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Oakland Police Gleeful Over Demolition of Occupy Oakland, 10/25/11: photos
The Oakland police department -- along with mutual aid from numerous other Bay Area agencies including Alameda County Sheriff's Deputies, Berkeley PD, UCPD-Berkeley, Emeryville PD, Hayward PD, Pleasanton PD, Union City PD, and others -- raided Occupy Oakland before dawn this morning. It was primarily OPD that carried out the raid while the other forces provided backup and created police line perimeters in the blocks surrounding the two Occupy Oakland sites. Tear gas and projectile weapons were used on occupiers at Oscar Grant Plaza before police made their way into the camp at just after 4:45am. The camps at both Oscar Grant Plaza and Snow Park were purposefully and completely demolished. Over 70 people were arrested in the raid at the plaza and a few more at Snow Park a little over an hour later. Several others were arrested individually in the hours that followed as occupiers and supporters verbally confronted police in the surrounding areas.
[Pictured above: these OPD officers were seen taking photographs of the wreckage on their personal mobile phones, laughing and smiling with each other as they did so]
Within minutes of the raid of Oscar Grant Plaza having been completed and the last arrestee pulled away, numerous OPD officers who remained could be seen joking and laughing with each other, apparently quite pleased with having removed a sizable number of people and having flattened the physical apparatuses of Occupy Oakland in roughly twenty minutes. There can be no doubt that Oakand police were upset that occupiers had created and successfully sustained an autonomous police-free zone for two full weeks.
Once the aftermath of the plaza raid became exposed to daylight in another couple of hours, several dozen Oakland police not on the front lines facing protesters could be seen taking souvenir or trophy photographs and video on their personal mobile phones. One officer was asked about this, and he replied that he was gathering evidence, although it was obvious that his picture taking was random and not some sort of methodical police record of the plaza.
Most of the Oakland police officers who did capture these personal momentos will be sharing them with perhaps equally gleeful family and friends outside of Oakland, because while the majority of Oakland's tax revenues go toward OPD salaries and expenses, most of these officers live in neighboring suburbs rather than within the city in which they work.
As for the use of tear gas, it was inadvertently revealed that OPD was considering gassing the occupation when a conversation was overhead between a not-too-subtle undercover officer and two other people at the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on October 20th, the evening that the city of Oakland first distributed a notice to vacate the occupation at Oscar Grant Plaza. While certainly OPD and other agencies interested in the occupation have undercover officers and/or informants that may not stand out so much, during this General Assembly it was obvious that at least a dozen undercover or plainclothes officers were present gathering information that could be used later should a raid of the camp(s) be ordered. The undercover who revealed the intention to gas the occupation first asked the two people sitting on the amphitheater level in front of him about something he had heard a speaker say from the microphone. The speaker had offered information that Maalox and similar substances can be useful to treat the burning effect of pepper spray to the eyes if such a chemical weapon should be deployed by police. The undercover asked the two people in front of him if the Maalox was something that occupiers planned to squirt into police officers' eyes. They explained that what the speaker had actually said was about a treatment for pepper spray for protesters. The undercover then went on to ask the two people if they knew anyone who had gas masks, adding that he knew someone who had some masks. It was apparent that the undercover was gauging occupier defensive capabilities. The two people said they did not, but the undercover certainly does know people with gas masks. All of the invading OPD officers donned gas masks after their first volley of the chemical weapon into the camp blew back into their faces due to the direction of the slight breeze at the time.
For more information:
Within minutes of the raid of Oscar Grant Plaza having been completed and the last arrestee pulled away, numerous OPD officers who remained could be seen joking and laughing with each other, apparently quite pleased with having removed a sizable number of people and having flattened the physical apparatuses of Occupy Oakland in roughly twenty minutes. There can be no doubt that Oakand police were upset that occupiers had created and successfully sustained an autonomous police-free zone for two full weeks.
Once the aftermath of the plaza raid became exposed to daylight in another couple of hours, several dozen Oakland police not on the front lines facing protesters could be seen taking souvenir or trophy photographs and video on their personal mobile phones. One officer was asked about this, and he replied that he was gathering evidence, although it was obvious that his picture taking was random and not some sort of methodical police record of the plaza.
Most of the Oakland police officers who did capture these personal momentos will be sharing them with perhaps equally gleeful family and friends outside of Oakland, because while the majority of Oakland's tax revenues go toward OPD salaries and expenses, most of these officers live in neighboring suburbs rather than within the city in which they work.
