Police arrest protesters, tear down Occupy Oakland tent city

[occupyeverywhere]

Source: San Jose Mercury News

Early Tuesday, the city began ousting protesters who have camped out for two weeks at the Occupy Oakland tent city on Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. Police started assembling around the tent city at 14th Street and Broadway at about 3 a.m.

5:30 a.m. Protesters cleared from plaza, tent city gone

On a side street off Broadway between 14th and 15th streets, a police line is keeping about 20 or 30 people out of the plaza as the protesters chant: "rise up, rise up, come on people rise up." Police said there were about 200 police from Oakland and other agencies involved in the raid. Police said a few protesters threw bottles at first, but then stopped.

A large group of police are mulling around the plaza. There are no more protesters in the plaza. All have been pushed out or left on their own. Three helicopters continue to circle above the scene. Clean up crews will be moving in soon and they have a lot off work ahead. The place is a complete mess with a couch is on its side and carpet and tents strewn everywhere.

5:20 a.m. City issues warning to downtown businesses

The city is advising employers to delay the arrival of employees downtown until further notice. Police have cleared the protesters from the Occupy Oakland camp at Frank H. Ogawa Plaza and are now starting the clean-up phase.

Read more: http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19188125

[No Elephants]

1. Democratic Mayors in Oakland, Albany, Boston and Cincinnati, none of them doing us proud on this.

[Le Taz Hot]

3. And here in little ole Fresburg,

with our right wing mayor, police chief, Sherrif, City Council and County Board of Supervisors, have left the protesters here alone. The cops stroll through every now and again but they've been very cordial.

[BadtotheboneBob]

7. Go figure...

BTW, where's Fresburg?

[Le Taz Hot]

9. Sorry,

it's a local term for Fresno, CA, located in the Central San Joaquin Valley. Los Angeles and San Francisco wish we'd go away but since agricultuire is the #1 moneymaker here, they're stuck with us. :evilgrin:

[No Elephants]

22. Good to hear.

[UnrepentantLiberal]

And good old Rahm Emanuel in Chicago.

[No Elephants]

23. How could I have left out Rahm? He's right: I AM a fucking *****

[UnrepentantLiberal]

5. dupe

[2pooped2pop]

2. Probably didn't need any cleanup til the assholes showed

up to oust the protesters. After you smash everything and throw shit around, it probably did look a mess. But how did it look during the hours when people were awake? Smart, I guess to attack in the wee hours, but cowardly. Let's get donations going to get these people back up and running.

[Magoo48]

4. Cops slither in under the cover of darkness like rats, sneak-thieves, and muggers.

Cops going now where fiction writers have been predicting they'd go for a long time now.

[AsahinaKimi]

6. Frankly

I hope the protesters come back, with bigger and better numbers.

[Imajika]

8. Aren't they welcome to protest?

As long as they don't pitch tents and try to camp out? As long as they don't try to prevent the media and authorities from entering the public park?

Occupy Oakland looked like it was getting pretty out of control. I saw one video of news crew not allowed in, I read many reports that they were trying to keep police out. If the protesters simply assembled every day and peacefully protested, they could come back with better numbers without incident correct? What right do they have to deny the media to walk through the park and take pictures of whatever they wanted? Why were they trying to keep authorities out (assuming those reports are even true)? It is a public park after all, they don't have the right to deny anyone from freely walking through it, taking pictures or even having a picnic if they want.

[occupyeverywhere]

10. Some people are justifably wary of the news

Not saying they have the right to shut anybody out, if that is the case and I'm not sure it is the case, but some rightwing media organizations have been trying to stir up trouble. I ran into quite a few really rude news people as well, they got really rude when I simply took a picture of their crew, stood around their broadcast to listen to what they were saying or asked them who they were with. Most were really good though.

[Imajika]

12. Well, I saw video of one of the local news networks...

..being denied access to the park in a pretty threatening manner. The occupy crowd in Oakland looked pretty hostile and it appeared things were getting out of control. Peaceful protests in public spaces are great, but these are public spaces and the media and anyone one else who who wants to walk through the area have every right to. The minute the media, authorities, or anyone else is prevented from free access to these parks, is pretty much the time the police will have to break up the protest.

[coalition_unwilling]

13. That was and is not the rationale being used to evict them though. Acc.

to a spokesperson for the mayor of Oakland (quoted in this morning's "Oakland Tribune"), "As a collective, they cannot maintain the plaza in a safe condition."

So it wasn't a matter that they allegedly kept media and police out, much as you might like it to be, if the Mayor's office and its spokespeople are to be believed (they aren't). At least the authoritarians could try to keep their stories straight, FFS.

Edited for clarity and garbled syntax.

[avaistheone1]

17. Oakland has a new mayor and she is turning into a big disappointment to many

people to say the least.

[Arctic Dave]

11. Obama's new vision of America.

Giving "freedom" over there so we don't have to have it here.

[avaistheone1]

14. Thom Hartmann talking about this now on his show.

K&R

[caseymoz]

15. So, go right back, set it up again.

City budgets are thin, so are court budgets. Once it's clean, see if the city wants to do the dance again.

[KamaAina]

16. Oakland's budget is thin enough that they just laid off a bunch of cops

to the point where OPD won't even respond to routine calls -- like grand theft and burglary, for instance. No joke.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Suffer-These-Crimes-in-Oakland-Dont-Call-the-Cops-98266509.html

Oakland's (just-resigned -Ed.) police chief is making some dire claims about what his force will and will not respond to if layoffs go as planned.

Chief Anthony Batts listed exactly 44 situations that his officers will no longer respond to and they include grand theft, burglary, car wrecks, identity theft and vandalism. He says if you live and Oakland and one of the above happens to you, you need to let police know on-line.

But a Gestapo-style raid on a peaceful encampment, with helicopters, no less? That they can handle. :grr: :banghead: :argh: :nuke:

[caseymoz]

20. That might be worthy of a sign when the camp is set up again.

"Hey, Oakland, can you afford to jail me again? Maybe you should tax the wealthy."

[lovuian]

18. They will be back Oakland

this just doesn't go away

[defendandprotect]

19. Hope these Mayors are voted out --- and when the polide need friends, where are they going?

Our town has actually had legal teams who specialize in union-busting working

against our police officers for decades!!

[SoapBox]

21. So this is what YOUR tax dollars at work look like...They work against the 99% and FOR the 1%.

...how's about the Police Militia go out and arrest some WALL STREETERS and BANKSTERS!

Outrageous.

VOTE Americans...VOTE!