Fourteen Occupy Oakland protesters were arrested yesterday in a series of scuffles following police harassment at Occupy’s sustained vigil in Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant plaza. Most of those people remain in jail as of this writing on a variety of heavy charges, including in at least one case: 405a. “lynching.”

California’s 1933 anti-lynching law was largely aimed at preventing racist crowds from overtaking police attempting arrests of black people and enacting their own version of murderous “justice."

405. Every person who participates in any riot is punishable by a fine not exceeding one thousand dollars, or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

405a. The taking by means of a riot of any person from the lawful custody of any peace officer is a lynching.

405b. Every person who participates in any lynching is punishable by imprisonment pursuant to subdivision (h) of Section 1170 for two, three or four years.

Since 1933, the law has been used broadly against those seeking to stop what they perceive to be unjust arrests of all kinds.

It appears that the definition of "lynching” was further broadened in the First District Court of Appeal’s 1999 decision in the People v. Anthony J:

Under California law, “lynching” includes not only the notorious form of lynch mob behavior that aims to take vengeance on the victim, but also any participation in riotous conduct aimed at freeing a person from the custody of a peace officer. Accordingly, we conclude that a person who takes part in a riot leading to his escape from custody can be convicted of his own lynching.

This is how Gabe Meyers was charged following his arrest at a protest in San Francisco in 2005. (Update: Charges were later dropped.)

The arrests of occupiers at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant plaza Friday afternoon were not a mass arrest situation, but “surgical” arrests aimed at targeting individuals. The Oakland Police Department has been holding the lynching charge in their back pocket to deal with Occupy Oakland since planning for the first raid on October 25.

Logistically, the arrested occupier charged with lynching is relatively physically small; regardless of the legality of an alleged unarrest action, the arrestee was likely not capable of being effective against the physically large Oakland police officers they allegedly wronged. (Update: It appears Tiffany Tran’s arrest is likely a case of attempted self-lynching, similar to Meyers’. Eyewitnesses report Tran called out for help as she was being detained by police.)