The "Occupy" movement spreads to Oakland, California. Starting an event near you? Reader Supported News will help you spread the word.
The scene in downtown Oakland, California, on the afternoon of October 25, 2011. (photo: Andrew Kenower/flickr)
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occupy: Oakland, California
Website: Occupy Oakland
Facebook Page: Occupy Oakland
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's Office: 510-238-3141
Oakland Chief of Police Christopher Bolton: 510-238-3131
Oakland Mayor's Web Contact Page
Occupy Oakland Plans More Anti-Police Rallies
09 January 12
Tensions between Oakland police and Occupy protesters escalated Sunday, a day after an antipolice rally downtown turned violent and resulted in six arrests.
Protesters pledged to hold weekly demonstrations against the police, who they say have been overzealous in enforcing no-lodging, trespassing and other laws to break up Occupy encampments.
"The solution is very obvious. All (Mayor Jean Quan) has to do is stop enforcing these laws," said Occupy Oakland activist Phil Horne. "If they set reasonable rules, we'll abide by them."
Clashes with police have been a hallmark of Occupy Oakland since October, when police made their initial clearance of a camp in front of City Hall that had become a gathering spot for economic injustice protests modeled on Occupy Wall Street.
Saturday night, protesters marched peacefully from City Hall seven blocks to police headquarters carrying "F- the police" banners, hoping to draw attention to what they described as ongoing police harassment, oppression and abuse.
As protesters approached the police station, officers in riot helmets stopped marchers along Washington Street near Seventh Street, where protesters started a bonfire and some threw bottles at officers from the back of the crowd. During the protest, protesters spray-painted a letter "A" with a circle around it - the symbol for anarchy - on a media van, and broke windows at a Starbucks coffee shop and on patrol cars, authorities said.
Occupy Oakland Activists Barred from City Hall
06 January 12
Police arrested a dozen Occupy Oakland protesters and dismantled a tepee outside City Hall late Wednesday, prompting an unsuccessful attempt by demonstrators Thursday to confront Mayor Jean Quan in her office.
Officers in riot helmets converged on Frank Ogawa Plaza about 11:50 p.m. and arrested the protesters, some of whom had been sleeping near the tepee in violation of a temporary permit that the city had revoked two days earlier, officials said. The 12 were booked on suspicion of resisting police.
National Lawyers Guild Demands OPD End Harassment of Occupy Oakland Protesters
05 January 12
SAN FRANCISCO--(ENEWSPF)--January 5, 2012. As an organization dedicated to upholding human rights and social justice, the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Bay Area Chapter (NLGSF) is alarmed by the Oakland Police (OPD) and Alameda County Sheriff’s Departments’ ongoing violence, harassment, and unconstitutional arrests of Occupy Oakland protesters.
Last night, January 4, 2012, video footage again showed OPD violating its own Crowd Control policy by raiding the Occupy Oakland demonstration at Oscar Grant/ Frank Ogawa Plaza and grabbing select individuals for arrest, without warning and for no apparent reason. OPD has repeatedly targeted well-known Occupy Oakland activists for arrest, mostly without legal grounds or on petty offenses, in an apparent attempt to suppress the Occupy movement’s legitimate First Amendment activity. Over the past three weeks, OPD has repeatedly raided the lawful protest vigil at Oscar Grant Plaza, using selective and bizarre interpretations of city and state ordinances to justify aggressively arresting and jailing the demonstrators. Again and again, the police have charged into crowds of peaceful protesters and grabbed individuals protesters who were doing nothing wrong and posed no threat.
“We have already had to sue the Oakland Police twice in the past year for violating their own Crowd Control Policy, but the violations continue,” explained attorney Mike Flynn, president of NLGSF. “We have ongoing litigation in federal court to stop the unconstitutional arrests, violence against, and illegal prolonged detention of demonstrators in the Alameda County Jails. Yet, OPD has continued to assault Occupy Oakland protesters, confiscate their food and belongings, and hold them under cruel conditions in jail for days at a time, only to release most with no charges or with only very minor violations.”
Occupy Oakland Activist May Face Three Strikes, Life in Prison
05 January 12
The threat of life imprisonment looms for Occupy Oakland activist Marcel Johnson - better known by his alias, Khali - after a third-strike arrest during the demonstration. Having spent about 15 years incarcerated already, 38 year-old Khali said he was trying to turn his life around by distributing food to the needy at the Occupy Oakland encampment, where he was a frequent, vocal, sometimes endearing presence. On December 16 he was arrested outside City Hall for violating anti-encroachment laws — namely, for a dispute about a blanket — which normally wouldn't have warranted more than a few hours jail time. Since Khali was in fact violating his probation terms for a different case in Sacramento, he was taken to Santa Rita and made to serve some jail time in lieu of going to trial, his attorney Dan Siegel explained. There, Khali was held in solitary confinement and not given his psychiatric medications, which might explain why he got into an altercation with a peace officer — the exact circumstances of which are still widely disputed. Now, Khali faces a felony assault charge in place of his original misdemeanor. As of Friday, December 23, Khali's bail was set at $580,000, according his attorney, Dan Siegel.
