Trigger warning as this is graphic and heart wrenching:
A portion of the eyewitness account.
A 28-year-old man was choked and arrested at around 2:35 this morning on the Civic Center Plaza after police reportedly told him to exit his sleeping bag and sit up, inciting accusations of police brutality from onlookers.
Eyewitness Julie (she declined to provide a last name) reports the events as follows:
"I have been involved with the Occupy San Diego movement since October 7th, 2011. I have not missed a 24 hour period since the beginning of this protest, and I have spent over a dozen nights at the Civic Center. Last night at Civic Center Plaza I witnessed unbelievable brutality committed against a good friend, Bob O'Grady. Thankfully the entire incident was caught on film.
"...around 10:30 or 11:00 P.M I was distraught about the weakened morale of our Occupation and decided to take a stand. I went to the middle of Civic Center Plaza and laid down underneath an American flag next to a protestor sitting on the stairs. At one point I fell asleep and was woken up by a police officer. He said 'Excuse me ma'am! You have to sit up. That's it, just sit up.' His tone was not overly confrontational, and he walked away. I sat for a while, and then a few more protesters showed up, so I laid back down.
"I was in the plaza for about 3 hours, laying down most of the time, and as the night wore on more people came into the Civic Center Plaza. It was the largest group we have had in the Civic Center that late in quite some time. Other people laid down. We sat, we talked about why we were there and future plans for our Occupations. It felt liberating. Police continually walked by and glared at us. At one point a cop car did a quick and deliberate donut in the Civic Center. We ignored it. We felt safe in our group of 8 or 9 protesters.
"At around 2:30AM my friend Robert walked into the Civic Center Plaza. He went about 30 feet away from our group and laid out a sleeping bag. He zipped himself in and stayed still. I was laying down at the time. Within 4 minutes two cops approached him, and told him to get up. He asked why. They didn't answer. They said he couldn't be in a sleeping bag, so he unzipped himself and laid on top of it. They said he couldn't be laying down in a sleeping bag, so he sat up. Then they told him to stand up. He asked why. I continually asked the police what laws he was violating. They would not answer. The other people I was with also asked questions, demanded answers and were given none.
The rest of the eyewitness account is at the link.