Lily Rothrock via Flickr

Occupy Bernal Heights changing the world, one foreclosure at a time

Back in December we told readers about the newer, much more civilized arm of the local Occupy movement, dubbed Occupy Bernal Heights. The goal of this new Occupy group was not to pitch tents on public property, but to stop foreclosures and help troubled homeowners get affordable refinancing.

So how successful has Occupy Bernal been over the last five months? We checked back with the group's leaders, who tell us they've been able to stop one foreclosure and helped postpone plenty of others.

That may not sound like much, but it's more than what some other Occupy groups have accomplished.

In fact, this is rather rewarding for a neighborhood that sees four auctions a week, says Occupy Bernal organizer Buck Bagot. "The banks tricked them," he says of his fellow neighbors. "People are so ashamed, they just sit in their house depressed until they lose their home."
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Albert Samaha

Now they are occupying jail

District Attorney George Gascón is wasting no time building his case against the protesters who were arrested during Tuesday evening's occupation of the San Francisco Archdiocese building during the May Day strikes.

Gascón fired off a statement last night, detailing his intention to charge five of the 26 protesters who were hauled off to jail that night. Four of those protesters will be slapped with misdemeanor trespassing charges, and one will be charged with a felony assault with a deadly weapon, two counts of felony assault on a police officer, and one count of felony vandalism. Gascón noted that four of those being charged were also arrested on April 2 when protesters occupied the same building, causing some $25,000 in damages.

"I am one of millions of Americans who supports the right to protest and agrees with the original intent of the Occupy movement's efforts to call out financial institutions and their role in causing economic inequalities," Gascón noted. "The reckless vandalism and violence on April 30 and May 1, however, crossed the line."
 
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Cross your legs...

A pair of men tossing bricks and metal pipes off rooftops and onto the crowd below was an unforeseen consequence of the Occupy movement. And, it would seem, so is a delay in the opening of the nascent Guardians of the City Museum.

That's because Senior Sheriff's Deputy Michael Anderson is working intake these days. And with an uptake in intake due to the Occupy protests, he's been kept very busy. And when Anderson is busy, he can't do what he really wants to do -- work.

Anderson's free time is spent performing copious amounts of backbreaking free manual labor on the future site of the museum at 1152 Oak St. So far, he's spent "well over 2,000 hours of my own time" refurbishing the building along with other public safety workers. He's in the midst of restoring the floors. But extra time at the jail is keeping him off his hands and knees at the future museum; the floors remain unfinished and the building remains unopened.

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When all else fails, blame Wells Fargo

Since it had the $25K (of your money) to spare, Wells Fargo thought it might help out the Mission District businesses that were completely trashed during Monday evening's Occupy protests.

And the bank should, since some might say that mess is technically Wells Fargo's fault.

The bank announced yesterday evening that it would kick in big bucks to the businesses along the Valencia Corridor to help merchants, many who had to close shop, to replace broken windows, rub away anarchy symbols, and remove the dried egg yolk and paint from storefronts.

The kind grant will be filtered through the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association and the Lower 24th Street Merchants and Neighbors Association, which serve local businesses in the Mission District.
 
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Courtesy of SFPD

San Francisco's perpetual object-thrower

Sticks and stones may break my bones. So do bricks. And, so do bottles. Jesse Nesbitt has been accused by San Francisco police of hurling the latter two at city employees; yesterday his alleged brick tossed off the roof of 888 Turk Street missed a police officer but did strike a bystander.

Nesbitt, 34, was arrested yesterday and booked for felony aggravated assault among other charges following the alleged brick-tossing escapade. If he is indeed the man who winged a heavy object at a city employee, it apparently isn't the first time. Back in November, a 34-year-old Jesse Nesbitt was arrested after allegedly flinging a bottle at a Department of Public Works employee steam-cleaning the occupied bocce ball courts, and informing the worker that "You are not coming in here." 

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Albert Samaha

When Occupying goes wrong.

The madness at 888 Turk St. began a little after 5 p.m. Police officers in riot gear had begun erecting metal barricades around the front of the previously empty Archdiocese of San Francisco building, which protesters had occupied a few hours earlier.More >>

Courtesy of SFPD

This is what happened last time at that same site

Update, 6:25 p.m.: SF Weekly's Albert Samaha says the man accused of tossing bricks onto the crowd from atop occupied 888 Turk has been arrested. The suspect has been charged with felony aggravated assault, according to Police Chief Greg Suhr.

