[Street] [FAWG] Urgent Question Regarding Court Appearance

Occupy Boston Music and Events booking99percent at gmail.com
Wed Nov 23 14:15:48 EST 2011


Thanks Rita for writing in.
If there is anything I can do to help, I will.
Did you all read this
City officials have offered Occupy L.A. protesters 10,000 square feet of
indoor space and other incentives to vacate the City Hall lawn
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/23/us-protests-losangeles-idUSTRE7AM0AR20111123


On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 1:45 PM, rita sebastian <rita at brandeis.edu> wrote:

> The attorneys work for the GA and are accountable to it, so everyone
> participates in the high-level direction of the case. The selection about
> who submits affadavits is part of the legal strategy - which is where the
> attorneys have expertise. From a legal standpoint, the only way to prevent
> eviction is to argue that the encampment is protected under the First
> Amendment.  This is a difficult constitutional argument. Everyone agrees
> that free speech is protected - that we can march, carry signs, etc.
>  However, the City does not agree that the tents and encampment are
> necessary to exercising speech. Our attorneys are maintaining that the
> tents can be construed as "symbolic speech", which is protected under some
> circumstances. They have a difficult challenge to prove this - the Supreme
> Court has never upheld such an extension of this argument.  The attorneys
> select what goes in the affadavits according to how it bolsters the
> constitutional argument they are making, not according to how well the
> people represent the Occupation Movement. Most of the affadavits are coming
> from people outside the movement, like teachers who brought students to the
> camp, because the Supreme Court case history on symbolic speech places a
> high importance on how the speech is perceived.
>
> The particular court action in progress is a pre-emptive  action - it is
> designed to prevent what happened to Occupy Wall Street and other places.
> We would not have gotten a hearing if the attorneys did not outline the
> constitutional challenge.  Otherwise, the only trials would be after
> -the-fact for the people arrested during the eviction.  If that occurs, we
> may have more legal options - you might use the criminal trials as a way to
> express the message to the public or even try to turn it into theater as
> happened with the Chicago 7 trial.  However, a pre-emptive court action
> like this doesn't have as many options: everything has to deal with the
> constitutional law issue.
>
> Thanks,
> *Rita*
>
> On Wed, Nov 23, 2011 at 12:41 PM, Theresa <theresa at occupyboston.org>wrote:
>
>> I am sending this to all work groups I am part of because I have a
>> serious concern that Occupy Boston is giving up too much control over our
>> voice to these attorneys  in this legal process we are involved in.
>>
>>
>> IF we are allowed 5 testimonies, who decides which 5 affadavits are
>> submitted in court???
>>
>> The reason I ask is that I fear that our Occupation is going to be
>> misrepresented in court because there are better "names" that are willing
>> to write a letter than those who have actually in any way participated in
>> Occupy Boston.  Is anyone looking at this or are we just trusting that
>> legal wouldn't pick big names to represent Occupy Boston?  I suggest there
>> be some kind of consensus on which affidavits are used in court. It is very
>> tempting for a lawyer to go with "big names" or "established" people
>> because it lends credibility or looks good on their end...but we need to
>> look out for our best interest at Occupy Boston, not what looks good for
>> the lawyer in court.
>>
>> We are the 99% and we have enough intellect and ability to represent
>> ourselves through voices of those participating.
>>
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>
>
>
> --
> Rita Monestersky- Sebastian
> Brandeis, MA SID' 2009
>
> "If you cannot change yourself, how can you change the world?"
> Gandhi
>
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-- 
Kindest regards,

Kelley Pope
Occupy Boston Music and Events

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