"So he's basically arrested for littering, and a week later he's facing felony charges," Siegel said, in an interview on December 23.
Occupy Oakland Sets Up New Camp
28 December 11
OAKLAND -- A new Occupy Oakland encampment sprang up in West Oakland on Tuesday and already there are more than a dozen tents.
The new camp is located in a vacant lot on the 2000 block of Peralta Street near Mandela Parkway and is being called the Cypress Triangle, according to the Occupy California website.
Oakland has been without an Occupy encampment for more than a five weeks. The last camp, also in West Oakland, was cleared out by police late Nov. 22. Protesters had taken over a vacant lot at 18th and Linden streets a day earlier but left when police directed them to clear out.
Oakland Port Workers Kept Home As Protesters March
13 December 11
OAKLAND -- Despite calls to desist from Oakland politicians and union officials, Occupy protesters succeeded Monday night in shutting down operations at the Port of Oakland for the second time in less than two months.
The companies that operate the 26 berths at the nation's fifth-busiest container port told longshore workers not to report for the 7 p.m. evening shift - effectively halting work for the next eight hours and preventing 100 to 200 employees from earning the pay they would have received on a typical shift.
Occupy Protesters Seek to Shut Down West Coast Ports Despite Rejection by Longshore Union
12 December 11
OAKLAND, Calif. — Anti-Wall Street protesters up and down the West Coast are joining an effort to blockade some of the nation’s busiest ports from Anchorage to San Diego.
Demonstrators are scheduled to gather at 5:30 a.m. to march on the Port of Oakland, which Occupy protesters successfully shut down in November. Marchers expect to descend even earlier on the sprawling port complex spanning Los Angeles and Long Beach as the work day begins. In Portland, Ore., the protest will get under way at 6 a.m.
Interview With Iraq Vet Scott Olsen About His Injury and Occupy Oakland
Occupy Oakland and Organized Labor Plan to Shut Down Port
10 December 11
Oakland, California -- Today, rank-and-file workers from the ILWU and Teamsters, local union leaders, veterans, and occupy organizers explained plans for the upcoming West Coast Port Shut Down on December 12 called for by the Occupy Oakland General Assembly.
Community pickets and mass mobilizations to blockade the ports are being organized by Occupy movements in San Diego, LA, Oakland, Portland, Tacoma, Seattle, Vancouver, and Houston.
Occupy Anchorage, Occupy Denver, and Occupy Wall Street are targeting Goldman Sachs and Walmart on the 12th. Solidarity actions are being planned as far away as in Japan.
Occupy Protests Discourage SF Shoppers
26 November 11
Occupy protesters from San Francisco and Oakland came face to face with shoppers and police as they marched around San Francisco's Union Square area Friday. Although the protesters did not interfere with the Macy's Christmas tree lighting ceremony, at times they blocked access to stores, trying to keep people from shopping.
Occupy Oakland Calls for Total West Coast Port Shutdown on 12/12
20 November 11
In response to coordinated attacks on the occupations and attacks on workers across the nation:
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on December 12th.
The 1% has disrupted the lives of longshoremen and port truckers and the workers who create their wealth, just as coordinated nationwide police attacks have turned our cities into battlegrounds in an effort to disrupt our Occupy movement.
Occupy Oakland Rousted Again
20 November 11
Around 8 am a few dozen OPD officers in riot gear raided the Occupy Oakland camp that they set up Saturday night in the Uptown neighborhood at 19th Street and Telegraph Avenue, next to the Fox Theater in Oakland Sunday, November 20, 2010.
Occupy Oakland Plans Entire West Coast Port Shutdown Day
20 November 11
Occupy Oakland calls for the blockade and disruption of the economic apparatus of the 1% with a coordinated shutdown of ports on the entire West Coast on 12/12.
Occupy Oakland Seizes Vacant Lot for Encampment
20 November 11
Rebellious Occupy Oakland demonstrators cut through a chain-link fence and tore down no-trespassing signs in a vacant Uptown neighborhood lot Saturday night, setting up a new encampment in bold defiance of Mayor Jean Quan.
Oakland Mayor's Top Legal Adviser Resigns Over Raid
15 November 11
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's chief legal adviser, a longtime friend, resigned Monday after what he called a "tragically unnecessary" police raid of the Occupy Oakland camp.
