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Occupy San Diego Protester Recounts Alleged Police Brutality

Occupy San Diego’s three-month anniversary on January 7 was a cause for celebration for dozens of activists who marched from Children’s Park to the Civic Center to participate in a rally. Activists, however, are calling the arrests of three demonstrators another black mark against the San Diego Police Department.

Stephanie Jennings, 51, a San Diego resident of 25 years and cofounder of Women Occupy, was among those incarcerated. Under her attorney’s advisement, Jennings described only bits and pieces of her arrest to the press earlier this week.

“It all happened very quickly,” said Jennings. “I was rehearsing with the Occupella chorus as the march approached the plaza. I went towards them to cheer and quickly noticed police tape going up around the marchers. At that point, Jennings said she knew she needed to rejoin her group. But before she could act, Jennings alleges SDPD Sgt. James Milano bumped into her.

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“What I can tell you is that he did some pretty awful things. I was hurt, and I am seeing a physician because of it…. My treatment while incarcerated was also abhorrent.”

A YouTube video shows the tail end of Jennings’s arrest and, moments later, captures an inaudible exchange between Sgt. Milano and the other female arrested...apparently over the yellow tape’s separation of the female from her bicycle. Sgt. Milano shoves the female further behind the tape and then, seemingly angered by her remarks, reaches over the tape and yanks her off her feet, shoving her toward the ground. An officer then places a hand on Milano’s arm, in a cautionary gesture, while three other police arrest the woman as she lied on the ground.

“This was not one rough cop,” said Jennings. “[He] was out of control, lost his temper, and did not follow policy, but he is doing what somebody is telling him to do, and that is the problem. For the first time, you see people from every class, all colors and all ages, uniting together because our common interest are stronger than our individual interests, and that frightens the leaders.”

Michael Garcia, the night’s other detainee, said he was sitting in a chair passing out free-speech material and was arrested under an encroachment law.

Jennings, who is filing a formal complaint with the Citizens Review Board, is due in court on February 25. The charge against her is “battery committed against the person of a peace officer.”

Although attorney Bryan Pease thinks the charges are ridiculous and do not merit an indictment, Jennings faces a $10,000 fine. Earlier this week, Sgt. Milano’s police report remained incomplete, and SDPD personnel refused to comment on what they said could be a potential ongoing investigation.

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Occupy San Diego’s three-month anniversary on January 7 was a cause for celebration for dozens of activists who marched from Children’s Park to the Civic Center to participate in a rally. Activists, however, are calling the arrests of three demonstrators another black mark against the San Diego Police Department.

Stephanie Jennings, 51, a San Diego resident of 25 years and cofounder of Women Occupy, was among those incarcerated. Under her attorney’s advisement, Jennings described only bits and pieces of her arrest to the press earlier this week.

“It all happened very quickly,” said Jennings. “I was rehearsing with the Occupella chorus as the march approached the plaza. I went towards them to cheer and quickly noticed police tape going up around the marchers. At that point, Jennings said she knew she needed to rejoin her group. But before she could act, Jennings alleges SDPD Sgt. James Milano bumped into her.

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“What I can tell you is that he did some pretty awful things. I was hurt, and I am seeing a physician because of it…. My treatment while incarcerated was also abhorrent.”

A YouTube video shows the tail end of Jennings’s arrest and, moments later, captures an inaudible exchange between Sgt. Milano and the other female arrested...apparently over the yellow tape’s separation of the female from her bicycle. Sgt. Milano shoves the female further behind the tape and then, seemingly angered by her remarks, reaches over the tape and yanks her off her feet, shoving her toward the ground. An officer then places a hand on Milano’s arm, in a cautionary gesture, while three other police arrest the woman as she lied on the ground.

“This was not one rough cop,” said Jennings. “[He] was out of control, lost his temper, and did not follow policy, but he is doing what somebody is telling him to do, and that is the problem. For the first time, you see people from every class, all colors and all ages, uniting together because our common interest are stronger than our individual interests, and that frightens the leaders.”

Michael Garcia, the night’s other detainee, said he was sitting in a chair passing out free-speech material and was arrested under an encroachment law.

Jennings, who is filing a formal complaint with the Citizens Review Board, is due in court on February 25. The charge against her is “battery committed against the person of a peace officer.”

Although attorney Bryan Pease thinks the charges are ridiculous and do not merit an indictment, Jennings faces a $10,000 fine. Earlier this week, Sgt. Milano’s police report remained incomplete, and SDPD personnel refused to comment on what they said could be a potential ongoing investigation.

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Comments

This is what happens when the populace elects pigs to public office. Mayor Sanders is a retired pig and he approves of this kind of police brutality. If the populace is foolish enough to elect Bonnie Dumanis as mayor, the people will endure the same treatment from out of control pigs like Sgt. Milano. The irony is that Sgt. Milano will probably receive awards when he should be fired and charged with assault and battery. Quit electing pigs and lawyers to public office.

Jan. 13, 2012

USER ID REFLECTS FORMERLY ATHEIST. I will be changing it.

