy (Inverness Park, CA)
Lucia Hwang, Editor of National Nurse magazine (Oakland)
Michael Parenti, author of The Face of Imperialism (Berkeley)
Michele Simon, author of Appetite for Profit (Oakland)
Bryant Terry, Food justice activist and author (Oakland)
Andrea Buffa, Freelance writer and media specialist (Oakland)
Debra Walker, Artist, Political Director, Women’s Caucus, California Democratic Party (San Francisco)
Matthew Rothschild, Editor, The Progressive magazine (Madison, WI)
Michelle Tea, Author and Executive Director, RADAR Productions (San Francisco)
Antonia Juhasz, Author and National Advisory Committee member, Iraq Veterans Against the War (San Francisco)
Tracy Rosenberg, Executive Director, Media Alliance (Oakland)
Joe Loya, Author of The Man Who Outgrew His Prison Cell: Confessions of a Bank Robber (Oakland)
Jason Ferreira, Professor of Ethnic Studies, San Francisco State University (Emeryville, CA)
Kimberley Campisano, Artist and Educator (Oakland)
Doug Henwood, Author of Wall Street (New York, NY)
Jane Ganahl, Author, editor, arts organizer (Half Moon Bay, CA)
Laura Fraser, Journalist and author, All Over the Map (San Francisco)
Bill Costley, citizen blogger, The Bay Citizen (Santa Clara, CA)
Gregory Dicum, Journalist and author of The Coffee Book (San Francisco)
Paige Bierma, Filmmaker and journalist (San Francisco)
Chris Carlsson, Author and editor of Ten Days that Shook the City (San Francisco)
Camille Taira, Freelance reporter (Oakland)
Jill Richardson, Freelance journalist (San Diego)
Frappa Stout, Reporter and editor (San Francisco)
David Munro, Filmmaker (San Francisco)
Julia Scheeres, Author of Jesus Land (Berkeley)
Janice Cooke Newman, Author of The Russian Word for Snow (San Francisco)
Todd Oppenheimer, Author of The Flickering Mind: Saving Education from the False Promise of Technology (San Francisco)
Matthew Zapruder, Poet, author of Come On All You Ghosts (San Francisco)
Steven T. Jones, Author of The Tribes of Burning Man (San Francisco)
Susie Gerhard, Journalist (San Francisco)
Sasha Cagen, Author of Quirkyalone (Oakland)
Alexandra Kostoulas, Writer, English Professor, Peralta Community College District
Tommy Tompkins, Journalist and editor (Los Angeles)
Tina Gerhardt, Independent Journalist (San Francisco)
Peter Orner, Author of Love, Shame, and Love (San Francisco)
Tommi Avicolli Mecca, Poet and writer (San Francisco)
Gina Welch, Author of In the Land of Believers (San Francisco)
Rachel Brahinsky, Writer and Geographer (San Francisco)
Richard Knee, Freelance journalist (San Francisco)
David V. Johnson, Journalist (San Francisco)
Isaac Fitzgerald, TheRumpus.net magazine, (San Francisco)
Chris Colin, Author of Blindsight (San Francisco)
Rob Eshelman, Journalist (New York, NY)
Zoe FitzGerald Carter, Writer (San Francisco)
Nato Green, Comedian with Laughter Against the Machine (San Francisco)
Maw Shein Win, poet, editor, arts organizer (Berkeley)
Robert Avila, arts writer (San Francisco)
Victoria Schlesinger, Journalist (San Francisco)
James Tracy, Author of Hillbilly Nationalists
Melinda Hemmelgarn, Host, Food Sleuth Radio (Columbia, MO)
Luke Thomas, journalist, publisher, fogcityjournal.com (San Francisco)
The Hunger Site
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