OPTINSTL ILLEGALY ARRESTED BY BERKELEY POLICE AT 10 SEPT 2014 HIGHWAY 70 DEMONSTRATION

OPTINSTL was one of the 35 people arrested at the 10 September demonstration at Highway 70, however, I was simply trying to get passed the illegal roadblock (violating the First Amendment) to get to do the protest. I had no plans to go out on the highway.  But I wanted to to be there because I knew, even before I saw the illegal roadblock, that First Amendment rights were going to be violated.

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/11/us/police-block-highway-protest-over-ferguson-mo-shooting.html?_r=0

http://www.cnn.com/2014/09/10/us/missouri-ferguson-michael-brown-protest/index.html

http://fox2now.com/2014/09/10/live-updates-michael-brown-protesters-plan-to-shut-down-i-70-during-rush-hour/

I also had this leaflet to hand out:
http://optinstl.blogspot.com/2014/09/vote-for-michael-brown-november-4th.html

I am going to be writing a lot more in this blog, and to the media, and of course, in preparing to fight my case, but I am hoping that one of the 10 or 12 cell phone videos, and one news camera, of my arrest will be sent to me.  If you know anyone at the demo, I was on the other side of the highway, the Express Scripts side, trying to get across the illegal police blockade.  I am a white woman.  I was wearing a grey t-shirt and purple skirt.

Please send me an email if you have video. optinstl@gmail.com

Since I had been encouraging people that had been arrested for "failure to disperse" or any of the other many illegal violations of the First Amendment rights by the police, it is interesting that simply by losing my temper (I challenged the police line about their illegality, crossed their "line" and was arrested for "Trespassing" and "Failure to Comply".  They also accused me of "assaulting an officer" for taunting them for being fascists.  Wisely, they did not file that charge.  However, even without that, they made many, many mistakes, and I have good grounds for challenging the violation of the First Amendment, which more of us are going to have to do to protect this most important freedom that we have in this country.  It was not just MY rights that were violated, every citizen of the United States is having their First Amendment rights violated at almost every protest since Brown's murder.  Again, more on that later.)

I will also be encouraging media, lawyers, and citizen rights advocacy groups to investigate the many illegal and inhumane practices of the Berkeley Police Department.  The jail conditions (900 calories a day, which are three bread and meat microwaved sandwiches, not allowed to use a toothbrush, no water except during the three "meal times"), setting bond without any trial and then detention until bond is paid, with little or no access to a lawyer, etc.  And I was in a cell with a woman that was facing thirty days in these conditions, because she can't afford to pay the $1400 bond (and the non-refundable $25 administrative fee tacked on top of it!)

One thin blanket, very cold temperatures, metal beds, lights on all the time, no visible clocks, only allowed one shirt, one pair of pants, and someone has to bring you new clothes, and they have to return the clothes you were wearing to that person.  I also was not allowed to wear my glasses.  One of the officers BRAGGED that each inmate only costs $3.71 a day to house! I wouldn't treat Darren Wilson that way! Absolutely inhumane.

There have been many articles recently about the high amount of tickets that are issued to drivers in the north county area, not just for "Driving While Black" but because the main source of income for small municipalities is traffic fines.  The response from the police is always "If you don't break the law you have nothing to worry about."

http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/black-st-louis-suburbs-hit-ticket-blitz-n185061

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-watch/wp/2014/09/03/how-st-louis-county-missouri-profits-from-poverty/

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-09-10/arrests-form-financial-bedrock-across-st-louis-county-towns.html

But that is patently not true.  Let's not even get into the many times cops turn on their sirens to speed through a yellow or red light. I've worked for law offices and attorneys in another state, and one attorney here, and all of their traffic tickets were fixed or dismissed due to their privilege of being lawyers and knowing so many judges, etc. (They broke the law and had nothing to worry about, RIGHT? ) I am hoping that an thorough audit of ALL traffic tickets is conducted to see just how often tickets are dismissed for lawyers, their families and friends, etc.

Ironically, while I was only jail for two days, the County sells the arrest records to all the lawyers so that they can send out advertising to the arrestees home address.  The lawyer I worked for sent one to me.  One of my jobs was to fold up these letters and put them in envelopes.  What is even more insulting about this obvious scam-- where lawyers profit from these tickets, too-- is that these lists are sent out IMMEDIATELY, but I can not get a copy of the incident report for SEVEN TO TEN DAYS, AND I HAVE TO GO DOWN TO THE STATION TO GET IT.

I call shenanigans on this entire operation.

Keep checking back, but please, if you have any video of my incident, please forward it to me.