About 100 people who were arrested in an anti-police brutality protest in Berkeley last month appeared in court Tuesday but charges weren't filed against most of them.
Alameda County District Attorney's Office spokeswoman Teresa Drenick said she expects charges to be filed against "very few" of the dozens of people who were arrested for infractions or misdemeanors in the protest in
Berkeley on Dec. 8, including people who shut down Interstate Highway 80.
Prosecutors are still waiting for police reports to be completed for some protesters, Drenick said.
Attorney Ronald Cruz of the activist group By Any Means Necessary, who represents many of the protesters who were arrested on Dec. 8, said the demonstrators sought justice for Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner in New York, two unarmed black men who were killed by white police officers last year.
Similar protests have been held on many other occasions throughout the Bay Area and the country in the past two months.
Cruz said he thinks the district attorney shouldn't file charges against any of the protesters in the Dec. 8 action, even those who inconvenienced motorists by blocking I-80.
"The underlying issue is if a police badge is a license to kill," Cruz said.
The protests would end if the officers who killed Brown and Garner were charged, he said.
Demonstrators who were arrested on Dec. 8 were given notices to appear at the Wiley Manuel Courthouse in Oakland today and about 100 of them packed a hallway outside of a courtroom.
However, bailiffs told many of them that they won't face charges.
Bailiffs told some protesters to call the district attorney's office later today to find out if they've been charged and told others that prosecutors have up to a year to file charges against them.
Attorney Dennis Cunningham, who represents some of the protesters, said he believes authorities are trying to inconvenience protesters by requiring them to show up at the courthouse and wait for hours to find out if they will be charged.
"This doesn't happen accidentally," Cunningham said.
Cruz said he believes police are trying to "intimidate people" by arresting protesters but he said demonstrators haven't been dissuaded and plan to continue staging actions.
