Super Bowl: Scenes from Oakland Police State

I also haven't figured out how to take night shots. But thanks for posting.

I was just driving around and a cadillac with it's double Raider flags was going rediculously slow, either out of extreme caution or something opposite. I also saw what looked like someone throwing up next to car, but it wasn't clear. But I'm up near 580, not by International.

Just now there's a couple screaming at eachother in the middle of the road, two cars with lights on, doors flung open, in the middle of a residential neighborhood. We usually get almost nothing up here.

What is wrong with you whiny brats? If you were in a real police state you'd shit bricks and say "yes sir". You'd also be crying if the police didn't come around to clean up after all the stupid drunken football fans wrekcing the neighborhood.

God I hate Oakland.

It's a great place to live. Cops go wild in lots of cities. Look at DC. Look at Portland.

And no one is 'whining' - that's a classic right wing description of anyone who complains about anything or dissents from the moron's view.

"At least two cars were set on fire, and a television news van had its windows broken. One group of young men set debris on fire in the middle of a street and then posed for news photographers. Tear gas wafted through the area. "
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/01/26/sports0054EST0028.DTL

Yeah, TV made it look like lots of little girls and old grandmas were about in some of those crowds. spinning cars is dangerous, but the crowd didn't look that bitterly violent.

All the violence started when the police came in to disperse the crowds...

Is it over yet? The helicopters are still overhead pretty much continuously in my parts (580 / Seminary ). But I haven't heard any firetrucks in awhile.

Frankly, the football fans' violence should be suppressed, by any means necessary. I know you don't like to hear that, but it must be done. Their violence is not revolutionary, but is patriarchal uncontrolled aggression that will kill men, women, and queers in it's path.

To me, one dead rampager is a good one, especially if it will stop more deaths.

Oakland PD: Unleash the beast.

Let the blood flow...until the community can check itself.

The natural things that these people did are what others on here have outlined as a good protest tactic - small groups in lots of areas simultaneously. This was proof of it's success. Between it being 400 people and the moving target, the news said that cops, initially, weren't even trying to make arrests, just pushing people from one intersection to another and wait for them to go home. The thing of lighting everything on fire in sight - bushes, trash cans, cars - was also what happened in the Gulf War I protest. Here they had an equal number of cops to rioters, is what they reported.

Funny to hear the news anchors - all white of course - saying things like, "Now, the LOGIC of this . . . it's just not there." And you could tell the ones on the scene were terrified. One woman reporting from Eastmont Mall was really freaked out because things were happening in all directions around her. But that's where the cops station is and they had snipers all over the roofs, so she felt safe enough that she wasn't actually reporting from INSIDE a room, like another reporter was.

It's all amazing to watch unfold. They don't show the people wrecking stuff, just the damage after. They show clips of the car being rocked, etc., but they're so brief, it's amazing. Mostly all they show are the cops. And from the helicopter you can see something being fired through the air, over and over, and it's live, and they're saying, "Things seem to have died down here . . . but we just don't know." Man it's amazing how edited and controlled it is, or else idiotic.

Great reporting on here. IMC was first to report the McD's event and the racist details that we'll never see anywhere else.

Are you fucking kidding--unleash the same racist, homophobic pigs who daily brutalize Oak-town? What are you asking for, that they beat people up--who they usually beat up--"twice" as brutally.

quota, you fucking dipshit, pull your head out of your ass. people are rebelling against the same thugs you want to destroy them. Revolutionary-or not-only a racist would ask for the pigs to intensify their violence.

And revel in the beauty of buring a McDonalds.

Love live the East Oakland International--Ave--ists!!!

The same people who estimated the crowds on J18 in DC and SF are saying that the number of Raiders Nation rioters number between 300,000 - 350,000 people.

Vincent:

Would it be OK to burn your business down? Because if it is OK to burn a McDonalds owned by a franchisee, it surely must be OK to burn your property, too.

Please let me know when you'd like me to strike the first match.

Oh, by the way, how fucking stupid is it to riot in your own neighborhood. It just proves that the rioting had more to do with drunkenness than political causes. If there actually were a political cause, Piedmont would burn.

hey blah,

you right-wing piece of shit, please, please get your matches out and do it right now! me and the whole war-mongering country are waiting. show us that you can put your words to action. here's my house:

http://www.kestan.com/travel/dc/monument/images/2072%20White%20House%20south%20lawn%20snow%20(+).jpg

it's up to you to find it and torch it. actually, thanks for the offer.

Vince

Vincent:

Your profanity doesn't hide the fact that you didn't answer me.

So, Vincent, I ask you again, if it is OK to burn a McDonalds owned by a franchisee (who is typically a small businessperson), then is it OK to burn a business that you own?