Dan Siegel was one of two aides to defect from Quan's administration Monday. Deputy Mayor Sharon Cornu also quit but said her resignation had nothing to do with the police sweep.
Siegel, a civil rights attorney and one of Oakland's most active and vocal police critics, said the city should have done more to work with campers before sending in police
Former US Marine and anti-war activist Scott Olsen, recovering from head injuries sustained from being
struck in the head by a police tear-gas canister in Oakland, California, 10/25/11. (photo: Scott Olsen)
A Message From Scott Olsen
14 November 11
"I'm feeling a lot better, with a long road in front of me. After my freedom of speech was quite literally taken from me ..."
BREAKING: Police Raid of Occupy Oakland in Progress
14 November 11
Law-enforcement officers from numerous Bay Area agencies began arriving in force at 5 a.m. as a police helicopter flew overhead. Clad in armor and riot helmets, they stood in lines and surrounded the camp near the corner of 14th Street and Broadway adjacent to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where dozens of demonstrators have been camping to protest economic inequity and corporate greed.
Oakland Mayor Leaves Decision to Raid Camp in Police Hands
12 November 11
The San Francisco Chronicle is reporting that Oakland, California Mayor Jean Quan has left the decision of, whether or not to launch a raid to clear the Occupy Oakland encampment, to Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan. Quoting the Chronicle:
"According to sources, Quan went into the meeting asking for more time for negotiations with Occupy Oakland, suggesting that its camp be transplanted to nearby Jefferson Park while an unidentified benefactor tries to line up an empty building for the movement. "Time, however, is not something that other officials and public safety workers believe the city can spare. And when the meeting ended, Quan agreed to a police sweep if and when Jordan finds one necessary.
"'As soon as we can get the mutual aid set up, we are going to go,'" said one official, who like others we talked to spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the eviction planning."
Mayor, Police Prepare Second Raid on Occupy Oakland
12 November 11
After an intense day of behind-closed-door meetings Friday, Oakland officials are moving forward with plans to evict Occupy Oakland from Frank Ogawa Plaza.
The eviction, which has the blessing of a majority of the City Council and the reluctant concurrence of Mayor Jean Quan, is likely to come sooner rather than later.
That's the word we're getting from several officials who were in on the meetings Friday, trying to find a way out of the mess surrounding the month-old encampment outside City Hall.
Veterans March Planned Friday in Support of Wounded Occupy Protesters
11 November 11
Outrage erupted among a group of veterans at the Occupy Wall Street protest last week after Iraq War veteran Kayvan Sabeghi said police clubbed him during a Nov. 3 standoff between officers and supporters of Occupy Oakland. On Friday, fellow former service members plan to march in Oakland to denounce police brutality that they say was the cause of Sabeghi's ruptured spleen and the injury suffered by another Iraq War veteran and Occupy Oakland protester, Scott Olsen, who witnesseses said was hit by a police projectile on Oct. 25.
"No one should be treated like that whether they're a veteran or not," said Michael Thurman, who helped spearhead Friday's march, which leaves from Frank Ogawa Plaza at 4 p.m.
Experts Question Shooting of Occupy Oakland Filmer
10 November 11
The Oakland Police Department also has been criticized for wounding an Iraq War veteran during an Oct. 25 skirmish. City spokeswoman Karen Boyd said Tuesday that anyone who thinks they witnessed improper police conduct is encouraged to make a report with the police department's Internal Affairs division or Oakland's Civilian Police Review Board.
University of South Carolina criminal justice professor Geoffrey Alpert said that unless something occurred off-camera to provoke the officer, the shooting was "one of the most outrageous uses of a firearm" he'd ever seen.
How the War on Terror Militarized the Police
09 November 11
At around 9:00 a.m. on May 5, 2011, officers with the Pima County, Arizona, Sheriff's Department's Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team surrounded the home of 26-year-old José Guerena, a former US Marine and veteran of two tours of duty in Iraq, to serve a search warrant for narcotics. As the officers approached, Guerena lay sleeping in his bedroom after working the graveyard shift at a local mine. When his wife Vanessa woke him up, screaming that she had seen a man outside the window pointing a gun at her, Guerena grabbed his AR-15 rifle, instructed Vanessa to hide in the closet with their four-year-old son, and left the bedroom to investigate.
Within moments, and without Guerena firing a shot - or even switching his rifle off of "safety" - he lay dying, his body riddled with 60 bullets. A subsequent investigation revealed that the initial shot that prompted the SWAT team barrage came from a SWAT team gun, not Guerena's. Guerena, reports later revealed, had no criminal record, and no narcotics were found at his home.
