[Ppnews] UC Police Seize Computers In Raid

[Political Prisoner News]

http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-08-28/article/30945?headline=UC-Police-Seize-Computers-In-Raid


UC Police Seize Computers In Raid

By Richard Brenneman
Thursday August 28, 2008
<http://www.berkeleydailyplanet.com/issue/2008-08-28/article/30945?headline=UC-Police-Seize-Computers-In-Raid##30945>
A law enforcement officer carries computer drives and discs sei

By Richard Brenneman
A law enforcement officer carries computer drives and discs seized 
during Wednesday morning's raid at the Long Haul.
UC Berkeley police, guns drawn, raided an empty Long Haul Infoshop 
Wednesday morning, seizing 13 computers and other gear in a search 
for the source of threatening e-mails.

"We did execute a search and seized computers," said Robert Sanders, 
the university's media manager for science communications.

While Sanders didn't offer details on the search, his role in 
covering recent threats to campus scientists conducting animal 
experiments may indicate the nature of the threats.

If so, it would confirm speculation during the search raised by 
several people at the scene.

Sanders has been widely quoted by journalists reporting on threats to 
Berkeley scientists, and concern was raised to a new level Aug. 2 
when two firebombs targeted researchers affiliated with UC Santa Cruz.

Even earlier, citing "illegal and violent acts" against 
animalresearchers, the UC chancellors adopted a joint statement Dec. 
5 that declared "We will pursue all means available to us to help 
bring the individuals involved in criminal behavior to justice."

Others suggested the raid may have been the results of strong support 
of many Long Haul regulars for the ongoing tree-sit on the Berkeley campus.

The building, which houses a collection of individual organizations 
ranging from the Needle Exchange to Bread Not Bombs to East Bay 
Prisoner Support, was targeted by a team of at least seven officers.

According to the search warrant obtained by UC Berkeley Police 
Detective Bill Kasiske, officers believed the computers inside the 
offices at 3124 Shattuck Ave. contained evidence of felonies.

In addition to offering a home to individual groups, Long Haul board 
member Greg Horton said the building's Internet room provided 
computers to give online access for those otherwise unable to afford it.

The document did not describe the alleged crimes nor did it name any 
perpetrators, and no arrests were made at the time of the raid.

In addition to computers and data storage media, the warrant targeted 
all written, typed or electronically stored documents containing 
information of people who used the computers inside the building.

Pattie Wall, an attorney for the Homeless Action Center (HAC), was 
working in her office next door at 3126 Shattuck when police knocked 
at the door. "They asked me if I had a key, and I said no."

Wall told the officers to check with the landlord, the Northern 
California Land Trust, but the trust's director wasn't in, so the 
officers returned, telling Wall they

didn't need a key.

After they asked if there was a rear entrance, the officers went down 
the center hallway at HAC, drawing their pistols as they neared the 
rear door, said Wall.

Then the officers walked out the door and to the back door of Long 
Haul and made their entry.

Meanwhile Wall called staff at the Long Haul, who rushed to scene, 
also bringing civil rights attorney James B. Chanin, who has an 
office in the block to the north.

Chanin said he was surprised by the warrant, since it didn't identify 
any specific organization.

"I can't imagine the judge knew that the building housed many 
different organizations," he said. "It would shock me if the judge knew that."

Chanin said that a warrant that targeted a specific group wouldn't 
allow police "to go into a building and take everybody's stuff. But 
that's what I believe happened, and that's not right."

Ian Winters, executive director of the land trust and Long Haul's 
landlord, said the raid was the first in his memory, "and we never 
had any problems even while Long Haul had the marijuana club here."

By the time the raid was over, only monitors, keyboards and 
disconnected cables were left.

Kathryn Miller, another board member, said the seizure would prevent 
publication of the next issue of the radical newspaper Slingshot, 
given that all the material for the edition was stored on the computers.

The Slingshot is produced by one of four collectives that are listed 
on the Long Haul's web page. The others are the Long Haul Infoshop, 
the bicycling advocacy group Cycles of Change and the Anarchist Study Group.

The raid drew a small crowd, with many of the observers taking 
pictures of the officers through the building's front windows and 
later as they carried out the computer hardware.

Soul, a long-time broadcaster on Berkeley Liberation Radio, said the 
underground radio station had been impacted by the raid. "We had some 
of our stuff there," she said. "They got our hard drive, and that 
really concerns us."

"This is really amazing," she said. "During all the resistance to the 
Gulf War and other times they never raided the Long Haul. It's the 
church we go to. It's the heart of anarchy in Berkeley."

Soul said she believed the raid stemmed from the UC Berkeley campus 
police pressure on the tree-sit. "They know we've been associated 
with the tree-sitters."

She also pointed to a Feb. 17, 2004, City Council resolution urging 
federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to refrain from 
taking any action to interfere with Berkeley Liberation Radio.

Chanin said he had contacted the National Lawyers Guild on behalf of 
the Long Haul tenants.

"I'm a neighbor, so they came to me," he said.

The raiders were comparatively neat, taping severed locks and screws 
removed from lock hardware neatly on the walls next to the places 
where they'd been removed.

Several items, including a petty cash envelope, had been left neatly 
arranged in a doorway, apparently after officers had photographed them.

At the end of the raid, Detective Kasiske decline to say what police 
were seeking, and referred questions to Assistant Chief Mitch Celaya, 
who had not returned calls by deadline time.

Campus police notified the Berkeley Police Department before the 
raid, said BPD spokesperson Sgt. Mary Kusmiss, "but our department 
wasn't involved," she said.

Law enforcement agencies traditionally notify another jurisdiction 
when carrying out operations in their jurisdiction, she said.

Dan Mogulof, the university's executive director of public affairs, 
said he was unaware of the raid.

Zachary Running Wolf, the first of the tree-sitters at the Memorial 
Stadium Grove, was at the scene later in the morning, declaring that 
he believed he may have been a target.

The building had once housed a medical marijuana clinic, but that 
facility had closed months earlier, leaving many at the scene to 
speculate that the raid may have stemmed from animal rights activism.

The UC chancellors recently signed a joint letter deploring attacks 
on researchers who conduct animal experimentation, in the wake of two 
Aug. 2 firebomb attacks aimed at UC Santa Cruz researchers.

Berkeley researchers have also been targeted by protesters, including 
confrontations at their homes and vandalism.

For more information on Long Haul, see www.thelonghaul.org.



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