If not, then how would YOU define what is and what is not OK to burn?

Yes, burn it down. And, yes, if I was stupid enough to be a petit --or grande for that matter--bourgeois it would be O.K. for you, blah, to burn down my business.

And you're fucking insane when you say that franchises are owned by "small business people." BULLSHIT. These are the same people who are landlords who own multiple housing units and other property and businesses. How many mom n' pop McD's franchises have you ever seen?

"None." You're right.

blah, are you trying to give us one of your "the poor suffering of the 'haves' in our society" sob stories? If so, then again--fuck you!

You invert things and make it as though the insurgents on International Ave. were the "privileged" attacking the poor, hard-working business owners. Au contraire--the owners of a McD's franchaise are worlds away from a sewing sweatshop owner, but still that sweatshop owner doesn't live in conditions WORSE than the poor folks being exploited working in the disgusting conditions of that sweatshop. You're an asshole to imply that the sweatshop owner is somehow doing the people working there a favor. And you're a bigger asshole for implying that in this sick, war-prone capitalist system, ANY boss is doing anything benevolent for us by providing us wage slavery. The system where we have no alternative but to sell our sweat, blood, brains and muscle to survive is what these people were fighting against. I fight against is too, but not with the bravery of the International(ave.)-ist Communards.

May they spring up everywhere.

Vince

I can't believe that some of you people out there believe that the "riots" of Oakland were something more than American Hooliganism.

WAKE UP, YOU GOOBERS!!!

The English, Germans, Italians, Russians, and occassionally the Japanese riot when their soccer teams loose.

It's simple over-bearing pride and beer fueled stupidity!!

WAKE UP!!!

Again, no answer. I'll dumb it down a little for you, Vince:

Who decides what to burn down? You? The party vanguard? A "people's tribunal"?

If the answer is any of the above, you've replaced the old boss with a new boss, same as the old boss.

You say that owning a home makes you part of the despised bourgeoisie. That would make 67.8% (2001 figures) of the US population bourgeoisie. If 2/3rds of the people are part of the economic elite, then are they really elite?t

who asked for stats on homeownership?

who said anything about Oaklanders burning down houses?

blah, how much did your suburban piece of the Amerikan Dream cost you?

why do you complain that no one answers your questions when you don't answers other's.

Im guessing nobody posting here is from E Oakland and there were probably reasons the crowds atacked the buildings they did. Its elitist for both those on the right or left to assume that just because the crowd was sports fans the trashing of buildings and cars was random...

Perhaps the McDonalds got trashed by angry former employees in the crowd, or someone hated someone who worked there?

Perhaps the crowd picked on McDonalds because some in the crowd hated US corporate greed or globalization? There were political slogans painted on cars after all

Perhaps the crowd picked on McDonalds since thats where the police were hanging out? Or the police started a confrontation with kids hanging out AT the McDonalds and it just happened to get smashed...

Nobody posting here seems to know.

"who asked for stats on homeownership?

who said anything about Oaklanders burning down houses?

blah, how much did your suburban piece of the Amerikan Dream cost you?"

Umm, you obviously didn't read the thread between Vince and I. As for how much my house cost me, well I can tell you it cost years of sweat and hardship.

"why do you complain that no one answers your questions when you don't answers other's."

What question didn't I answer?

It depends what you mean by home ownership. There are a lot of people who "own" a "home" but that doesn't automatically mean it is a full-sized home that they live in a nice neighborhood. Most home ownership in the working class happens through inheritence, like when a parent dies who has spent 50 years paying off a mortgage. In cases like this, home ownership is more of a burden than it is an asset because of taxes, upkeep, paperwork, etc. It is quite common for renters to inherit a home and not know what to do with it, and eventually they dump it on some real estate shark for undervalue just so they can be rid of it. It doesnt take a brain surgeon to figure out who is working in our society. The myth that rich people are now working people because there are no classes anymore is a fantasy of wealthy liberals. There are plenty of industrial and labor and low-end service jobs, and pink collar jobs that comprise millions and millions of people.

Having a mortgage doesn't really mean that you "own" it, does it? Miss a couple payments and it's foreclosed and on the auction block. Sound very secure? Fuck no!

So, just another way to be tethered to the capitalist, time payment treadmill.

And look at the re-fi phenomenom and how much the average American is stretched out to her/his guills with credit debt and you see the house of cards teetering to collapse.

And what happens to all that equity when the real estate bubble bursts?

And as for the person who bought their home with "sweat and hardship," just add some more body fluids, remove the "-ship"--and hell, you earned all those nickels in a bath house. Or did you?

Robin