Nurses Strike, & Protest Police Brutality In Long Beach. December 23rd, 2011 Thursday 12/22/noon I joined a rally of the Nurses out on strike. There were reps from several regional Unions, the Teamsters, Carpenters, Longshoremen and Teachers were there as well as Progressive Democrats and our Congresswoman Laura Richardson made an appearance. Several of the Occupy Long Beach crew were there and lots of Nurses. This is the kind of solidarity we need with labor, students, homemakers, retired and the unemployed coming together. Vivian Price made a good point linking the Occupy movement with the Union movement and led a chant "We are the 99%."
Protest today at 4 pm George Diller's beating and arrest. Occupy Long Beach is marching to protest the police brutality. Meet at Lincoln Park, march goes to city hall and main courthouse. >From LA Weekly George Diller, Marine Vet at `Occupy Long Beach,' Claims Police Brutality During Smoking Citation By Simone Wilson Fri., Dec. 23 2011 at 12:30 Pm ​A brave few campers remain at Occupy Long Beach headquarters in Lincoln Park. Christopher Perkins, an organizer, counts maybe a dozen, tops. Every night at 10 p.m., when the park closes, they drag their tents from the lawn to the sidewalk, then wake up at 5 a.m. to move them back. Such is the in-limbo state of Occupy Wall Street factions all over the country too strong to die out, yet unsure of exactly where to take things from here. But as we learned from the LAPD raid of Occupy L.A., there's nothing like some allegations of police brutality to put the fight back in the movement! At 4 p.m. today, Occupy Long Beach protesters and their supporters will be marching "against police brutality," says Perkins. The "use of force" in question: On Tuesday, former marine George Diller, 24, was tackled to the ground by Long Beach cops after they caught him smoking a cigarette at the edge of Lincoln Park, a violation of the city's smoking ordinance. (Far cry from L.A. in that respect where LAPD Chief Charlie Beck simply smiled and waved at occupiers who openly smoked pot on the City Hall lawn. Seriously.) Susan Williams, a witness to Diller's arrest and a writer for the indie Long Beach Post, tells LA Weekly that the officers showed "absolutely no restraint" when detaining the young smoker, who was on the phone with his dad when they approached him. Here's Williams' full account of the takedown: Diller was seemingly too slow in getting off the phone in the opinion of Officer Brad Dinsdale (who "has been abusive in the past" to OLBers), and so Dinsdale wrenched Diller's arm and pulled him to the ground, then put him in a chokehold and held him there 30 seconds beyond when Diller became unconscious, then hit Diller in the head, and then picked him up and dropped him to the ground all this even though Diller not only offered no resistance but went as far as to say he wasn't resisting. It's a far cry from the Long Beach Police Department's version of events. Spokeswoman Nancy Pratt tells the Long Beach Press-Telegram that both officers and "multiple witnesses" have claimed Diller swore at Officer Dinsdale, tried to fight him and even hawked a loogie at him. Here's the department's statement in full. The officer approached the subject who was talking on his cell phone, advised him that smoking in the park was illegal and asked him to put out his cigarette The subject refused to do so using profanity The officer advised the subject a second time that he was in violation of the law The subject continued to argue with the officer and refused to extinguish his cigarette The officer then advised the subject that he was now being lawfully detained, that he needed to put down his cell phone, and that he was going to be cited The subject continued smoking while talking on his cell phone, refusing to comply with the officer's directions Due to the subject's uncooperative behavior and failing to comply, the officer moved toward the subject who was sitting on the grass As the officer took the suspect's arm to place him into handcuffs, the suspect began pulling away from the officer and rolled on to his side, and attempted to kick the officer twice The suspect, who is approx. 6′ 2″ tall and weighs approx. 200 lbs., then reached back, hooked the officer's elbow with his own arm, and pulled the officer on top of him, preventing the officer from moving away A second officer had arrived at the location, ran to the officer's aid, and first removed the cigarette from the suspect's hand for fear that the suspect would use it as a weapon The second officer then attempted to gain control of the suspect's other arm to place him handcuffs The suspect was advised numerous times to stop resisting and to put put his hands behind his back but he continued to resist and fight with officers When the suspect attempted to stand-up, the first officer was finally able to free himself and applied a carotid control on the suspect causing the suspect to momentarily lose consciousness The suspect was then handcuffed, rolled on to his side to so his breathing could be checked and monitored, which is standard procedure when the carotid restraint is applied The suspect regained consciousness right away The officers then heard and observed the suspect as he began to form a large amount of phlegm in his mouth preparing to spit on them To prevent the suspect from spitting, the officer immediately placed his knee on the left side of the defendant's face to direct his head towards the ground, and requested an additional police unit respond with a spit mask At one point, the suspect did yell that he was going to spit on the officers When the additional officer arrived, the spit mask was placed on the suspect The suspect was then placed in a police vehicle and transported to a local hospital to be medically cleared for booking, which is also standard procedure when the carotid restraint is used to control a combative suspect Once cleared, the suspect was transported to the LBPD where he was booked for obstruction/resisting and for smoking in a public park There were multiple witnesses interviewed, several who supported the officers statements Diller, who was released from jail yesterday, tells a much different story. "I remember