As for the use of tear gas, it was inadvertently revealed that OPD was considering gassing the occupation when a conversation was overhead between a not-too-subtle undercover officer and two other people at the Occupy Oakland General Assembly on October 20th, the evening that the city of Oakland first distributed a notice to vacate the occupation at Oscar Grant Plaza. While certainly OPD and other agencies interested in the occupation have undercover officers and/or informants that may not stand out so much, during this General Assembly it was obvious that at least a dozen undercover or plainclothes officers were present gathering information that could be used later should a raid of the camp(s) be ordered. The undercover who revealed the intention to gas the occupation first asked the two people sitting on the amphitheater level in front of him about something he had heard a speaker say from the microphone. The speaker had offered information that Maalox and similar substances can be useful to treat the burning effect of pepper spray to the eyes if such a chemical weapon should be deployed by police. The undercover asked the two people in front of him if the Maalox was something that occupiers planned to squirt into police officers' eyes. They explained that what the speaker had actually said was about a treatment for pepper spray for protesters. The undercover then went on to ask the two people if they knew anyone who had gas masks, adding that he knew someone who had some masks. It was apparent that the undercover was gauging occupier defensive capabilities. The two people said they did not, but the undercover certainly does know people with gas masks. All of the invading OPD officers donned gas masks after their first volley of the chemical weapon into the camp blew back into their faces due to the direction of the slight breeze at the time.
For more information:
For more information:
http://www.indybay.org/occupyoakland
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ISSUE A CONSEQUENCE:
STOP BUSINESS AS USUAL.
STOP BUSINESS AS USUAL.
US OR THE CITY'S & COUNTRY'S BIG BUSINESS INTERESTS.
US OR WALL STREET.
US OR WALL STREET.
What we have here is a crime against humanity, a crime against many men, women, and young children, and a crime against the laws that hold our country together. These protesters were innocent, fully within their constitutional rights, and fully peaceful. The Oakland Police Department followed orders that were immoral, and each police officer failed to exercise their moral and reasoning capacities and freedom not to follow these unjust, immoral orders. For failure to do so, each officer is fully culpable, just as in battle when a commanding officer gives an immoral order and a soldier chooses to follow it. The soldier is culpable, as is each of these Oakland police officers whose job it is to enforce the law, not violate the constitution with violence against innocent men, women, and children. That is blatant corruption; it is a disgrace to all police officers around the globe. You officers give police officers a bad name with this totally unacceptable violence. Police officers in New York City as a group put your immoral selves to shame. The orders from supervisors and Mayor Jean Quan are examples of very poor moral judgment, very poor decision making in the use of violence, and an example of something that the human race does not forget.
The somewhat humorous thing, at least it is humorous to me, is that the police officers, their supervisors, and the Mayor believe that their little escapade of violence and weaponry nipped this thing in the bud or poisoned the water, thereby taking care of the Oakland Occupy Wall St. camp. That is funny. What they don't realize is that they've only trimmed a plant; they've done nothing about the jungle in which that plant grows. They've poisoned some water, but they have done nothing about the massive water canyon that lurks below as a wellspring that gave rise to this group of protesters. What is ironic and sad is how deeply they fail to recognize that they are part of this movement, at least most of them are.
It is funny how delusional they are to think they have accomplished anything against the worldwide solidarity against the 1% and their corporations and control of government. If anyone wants to know more about the crimes against humanity that the corporations have committed refer to the the Occupy Wall St First Declaration of the General Assembly from Zuccotti Park in NYC that was published on October 4, 2011 and presented on Nationally Televised broadcasts on October 5, 2011. The first declaration contains over a dozen allegations of crimes that large US corporations have committed on a broad scale over many decades against humanity.
It has now been twenty (20) days since those public presentations of those alleged crimes, and there has not been a single denial or even any attempt to deny any of these allegations. This is a time where silence is far louder than words. They are silent because they know full well there is no sense in trying to deny what everyone knows. Occupy Wall St is pointing out that the elephant should not be in the room and needs to leave. The movement is blind to race, sex, age, ethnicity, and political party. It is content-driven solidarity, and there is no point for anyone of the 99% to try and stop it.
Peace and compassion,
Mark Reid
The somewhat humorous thing, at least it is humorous to me, is that the police officers, their supervisors, and the Mayor believe that their little escapade of violence and weaponry nipped this thing in the bud or poisoned the water, thereby taking care of the Oakland Occupy Wall St. camp. That is funny. What they don't realize is that they've only trimmed a plant; they've done nothing about the jungle in which that plant grows. They've poisoned some water, but they have done nothing about the massive water canyon that lurks below as a wellspring that gave rise to this group of protesters. What is ironic and sad is how deeply they fail to recognize that they are part of this movement, at least most of them are.
It is funny how delusional they are to think they have accomplished anything against the worldwide solidarity against the 1% and their corporations and control of government. If anyone wants to know more about the crimes against humanity that the corporations have committed refer to the the Occupy Wall St First Declaration of the General Assembly from Zuccotti Park in NYC that was published on October 4, 2011 and presented on Nationally Televised broadcasts on October 5, 2011. The first declaration contains over a dozen allegations of crimes that large US corporations have committed on a broad scale over many decades against humanity.
It has now been twenty (20) days since those public presentations of those alleged crimes, and there has not been a single denial or even any attempt to deny any of these allegations. This is a time where silence is far louder than words. They are silent because they know full well there is no sense in trying to deny what everyone knows. Occupy Wall St is pointing out that the elephant should not be in the room and needs to leave. The movement is blind to race, sex, age, ethnicity, and political party. It is content-driven solidarity, and there is no point for anyone of the 99% to try and stop it.
Peace and compassion,
Mark Reid
now that they have delegitimized themselves in the eyes of the world and their leash has been put back on by the politicos
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