Crime & Safety
Student Activist Asks Police To Drop ‘Bogus Charges’
DVC student Nick Holmes was accused of resisting arrest and delaying an officer's investigation in a May 17 downtown incident.
A Diablo Valley College student activist participated at on behalf of unionists and passed out fliers for a more personal cause — he asked the Concord police to “drop the bogus charges.”
Nick Holmes, 24, of Concord, president of the Students for a Democratic Society chapter at the Pleasant Hill campus, was charged with resisting arrest and delaying an officer’s investigation in a May 17 incident in downtown Concord. He denied the charges, saying he was respectful and observing from a distance as a Concord police officer was trying to move along a publicly intoxicated homeless man.
Holmes gave the following account: The intoxicated man was slumped on the sidewalk, leaning against the wall of the Vineyard Community Center, across Grant Street from Todos Santos Plaza. A female officer was “harassing” and kicking the man to get him to move.
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Holmes said he was walking by and observed the police action from the edge of the sidewalk, perhaps 10 feet away. The officer appeared alarmed about his presence and asked him, “What are you doing?” and “Do you have a camera?”
Holmes said he replied, “I’m just observing.”
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The officer asked him to take his hands out of his pockets. Holmes said he thinks the resisting arrest charge stems from him taking too long to remove his hands. When he did, he was handcuffed.
Backup officers came and “hog-tied him” and “slammed” him to the pavement, according to Holmes’ flier.
Patch is seeking an official account of the incident from the Concord police.
SDS “is calling for Concord PD and the district attorney to drop the charges,” according to the SDS flier.
Holmes said he is due to be arraigned on the charges Monday in Contra Costa Superior Court in Walnut Creek.
Holmes said he was passing out a statement, raising awareness and demonstrating for “union and worker rights” on Saturday. Holmes joined a group of 25 Contra Costa County union workers marching at Todos Santos Plaza in a rally in support of their contract negotiations and against attempts to privatize public services.
