(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . My First Arrest And Detention. With The Late And Great Liberal Activist.... Brother Robert Blake. [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-01 It was September of 1981, and we were going to caravan about 150 miles north of our community of Topanga Canyon to San Luis Obispo and join three thousand plus brothers and sisters who were protesting and attempting to blockade the opening of the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant. 60 anti- nuclear and environmental groups who made up The Abalone Alliance, named for the countless thousands of wild California Red Abalone that were killed in the cove seven years previous, when the plant released its first hot flush, had organized it, as they had organized blockades and occupations starting back in 1977. The Alliance drew 30,000 people (!!) to a rally there in ‘79, and had announced that it will try to blockade the plant by land and sea. The blockade was a mostly symbolic effort to prevent the loading of nuclear fuel into the reactor for tests and to stop the workers from entering. Besides the obvious danger of being constructed only 2 ½ miles away from the large and active Hosfri Fault Line, it was also opposed on the grounds that the spot was a sacred Chumash Indian site, was located on the second-to-last coastal wilderness area in the state, had the largest oak trees on the West Coast and was in the running to become a protected state park. As well as the locals not wanting their pristine beaches… Avila, Pismo up to San Simeon Beach, marred by ugliness. It lasted several days and literally thousands were camping out, with locals bringing firewood and food to see us through. It was as if the parking lot scene at Grateful Dead shows which came to be known as ‘Shakedown Street’ transformed on the beach… very peaceful and there was an overwhelming feeling of solidarity and the power of a righteous cause. Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Graham Nash, Warren Zevon, Dan Fogelberg, Gil Scott- Heron at one time or another all sang and played acoustic for the demonstrators, but only Browne pitched a tent and stayed for the entire duration. I spotted at one time or another Ed Asner, Carrie Fisher, Tom Hayden and Jane Fonda, Max Gail in the crowd. Wavy Gravy, both saint and court jester bless him, as always was there and as he was for Woodstock, was the master of ceremonies, keeping it real with peace and love. As he and his commune, The Hog Farm, did at Woodstock when they started the free kitchen that fed a quarter of a million, likewise they soon staffed around the clock the camp with drinking water, solar- heated water for cleaning and bathing, first- aid, childcare, kitchen facilities and non violent training. And Jerry Rubin was there, ever full of bombast and outrage pontificating LOUDLY, partly due to his hearing impediment made worse by numerous police beatings. Jerry Brown was there in a suit and tie urging us on. Ben and Jerry’s was only three years in operation and had only one storefront, yet they drove their large RV 3000 miles across country with seemingly a thousand gallons of hippy crack to feed the appreciative children, the activists, the locals, the Dead Heads, the Quakers, the First Nations peoples free of charge. The authorities, which at that point included 500 National Guard troops and 300 California Highway Patrol troopers closed access on all sides to stop the influx of yet more protesters from joining their comrades. Not all sides actually were blockaded…. at that stage they hadn't considered covering the ocean side. And that is when Robert Blake joined the chat. He and many others were cut off from getting in to join the action, so he went to the wharf and bought from local fisherman at the spur of the moment and at inflated prices half a dozen large rubber dinghies, rented a fishing boat to take him and as many other protesters as could safely fit on the vessel, fifty or so, and had the captain stop at the harbor entrance, and he led the contingent as they paddled to shore to three thousand cheering comrades at the site, and 10,000 more from the bluffs that couldn’t get in. This was before, as the The San Francisco Chronicle reported, "a ragtag flotilla of motor boats, rubber craft and sailboats, including Greenpeace's rented schooner Stone Witch" amassed in the waters off Diablo."' Officials soon implemented a sixteen square mile `safety zone' declared off limits to all watercraft, though that didn’t stop people from trying. The gathering was on a 30-acre canvas village on private land northeast of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company's plant site, and when they landed, I was amongst the eleven who made that remote stretch of beach their camp to catch our breath for a moment, and soon found