I was talking on the phone with my father and smoking a cigarette on the guardrail," he says in an interview with the Weekly. "I said, `Hold on a second,' which I was saying to both [the officer and my father]. Like, `Hold on, let me set this phone down.' But when I went to put out my cigarette, [Dinsdale] drug me into the yard and put me in a chokehold and put me to sleep." Cops do admit to that last part. (See above.) Diller says that after being in the marine corps, he has "no problem with authority figures," and remembers complying with officers' requests. "I didn't resist, and I remember telling them, `I'm not resisting, just handcuff me," he says. "They went from asking me to do something to aggression and animalistic behavior." He says he left the station yesterday with "a couple knots" on his head, pain in his back where he was injured in the Marine Corps and charges of "resisting arrest, obstruction of justice and assault on a peace officer." According to Diller, he was offered a plea bargain of a year's probation if he plead no contest. And Lisa Massacani, a media-relations officer for the Long Beach PD, says he accepted the deal. "As part of the plea, the smoking in public charges were dismissed," she adds. Ironic, seeing as that's what got him into this mess in the first place. Perkins, who's organizing the brutality march today, doubts the ordinance was ever being violated at all. The ex-marine was "sitting on the curb on the edge of the park," Perkins claims. "It was totally unclear as to the boundaries [of the no-smoking zone] they change the boundaries whenever they deem it necessary." Kind of small-town stuff, but reminiscent of a post-Occupy tension between cops and protesters in general, all across the country. Lots of bickering over the protocol of responding officers, the exact wording of local zoning codes, etc. young people picking apart the actions of their public servants, at last. [@simone_electra / [email protected] / @LAWeeklyNews] - >From Modern Health Care.com Year's end marked by flurry of nurses' strikes By Ashok Selvam Posted: December 23, 2011 - 1:00 pm ET It's apparently the season for nurses' strikes across the country. Thursday featured nurses represented by the California Nurses Association and National Nurses United conducting a one-day strike at eight Bay Area Sutter Health hospitals and two Long Beach, Calif., hospitals. Contract talks affected 6,000 nurses at those facilities. At a rally near Sutter's Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley, Calif., union officials estimated 300 came out to protest Sutter's labor practices. Nurses there have been working without a contract since July. No further negotiating sessions are planned until January, and there have been 29 sessions since April. The New York State Nurses Association also announced Thursday a planned strike on Jan. 3 at 711-bed St. Luke's-Roosevelt Hospital Center in Manhattan. Their contract expired in December 2010, and union officials said there have been 25 bargaining sessions. The NYSNA represents 1,300 nurses. Meanwhile, sick days are an issue in Houston at 181-bed Cypress Fairbanks Medical Center. NNU-backed nurses held a news conference on Thursday about concerns regarding the hospital's flu policy, saying it forces nurses to work while sick, contributing to an unsafe environment for nurses and patients. Union officials in California said they want to maintain the terms of the most recent contract. Sutter officials once more stated that full-time registered nurses earn an average of $136,000 annually, and their pensions would pay them an average of $84,000 a year. Sutter also disputed the union's estimates of how many nurses participated in the strikes. Replacement nurses were hired with two-day contracts, Sutter officials said. While union nurses said they are ready to return to work Friday, many will have to wait until Saturday, Christmas Eve. Union officials called that a lockout. Many of the same nurses held a one-day strike in September. Sutter officials that month hired replacement nurses to five-day contracts, delaying the return of union workers. This time, with Christmas on the horizon, firms representing the replacement nurses wanted to stay at home for the holiday, and so only two-day contracts were agreed upon. Sutter officials ripped the union for the timing of the strike. Holding it near Christmas ignores the holidays-amplified stress suffered by patients and families, Sutter officials argued. NNU officials countered and said while no time is ideal for a strike, there are fewer patients and scheduled procedures during this time of year. During the September work stoppage, a 68-year-old female cancer patient died at 408-bed Alta Bates, and officials blamed a replacement nurse's error. The California Department of Public Health is investigating, but didn't have any update on their probe. The death catalyzed both sides, as the California Hospital Association and NNU mentioned the death in news releases blaming the other side for the tragedy. http://www.modernhealthcare.com/article/20111223/NEWS/312239984/years-end-marked-by-flurry-of-nurses-strikes ------------------------------------ --------------------------------------------------------------------------- LAAMN: Los Angeles Alternative Media Network --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Subscribe: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Digest: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Help: <mailto:[email protected]?subject=laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Post: <mailto:[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive1: <http://www.egroups.com/messages/laamn> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Archive2: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]> --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/ <*> Your email settings: Individual Email | Traditional <*> To change settings online go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/laamn/join (Yahoo! ID required) <*> To change settings via email: [email protected] [email protected] <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [email protected] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
