BAMN Press Release 4/2/2012:
BAMN and UC-Berkeley student-government parties celebrate victory today against stay-away orders on Occupy Cal defendants
They demand end to remainder of political witch-hunt: Drop the charges on the Berkeley 13 now!
PRESS CONFERENCE TODAY
MONDAY, APRIL 2, 3:15PM
Press conference moved to UC-Berkeley’s Sproul Hall steps for defendants to celebrate victory
Yvette Felarca, Occupy Cal defendant and BAMN leader, will join UC-Berkeley student-government parties, BAMN attorneys and organizers, and supporters at a press conference today celebrating VICTORY against the stay-away orders that had banned her and 3 other Occupy Cal defendants from stepping within 100 yards of UC property.
This morning, one day before BAMN’s legal challenge to the stay-away orders was to be argued in court, the Alameda County District Attorney requested and Superior Court Judge Yolanda Northridge granted the lifting of the orders against defendants Felarca, Joshua Anderson, Zakary Habash, and Jasper Bernes.
(Today’s press conference is the same event announced to media earlier, of UCB student-government parties calling for dropping all the charges against Occupy Cal protesters.)
“We’re going to take today’s victory and run with it,” said Matt Williams, BAMN organizer and Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP) candidate for ASUC president. “The stay-away orders were ludicrous and had to go. Today’s victory shows that when we fight, we win. We will continue to organize to stop the privatization and resegregation of the University of California that these charges represent.”
Representatives from other student-government parties, Cal-SERVE and Students for a Democratic University, will also have representatives.
“This is a great victory, and I’m confident we’re going to win more victories,” said Yvette Felarca, a defendant, BAMN national organizer, and lead plaintiff in the civil lawsuit against UC-Berkeley for police brutality from November 9. “Were committed to fighting to get all these charges dropped and to realize the defense of public education and restoration of affirmative action that the movement has been fighting for.”
“Today’s victory shows that the UCB administration and District Attorney’s office are divided on this witch-hunt and want to avoid having to defend it in open court,” said Ronald Cruz, BAMN attorney who filed the motion to lift the stay-away orders that would have been heard in court on Tuesday.
Felarca announced her intention to participate in a demonstration on UC-Berkeley campus Friday, April 6 demanding the immediate dropping of the charges against the Berkeley 13 and the doubling of underrepresented minority students at UCB now.
Felarca, Anderson, and Habash face misdemeanor charges of obstruction of an officer and “malicious” blocking of a sidewalk or public place, California Penal Codes 148(a)(1) and 647c.