ourselves cut- off from the main gathering. And we welcomed them ashore. Stuck on the beach with Robert Blake! For two days before hundreds broke through to join us at the water. He actually snuck out to be driven to Los Angeles for an appearance on the Johnny Carson show, which he was on 162 times, to explain it the way only Robert could do. He was quite open about his frenetic mental illness on the show, and I remember as a child marveling at his honesty and bravery of admitting that he often checked himself into the ‘cuckoo house’. Of his therapy of Primal Screaming. Johnny got his number big time, when they traded places in an impromptu moment… skip to 13:00. We know now he was beaten badly and often as a child by an abusive and alcoholic father… that he was locked in a dark closet for hours on end and that he was often made to eat food off the floor, as his passive mother for some reason allowed it to happen. The man had risen to fame starting at the age of three, at five being a regular on the Little Rascals, having water thrown on him by Bogart in The Treasure of Sierra Madre, recalling that his first real hug as a child was by actress Donna Reed on the set of Mokie, by his breakthrough performance in 1967 as Perry Smith in In Cold Blood, and as the cockatoo-wielding undercover cop Baretta had suddenly acquired a new reputation as an activist for liberal causes. At the end, the police gave us a choice if we wanted to be arrested or not. Which was mighty decent of them. They painted a blue line at the plant’s entrance marking the spot where protesters would be arrested for trespassing. Two thousand or so were indeed arrested and we were all bussed to a makeshift jail at Camp San Luis, which ended up being a truly wonderful few days, seriously. As Wavy put it, "Get arrested with as many of your friends as possible. If it's just three or four of you, you're gonna go to regular jail, but if it's three- or four-hundred of you, they have to put you in pretend jail." Indeed. Jackson Browne was arrested along with Rubin as part of a human blockade at the main gate, barring the entry of workers to the plant. As both men were arrested and dragged away by deputies, hundreds of colorful demonstrators danced and sang the “Hokey Pokey.” I was arrested with Robert and the ‘rubber boat contingent’, as we scaled the fence on the opposite side of the plant. The SLO sheriff’s were by and large pricks, especially Deputy Will Bowker… he hit women in the face with his baton and kneed men in the groin for no reason. He told other sheriff’s to take off their name tags so they couldn’t be identified so easily. I hope he had a miserable life. Prick. The National Guardsman were cool, many wore anti-nuke buttons under their jackets, and were embarrassed by and for the sheriff’s actions. I traded my ‘Blockade Diablo’ and ‘No Nukes’ pins for a pitcher of coffee with a Hispanic National Guardsman. He told me, "You guys don't understand. I was ordered to. I'm not a cop. I'm in the army. We're on your side." He was so righteous Blake took off his t-shirt, signed it with a sharpie, and gave it to him. He left for a few minutes and brought back a dozen sandwiches and a second pitcher of coffee. Wavy Gravy entertained day and night with us ‘prisoners’ performing drum circles using plastic buckets and organizing talent shows. Jackson was allowed to bring in his acoustic guitar, which he played and sang often to soothe our nerves. Eventually we were all allowed out with a $150 fine and with the promise of not returning to the plant again. The first thing Robert did when he got out? Was going directly back to the plant to be arrested yet again. ( The plant opening was delayed when an engineer discovered some of the seismic blueprints had been reversed (!!), but it eventually went online in 1985. ) A year after the Diablo Canyon event, he and Rubin were in the forefront of a protest in Dana Point against the San Onofre nuclear plant. Fast forward five years to 1986. I had already been on my first assignment as an aid/relief worker, in El Salvador, and was back home for a time to spend with family and to get a partial to replace the teeth knocked out of my mouth by a rifle butt from an unpleasant fellow who belonged to a ‘militia’ named after their benefactor… Ronald Reagan…. and who apparently didn’t like the cut of my jib. Blake and Rubin started the 1986 cross-country Great Peace March. I joined in, though I knew I was going abroad within the month and couldn’t see it through. The march lost funding when we were in the Mojave Desert, and it was Blake who kept up the morale. Of the 1,500 people that had begun the march in L.A., 800 stayed on after its backers declared bankruptcy. Said Jerry, “I asked for a circle of unity among those who were still there. We were holding hands in the desert silence when Robert