Oakland Police Keeping Scott Olsen Video Under Wraps
08 November 11
The Oakland Police Department is walking back widely reported comments offered by its Interim Chief, Howard Jordan, at an Oct. 25 televised press conference (video posted below) that law enforcement "had to deploy gas in order to stop the crowd and people from pelting us with bottles and rocks."
The press conference had been conducted shortly after a melee which included the deployment of chemical agents on peaceful demonstrators. The police use of force resulted in injuries to, among others, a two-tour Iraq veteran who sustained a fractured skull and was admitted to the hospital in critical condition.
Still Fighting for Their Country, Now Veterans of Occupy
06 November 11
11-11-11 is not a variant of Herman Cain's much-touted 9-9-9 tax plan, but rather the date of this year's Veterans Day. This is especially relevant, as the US has now entered its second decade of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in the nation's history. US veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are appearing more and more on the front lines - the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street protests, that is.
Video from the Occupy Oakland march on Tuesday 25 October looks and sounds like a war zone. The sound of gunfire is nearly constant in the video. Tear-gas projectiles were being fired into the crowd when the cry of "Medic!" rang out.
Jean Quan on Occupy Oakland
05 November 11
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is being heavily criticized for her mixed messages on Occupy Oakland. Here's a look at what Quan has said at various times since Occupy Oakland opened its camp October 10.
READ MORE
Oakland Occupiers, Officials Take Stock of Costs
04 November 11
Shake Anderson, a member of Occupy Oakland's media committee, said participants in the encampment had called the mayor's office to disavow the people who were causing damage, an action Quan later praised as helping prevent a bigger blowup between protesters and police, who arrested 103 people that night.
"We called the mayor's office the instant we understood what was taking place over there," Anderson said. "That was an anonymous action. That was nothing to do with Occupy Oakland."
Second Veteran Injured in 'Occupy Oakland' Violence
05 November 11
There are fresh charges of police brutality against a war veteran arrested near an Occupy Oakland demonstration.
The veteran, 32-year-old Kayvan Sabeghi, underwent surgery on Friday for a ruptured spleen. Before he went into surgery, Sabeghi told his sister that he was walking to his home near Frank Ogawa Plaza when he was stopped by police, hit in the abdomen four times and then arrested and taken to jail where he could not receive medical treatment.
"I am absolutely furious," Sabeghi said. "I'm absolutely furious at the way they treated my little brother. I'm so mad. They hurt him and then they refused to help him."
BREAKING: Oakland General Strike Paralyses City, Port
02 November 11
Huge crowds gathering and marching in solidarity with Occupy Oakland's branch of the Occupy Worldwide Movement have shut down the port of Oakland as of 5:30:pm:pdt. Crowds and marchers gathered as the day progressed and are mounting and surging at this hour.
Oakland city officials including Mayor Jean Quan and Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan are addressing the local television media, speaking in conciliatory terms and appealing for calm.
Chanting "Our streets! Our port! Power to the people!" crowds are swirling through the port area and are scattered through the streets of downtown Oakland all the way back to the city's civic center where the controversy began nearly a week ago with a police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza.
Call of Duty: Veterans Join the 99%
02 November 11
11-11-11 is not a variant of Herman Cain's much-touted 9-9-9 tax plan, but rather the date of this year's Veterans Day. This is especially relevant, as the U.S. has now entered its second decade of war in Afghanistan, the longest war in the nation's history. US veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars are appearing more and more on the front lines - the front lines of the Occupy Wall Street protests, that is.
Video from the Occupy Oakland march on Tuesday, Oct. 25, looks and sounds like a war zone. The sound of gunfire is nearly constant in the video. Tear-gas projectiles were being fired into the crowd when the cry of "Medic!" rang out. Civilians raced toward a fallen protester lying on his back on the pavement, mere steps from a throng of black-clad police in full riot gear, pointing guns as the civilians attempted to administer first aid.
The fallen protester was Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old former US Marine who had served two tours of duty in Iraq. The publicly available video shows Olsen standing calmly alongside a Navy veteran holding an upraised Veterans for Peace flag. Olsen was wearing a desert camouflage jacket and sun hat, and his Iraq Veterans Against the War (IVAW) T-shirt. He was hit in the head by a police projectile, most likely a tear-gas canister, suffering a fractured skull. As the small group of people gathered around him to help, a police officer lobbed a flashbang grenade directly into the huddle, and it exploded.
Workers, Students Join Occupy Rally in Oakland
02 November 11
Thousands of anti-Wall Street protesters marched in the streets of Oakland on Wednesday as they geared up with labor unions to picket banks, take over foreclosed homes and vacant buildings and disrupt operations at the nation's fifth-busiest port.
