Privacy SOS

The ongoing criminalization of dissent

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On May 6, 2012, an Oakland police officer shot dead Alan Blueford, a black high school student. The city held a community meeting where residents and activists voiced their outrage to police chief Howard Johnson and the city leadership. Watch the video above to see what happened that night.

The person in the video yelling "JUSTICE FOR ALAN BLUEFORD!" is an activist named Chris. Apparently the police didn't like what he had to say, because after the cameras had gone away and Chris was heading home with friends, police arrested him. From the Occupied Oakland Tribune:

On our walk back to the Coliseum Bart station I watched at least two patrol cars monitor our status. One car only had one officer in it, at the time I thought that was strange, but I now know that tactic was intentional, they did not want to tip us off to what was about to happen. We arrived at the Bart station and I saw two patrol cars each carrying 4-5 officers. They were on the inner ring of the Bart parking lot and within about 2 min. were on the outer curb where Sgt. Beere instructed the men to arrest Chris. I’m not sure what the other officers were aware of prior to this abduction, because many of them seemed to appear uneasy, slightly inhibited and it forced Sgt. Beere to repeatedly yell at the officers to move faster.

Police initially charged Chris with three counts of assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon, presumably the megaphone. At his May 25 2012 arraignment the charges were dropped to disturbing the peace. 

© 2024 ACLU of Massachusetts.