Occupy Movement
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I’m starting a new thread in the Community section of TAE to get all the Occupy information in one place. Boys in the Black Pajamas has some discussion, but it may become hard to find in the future and this deserves its own section. It is NOT dwindling and fading away as MSM would have you believe. I also want to write up another discussion on Occupy the Farm later.
To start off with my on-the-ground report, I had trained on the Sunday before the event with the Medic and First Aid committee. Part of our training was role-playing events where we treated “patients” in the midst of firecrackers and pretend-police arrests. We were able to talk with an EMT occupier about what to be sure to have in our backpacks. It seems that dilute vinegar is not really needed for tear-gas, but lots of water. So my pack was loaded with water, sunscreen, and an antacid for possible pepper-spray along with the usual first aid stuff.
Here is the schedule for the day:
6AM: Support the Golden Gate bridge workers via pickets and rallies (appears that the Occupy the Bridge action called off as of 4-30-12 but buses will still leave from 19th & Telegraph to occupy the Golden Gate Bridge.) [there was support for the GG Ferry union strikers]
9AM – NOON: 3-4 morning actions, [There were 3 hubs for dt Oakland pickets]
NOON – 1PM: Everyone Converge on Downtown
1PM – 3PM: Themed Actions & Marches Around Downtown
3PM: March for Dignity and Resistance – All are encouraged to join the march starting at Fruitvale BART station at 3pm.
6PM – 7PM: Reconvergence downtown to coincide with the march arrival
[The march arrive at about 8 pm and more police tear gas ensued. See later links to news reports.]As I was leaving to get to the Noon rally, I got a text message from the medic phone that medics were needed at a location near dt for a 19 yr old woman with a head injury. Others were closer to her and she went to the ER. We think she was stuck down by a cop. I also got a text for mental health assistance after the same altercation with the police, but I was still in transit.
Later at the noon rally people marched around City hall which was being guarded by CA Highway Patrol with only face shields and no armor. They were very laid back and carried no more than night sticks and the usual pistol on the hip. Later when someone went to go “talk to people” in city hall, he came back to say that they had gone home for the day and it was closed. I guess the CHP were there to prevent break-ins to the hall.
After the rally marches went off in 2 different directions. There were so many different marches and rallies that the police were spread very thinly around the various areas. The OPD was probably spread out in east Oakland at the Fruitvale rally, and along the like routs of various marches.
At that point the police around the city hall plaza were all Alameda Co. sheriffs. Now they looked really fitted up. Several had what looked like hand-grenades clipped to their shirt shoulders; one guy had at least 6, another only one. Naturally I started loudly talking to a photographer/independent press friend who was there, and pointing out the ‘nades and asking what they were for. Of course, they were smoke bombs, but it started a lively discussion among a bunch of us and the independent press folks about what the cops were gear up with. One young sheriff was strutting about with what looked like a machine gun and a dozen clips of white canisters – we decided that was tear gas. Another cop had no canisters, but we decided that his rifle-machine gun was for rubber bullets. I even got one of the sheriffs to dialogue with me a little about the guns “not being machine guns”. I loudly complained that this looked like more fire power than allowed in Iraq. The flash- bang makers are purported to be at a higher volume than allowed in Iraq.
Soon more sheriffs came into the street along with a higher ranking captain followed by a huge truck that looked like a tank with big rubber tires and no treads. Then the conversation really took off about what TANK was doing in Oakland. Apparently it was for a High frequency sound blaster. One medic said she was going to bring a bunch of those rubber ear plugs next time. I helped add to the discussion by periodically asking “What is that tank doing here?” I think it may have been to “get people used to” tanks on city streets during demonstrations. I was beginning to worry that we were being ‘kettled’ and moved back to an area that looked like there could be an exit.
As the day turned out, only 30 people were arrested, instead of the 400 arrested in January when they ‘kettled’ people in front of the YMCA, told them to leave, wouldn’t allow them to leave, and slowly arrested 400 on failure to disperse.
The Oakland PD is probably close to being in contempt of court for doing nothing to improve the massive number of citizen complaints as they were mandated to do. They could well end up in Fed receivership for failure to comply. I hope so. But the recent targeted arrests may be an attempt on OPDs part to comply to the court order.