Demonstrators as well as city and business leaders expressed optimism that the widely anticipated "general strike" would be a peaceful event for a city that became a rallying point last week after an Iraq War veteran was injured in clashes between protesters and police.
Embattled Mayor Jean Quan, who has been criticized for her handling of the protests, said in a statement that she supported the goals of the protest movement that began in New York City a month ago and spread to dozens of cities across the country.
Crowd Swells at Peaceful Occupy Oakland General Strike Rally
02 November 11
The Occupy Oakland camp got the rally going before 8:30 a.m., putting together signs and pumping music from speakers outfitted to a truck that will serve as a rolling platform. The first scheduled mass-gathering takes place at Frank Ogawa Plaza at 9 a.m. followed by a march on financial institutions.
Carey Dall, 35, a dockworker with the ILWU, was among the first to arrive at Frank Ogawa Plaza, which the Occupy camp has renamed Oscar Grant Plaza. He was standing next to a pile of about 100 signs "Stand with the 99 percent" ready to be distributed.
The strike is an important symbolic gesture, he said. "Economic impact is how you make change," Dall said. "It's going to take sustained activity like this if we are going to see changes in this country."
Occupy the World
01 November 11
It's a little hard to give a Howard Zinn Memorial Lecture at an Occupy meeting. There are mixed feelings that go along with it. First of all, regret that Howard is not here to take part and invigorate it in his particular way, something that would have been the dream of his life, and secondly, excitement that the dream is actually being fulfilled. It's a dream for which he laid a lot of the groundwork. It would have been the fulfillment of a dream for him to be here with you.
The Occupy movement really is an exciting development. In fact, it's spectacular. It's unprecedented; there's never been anything like it that I can think of. If the bonds and associations that are being established at these remarkable events can be sustained through a long, hard period ahead - because victories don't come quickly - this could turn out to be a very significant moment in American history.
The fact that the demonstrations are unprecedented is quite appropriate. It is an unprecedented era - not just this moment - but actually since the 1970s. The 1970s began a major turning point in American history. For centuries, since the country began, it had been a developing society with ups and downs. But the general progress was toward wealth and industrialization and development - even in dark and hope - there was a pretty constant expectation that it's going to go on like this. That was true even in very dark times.
Occupy Oakland: City Braces for General Strike
01 November 11
From schools and downtown stores to the nation's fifth busiest port, Oakland is bracing for Wednesday's citywide general strike, a hastily planned and ambitious action called by Occupy protesters a day after police forcibly removed their City Hall encampment last week.
Occupy Oakland has since returned to Frank Ogawa Plaza, but the leaderless group is still asking workers and students in the city to take the day off to come downtown and protest economic inequality and corporate greed.
Scott Olsen's Example for the Occupy Movement
30 October 11
The web is abuzz with outrage over the 25 October attack by Oakland police on Occupy Oakland, the local manifestation of Occupy Wall Street. The outrage is justified: police overreacted badly, going after non-violent protesters with tear gas, rubber bullets and batons. At least 85 people were arrested. Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen was critically injured with a skull fracture after being hit in the face with a projectile.
The incident in Oakland is just the latest attack by police around the US on the nascent Occupation movement. This movement has brought people who have never protested before into the streets with a sense of empowerment
Remember What They Did in Oakland
29 October 11
It will take some time before what happened in Oakland, California, on October 25th, 2011, sinks in. It happened in the blink of an eye. I was there and I can tell you that no one really saw it coming. We should have. All the components were in place. Waiting. Ticking.
Civil unrest, civil resistance, a paranoid, uneducated - and far too heavily armed - police force, governmental officials with no experience in managing para-military forces under their control. It was all there, flame lit, waiting to boil over.
Michael Moore in Oakland: "No Turning Back"
29 October 11
Filmmaker and activist Michael Moore told about 500 "Occupy Oakland" protesters Friday that they are inspiring "Occupy Wall Street" activists across the country.
Speaking at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of City Hall, where tents have again sprung up, Moore said people throughout the US were "disgusted" and "horrified" when police fired tear gas and bean bags and took other aggressive actions against protesters Tuesday night.
Although police cleared protesters and their tents from the plaza Tuesday morning, the protesters and their tents returned the next day.
Scott Olsen 'Cannot Talk' After Injury at Occupy Oakland Protest
28 October 11
Scott Olsen, the Iraq war veteran who was seriously injured by a police projectile during a protest in Oakland, has regained consciousness but "cannot talk."
Olsen, 24, is communicating with friends and family at his bedside by writing notes, but his injury is believed to have damaged the speech center of his brain, according to Keith Shannon, who served with Olsen in Iraq.
