Saturday afternoon Occupy Oakland had a march. It wandered through downtown, to a school in the Grand Lake district, then back downtown to establish a new camp. This time the camp was set up at 19^th and Telegraph in an abandoned parking lot.

The march was a fine event. People were in a good mood and there were no problems along the route. There were about 1,000 people.

I got a sinking feeling as we approached the vacant lot. I had expected it to be lined with riot police, but instead there were some beat officers standing in front of portions of the fence that lined the empty lot, but most of the fence was not guarded.

This lot has been vacant for about 4 years. It's near a recently revived (gentrified) little area that's built up around the reopening of the Fox Theater. Condominiums surround the lot on three sides. There was a handful of nearby residents protesting the protestor's plans.

I have to admit, I had mixed feelings regarding this as a choice. I loved the camp at Frank Ogawa/Oscar Grant plaza, so please, Occupiers don't take this the wrong way. But I don't think I'd be thrilled if a bunch of people with a loud truck rocking 80s dance tracks moved in across from where I live.

Still, if the Occupiers were allowed to establish themselves there, they might have suprised the neighborhood. I heard many of them talk about the need to respect their neighbors, and I will say the couple of times I've been to the Snow Park encampment it's been very quiet, and I'd be happy to have it across the street.

At one point I found several officers surrounding an area that had a large amount of rocks in it. That might have made sense except the whole lot had rocks all over the place. My favorite moment of the night was when I found a few younger protestors spelling out Occupy with the rocks. They were very friendly and happy, and it was such a peaceful thing to do with something the police had imagined would be used as weapons.

Around 10 the police told the sound truck they had to stop playing music and the truck complied with that order. The people with the truck packed up and drove away, and a few blocks later while they were unloading the police came and told them they had violated section 27007 of the vehicle code which states:

“No driver of a vehicle shall operate, or permit the operation of, any sound amplification system which can be heard outside the vehicle from 50 or more feet when the vehicle is being operated upon a highway”. Apparently this is a law designed to stop sideshows. It seemed pointless to me as the truck had stopped when asked.

I stumbled on this incident by chance as I was going home for awhile. I saw police cars with flashing lights a couple blocks away, and went to check it out. A curious thing I found out later was that a police car had gone by the new encampment and told a few people this was happening. Possible diversion tactic to get people out of the camp? I guess enough didn't leave for that to work, but by the time the police were ready to drive the truck away about 25 protestors were there.

The protestors were starting to get upset and chant and it was looking like it could escalate. Out of nowhere a lot more police showed up, including a van with riot police. They aggressively went toward the crowd. Having learned my lesson a few weeks ago I went to the other side of the street. The police pretty quickly made room for the truck to be driven off. Things were chaotic for a couple of minutes, and then I saw an officer get into an unmarked police car and turn around.

There was a protestor who was really charged up, agitated and loud. I was almost looking away when I thought I saw to the side the unmarked police car drive into that man. I didn't get the greatest look, so it had that surreal did I see that quality to it. I spoke with several other people who saw the same thing more clearly then I did as they were closer and they confirmed that is what happened.

Then, that police officer DROVE AWAY. None of the police stopped and asked if the man was OK. They all left. Later I learned the officer may have also hit the man's fiance.

I tracked the man down, who's name is Rasta, and these are excerpts of what he said:

“A police officer pushed me, told me to leave the scene, hit me with his billy club and I pushed and after he hit me I said I'll knock your bitch ass out. He backed up, went back into the police crowd and got scared because he saw my aggressiveness. This guy got into an unmarked vehicle, spun around, drove in my direction, stopped, then sped up again and hit me. Then he turned around and drove off.”

I saw the bruise and swelling on Rasta's leg. He wasn't run over or critically injured. But it was enough to make a bad looking swollen up bruise. I spoke with Rasta and his fiance for quiet a while, and discovered that as he calmed down a bit he's a smart man.

From what I had seen Rasta was pretty agitated. I don't know if that started when he was hit or before. I don't think that really matters. When the police start assaulting citizens with cars, and then run away with no regard for what they've done, they are operating outside the law. When the police start operating outside the law, then we really do have a police state. Have any of these police been punished? 

Sunday afternoon I attempted to contact a public information officer through the OPD to get a statement.  I made three attempts, the last attempt I was transferred to an automated system that hung up on me.

What have we come to? Where is this going? The night of the first raid Oakland looked like a war zone due to police tactics. A Vet was critically injured. A week later another vet was critically injured. Peaceful students in Berkeley were brutally assaulted, peaceful students in Davis were needlessly pepper sprayed. An 84 year old woman was tear gassed in Seattle. And then there's New York.

I expect so much better than this from my country. Does anyone need further proof that things need to change? That our country is run by the people the protestors say it is?

OK, I'll admit, I'm a little charged up myself right now. I can't believe some of the things I've seen. We have a lot of work to do in this country. A lot of work.

Sunday morning at 8 AM I received a text message that riot police had arrived at the new encampment and had given the protestors 20 minutes to gather their belongings and vacate. Being 21 blocks away I quickly drove down there. When I arrived the police were lined up on the far side of the park from the protestors.

The protestors were taking the camp down. Then the police gave them a 5 minutes warning. Just about everything was removed in time, the protestors vacated the park, but stayed at an intersection. For a couple of hours there was a standoff. It thinned out as some Occupiers went to Snow Park to set up camp at that location where others have been allowed to camp. About 20 were still in the intersection, barricaded by police when I left at 10:30 AM.

There were a handful of local residents watching, a few of them were very vocal about their opposition to the protestors. One of them came up on the other side of the barricade yelling at the protestors to leave, and they yelled back. The commanding officer with the bullhorn came over and calmed the man down and got him to walk away. I will say these police officers seemed committed to non-violence, as were the protestors.

There were about 10 or less loud and agitated protestors out of a crowd of around 100. The majority were not, I think the louder ones were getting more of the attention from what media was there.  There was only one major TV station where I was, I heard the others were around the block where nothing was happening.

I did find some residents who supported the Occupiers. Two residents provided power outlets for a man to make coffee for the group. I talked to a few others who voiced their support.

The statues in the background are of famous social justice and freedom fighter figures from the past including Gandhi, Malcolm X, Cesar Chavez, Harvey Milk and others. I'm not that fond of irony, but the sight of riot police standing in front of those statues was a strange and disturbing mix of amusing and sad. Mostly sad.

 _{from top, photos are of:}

_{crowd at grand ave}

_{police officer by fence at vacant lot}

_{neighborhood protestors protesting the occupiers}

_{first protestor under the fence}

_{police officer getting ready to drive impounded truck away}

_{rasta and fiance}

_{marcher carrying a sign}

_{statues at the park near the vacant lot}

_{riot police lined up sunday morning}

_{protestors removing tents}

_{protestors and riot police standing off}

_{riot police in front of statues}

_{all content by me}