Blog

Maxina Ventura – January 29, 2019

Subject: HIT AND RUN AT DURANT AND TELEGRAPH
From: beneficialbug@sonic.net
To: Jacquelyn McCormick <robleroad@gmail.com>, James Mcfadden <jpmcfadden925@yahoo.com>, Sustainable Berkeley Coalition <sustainable-berkeley-coalition@googlegroups.com>, Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin <mayor@cityofberkeley.info>, Berkeley City Manager <manager@cityofberkeley.info>, Susan Wengraf <swengraf@cityofberkeley.info>, Ben Bartlett <bbartlett@cityofberkeley.info>, Sophie Hahn <shahn@cityofberkeley.info>, rkesarwani@cityofberkeley.info, Cheryl Davila <cdavila@cityofberkeley.info>, Kate Harrison <kharrison@cityofberkeley.info>, “rrobinson@cityofberkeley.info. Lori Droste” <ldroste@cityofberkeley.info>Cc: Berkeley-Disabled <Berkeley-Disabled@yahoogroups.com>, Andrea Prichett <prichett@locrian.com>

To all whom I hope will be concerned:

Tuesday, 3/22/19, the day of the march in protest of decimation of healthy trees in People’s Park, maybe 40 of us gathered and headed out of the park to go down Telegraph to UC first day of classes, to let people know what had occurred. We had two massive banners, one at the front, and one at the back of the march. It was a perfectly peaceful march until a young driver for whatever reason (entitlement? Out-of-control and not fit to be on the road? Perhaps drugged?) headed into the back of the march at the intersection of Durant and Telegraph. Suddenly, I heard shouting such as, “What the hell are you doing?” and “Stop! Stop!”. Our little march was a bit spread out and I was maybe in the front third. I was maybe 50 feet north of Durant. Obviously, something bad was happening and I tried to get to the intersection as quickly as possible. I was trying to get down the sidewalk full of students and others so I did not witness him driving into Jake’s bike and totaling it, but once I got back to the NW corner of Durant and Telegraph, I heard Tony howling in pain. Jake came up from the curb cut and said this guy had rammed into his bike and that, he’d had to jump out of the way to avoid being run over himself. His bike was completely mangled. The fork of the bike was bent far out of shape, as was the front wheel, which clarified the speed/velocity of the driver in the car. Jake was holding part of the car’s fender which had fallen off after the driver smashed the bike.

When I had turned from where I was north of the intersection, I saw this driver stopping and starting (like a bucking bronco) and then I saw him turn the wrong way onto Durant. By the time I got closer to the intersection I saw the driver hop the curb and then when I got to Durant I saw people trying to block this person after he’d driven over Tony’s feet. They were yelling at him to stop, and people were yelling, “Get his license plate number!” Finally, this out-of-control driver  succeeded in careening down the street wrong way, past anyone trying to stop him.

Several of us stayed around well past Tony being taken by ambulance. We were trying to give witness statements and most of the cops there were beyond uninterested. I was stressing the out-of-control aspect of this driver’s actions. Totally impatient with a little march (probably 40 of us). I was pointing out that when I taught my 3 young people to drive I stressed again and again that if something’s going on, just pull over and cool out before ever getting on the road again.

I waited and waited to give a witness statement. Let me stress here that, these cops were not calling out anything such as, “If you witnessed, please stay and give us a statement.” I basically had to foist myself upon them to get them even to take a statement. I cannot emphasize enough that though there were a few around, they were not actively trying to take statements, only relenting when people said we needed them to take our statements. But in what I saw that Jacquelyn McCormack sent out, you’d have no way of knowing what went on, in spite of people trying to get info to the people who are supposed to be taking statements. There was a sense of hostility from the cops. Someone had just been run over and they didn’t want to be bothered.
I was giving a statement to two cops, and the one said in a harsh way, as though to be interrogating me, someone who’d waited around for quite awhile to give a statement, something like, “What’s your contact info?” I gave him my business card which has on it my phone number and my website info. He demanded my address. You tell me why he would need that? But I have nothing to hide, so gave it, and he walked away as I was trying to give them both my statement.

