Please begin or continue to

*organize in the Bay area for the trial,

*send donations so Humboldt residents can attend the trial in Oakland,

*invite CopWatch to do a presentation regarding Martin's death,

*and fight police brutality in your region!

Contact us at (707) 633-4493 or
through email at copwatchrwc@riseup.net

In the face of brutality and repression, there is a mood of resistance in Oakland that is building. 

During the rally at the Fruitvale BART Station, where Oscar Grant was murdered, this youngster had the courage to wave a flier for Derrick Jones in the faces of the Oakland police “protecting” the station from the protesters. – Photo: Felix Barrett

Protest After OPD Kills Derrick Jones

Thu Nov 11 2010 (Updated 11/29/10)
Derrick Jones - Another Oakland Police Department Murder

Derrick Jones was shot and killed by the Oakland Police Dept on Monday November 8th 2010 on the 5800 block of Trask Street. On November 11th protesters took to the streets to protest the murder of another unarmed man by the police. Family members of Jones and Oscar Grant joined a demonstration at 5815 Bancroft Way (near 58th Ave.) before marching to the Fruitvale BART station, the site of Grant's fatal shooting. BART shut down the station for several hours during the evening commute because of the protest.

The civil trial in Oakland: Siehna Cotton et al. v. Eureka Police Dept. and Humboldt County Sheriff's Dept. has been POSTPONED.  Please keep your eyes and ears out for the new date, some time after February!

A couple of us from Redwood Curtain CopWatch want to travel to the Bay Area (and points between and around here and there) to talk to groups of people about what happened to Martin Cotton, to invite people to the trial, and to help connect the conversations and struggles that our communities are engaged in regarding police brutality. [See below for links about events planned so far] We are looking for ideas, suggestions, and help in our organizing to make presentations and participate in gatherings and conversations regarding state violence, in these days leading up to the trial. Beginning on December 13th and probably running for two or three weeks, we want to have a full schedule in the Bay Area and thereabouts.  Can you help?  Perhaps, for instance, you could book us to make a presentation where you live, publicize our visit and the upcoming trial, and/or inform us of events and discussions already planned in your area.

The federal civil trial regarding the deadly beating by police of Eureka homeless resident, Martin Cotton, was postponed (We learned mid-December) .  The new date was set for September 12th. 

Now there is more time to organize.

We have been getting together with groups and individuals in the Bay area to spread the word about Martin Cotton and the trial.  Also, we've been connecting to strategize and talk about how our communities are struggling against police violence.  And how we can strengthen our efforts.  So far, while the situations we are dealing with are so intense, our encounters in the Bay area have been enriching experiences! 

Martin and his daughter Siehna

MUMIA'S LIFE IS IN DANGER!

Come out on November 9th 2010 to say:

MUMIA IS INNOCENT !  FREE MUMIA! 
END THE RACIST DEATH PENALTY!

MUMIA ABU-JAMAL faces his likely last court hearing on November 9th, 2010, at the Third Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, in Philadelphia.  This hearing is about sentencing only. 

Why is this happening?

Join us for a HEARING ON RACISM AND POLICE VIOLENCE
Oakland • February 2011

Come share Testimony and Demand Accountability on the Issues of Racist Law Enforcement and Police Suppression of Civil Liberties. Testimony will include witnesses to police killings across the country and experts on the impact of racial profiling and mass incarcerations.

THE HEARING (originally planned for January) HAS BEEN RESCHEDULED FOR SATURDAY & SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 19TH & 20TH 

Oakland High (1023 MacArthur near Park Blvd) Oakland, CA

SPONSORED BY:

• Mieklejohn Civil Liberties Institute
• Malcolm X Grassroots Movement
• New Years Movement
• East Side Arts Alliance
• Onyx• Collision Course Video
• African People’s Socialist Party
• National Lawyers Guild
• Hard Knock Radio
• US Human Rights Network

Johannes Mehserle sentenced to two years with double credit for time served

Nov 5, 2010 by Davey D

Oakland Filmmaker Feels Police Wrath

An Epidemic of Brutality

By LINN WASHINGTON, Jr.         NOV 5-7, 2010

Hours after San Francisco Bay Area radio show host J.R. Valrey screened his documentary film about police brutality at a university in Philadelphia daily newspapers in that city carried articles about two separate lawsuits filed against Philly police alleging brutality.

Those lawsuits, filed respectively by a state legislator and a high-profile media commentator (both of whom are black) didn’t surprise Valrey. His travels across America screening his film highlighted for him – again – a reality that governmental officials constantly reject: police brutality is a widespread scourge.

- An urgent message from the Labor Action Committee To Free Mumia Abu-Jamal -

Please forward, post and distribute widely: * Oscar Grant & Mumia Abu-Jamal - Mass mobilizations*!

TWO RALLIES, SAME FIGHT! Against racism, injustice and official murder of the innocent! PLEASE SCROLL DOWN for full information

1. OAKLAND, October 23rd 2010: PORT SHUT DOWN FOR OSCAR GRANT!
Rally: 12 Noon, City Hall, 14th and Broadway

Mehserle lawyer moves for new trial: What the defense is arguing

file photo, Johannes Mehserle

   The manslaughter verdict returned against former BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit) cop, Johannes Mehserle, for the videotaped murder of Oscar Grant, sent hundreds of protesters back into the hot streets of Oakland, California, Grant's hometown.

   The corporate media scratched its collective head, essentially asking 'Why protest when the guy was convicted?"

   The protesters knew, however, that the court system bent heaven and earth to return the lightest verdict possible; involuntary manslaughter' and that Mehserle faces a possible sentence of probation to a maximum of 4 years in prison.

   They knew that Mehserle got a non black jury, hundreds of miles from Oakland.

   They knew that each of those hundreds could've been Oscar Grant, unarmed, shot to death on tape and the same thing would've happened.

   Of course, the corporate media doesn't get it.

Community Responds to U.S. Systemic Racism as Evidenced by the MURDER of Oscar Grant, then Reinforced by the Mehserle Verdict

Save the Date! May 23 and May 24.

 Revolutionary Ecolology -  a commemoration and a celebration of revolutionary resistance. 

Save the Date! May 23 and May 24.

 Revolutionary Ecolology -  a commemoration and a celebration of revolutionary resistance. 

On August 9, 2007, Martin Frederick Cotton II was brutally beat to death- and then refused medical treatment -by Eureka Police and Humboldt County Sheriff "Correctional Officers" (in the jail).

Since September of 2008, there has been a federal civil rights lawsuit brought on behalf of Siehna Cotton (Martin's baby daughter) and by his father, Marty Cotton.