The OPD even had a Friday eveing (2 hr.) Meet your OPD at their station down town. Belated community out reach – I’ve heard nothing about how that went.
Here are a few links (or rather urls, since I don’t know how to imbed the links and photos) to articles on the May Day Strike.
Oakland Police use Concussion Grenades and Extraction Teams on May Day 2012
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4kfOATzPMk&feature=youtu.be[I watched one of these ‘extractions’. They had stated before the Strike that specific trouble makers would be targeted. And they did it.]
Thousands march in Oakland in May Day protest
Read more: https://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/01/BA671OBO28.DTL#ixzz1tmGuN4p9
OPD officer C. Bolton says unmarked police vehicle found on fire, spray-painted 1600 block San Pablo Ave. In another area one Oakland cop was yellow paint bombed during a tear gas event after the 8 pm March arrived.
#OPD volleys tear gas ~3:45 mark ustream.tv/recorded/22282…
Sheriff confirms he’s holding an M-4 assault rifle. Asks old woman to back away from him.
https://twitter.com/#!/susie_c/status/197504633017614336/photo/1Oakland police may face sanctions over handling of Occupy protests
https://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/02/us-usa-occupy-may1-oakland-idUSBRE84104T20120502Maypole with black ribbons
It ain’t a revolution without dancing!
https://twitter.com/#!/P03t1cN0m4d/status/197387556638294018/photo/1
[There were also several light posts that were used with colored ribbons to dance a May Pole.]===
The Golden Gate Bridge occupation was canceled as it would have lost support for the unions and occupy. Instead support was given to Striking GG Ferry workers in the morning.
https://www.occupythebridge.org/====
I was much impressed with the non-unionized airport workers who along with a union, closed down the airport road access for a while, even if air flights were not disrupted.
“Mid-afternoon today, a rumor began to swirl on Twitter, and was spread via announcements at May Day protests around the country: “Confirmed. #OccupyLa has effectively shut down LAX.”
The “news” was declared in Oakland and in New York, however it wasn’t quite true, only the access road was closed for awhile
https://laist.com/2012/05/01/rumor_control_occupy_la_did_not_shu.php“While the planned protest involving union workers, airport employees, religious leaders, and supporters of workers’ rights did involve the temporary shut down of Century Boulevard outside of LAX. The street closures there, as the ones in Downtown Los Angeles to accommodate the “Four Winds” caravan of protests from four corners of the County, were planned and expected.”
Traffic for drivers going in and out of the major international hub was messed up, but the airport itself was, well, nowhere near shut down.”
[Even if the airport wasn’t totally shut down, the potential was there.]===
[In researching this news today (May 6) I found that these Youtube pieces had been removed, by author for one and for the other the ‘account closed’. Is this a not so subtle form of censorship?]Raw Footage Of Oakland Cops Using Flash bang Grenades On Protesters goo.gl/DXpVy #occupy #ows #occupyoakland #news #policebrutality 2 hours ago · reply · retweet · favorite
stocktwits_suck profilestocktwits_suck Oakland Cops Open Fire On Hundreds Of Occupy Oakland Protesters goo.gl/xKXnW #99
The international financiers who have taken control of our government have been preparing for their engineered economic collapse for well over decade.
The heavy handed tactics are to see what officers have humanity, which ones don’t and who will get promotions to that “special unit.”
It is also to keep the sheep away and back in their pens.
The oligarchs are also financing their takeover of the movement trying to turn it into a “vote for Obama” ‘fest, but that will only work with they can beat the aware people enough to get them to leave so only the properly programmed remain.
I think the head cracking at OWS will be more severe this year than last year.
I hope not. We’ll see.
Keep up the good fight.
Resistance *IS* victory. You already *are* winning.
It is the other losers who chose to do nothing that are the losers.
“All that is required for evil to prevail is for good men to do nothing.”
— Edmund Burke“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
— Plato“The world is a dangerous place, not because of those who do evil, but because of those who look on and do nothing.”
— Albert Einstein“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”
— Edmund BurkeSome good videos to better understand the treachery of those who control the police (many compartmentalized and have no idea what is really going on, but some do):
(Full Movie) Toronto G20 EXPOSED – Original Full-Length Documentary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZxkAn-g4Xo
Seattle WTO Riots exposed
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4Y7jrIx61k
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XpY6Sw400Q0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5TaJcI35V8
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