Here’s what struck me:

– They showed zero compassion about Tony

– They showed zero compassion about Jake losing his means to his work

– They showed zero interest as I talked about witnessing this person stopping and starting, bucking, obviously out of control

– They showed zero interest in my describing seeing this guy jump the curb, though I did not witness him actually running over Tony since there were so many people on the sidewalk at that NW corner of the Durant intersection. Tony was sitting on the ground, but I could see the car as the driver was speeding across the sidewalk before jumping back into the street (wrong direction)

– They showed zero interest in listening to Jake as he described how he would have been run over, too, had he not jumped out of the way. He tried to hand the cop the piece of the car fender which had fallen off when the driver smashed into his bike. He certainly showed zero compassion for Jake’s distress over losing his means to working for his job.

The one who stayed around when the other one had walked off after interrogating ME about my address, showed zero interest in hearing my description of this driver being obviously out of control, and even less interest as I tried to get him to understand this from a mother’s point of view. I explained that, as a person who’s taught my children basic driving skills, I feel it’s important to stress that this person made every mistake on the books, completely totaling the bike of someone who uses it for his work (and lucky that guy jumped out of the way), and more importantly careening over a sidewalk and running over a human being’s shins/feet. Tony was in dire pain, moaning, howling in pain. And this guy careened down Durant the wrong way once he drove back off the sidewalk.

– HOW DO I COME TO THE CONCLUSION THERE WAS NO INTEREST? IN SPITE OF MY EXPLAINING WHY IT WAS IMPORTANT TO INCLUDE NOTES ABOUT WHAT I EXPERIENCED AS A PARENT WHO’S TAUGHT KIDS TO DRIVE, AND WHAT I SAW BOTH FROM ABOUT 50 FEET AWAY, AND THEN FROM THE NW CORNER AND THEN RIGTH BY TONY, HE TOOK NEXT TO NO NOTES, AND AS FAR AS I COULD SEE, DID NOT TAKE MY NAME. THE OTHER ONE DID BUT WALKED OFF, BUT IF THEY ACTUALLY INTERVIEWED 14 PEOPLE, ARE THEY GOING TO MATCH NOTES ABOUT WHICH NAMES GO WITH WHICH STATEMENTS? HE WAS TOTALLY DISMISSIVE AND YOU MIGHT ASK HIM WHY. NO STATEMENTS ON PAPER ALLOW A COMPLETELY OUTRAGEOUS REPORTING AND THEN ACCEPTANCE BY THE CITY. YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT YOU’RE WORKING WITH HERE

No wonder other city people have no clue what happened. Yes, Tony is black and homeless and disabled. Apparently some of those who run this town see him as expendable, because that is how at least a couple of the cops acted, and how dismissive some city people were when they got a report. A younger cop seemed to be trying to take down some notes from some others, but if he wrote anything that told the story of what actually had gone on, it seems not to have been included. And nothing from my statement was included in what went out to city people. The idea of collecting witness statements is to put together a full picture of what occurred. The cops were completely negligent, and some apologist parent is helped to let his out-of-control son apparently get completely off the hook.

– PLEASE INTERVENE AND DO NOT LET THIS KID JUST WALK AWAY. THE DAD BLAMING OTHERS FOR DAMAGE TO HIS CAR? WOW! MAYBE MAKE THE KID PAY FOR THAT $2000 THE DAD SAYS IS THE COST OF DAMAGE.

Consider that THE DAD MADE TIME THAT VERY DAY TO GET THE CAR ASSESSED FOR DAMAGE COST BUT APPARENTLY, HAS NO INTEREST IN THE PEOPLE HIS SON HAS DAMAGED

– PLEASE DO NOT LET THIS BE THE OUTCOME OF SUCH GREAT ENTITLEMENT. WE DO NOT WANT THIS KID ON THE ROAD. HIS LICENSE SHOULD BE YANKED,  ANGER MANAGEMENT THERAPY SHOULD BE ORDERED, AND THE FAMILY NEEDS TO TAKE CARE OF THE DAMAGED INDIVIDUALS. TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR YOUR SON, Mister

So many disabled people are hit in this town by drivers texting, altered by Wifi and GPS/WLAN (here’s an excellent short video of an experiment from Mainz University in Germany: https://vimeo.com/244746945  ) and in this case who knows what other factors are at play, but the father’s reaction as reported makes very clear that, he believes his son, and apparently cannot imagine his son doing anything bad, or is a complete enabler of his son doing anything he pleases.

