The Second Occupy Oakland Raid, and The Campaign Of Fear
I think the Oakland Police department and city officials understand those feelings well, and spent this holiday weekend exploiting them fairly effectively. At least on me. A feeling of dread crept in as I read little items that were leaked out, like the following email that went around on Sunday that :
“A highly coordinated law enforcement raid to clear out OO is planned to take place Monday morning early. Significant public safety mutual aid is being called in from neighboring jurisdictions. The goal is to permanently clear out the OO encampment of illegal activities. Expect to see overwhelming use of force by police directed to occupiers who refuse to comply.
Peaceful protesters are advised by police to stand down until the situation stabilizes. The general public is advised to stay away from the area during the action to avoid potential personal injury from incidental contact with conflicts.”
No-one has been able to verify exactly where the email came from, but all weekend I saw intimations of actions like this on twitter feeds, facebook pages and the news. Each day of the holiday weekend eviction notices were handed out to the residents of the encampment. It felt like a war of fear, an attempt to break the protesters before any raid could happen.
The weekend started with a fatal shooting near the encampment on Thursday evening. Reports of what this had to do with Occupy Oakland are still a bit conflicted and unsure, so I'll keep out of that. The shooting shined an unfortunate light on one of Oakland's largest problems, the murder rate, which stands at 91 murders so far this year. Rather then focus on that, the leaders of the city and the chamber of commerce all jumped at it as an opportunity to justify evicting the camp, blaming Oakland's endemic issues on the protesters.
Mayor Quan, who really hasn't been able to win with any of this, made a sad attempt Friday morning to have a press event where she released a dove at a church where she had attended an interfaith thanksgiving prayer breakfast. She said “We need to peacefully close the encampment at City Hall and we're asking people to leave.”
Are there calls to close down neighborhoods in Oakland where the other 90 murders happened? Of course not. It's recognized that a small element makes life difficult and oppressive for the vast majority of good people in the neighborhoods where most of those murders occur.
All night I received text updates of the impending raid, with predictions of it taking place after 3AM. I got there at 2AM, and there was a small crowd of people. That crowd eventually grew to about 2 to 3 hundred. Not the crowd Portland got this weekend, and I think this was the desired result of the campaign of fear throughout the weekend.
Many people I spoke to had a feeling of dread, an uneasy feeling in the gut. I talked to one man who had driven by the Oakland Coliseum, and he had seen 80 of the plain white vans the riot police use, with around 10 to each van. I knew the Occupiers were vastly outnumbered.
Some stayed in the camp, including a small group of interfaith people who knew they would get arrested.
Possibly around 4:30 a few police showed up. Pretty close to 5AM riot police showed up. Not the huge number I expected, but enough. I'm really not sure since we couldn't get close to most of them, but I could see maybe 3 or 4 hundred. Possibly there were more standing by, possibly there were more where I could not see them.
They blocked off the encampment and Broadway below 14th. By 6AM they had arrested the people in the camp, and had begun tearing down the tents. By 7, the crowd had gotten down to maybe 100.
All this happened peacefully, at least as far as any of us could see. Once things were winding down, I tried to get into the camp to take pictures but was not allowed, even with my mock press pass. At one point a handful of more “official” press was briefly allowed in. I spoke with a cameraman for the local ABC affiliate KGO, and he told me he was allowed in for 2 minutes and then had to leave.
There was no tear gas, no shooting of anything, no throwing of things. Though I'm saddened by the actions taken by the city and the police coalition, I'm grateful that both sides maintained a peaceful composure throughout.
Many people are mystified as to why the continual occupation of public space is so important to this movement. I'm sure there are many answers. For me, by sharing space with the homeless, it begins the process of breaking down the barriers in our society between the separations of our different economic classes, it begins a new equality based on something else.
And by feeding the homeless at the camps, it illustrates the wealth redistribution OWS speaks of on a very basic level; that those that have enough are willing to donate goods and time to help those that have nothing. I spoke with an Occupier named Toby, and he told me the Occupy Oakland Kitchen had been serving somewhere between 750 to 1,000 meals a day. On my list of good things to do, feeding the hungry is right up there at the top, whether it's churches, or Occupiers.
The Occupiers plan to reconvene at the nearby Library at 4 PM today. Snow Park, the smaller and auxiliary camp was allowed to stand. I drove by and saw about 20 tents there.
This morning I watched the camp end for the second time. I'm not going to declare it dead, not at all. They are a force unlike anything I have ever experienced. I'm sure the Occupiers will find the strength and means to resurrect themselves again. Very soon. Whether it's in Frank Ogawa Plaza or somewhere else, or as something else has yet to be seen, but I'm sure somehow, someway, they will continue. As this will across the country, around the world.
The chalk messages photographed were done in the intersection of 14th and Broadway in the early morning by Occupiers. The tent is one of the ones I found at Snow Park on my way home.
Some sources used in writing this:
Notice warns of Monday AM raid on Occupy Oakland
Quan Again Asks Occupiers to Leave Plaza is at baycitizen.org. As hard as I try, I can't get the link to work.
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HUGGGGGGGgg
-- Molly Ivins
(unless she was quoting someone else.)
I'm very sad to see OO closed down and that Oakland felt such overwhelming force was necessary--where's adequate police presence when and where it's really needed? But like you, I'm grateful, at least, that nobody got hurt while it was going on.
I think no matter where they go next, the spirit of Occupy America has become too big to supress or ignore. "We Are the 99%" has a lot of basic people power and public frustration has hit critical mass. Harnessing it effectively is key. What happens next, I don't know. I do believe social networking is going to be a key factor in keeping this spirit alive and visible through the winter.
