News & Commentary

By Allie BohmACLU National Office 

Sen. Mark Leno has introduced new legislation, sponsored by the American Civil Liberties Union of California and a number of other organizations, that reforms California's drug sentencing laws for simple possession.

For the past 20 years, protections for First Amendment activity have been robust in San Francisco. In other words, no spying on San Franciscans without hard evidence of criminal wrongdoing.

Last fall UC Berkeley police cracked down on student and faculty protesters involved in Occupy Cal demonstrations with baton blows and other serious force. Now, UC Berkeley demonstrators are facing criminal prosecution by the Alameda County. The circumstances are fishy and raise questions that demand answers.The Alameda County District Attorney is planning to prosecute at least 11 students and one faculty member in relation to the Occupy Cal protest in the fall. Thirty-nine people were arrested that day, and the DA plans to prosecute 4 of the 39. The DA has also decided to charge another 8 students who were not even arrested that day.

UC Davis students filed a federal lawsuit over the University's treatment of protesters during a demonstration in which campus police doused seated protesters with pepper spray.

The war on drugs has failed, and people are ready for a change. The United States has the highest documented incarceration rate in the world. One in every 31 adults is on probation, in jail or in prison. FBI figures show that over 800,000 people in the U.S. are arrested for marijuana offenses each year. The vast majority of these arrests are for low-level, nonviolent simple possession offenses.

The right to vote is a fundamental right and all eligible individuals must be allowed to exercise their right. The California Constitution disenfranchises individuals on the basis of criminal conviction only if they are "imprisoned in state prison or...on parole as a result of the conviction of a felony." League of Women Voters of California v. McPherson, 145 Cal. App. 4th 1469 at 1486 (2006).

First, the good news: over the course of the day yesterday, thousands of people demonstrated in Oakland without any violent response from police. And the Oakland Police Department reportedly relied on its own officers to manage the crowd of protesters rather than bringing in other law enforcement agencies on mutual aid agreements.

We've heard it all over the country, that Occupy encampments must come down because of "health and safety concerns."