Olsen is believed to have been injured by a police projectile. He was hit in the forehead in downtown Oakland on Tuesday evening, after marching with fellow demonstrators to protest the closure of an Occupy Oakland camp in the city.
Journalists Abandon the Fourth Estate
28 October 11
October 25th. 8:00 pm. Oakland: "Occupy Oakland" participants are taking a few rubber bullets to the butt at this very moment. One thing is clear, the people are mad and they are not going to take it anymore. This is not satire, this is real. And, when all is said and done ... we are in this mini- revolution in no small part because there are precious few reporters allowed to do their jobs.
The forces of accountability have failed.
So what exactly do the people want? What are they mad about?
IVAW Statement on Injuries Sustained by Marine Veteran Scott Olsen at the Siege of Occupy Oakland Encampment.
27 October 11
Late Tuesday night, Scott Olsen, a former Marine, two-time Iraq war veteran, and member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, sustained a skull fracture after being shot in the head with a police projectile while peacefully participating in an Occupy Oakland march. The march began at a downtown library and headed towards City Hall in an effort to reclaim a site - recently cleared by police - that had previously served as an encampment for members of the 99% movement.
Scott joined the Marines in 2006, served two-tours in Iraq, and was discharged in 2010. Scott moved to California from Wisconsin and currently works as a systems network administrator in Daly, California.
Scott is one of an increasing number of war veterans who are participating in America's growing Occupy movement. Said Keith Shannon, who deployed with Scott to Iraq, "Scott was marching with the 99% because he felt corporations and banks had too much control over our government, and that they weren't being held accountable for their role in the economic downturn, which caused so many people to lose their jobs and their homes."
Scott is currently sedated at a local hospital awaiting examination by a neurosurgeon. Iraq Veterans Against the Wars sends their deepest condolences to Scott, his family, and his friends. IVAW also sends their thanks to the brave folks who risked bodily harm to provide care to Scott immediately following the incident.
Iraq Veterans Against the War is nonprofit 501(c)3 advocacy group of veterans and active-duty US military personnel who have served in the U.S. Military since September 11, 2001. IVAW currently has over 1,400 members in fifty states, as well as in Canada, Europe, Iraq and Afghanistan.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan's About-Face
27 October 11
This is rather incredible. Oakland Mayor Jean Quan released a statement late last night saying she now supports the Occupy Oakland protesters and will minimize police presence for the time being. The statement comes less than 48 hours after local police used excessive force against protesters, including rubber bullets, stun grenades, sound cannons, and tear gas. One protester, an Iraq war veteran named Scott Olsen, was shot with a projectile at close range, fracturing his skull and landing him in critical condition. [Update: Olsen's condition has since been upgraded to fair.]
Quan and Jordan Say They Don't Plan to Move #OccupyOakland Tents (For Now)
29 October 11
Occupy Oakland protesters are again pitching tents in the plaza in front of Oakland City Hall but Mayor Jean Quan and police Chief Howard Jordan said today that they don't have any plans to remove the tents or the protesters at this time.
Although hundreds of officers from the Oakland Police Department and other agencies went to great trouble to remove protesters and their tents from Frank Ogawa Plaza Tuesday morning, Jordan said police only have "a minimal presence" at the plaza now and "there are no plans for police action unless there are calls for service."
Oakland Mayor Sorry for Clashes That Injured Scott Olsen
29 October 11
The mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, has apologised for the clashes between police and demonstrators that left Scott Olsen badly injured.
Quan, who has been roundly criticised for her handling of the Occupy protests against economic inequality, said she had met Scott Olsen and his parents and was concerned about his recovery.
Olsen, a 24-year-old ex-marine who served in Iraq, was struck in the head during Occupy Oakland protests on Tuesday night and his plight has galvanised the worldwide Occupy movement.
Egyptians March From Tahrir Square to Support Occupy Oakland Protestors
29 October 11
As they vowed earlier this week to do, Egyptian pro-democracy protesters marched from Tahrir square to the US Embassy today to march in support of Occupy Oakland - and against police brutality witnessed in Oakland on Tuesday night, and commonly experienced in Egypt.
Lawmaker Offers Help to Iraqi War Veteran Hurt in Oakland Fray
29 October 11
Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) is in contact with the family of Iraqi war veteran Scott Olsen, an Occupy Oakland protester who was injured Tuesday night, reportedly due to police action, and has offered assistance to Olsen, Lee's office said Friday.
New TV Ad Rips Jean Quan: "Stop the Police Brutality"
27 October 11
The national heat continues to pour in on Oakland Mayor Jean Quan for her administration's tear-gas-firing reaction to the Occupy Oakland demonstrations. First, Current TV's Keith Olbermann called on her to resign. Then Jon Stewart mocked her.
