About 15 members of Occupy Portland met in front of Multnomah County Courthouse earlier this morning to support members of the group that will be in court later day.
Following a controversial decision by Judge Cheryl Albrecht in February of this year, over 70 members of Occupy that would normally have been pushed through the judicial process could now have their day in court.
Normally, when people arrested during protests show up for their court date they don’t get legal council or a trial. Judge Albrecht’s decision changes this. Why going to trial is important, says lawyers for Occupy, is that during protests police have long used arrests as a form of crowd control.
In February, following a motion filed by Occupy lawyer Bear Wilner-Nugent, Judge Albrecht decided that, yes, members of Occupy that received misdemeanors were entitled to legal council and a jury of their peers. To circumvent this decision, in March, the District Attorney’s office responded by dropping the majority of the misdemeanor charges. Occupy defendants were now told they were being charged with traffic violations, which would not be entitled to trial and council.
Lawyers for Occupy called foul on the DA, and filed a second motion requesting that the misdemeanor cases be reinstated. Judge Albrecht has yet to rule on this motion. And what happens next is a bit of a mystery.
“I’m pretty sure the charges are going to be dismissed,” says Occupy’s Cameron Whitten, who has four charges against him. “I think trying a bunch of activists for civil disobedience is nonsense. There’s no difference between what we did and what happened during the Boston Tea Party.” And there’s a good possibly that Whitten is right.
The DA could drop the charges instead of choosing to face Occupy in the courts.
Judge Albrecht is expected to rule on the latest motion filed by Occupy lawyers later today. But don’t expect a showdown anytime soon. Even if the judge rules that Occupy will have its day in court, lawyers say that day won’t come for at least another month.
After protesting in front of the courthouse, members of Occupy walked down to city hall to protest the reinstatement of Ron Frashour, the Portland police officer who was fired in November 2010 for shooting Aaron Campbell in the back.
Does budget come into this discussion at all? If the charges are dropped, I’m sure Occupy will shout that it’s because the DA knew they had no merit. But does the DA’s office even have the budget to go through with 70+ full trials, no matter how strong they think their cases are?
And how much would 70+ jury trials cost the city?
“legal council”
“says lawyers”
“there’s a good possibly”
Christ.
Congrats to Albrecht for sticking to her guns. I don’t agree with darn near anything Occupy does, but individuals deserve their day in court, and it’s extra bullshit that the DA is trying some end-around to get past the decision.
On the other hand, the quote “There’s no difference between what we did and what happen during the Boston Tea Party.” is:
a) moronic
b) probably not an event you want to equate your actions to if you believe you didn’t commit a crime
c) either Whitten thinks the Boston Tea Party is “happen” right now, or there’s yet another typo in this post.
@4, thanks for picking up on that too. (Regarding the parallels to the Boston Tea Party)
There is no difference between what happened during Occupy Portland and the Boston Tea Party. Civil disobedience = symbolically breaking laws to express a higher moral good. It’s the same pattern with Civil Rights Activists throughout history. Martin Luther King Jr. went to jail. Gandhi got beaten up a bunch. Look at the WTO protests. These People all broke laws for a greater cause they believed in. Some of it cost their respective governments money, and that’s because we’ve got a tyrannical governmental system that is designed to maintain the status quo, not to be equitable and progressive. So yes, Occupiers have practiced the original patriotic spirit of the America, by adamantly stepping up to fight corruption and apathy.