Some of the powers-that-be seem to be conspiring NOT to look at the truth, and NOT to hold accountable an out-of-control young person who runs over a human being and then does what? Blames people for marching to demand an end to the decimation of the trees in a park? We’ve had decades of trying to hold off the university’s disingenuous moves to encroach on the park, the needed green space and meeting space of thousands over decades (we’re hitting 50 in April). Just as a reminder, UC owns a lot of Berkeley and has many places to plunk down YES… needed housing. It does not have to be there, just like their tennis courts didn’t need to be there (and are a block away), just like their volleyball courts were not wanted by actual users of the park (UC PAID UC students to play volleyball there in ’91 as no one else would. They wanted media saying it was needed. Eventually, we succeeded in getting the world’s biggest litterbox out of the park.

The lie UC keeps stating is many decades old: students don’t use the park. When I hear anyone say that, I know they are unlikely ever to have set foot in the park. Because students are out there all the time enjoying the grass, the sun, the shaded areas (so much less shade now).

Let me register here that, I am completely offended at the negligence and at the seeming lack of any compassion for a lot of people threatened with harm, with one whose work life is harmed and could have massive emotional harm at being so nearly run over himself, and above all for a person already facing really tough circumstances (he’s homeless, he’s disabled, he’s black) who was run over, was in tremendous pain, and while he was turned back out onto the streets from the ER, probably will suffer longterm soft-tissue damage which could further complicate his life.

Sincerely, Maxina Ventura
2304 Roosevelt Ave. #4
Berkeley  94703    900-1160

This is what I just [sent] to a bunch of city people. — Max

More than 100 police officers, some from the UC Police and some from the California Highway Patrol conducted an armed take-over of the eastern portion of People’s Park early this morning, according to multiple witnesses. At least two adjacent streets were closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic during the operation. At least three persons who were engaged in non-violent protest were arrested for sleeping at a vigil they have been keeping. (The police, however, report a total of six arrests). Police escorted a contracted (and likely non-union) tree cutting service into the park to kill and remove “several” large trees. Long time friend of the park, former counter-culture cartoonist and Berkeley resident Ace Backwords reports being moved to tears upon arriving to see the damage done.

The action comes on the heals of a prior early-morning “sneak attack” that removed trees on January 2, 2019. That action involved far fewer police but did help to grow the group of non-violent protesters from a small handful to around 50 this morning.

The University has asserted that the tree destruction is simply “deferred maintenance”. Park activists have pointed out that the University is destroying old, healthy, beautiful trees that posed no risk to public health and safety. Further, as reported in the Daily Planet, the University appears to be acting in violation of a memorandum of understanding established in 1979 governing the fate of trees in the Park (“Trees Have Standing; the Day a Tree Visited the Chancellor”, Carol Denny, Berkeley Daily Planet January 11, 2019)

The action comes in the context of allegations that the University poorly maintained a Eucalyptus tree outside the park. That tree fell north of the Greek Theater on the University of California Berkeley campus, killing Alexander Grant of Novato on January 7, 2019. The University has come under scrutiny due to allegations the proximate cause of Euc’s fall was the result of damage negligently caused by the University itself. (“The Death Tree at UC Berkeley: Why Did It Happen?”, Hank Chapot, Berkeley Daily Planet January 11, 2019.)

On Berkeleyside, Dan Mogulof, Office of Communications and Public Affairs at UC Berkeley, recently asserted that tree cutting in the Park is unrelated to University plans to destroy the park and and lease the land to a for-profit developer (Berkeleyside comment by Dan Mogulof on the “Opinion: UC Berkeley was devious when it had crews cut down 12 trees at People’s Park”, by Tom Dazell, January 2, 2019). Defenders of the park widely believe otherwise, regarding the tree-cutting as preparation for destroying the park, and as a test of the size of the resistance that will defend the park. Ironically, the University’s actions have helped to attract new defenders to the Save the Park movement.

