{"id":8806,"date":"2018-06-02T19:55:14","date_gmt":"2018-06-03T02:55:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=8806"},"modified":"2018-06-02T19:56:27","modified_gmt":"2018-06-03T02:56:27","slug":"activists-suit-against-cops-over-cal-occupy-rally-dismissed-in-federal-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2018\/06\/02\/activists-suit-against-cops-over-cal-occupy-rally-dismissed-in-federal-court\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists\u2019 suit against cops over Cal Occupy rally dismissed in federal court"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By\u00a0Bob Egelko<\/a>\u00a0(SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n

May 31, 2018<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Photo: Noah Berger \/ Special To The Chronicle.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Police surround an Occupy Cal encampment after issuing a five minute warning to vacate on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. At right, UC Berkeley student Alex Kim was one of two protesters arrested after refusing to leave.<\/em><\/p>\n

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Saying UC Berkeley police were entitled to act against \u201corganized lawlessness,\u201d a federal appeals court dismissed a lawsuit Thursday by students and activists who accused officers of using excessive force when they struck and jabbed them with their clubs during an Occupy Cal rally in 2011.<\/p>\n

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Thousands of demonstrators gathered at Sproul Plaza on Nov. 9, 2011, to protest rising tuition and University of California policies, and linked arms when police in riot gear moved in to dismantle tents they had set up. Videos that drew national attention showed officers jabbing protesters with clubs and yanking them by the hair. Several said they were clubbed on the arms and body. A few demonstrators were treated for bruises, and one for a cracked rib. At least 36 were arrested.<\/p>\n

More than 20 demonstrators sued police and university officials, saying then-Chancellor Robert Birgeneau and his staff had given police a free hand to use force in breaking up unauthorized encampments. U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled in 2014 that the suit could go to trial, saying the protesters\u2019 claims, if proven, could show that Birgeneau had tacitly approved a \u201cviolent response from the police.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco said none of the allegations in the suit, even if true, would show that police had used excessive force or violated any protesters\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n

In most of the incidents, police used only \u201cminimal force,\u201d Judge J. Clifford Wallace said in the majority opinion, noting that officers had not struck anyone in the head. He said one demonstrator engaged in \u201cacts of provocation\u201d by shaking his fist at officers and throwing leaves in their faces and that school officials had \u201ca legitimate interest in applying minimal force to maintain order and enforce university policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

In asking police to remove the tents, Wallace said, UC administrators \u201chad no reason to assume that police would use force beyond the bounds of (official) policy.\u201d And he said an officer who clubs a demonstrator\u2019s body or limbs \u201cfor the purpose of moving a crowd actively obstructing the officer from carrying out lawful orders in a challenging environment\u201d does not violate any \u201cclearly established rights,\u201d the legal standard for a suit against police.<\/p>\n

W. Louis Sands, a federal judge from Georgia temporarily assigned to the appeals court, joined Wallace\u2019s opinion. The third panel member, Judge Paul Watford, said he believed the officers had used excessive force to break up a largely peaceful protest and remove tents that \u201cweren\u2019t harming anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

But he agreed with Wallace that the law and court rulings as of November 2011 had not \u201cclearly established\u201d that police were acting illegally.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision is wrong and we will appeal,\u201d said a lawyer for the demonstrators, Ronald Cruz, from the nonprofit United for Equality and Affirmative Action.<\/p>\n

UC Berkeley spokesman Dan Mogulof said, \u201cThe campus is satisfied with this outcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ruling did not affect the demonstrators\u2019 ongoing suit against seven Alameda County sheriff\u2019s officers who worked alongside campus police at the 2011 protest.<\/p>\n

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email:\u00a0begelko@sfchronicle.com<\/a>\u00a0Twitter:\u00a0@BobEgelko<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By\u00a0Bob Egelko\u00a0(SFChronicle.com) May 31, 2018 Photo: Noah Berger \/ Special To The Chronicle.\u00a0\u00a0Police surround an Occupy Cal encampment after issuing a five minute warning to vacate on Thursday, Oct. 17, 2011, in Berkeley, Calif. At right, UC Berkeley student Alex Kim was one of two protesters arrested after refusing to… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8806"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8808,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8806\/revisions\/8808"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}