And throughout Friday, the liberal online hub MoveOn.org will begin airing a minute-long ad on ABC, NBC and CBS in the Bay Area ripping Oakland's use of tear gas Tuesday to disperse the Occupiers.
"Mayor Quan," the ad's narrator says over the image of a smoke-filled Frank Ogawa Plaza "is this your city? Is this how we treat free speech in the United States of America?"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss0MxiDfS6M
MoveOn.org will release an ad calling for an end to the police brutality at Occupy Oakland, and urging people to demand Mayor Quan take responsibility.
#OccupyOakland Plans Vigil for Marine Injured During Tuesday Protests
27 October 11
"Occupy Oakland" protest organizers are planning a vigil tonight for a Marine veteran who was critically injured during protests Tuesday.
Scott Olsen, who has served two tours in the Iraq War, remains at Highland Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained when law enforcement officers used tear gas, rubber bullets and smoke grenades in an attempt to disperse an assembly that formed near 14th Street and Broadway. (You can watch video - warning, there is profanity - from KTVU of the march and crowd dispersal here, which a friend of the Appeal describes as "essential." - EB)
The protests Tuesday night were in response to the police removal of the protesters' encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza. Olsen, 24, of Daly City, was hit in the head with a police projectile, according to the group Iraq Veterans Against the War.
Oakland Police and Mayor Face Fresh Protest Over Critical Wounding of Veteran
27 October 11
Protesters have returned to downtown Oakland, California, to demand the resignation of the city's mayor and an investigation to explain how an Iraq war veteran, Scott Olsen, was hit in the head by a tear gas canister at close range, leaving him critically injured.
About 2,000 people - half as many as Tuesday night - massed in front of City Hall on Wednesday, tearing down a steel barricade intended to keep them off the grass in Frank Ogawa Plaza. When the city closed down a nearby underground station, preventing dispersing protesters going home, they organised a spontaneous march through the centre of the city, chanting: "Whose streets? Our streets!"
Police had been under orders to let them have the run of the plaza until 10pm. Officers stood guard at junctions in patrol cars and motorbikes to deter people from jumping up on to an overhead freeway. The police were more low key than on Tuesday, when they manned barricades around the plaza and fired volley after volley of teargas that filled the surrounding streets and smoked out businesses.
OWS Protesters in NYC Proclaim Solidarity With Demonstrators in Oakland, Atlanta
27 October 11
Protesters stormed through downtown Manhattan on Wednesday night to proclaim solidarity with fellow demonstrators who were forced out of encampments in Oakland, Calif., and Atlanta, Ga.
The drama unfolded when about 400 Occupy Wall Street protesters marched from Zuccotti Park to City Hall only to be met by a swarm of cops about 9 p.m. The crowd quickly rerouted and began walking up Broadway towards Union Square only to be met by a police barricade near Reade St.
As organizers tried in vain to call off the march, scores of demonstrators splintered off and broke through a wall of cops - some of them even swiping a roll of orange netting used to kettle the large crowd. "We wanted to go to City Hall to show solidarity with Oakland," said Katama Rose, 22. "We wanted to come out and talk about how that wasn't okay."
Occupy Protesters Rally Around Wounded Veteran
27 October 11
Veering around police barricades, anti-Wall Street protesters held a late-night march through Oakland streets, a day after one of their number - an Iraq War veteran - was left in critical condition with a fractured skull following a clash with police.
The show of force in Oakland along with SWAT arrests in Atlanta have sent chills among some anti-Wall Street demonstrators, and protesters elsewhere rallied in support around the injured veteran, Scott Olsen.
MARINES TO OAKLAND POLICE: 'You Did This to My Brother'
27 October 11
Marines around the world are outraged by the injuries inflicted by police on Scott Olsen at Tuesday's Occupy Oakland protests. Olsen is in a medically-induced coma after getting hit in the head by a police projectile.
The Classroom at the End of the Occupation
A Report From the Sidelines of Oakland
26 October 11
The first tweet from the Occupy Oakland had gone out just a few minutes before three and we managed to make it to the plaza in about half an hour. When my wife Marcy and I arrived at Frank Ogawa Plaza, now redubbed, "Oscar Grant Plaza," the flimsy barricades, some consisting of milk crates, had already been installed in preparation for the police attack. The occupiers, most with bandanas or scarves covering their faces as some sort of protection or guard for anonymity, worked as if directed, though there was no one directing. It soon became clear that this was a problem. This was, in a sense, THE problem. After two weeks occupying the plaza, the "leadership" wasn't leading; the unity of cause wasn't a unity of action, and the occupation was now facing a very highly disciplined, well-armed, uniform and uniformed force, organized in a strict hierarchy to move as one body with a very specific objective. It was the Spanish Civil War in miniature and this pathetic last stand of anarchists against a professional military force would end similarly, a fact that was obvious beforehand, at least obvious to many, despite all the bravado of a group carrying black flags and hidden behind hoodies and scarves and the frankly ridiculous barricades, two-feet high in places.
