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Report from the Occupy Oakland raid

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:20:00 +0000

Have you ever spent time waiting for someone close to you to die? Then you know the feeling of being mired in an unknown void, where one doesn't know if it will be that weekend, that afternoon, that hour. That sickened feeling in your gut, the premonition that something very bad will happen, an imminent threat staring you in the face, mixing up all your thoughts and emotions, holding you hostage, stealing the hours spent waiting and waiting.

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 the items that were leaked out, like the following email that was circulated on Sunday:

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.

Cops link shooting to Occupy Oakland

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 14:03:00 +0000

SAN FRANCISCO -- Oakland police reported Sunday that the victim of a fatal shooting near the Occupy Oakland encampment on Thursday had been staying in the camp, as had one of the suspects in the crime, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The victim last Thursday's shooting was Kayode Ola Foster, 25, of Oakland, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. Foster's family told police he was staying in the Occupy Oakland encampment in the Frank Ogawa Plaza outside Oakland's City Hall. Witnesses said he was a frequent resident of the camp.

Police officials reportedly said the shooting was likely a result of a fight between two groups of men near the camp, according to the Washington Post.

I saw a different side of Occupy Oakland

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 18:34:00 +0000

Tuesday night the wind was whipping around Oakland in an ominous way. Doors kept banging around in my apartment, and I fell asleep hoping nature wasn't setting things up for another difficult day. I woke Wednesday morning ready to go to the Occupy Oakland General Strike, and the weather had calmed down, it had become one of those remarkable warm fall days we sometimes get here.

And it was Wednesday's weather that set the stage for my experience of the day, a beautiful day that Oakland and I needed so much after last week's troubled times.

Later that night, I saw on the news a few regrettable incidents of windows being broken, which made me sad. Not so much because of the windows, even though that's not a good thing, but because now that the world was watching us, this would be the first thing many would see and take note of. I saw film of the vandals at Whole Foods. It looked like a small contingent of anarchists, and there was also footage of protestors trying to stop them.

Vandals hijack Occupy Oakland protests

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 15:22:00 +0000

Thanks to a splinter group of protesters in Oakland last night, the news today is leading with imagery of burning barricades and headlines about property destruction.

The Times notes that this was a tiny portion of the thousands of Occupy protesters that marched in support of a general strike earlier in the day:

Tear gas hung over Oakland for the second time in two weeks after a small group of demonstrators faced off against police early Thursday following a peaceful march of thousands of Occupy Oakland protesters.

A roving group of about 100 mostly young men broke from the main group of protesters in a central plaza and roamed through downtown streets spraying graffiti, burning garbage and breaking windows. The police said some in the group briefly occupied a building on 16th Street near the port.

Check out Salon's account of the day here. Allison Kilkenny also has a good roundup.

Occupy Oakland shuts down port

Thu, 03 Nov 2011 13:24:00 +0000

What began as a relatively peaceful day of demonstrations in Oakland on Wednesday ended in tear gas, rubber bullets and sound grenades being fired on occupiers. The Oakland Police Department arrested dozens of protesters who had taken over an abandoned building near the Oscar Grant plaza where the occupiers have an encampment.

The confrontation came at the end of a long day of festivities around a General Strike and a mass march on the Oakland Port. The Critical Mass bike activists led the march to the Bay, cycling in swirling formations in intersections along the way as they waited for the crowd to catch up. A bus took people who couldn’t walk the distance to the port, and teachers marched in solidarity with neon green T-shirts. By 9 o'clock Wednesday evening, the port, one of the largest in the country, was effectively shut down.

“Whose ports? Our ports?” the crowd chanted in the catch-all occupation meme.

Many protesters I spoke with had never been involved with direct action before Wednesday. Some had been edgy about coming to the march after last week’s raid and subsequent attacks on the Occupy Oakland camp that ended with several people injured and one cracked skull. Andrea, who has not been camping at the Plaza, said she was nervous, but that, “It’s important to make them know we’re not afraid. That mentality keeps people bound up in the lives they’re living.”