OAKLAND Charges dismissed against protesters

[Robbien]

Alameda County prosecutors dropped charges Thursday against two dozen people arrested more than a year ago during an anti-war protest at the Port of Oakland in which police fired nonlethal projectiles to disperse protesters. Authorities charged 24 demonstrators with misdemeanor trespassing for allegedly interfering with port commerce; two people also were charged with resisting arrest.

Prosecutors Stuart Hing and Julie Dunger said in a statement Thursday that charges were dismissed "in the interest of justice and with the agreement of the Oakland Police Department."

The decision came two weeks after a peaceful demonstration at the port on the one-year anniversary of the April 7, 2003 protest, which targeted two shipping companies with contracts tied to the war in Iraq. Prosecutors said the protesters' behavior at the recent demonstration, combined with new police crowd-control measures imposed after last year's protest, weighed in their decision to dismiss charges.


Police fired wooden dowels, rubber bullets and other projectiles at protesters and bystanders and bumped people with motorcycles, protesters alleged. Dozens of people, including longshore workers, were injured.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/chronicle/archive/2004/04/23/BAGJM69TRL1.DTL

[freetobegay]

1. Stomping out injustice

One at a time. But it can be done.

[not systems]

2. I think being sighted as a human rights abuse by the UN helped...

move this forward.

We need the black helicopters to stop police abuse in the USSA.

[KissMyAsscroft]

3. This is what they do..

They arrest everyone to stop the protest, and than they drop the charges a couple of months later...

When will people wake up?