Ultimately, the University would like to lease the Park to a third party developer that specializes in operating for-profit dormitories. Construction was completed of a similar project recently (Blackwell Hall at 2401 Durant Ave.). The so-called public-private partnerships spare the administration of fully financing construction but at the steep cost of charging dorm residents high rents, forever, to guarantee that a substantial profit can be made from student fees and financial aid. Students at Cal face rent gouging almost every which way they turn in Berkeley and now the University is giving privately owned, for-profit corporations a taste of that action – handing over public land to them in the process. This is some grade-A prime bullshit whether you are a student being ripped off or a California resident watching the public commons and open space be trashed on behalf of private gain.

The University is steadfast, though, in its intention to destroy the Park, a thorn in its side ever since Ronald Reagan unleashed a murderous police riot in Berkeley in a failed attempt to prevent the Park from being created by the community in the first place. The rioting police murdered James Rector with buckshot and blinded carpenter Alan Blanchard with birdshot. Verbal histories and contemporary on-air, on-the-scene reporting by KPFA report that numerous other people were also taken to the hospital after being shot by the police that day. The riot culminated in a declaration of marshal law and an occupation of Berkeley by the national guard, including mass casualty gassing of parts of the City from helicopter, persistent barricades and checkpoints, curfews, and the shock-and-awe menacing of the public with rifles and bayonets. The Guard made hundreds of arrests and arrestees report being tortured by guards at Santa Rita county jail.

The people ultimately prevailed and by 1972 the Park was established. The people, though outgunned (literally many thousands of guns against 0 guns), won by attrition — reacting to police riots with property destruction (particularly police cars), tearing down fences, and holding the moral high ground given them by Reagan’s over-reach.

Today’s organized resistance to Save the Park is, so far, small but growing. The activists are committed to non-violence. Provocations like the tree cutting damage the Park greatly, but they are also helping to attract new Park defenders. The University’s devious tactics, underhanded approach in breaking long-standing agreements, and nakedly excessive shows of force are hard to understand unless perhaps the University hopes to incite renewed violence between the police and the people.

The Park is much loved by many potential defenders not only for its beauty, utility, and history of hosting cultural events — but also because it has served for decades as a site of respite and social services for the poor. Since its founding, the Park has served as a daytime People’s community space, often serving homeless people and those struggling in various ways. The Park is the site of community provided meals, peer counseling on substance abuse issues, safety, and company. At one time the Park was host to a system of redistribution known as “the Free Box” (take what you need, leave what you don’t) though the University succeeded in destroying that some years ago. (At the time, a University spokesperson expressed that it was not best way to get clothes to poor people but she offered no alternative. She was also scandalized by the thought that a poor person might sell something from the free box to a used clothing boutique and use the money for other things — perhaps even beer.) The University has vaguely suggested it will remediate the loss of people-powered social services by providing conventional social services but no such bureaucratic institution has every managed to do with millions of dollars what is regularly accomplished more directly by the people.

As of this writing, Mayor Jesse Arreguín has released no statement about this latest provocation by the University. Activists expect that the Mayor strongly favors the tree cutting and para-military intimidation tactics. Arreguín has previously enthused over plans to raze the park, in spite of supporting the park wile he was campaigning. He has additionally encouraged the University to enter into partnership with private developers to build for-profit, high-rent dorms. He is known for delaying efforts to strengthen citizen oversight of the police, and for supporting the participation of the Police in the racist and militarized training and trade show known as Urban Shield. He has declared that anti-fascist protesters are in effect a criminal gang. He has led the City so spend millions on a net reduction of available shelter beds. He has ushered in new, harsh legislation meant to drive homeless people from the heart of downtown by means of police action.

— Thomas Lord, January 15, 2019, 11:49 am
I think the facts are in order but if it needs correction, the sooner the better please.