began singing ‘Amazing Grace’ and leading us into a tightening circle. It was beautiful. We all cheered afterward and were more determined than ever, thanks to Robert, that we’d make it cross-country for peace.” Robert raised the money in both D.C. and in Vegas to get the remaining marchers to their destination, of which 400 ultimately did. And then he paid for all 400 of them who needed it to get home. At one point, Robert saw me take out of my mouth my new and uncomfortable partial, and asked me how it came about. When I told him, he put an arm on my shoulder, looked at me square in the eyes and nodded. For once he had nothing to say verbally, but there was a transmission to be sure. We saw each other. Later that year, that dear man helped raise money for medical supplies and food for the victims of El Salvador’s brutal civil war. And the small organization that I served with at the time was the first one of the many to receive a badly needed check of five figures. It was put to good use. Beyond the medicine and food, we sent 19 young people to higher education abroad to Burlington College in Vermont who offered them scholarships, getting them out of harms way. The Robert Blake Cockatoo Scholarship Fund. In 1988, Robert was by the side of his dear friend from the 1960’s, Cesar Chavez, when Cesar went on yet another hunger strike to protest the continued use of deadly chemicals on the crops picked by the farm workers. Many long time supporters were there as well including Martin Sheen and his son Emilio, Edward James Olmos and Mike Farrell. And all three children of slain Sen. Robert Kennedy. But Robert was the first to arrive and join in the fast, then by its 23rd day, and the last to leave. Cesar was very frail, as Robert said, “He's amazingly clear and focused ... but I'm scared for him. A man is putting his life on the line so that we will wake up and save ours.” And in 1993, Cesar died and 25,000 plus mourners lined the dusty, hot road as the heavy pine coffin built with haste by Cesar’s brother was carried along a four- mile stretch to a Roman Catholic funeral Mass at the first union hall of the United Farm Workers, Forty Acres. It was so hot and the coffin so heavy that the eight pallbearers had to be rotated every five minutes, and they included Gov. Brown Jr. and Rev. Jesse Jackon, Olmos and Sheen, Joseph P. Kennedy 2nd. I should say seven pallbearers, as Robert through tears carried his portion of the coffin the entire route, refusing to allow anyone else to shoulder his burden. Over time, many compared Cesar to Jesus and Gandhi. Said Robert, "Jesus and Gandhi were his heroes. He was our hero." I want so very much just to end the diary here, but with the elephant in the room staring me in the face, I would be remiss not to spend as short as time as necessary to speak of said elephant. I don’t want to relitigate the case when he was accused of the 2001 murder of Bonny Lee Bakley. As Jerry Rubin said, “The media convicted him without a trial. Robert is a man of peace, not a man who would put a bullet into anyone’s brain.” But after Robert paid one million dollars cash to bond out his bodyguard, he had to endure jail for a year before he too was allowed to bond out. And when the jury heard the evidence… that the nine time married victim had been conning many men at that time, including Christian Brando, whom she believed was the father of the child that was in actuality Robert’s. They heard that Christian had a few years previous been released from jail for shooting and killing his sisters boyfriend. According to trial testimony, Dianne Mattson testified that Brando became enraged, and at one point stated "somebody should put a bullet in that bitch's head". In a tape-recorded conversation between Brando and Bakley two days before her murder, Brando stated, "You’re lucky. You know, I mean, not on my behalf, but you’re lucky someone ain’t out there to put a bullet in your head.” And they discovered that the main witness, a junkie stunt-man had recently been in the employ of Brando. Couple with that zero evidence…. Suffice it to say, I agreed when the jury acquitted him on the first charge 12-0 and on the second lesser charge of 11-1, which was good enough for the judge to call it a day. And I raise a toast …. or two… and light a potent spliff…. or two... to you, you dear, honest, open, troubled darling man. Though I know back in the day you preferred a little tobacco added. Love you, brother. This song he played and sung on the beach and in the jail dorm. May your journey continue where the sun keeps shining, through the pouring rain. And that’s the name of dat tune. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/1/2157241/-My-First-Arrest-And-Detention-With-The-Late-And-Great-Liberal-Activist-Brother-Robert-Blake Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/