AntiWar Protester Facing Criminal Case

AntiWar Protester Facing Criminal Case: Hearing Monday Dec. 7

Oakland (Alameda County) – A Bay Area woman well-known for leading anti-war protest still faces a criminal case over demonstrations in 2008 against military recruiters in Berkeley. After repeated postponements of her trial, this Monday Stephanie Tang will appear before an Alameda County judge for a hearing that could bring this case nearer to conclusion

The hearing on Monday December 7 is set for 9:00 AM in Department 104 of the Wiley W. Manuel Courthouse at 661 Washington St., Oakland. [Note: Courthouse security processing for entry requires approximately 30 minutes.] Tang and her attorney, noted Oakland civil rights attorney Walter Riley, will be available for comment before and after the hearing.

In February 2008, at a nonviolent protest march against military recruiters who had opened an office in downtown Berkeley – a city where no one can recall the last time a recruiting station existed within city limits – Tang was clubbed by a Berkeley police officer charging into the march. As a leader of the anti-war group World Can’t Wait, she is well-known to the police and other city officials.

Tang was not arrested at the time. She was also not arrested while being treated for her injuries at a hospital emergency room, by Berkeley police officers who rushed there in an unsuccessful attempt to interview her even after she refused to speak to police without a lawyer present. Weeks later, by postal mail, Tang was notified that the Alameda County District Attorney was criminally charging her with one misdemeanor count of obstruction of a police officer. Police reports underlying the charge were flagrantly un-factual, sensationalized, and included a request for an 8-block stayaway order to keep Tang out of downtown Berkeley.

“War criminals responsible for an illegitimate, immoral war and torture are walking free, including Bush and Cheney on down to John Yoo right here at UC Berkeley Law -- and we who work to stop this war get clubbed, prosecuted, and sent to jail? Something’s wrong there!” commented Tang, the day before the hearing.

World Can’t Wait and many supporting organizations and community forces continue to call for the case against Tang to be dropped.

“As Barack Obama sends 30,000 more troops in to escalate America’s death and destruction in Afghanistan – now more than ever, protest and resistance can not be silenced, and that’s the goal of this trumped-up prosecution against me,” she said.

ENDS