It's no different from any other puppet masters / puppets munchkins.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-01-14/entertainment/30008786_1_photos-g-string-gun-culture

http://www.google.com/search?q=basij&rls=com.microsoft:*:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7

The variously pathologic cops / cops trained in the tactics of erring on the side of survival over ideal, that unwarranted in the U.S., as this woman is simply propounding free enterprise absent the fraud and arrogance and scapegoating, think, for some reason, that because the U.S. is grounded on freedom, equality and happiness, that that does not fit with their particular belief systems.

But it does. It fits with everyone's. It's simply, whether Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, or other Eastern, each is collection of an infinity of mini-fundamentalisms.

The leaders in each over the ages have adjusted their respective followers' understanding as each curiosity has yielded a larger picture.

They all in the end seem bound to fit together like a set of building blocks.

The mistakes in one history stream, using the web bot and related techniques, provide a math gradient with the otherwise identical moralities / event streams.

http://dinkypage.com/theydivideyoulose

Jan. 14, 2012

Having seen the entire video, I believe Officer Milano needs to be face slammed into the pavement, then have his arms jerked behind his back, wrists tightly bound, and find himself thrown into a cramped cold jail cell for a few days.

Cowards like Milano don't deserve to be on the police force, and in a just society would be not only fired, but prosecuted for their actions.

San Diego faces a choice. Continue beating and prosecuting peacefully demonstrating citizens until they get sick enough of it to rise up and take the law into their own hands, OR reform the SDPD right now to get rid of officers who consider themselves above the law.

Officer Milano, and his ilk, also have a choice. They can resign and publicly repudiate their criminal actions now, or they can face a very public execution in the future. Anybody who reads history knows how this story ends...with disgraced former police officers like Milano being led through the angry crowds on the way to the guillotine.

Jan. 15, 2012

Fred, actually before they take guys like Milano to make those final few steps to the guillotine, the state will take you, and the tricoteuses will be cheering you on while knitting socks and you are dragged screaming and sobbing to the same demise. On a serious note, you are pretty much correct in your sentiment, but you need to dial back and not espouse violent solutions because someone in homeland security will put you on a list. Don't be so emotional and shrill, as that will be your downfall and homeland security looks at web sites to identify people with those characteristics.

Jan. 15, 2012

Yes.

Instead of investigating the unprovoked (watch the video) assault and battery committed by a police officer against an innocent civilian, the DA's office is far more likely to open a file on me for stating the obvious...these violent acts will have long lasting repercussions, and today's thugs in uniform will be tomorrow's prisoners.

When the government no longer protects its citizens, and the law is twisted to subvert the Constitution, murderers go free because of their wealth and connections, while those who stand up to dare to protest the injustice are face slammed to the pavement, beaten, arrested, and charged with crimes they did not commit...the question isn't IF the populace will rise up and take revenge on the thugs, but WHEN.

Of course one of the last acts of desperation of a government that's ready to fall is to make it illegal to even write words like this. If what I've written puts me on the government's terrorist watch list, I won't be surprised. Our government, thoroughly perverted and corrupted to the benefit of the oligarchs in charge, would rather put me in prison for telling the obvious truth than attempt to reform itself to avoid the inevitable bloodbath they are themselves provoking.

This is neither emotional nor shrill. It's a clear and inevitable pattern in history. Whether the authorities choose to change their ways, or find themselves under the executioner's blade, is up to them. Their own actions will determine their future fate, not comments on a blog.

Jan. 16, 2012

I do not sympathize with the Occupiers' strategy, but as far as what the SDPD is capable of doing, I tend to believe every word of it.

Jan. 15, 2012

First there was society (cooperation, mutualism) then, as that pattern of behavior proved successful for the species, came scarcity, which led to competition (every group for itself). As scarcity increased to meta-scarcity, as a hedge against famine came culture (competition, coercion, hierarchy, authoritarianism) which means excess for the few, poverty for the many.

First we enslaved other species. Some pre-Mad-Av genius of framing came up with "domestication." Then enslaving each other. Then wage-slavery when bread and circuses wasn't quite enough.

In this system, if coercion doesn't work, intimidation (saber-rattling, etc.) is the next step, then comes arbitrary brutality. Then shooting them dead (remember Kent State? And Tienamen Square?). That should fix it (it did).

First you kill off the brave--brutally, for all to see. Cool. Chill. Become goonified. Survive. For what? To exist longer or to live better?

"In the heart of the city I have heard the wild geese crying on the pathways that lie over a vanished forest. Nature has not changed the force that drives them. Man, too, is a different expression of that natural force. He has fought his way from the sea's depths to Palomar Mountain. He has mastered the plague. Now, in some final Armageddon, he confronts himself." --Loren Eiseley http://www.american-buddha.com/eiseley.invispyramid.pro.htm

Jan. 17, 2012

Anyone who knows Stephanie Jennings knows she is the nicest person on the planet. There is no way in hell the charges they brought against her are true. No way.

I hope she sues Milano and the city. Milano will be exposed. We are going to put his face on a protest sign and let everyone know what filth he is.

July 3, 2012
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