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Place is important - freedom in Oakland? as if. People need to go to urban centers with food and clothing - tents even. The poor and hungry need to be seen, heard, fed and clothed. Place is important - i have heard the disdain from healthy, employed people who commute to Oakland - they do not want to see what the world they do so well in does to others - they do not want to share the space. It slows them down, distracts them from a false reality that they are attached to do.
Place is everything.
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There is a very large demonstration being planned for January 20th, 2012 at the Federal Courthouse at 700 Stewart street in Seattle, - and at every Federal Courthouse in the United States.. There are many groups organizing and "gearing up" for this demonstration. I will be promoting and advertising it. This "occupy movement" has only just begun. I suggest you figure out your plan of action and response; The rules of engagement; - Need a way better understanding of what is going on; - than during WTO in Seattle. Treat the people like they are the enemy, and they will become it.
I am hoping that what I say makes sense to someone, and they will start writing and treating this "occupy movement" with the respect it is going to earn. Did you see where Israel had a demonstration of 500,000 people demanding concessions from their government? It worked. Listen to Martin Luther King, his words are as meaningful today as they were then. This struggle for economic justice and government control will be won by the people! (It is very old..).
I feel the occupy movement does have a basic underlying message; Stop letting money decide political elections; And regulate corporate lobbying (and all lobbying) making it a public forum. Right now lobbying is mostly two old white guys sitting across from each other in an office. "They" have probably worked with each other or went to the same school; And "they" have promised you a job when you get out of politics, -- tripling your present salary!. The "lobbyist" used to be a "politician", it worked for him!. Who owns who? - That's a "Person-hood".
I lived in the Glenn Hotel in downtown Seattle when the WTO protests happened. It happened at my front door. I was a part of it, promoting it, and involved in it. There is something going on, and I am going to be a part of it again. I have helped organize and promote protests in Bellevue, Olympia, and Seattle Washington; another big one is coming. I feel it will be a “WTO” sized protest in multiple cities.
"I" was at the WTO protests in Seattle Washington, (with thousands of "other" really awesome "people", and a few "freaks") when a bunch of "anarchists" started busting windows with crowbars. We surrounded them, and they got in a circle with their crowbars. I tried to get the "Seattle police" to come arrest "these anarchists”, that were only fifty feet away and threatening violence and breaking windows… The "Seattle police" would not budge from their “police line”, making all of "us" the "enemy".... (There were thousands of "union" and "other" people sitting and standing in the street, - it was a relatively peaceful protest until the windows started breaking…). " I" am not the "enemy".
I will be in Seattle at 700 Stewart street at the Federal courthouse January 20th, 2012!!! I know we can do this better than last time.
The Corporate Occupation of the United States
Our corporate controlled government (through corporate lobbying and election funding ) is out of the peoples control. People want government control back. Makes sense to me… I feel US corporate capitalism (corporatism) is a type of economic fascism: To have a corporate being where the chain of command eventually muddles all responsibility to any human being. These corporate beings are running your life, and controlling your government. (Enough to really make an individual mad and protest.) In reality, the corporate being does not exist, and when it comes to face it’s corporate responsibility, it is a piece of paper. (Or a CEO saying; “I do not recall that”, “I did not have that information”, “that was not my responsibility, I was running the company, and not just that department”,,, and on and on. It has bred a corporate culture of abuse, because they keep getting away with it..), Corporate person-hood is plain and simply wrong: A corporation is not a human being. Restore capitalism to individual responsible chains of command, or this struggle will be lost.
Please Sign the petition to amend the Constitution for revoking corporate personhood at:
movetoamend.org
(I feel January 20th, 2012: will be a bigger day in US history than WTO in Seattle. The battle continues, rage against the machine is real.)
January 20, 2012 – Move to Amend Occupies the Courts!
Move To Amend is planning bold action to mark this date — Occupy the Courts — a one day occupation on Friday January 20, 2012, of the Federal Courts, including the Supreme Court of the United States and as many of the 89 U.S. District Court Buildings as we can. (I am inspired by Doctor Martin Luther King who said; "a true revolution of values", ... "there comes a time when silence is betrayal"., "people are not gonna be silenced".). Move to Amend will lead the charge on the judiciary which created — and continues to expand — corporate personhood rights.
It's Time to GET MONEY OUT of politics
Bailouts. War. Unemployment. Our government is bought, and we’re angry. Now, we’re turning our anger into positive action. By signing this petition, you are joining our campaign to get money out of politics. Our politicians won’t do this. But we will. We will become an unrelenting, massive organized wave advocating a Constitutional amendment to get money out of politics.
Please sign the petition!
http://www.getmoneyout.com/
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My friend and I put on a protest in Olympia for World Can't Wait Oct. 5, 2006 at the capitol. Here are some photos...
http://www.creativeflashes.com/Politics/World-Cant-Wait-Oct-5th-2006/1971747_r54FkC/1/100377072#100377079_npPWj
I also coordinated and promoted a protest in Bellevue when Bush was there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hzh3OtBgNI&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPoWphQhdm0&NR=1
Happy to say both worked out without arrest, injury or property damage! I worked with the Washington State Patrol in Olympia, and Bellevue Police beforehand, and we pretty much understood the rules of engagement. Medina police were not good partners..
http://open.salon.com/blog/kennspace/2011/10/28/corporate_occupation_of_the_united_states_1
Congrats on the EPPPPP!