'Occupy Eureka California' Activists Arrested; Police Integrity Questioned

14 members of 'Occupy Eureka' arrested - police not necessarily honest...

Police in Eureka, California are working for Wall Street. File photo

(EUREKA, Calif.) - Early Monday at approximately 3:00 a.m,, police raided and destroyed the 'Occupy' encampment in Eureka, "like thieves in the night," as activist Jack Nounnan said, "jailing 14 people on charges of resisting arrest." Nounnan says some occupiers were pulled out of their sleeping bags and immediately handcuffed, and that allegations of resisting arrest are patently false.

One, according to Nounnan, was accosted by police, others simply were complying with orders yet still arrested. Police then confiscated most of encampment equipment and fenced off grass areas, designating it as a "crime zone".

As the news editor for Salem-News.com a military veteran and an American of 48 years, I find the actions of the police in Eureka unconscionable, and if Nounnan's point about those being arrested for resisting arrest is true, then they are dirty cops without honor or integrity. Of course this is the far north of California and they apparently didn't pay attention to what happened in Oakland recently, where police shot a Marine Corps Iraq War Veteran in the head, causing critical, and likely permanent damage.

These are the types of violations that bring the populace to a boiling point.

We live in a corrupt country guilty of squandering resources, pillaging our extremely fragile environment, and committing war crimes by the hundred.

U.S. bombs killed up to a million and a half innocent Iraqi citizens, all on bogus information provided by Bush and Cheney and cemented into place by New York Times reporter Judith Miller. Now we're embroiled in a federal gun running scandal, and those with half a brain know that it is the CIA itself under Regan and successive presidents, that brought the drug scourge to the streets of America in the first place, to fund their blood war in Nicaragua.

This is the government that these law enforcement officials ultimately take direction from. Federal laws supersede California law and yet the federal law is what the cops are being used to enforce when raiding medical marijuana dispensaries and also, when aiding the financial swine on Wall Street. And it is important to note that the Occupy movements are pot-free, not that the people aren't 'cool'; they just understand that fighting for their rights as Americans means setting an example. You don't hear about pot and drug charges at these events, instead it is always about police attacking American people, it is not the other way around.

Police who enforce any bad law or immoral, un-American practice, are acting on orders from political agents of the corporate powers, and they are not doing so without their own awareness, and they are wrong.

They should refuse to disrupt Occupy Wall Street protests and I'm sure it won't be long before the first group of officers does exactly that.

Think about it, especially if activists can get police unions to sign on, they could influence officers to pressure others to not have anything to do with the fascist behavior they are being ordered to carry out.

That's right, fascist. People with the movement need to continue and build and take up more ground, gain more support, draw the disenfranchised and the homeless and if and when members of the movement step out of line, or when agent provocateurs pull their dirty tricks, know that is who and what they are and attribute the blame where it belongs.

Nounnan says people and groups from all over the country and beyond are responding in showing their support, and it's important to remember that Eureka and Humboldt County are a counterculture haven and have been for decades; more good vibes and excellent marijuana than most places. People here are willing to take a stand, they did it during the Vietnam War.

Nounnan says those not arrested Monday morning regrouped and again began to protest, eventually being joined by many of those receiving word and arriving to help restore this non violent presence.

"The crowd mounted and then reoccupied the courthouse lawn with police arriving again to warn that if anyone was caught sleeping in tents, they would be arrested, which again occurred around 11:00 p.m."

Most refused to leave and chose to sleep without tents. Tuesday morning at 7:15, the newest "Occupy Eureka" Banner was again up. Jack Nounnan says it didn't take long before police began arriving, threatening to confiscate any signs or banners not being held by individual people. Protestors refused to believe this order from police was covered under any city ordinances, so they chose to ignore the police presence.

I would like to know how many crimes took place in the city of Eureka while their police force was used as henchmen to quell a non-violent demonstration of sleeping people. I also wonder how many tax dollars were used to create a situation that will likely only lead to lawsuits and perhaps, the city of Eureka writing big checks to account for the allegedly illegal actions of their officers, we will see. Other questions come to mind; were there burglaries? Were people driving plastered and not getting caught because police were not on the streets?

I personally think it is all tragically funny, and I know the police are embarrassed and those who are not should be. It won't be long before criminals start timing out big stuff while the police are working for Wall Street, violating the rights of free speech and trampling on the notion of freedom of assembly.

Nope, Eureka is a little like Egypt, a little like Algeria, a little like Gaza, and on and on. Thug cops are the same, it doesn't matter what city or country they work for, they are just no good. They are sold out over the line of reason and operating as mindless soldiers rather than citizens of the communities they hassle. As in the case of Oakland, they shoot innocent, unarmed protestors, they are proving that there is no reason to do anything but counter and resist through whatever path a person chooses. This is what our American founding fathers would have said.

Jack Nounnan said, "We need your presence and greater support now to maintain not only this right to protest in repudiating the privilege of wealth in dominating the lives of the majority of us Americans, but our terribly diminishing abilities to survive."

He says "Occupy Eureka" has also become the focus of this country's "deeply ingrained prejudice, harassment and outright use of force against those terribly deprived, out of work, people losing their homes, the homelessness, handicapped and mentally ill... with government determination to even eliminate the right to sleep and have shelter of a tent."

Well Jack, let me tell you we are paying attention, we understand the frustration and the hopelessness that the police so obviously hope will flourish. Truthfully I believe that thanks to the efforts of yourself and others, that the people will win and those working for the 1% will realize this before long. They have forgotten about Kent State and Jackson State and so many other moments that utterly define the abuse of authority. How they aren't able to take the lesson and apply it is beyond me.

The Website for the city of Eureka does not reference the problems at 'Occupy Eureka' and my quest to learn about city council and their leader, Mayor Frank Jager, led to one and two line 'bios' that explain absolutely nothing about the elected officials.

The city police department's Website last listed a press release on 30 August of this year. A month had passed before the previous press release. This may explain perhaps how and why their police have so much extra time to arrest Americans assembled to express their rights.

I suggest that if any U.S. city is going to trample on demonstrators, they should have some sort of an up to date presence online; this is 2011, it makes a place look bad.

Jack's group, Communities For Justice and Peace, Humboldt.Co. Ca., included the following information for those interested in supporting Occupy Eureka.

Occupy Eureka continues to need your help:

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Tim King: Salem-News.com Editor and Writer

Tim King has more than twenty years of experience on the west coast as a television news producer, photojournalist, reporter and assignment editor. In addition to his role as a war correspondent, this Los Angeles native serves as Salem-News.com's Executive News Editor. Tim spent the winter of 2006/07 covering the war in Afghanistan, and he was in Iraq over the summer of 2008, reporting from the war while embedded with both the U.S. Army and the Marines. Tim is a former U.S. Marine.

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