Protest Friday in Berkeley CA: End the Legacy of Torture!

From the World Can’t Wait SF Bay Area Chapter

May 13, 2011: NO TORTURE!

UC Berkeley Law Graduation Action:
Protest/Witness/Greeting/Call to Conscience

This will be the fourth UC Berkeley Law (Boalt Hall) commencement that World Can’t Wait spearheads a major anti-torture protest, alongside human rights, civil liberties, religious and other groups working against torture.  Again, we call on graduates and students, faculty and administrators, and the community at large, to say NO to torture.

WHY COME OUT FRIDAY MORNING TO PROTEST?

• You can help raise the message: FIRE, DISBAR and PROSECUTE JOHN YOO!
• We’ll provide orange jump suits for tableaux, lots of orange ribbons, and excellent signs.
• We’ll offer information and ribbons to everyone – we’ll make sure people know why Yoo is unfit to teach, and why he should be disbarred and prosecuted for war crimes.

John Yoo was a key member of the Bush-Cheney Torture Team that developed the Abu Ghraib/Guantanamo standard of U.S. torture operations. For Yoo’s responsibility in that illegal government operation, he should be FIRED, DISBARRED and PROSECUTED for war crimes!.

Think about this: What a bizarre situation we face, when UC is paying an advocate/designer of illegal government action (rendition, aggressive war, torture) to teach constitutional law, and ethics, to the next generation of lawyers and judges!!

As long as John Yoo remains on the Boalt faculty – as long as a key legal architect of the Bush Regime’s torture program enjoys the benefits of UC employment – there is a bloodstain on every class, every department, and every diploma here.  Let’s demand that UC and Berkeley Law do the right thing.

What do we want?  It’s simple!

• UC, stop pretending Yoo’s actions approving TORTURE for the Bush-Cheney Justice Department are protected by academic freedom and/or the First Amendment

• UC must abide by its own faculty code of conduct. Begin the investigation into Yoo’s work as a principle legal architect of torture, which violated UC’s own rules, so his UC tenure and employment can be terminated

• To download flyer: www.firejohnyoo.org

For more information, email or call the World Can’t Wait.

We hope to see you soon as we focus on ending ALL these wars and torture!

TORTURE IS A WAR CRIME !

FIRE, DISBAR and PROSECUTE JOHN YOO!

WAR CRIMINALS OUT OF THE UNIVERSITY NOW!

Protest: Friday, May 13, 2011
9:00-10:00 AM Outside Hearst Greek Theater, Gayley Road, UC Berkeley
12 Noon-1:30 Outside Boalt Hall during the Reception

JOIN US FRIDAY AT BOALT’S COMMENCEMENT! We’ll gather at 8:30 AM in front of Hearst Greek Theatre. Guests begin arriving as the doors open at 9, and we’ll have a lot of time to engage with them. Bring your friends, your voice, conscience, signs. For more info contact sf@worldcantwait.net or 415-864-5153

NOTE TO BOALT GRADUATES AND THEIR FAMILIES:  The graduates and their guests are not the targets of our protest.  However, we do believe this is an appropriate time and place for the community at large to express its outrage that the University of California harbors a former government official clearly guilty of war crimes under all internationally recognized standards – and allows him to teach constitutional law to the next generation of the legal profession! Every year a good number of Boalt graduates, their guests, and their professors agree with us – as many don the orange ribbon and proudly wear it throughout commencement and the reception afterwards (see photos).