Hey Hey. Ho Ho. DA O'Malley Has To Go!
I just made that up. But it should be being chanted from the Halls of Sproul (UC Berkeley) to the Shores of Lake Merritt (Oakland), and everywhere in between.
Nancy O'Malley is the District Attorney for Alameda County, California, whose latest subversion of the Constitution (but by no means her first, or second, for that matter) is the targeting of UC Berkeley Occupy protest leaders.
Yesterday, The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California spoke out against what is being done by O'Malley and her co-conspirators in a scathing press release.
The Alameda County District Attorney is planning to prosecute at least 11 students and one faculty member in relation to the Occupy Cal protest in the fall. Thirty-nine people were arrested that day, and the DA plans to prosecute 4 of the 39. The DA has also decided to charge another 8 students who were not even arrested that day.
...the newly-charged individuals have been active leaders in the student protest movement and have provided testimony in the University’s own internal reviews of protest issues. We also know that at least 2 of the students sought medical treatment at a University health facility, which then handed information about them to the alleged assailant, UCPD...
Support your ACLU, or there will be no one left to support you
These criminal prosecutions are nothing short of chilling. By singling out prominent and visible leaders of the protest movement, they chill students and faculty in the exercise of their free speech rights. They also chill potential witnesses from coming forward and assisting the University with this and future investigations of police misconduct. And they chill injured members of the Berkeley community from seeking medical treatment for physical injuries...
Confidence in the University was deeply shaken after it chose to respond to peaceful student protesters on November 9 with baton-wielding police clad in riot gear. The current criminal prosecutions serve only to further undermine confidence by raising questions of whether the University singled out active leaders and requested that the District Attorney select them for prosecution...
There's not much more to say than to repeat what I wrote a week ago about O'Malley and her
abuse of her office:
You'd think the Alameda District Attorney's Office would have better things to do than to charge people with maliciously blocking sidewalks. You might think they would be devoting their resources to investigating the hundred-plus murders that take place in Oakland every year, or, dare we dream, the plethora of crimes that the Oakland Police commit against the citizens they are sworn to protect and serve.
But you would think wrong.
Given that these ridiculous charges are being levied against Cal Occupiers, not Occupy Oaklanders, it is now clear that the District Attorney either has a personal vendetta against all things Occupy, or is receiving orders from some very powerful people to do everything in her power to crush the Occupy movement in all of Alameda County, not just Oakland.
Cal students have marched from Berkeley to Oakland in solidarity on at least two occasions, and Occupy Oakland has done the same as many times in reverse. Now it's time for them to unite against a foe who is determined to eliminate their wills to keep fighting, abusing her position of authority by stripping the citizens of Alameda County of their First Amendment rights.
Unfortunately nothing is likely to stop O'Malley short of some kind of court smackdown, which could be a long time coming. She is in office until 2014.
The only other possible alternative would to recall her, as she is an elected official. California is usually a trend-setter, but Wisconsin has set the high bar for recalling obnoxious, offensive officials -- removing two already and preparing to evict five more. Perhaps it's time for Berkeley and Oakland to unite to send a 'Wisconsin Neon' to O'Malley.
Ho Ho. Hey Hey. DA O'Malley Go Away!