Suhr chalked up the violence to "Gang anarchists who sometimes call themselves 'Black Bloc,'" whom he also blames for last night's vandalism in the Mission. "We are aware that they are stockpiling bricks and pipes," he said. "This is criminal conduct. This is not First Amendment demonstration." 

The man hit in the chest and face by a tossed brick was a self-described occupier. He declined medical attention. Police say the intended target was an officer videotaping the scene. The man who threw metal pipes at police cars from a nearby rooftop remains on the loose.

Update, 5:55 p.m. Albert Samaha estimates about 70 cops in riot gear, about a dozen on motorbikes, and six axe-wielding firefighters are on the scene. About two dozen bystanders are observing from Jefferson Square Park nearby. No move to storm the building yet following the object-tossing mayhem earlier this hour.

Update, 5:35 p.m. Following a man on the roof of the occupied building tossing bricks, Samaha says a man on a separate, higher rooftop hurled what appears to be a metal pipe into the crowd. He continues to throw objects off the roof onto Gough and Turk; he hit a police car with his fourth attempt.

Update, 5:28 p.m. SF Weekly's Albert Samaha says a masked man on the roof of the Turk Street building is tossing bricks onto the crowd below.

This was sparked after a tussle broke out when officers detained a man who had been brazenly taking down police barricades.

Samaha estimates a crowd of 50 or more are on the scene; some are calling for an ambulance -- it appears one of those tossed bricks hit a person. More than 50 police are on the scene and more are coming.

Samaha says it appears police are readying themselves to enter the building. An ambulance is en route.

Update: SFPD has now closed off Turk Street at Franklin. Police have now surrounded the building with metal fences. One occupier yells to police, "Get the fuck outta here."

Oakland wasn't the only city hosting commotion today. As promised, occupiers in San Francisco stormed a building on 888 Turk St. shortly after 3 p.m., where they are currently camping out.

According to SF Weekly Staff Writer Albert Samaha, some 40 protesters have entered the building, which is the same Archdiocese of San Francisco site that the group occupied on April 1. They've hung banners and removed the chain link fence, declaring the site their own commune.

Some 20 officers in riot gear are standing across the street, chatting away while protesters climb the rooftops of the building. 

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Across the Brooklyn Bridge

A New York judge has ruled that Twitter must release tweets from an Occupy Wall Street protester, claiming the information, which highlights the chaotic arrests on the Brooklyn Bridge last year, is -- and should be -- public for the whole world to read.

Malcom Harris, a 22-year-old writer, was one of 700 Occupy protesters arrested for disorderly conduct while marching across the Brooklyn Bridge last October. To prove that police had warned protesters not to enter the bridge, the New York City Police Department released videos which show an officer giving directions with a bullhorn.

Prosecutors later subpoenaed the San Francisco-based Twitter for Harris' tweets from Sept. 15 to Dec. 31, 2011 under the handle @destructuremal, claiming Harris' tweets posted while on the Brooklyn Bridge will contradict his intended defense at trial.

While Harris tried to block that subpoena, Judge Matthew Sciarrino Jr. claimed that the occupy protester had full knowledge that his posted tweets were not private and would live on in the Twitterverse.

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On Earth Day, occupiers across the Bay Area marched to UC Berkeley to clear out an empty tract of land that they say will become a new community farm. Protesters got to work tilling and planting on the occupied property, with chickens standing by their side. Already, some 10,000 seeds have been planted.

Naturally, police arrived and threatened to haul everyone to jail, but only after we were able to grab some cool shots of these productive protesters.

Kate Conger

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It appears that more light will be shed on one of the most controversial episodes of police response to Occupy protests across the country last fall, after a judge ruled that an independent report on the pepper-spraying of peaceful protesters by a UC Davis campus police officer can be made public.

The Nov. 18 incident was caught on videotape (view above), prompting nationwide outrage and briefly rejuvenating the flagging Occupy movement. It was also called "horrific" and "a disaster" by UC Davis Chancellor Linda Katehi, who insisted she had ordered campus police to deal with demonstrators without resorting to force.

In the aftermath of the incident, school officials commissioned an independent study of what happened. Campus police sought to have the report blocked after it was completed, arguing that it violated officers' privacy. But Alameda County Superior Court Judge Evelio Grillo has issued a tentative ruling asserting that such concerns are misplaced, and that university officials have a right to "disclose and discuss" the report's findings with the public.

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