Iraq Veteran Shot in Head With Tear Gas Canister
26 October 11
Oakland PD Fractures Skull of Marine Corps Vet Scott Olsen
26 October 11
Veterans For Peace member, Scott Olsen, a Marine Corps veteran twice deployed to Iraq, is in hospital now in stable but serious condition with a fractured skull, struck by a police projectile fired into a crowd in downtown Oakland, California in the early morning hours of today. Other people were injured in the assault and many were arrested after Oakland police in riot gear were ordered to evict people encamped in the ongoing "Occupy Oakland" movement. Olsen is also a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War.
VFP members are involved with dozens of these local "occupy movement" encampments and we support them fully. In Boston, for example, our members, wearing VFP shirts and carrying VFP flags, stood between a line of police and the encampment, urging police to "join the 99%" and not evict the protesters. In that case, several of our members were banged and bruised when the police decided instead to carry out their eviction orders.
In Oakland last night, a similar thing happened, according to VFP Chapter 69 member and Navy veteran, Joshua Sheperd, who said he went to downtown Oakland "to see if, as a VFP member, I could help still the anger ... to be between the police and the protesters ... it seemed unconscionable to me that the police use the cover of darkness like that to do what they were doing." Fortunately, he was not injured in the police assault that left Olsen with a fractured skull.
FOCUS: Marc Ash | A Witness to the Violence in Oakland
26 October 11
If Gandhi was right, yesterday's Civil Resistance Action in Oakland, California, achieved all of its aims. By day's end a heavily-armed, fully-militarized police force was in control of Frank Ogawa Plaza, but Occupy Oakland was in control of the agenda.
Two major confrontations occurred between police and protesters in Oakland, both marked by non-violent restraint on the part of the protesters and a lack of restraint - each time leading to violence - by the police.
The day began with a fully-coordinated assault by riot police on Occupy Oakland's encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza. The police have charged one protester with resisting arrest. What is not in dispute is that they used tear gas, beanbag shotgun rounds and rubber bullets. In all, 95 protesters were arrested, mostly charged with unlawful camping violations.
Moving to Re-Occupy
5:05:pm:pdt
The crowd assembled at the Oakland Library is about to march back down 14th Street to Frank Ogawa Plaza with the intent of re-occupying the barricaded former encampment.
Update 04 From Occupy Oakland
4:45:pm:pdt
A crowd of over 2,000 has rallied at the Oakland Library in opposition to the raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment and police brutality.
They are chanting, "This will not end here."
The police are here in force, but right now powerless to act.
"Meeting at the (Oakland) library is getting big."
4:07:pm:pdt
Occupy Oakland "Not Finished"
25 October 11
After this morning's temporary disembowelment of Occupy Oakland by the city of Oakland, the group sent out a strongly worded message in which they claim a) "it's not finished" and b) that they will regroup this afternoon to plan their next move. At the request of city officials, police moved in on Frank Ogawa Plaza - shortsightedly renamed Oscar Grant Plaza by a few unfocused activists - between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. today to clear out the area.
Report From Oaklander Max Allstadt
25 October 11
Lots of rumors down there. I was in the Plaza when the cops showed up, watched the entire thing, got out of the way when it got ugly, got back in afterwards to get my bike because I know enough OPD officers to find one who'd let me in.
No sound cannon. People repeatedly mistook a speaker truck for an LRAD sound cannon.
I saw one tear gas grenade go off. There were a few shots from air rifles designed to fire non-lethal ammo. That's about all I saw of weapons use. The rest was just force of numbers. At least 10 police agencies were there. Cops outnumbered protesters. And they showed up very very fast and quietly before, fully mobilized in 5 minutes, made announcements for 10 minutes, took over the whole plaza in less than 15 minutes.
I was there from 3:30 to 6am.
Police and Protesters Massing in Oakland After Overnight Raid
25 October 11
Oakland Police wearing full riot gear are out in large numbers in downtown Oakland, as protesters rousted early this morning mount an effort to retake the encampment they were forced to leave.
The scene is tense, and marks one of the largest confrontations between police and protesters since the Occupy demonstrations first began in New York on September 17th.
There are unconfirmed reports that Oakland Police used both tear gas and rubber bullets during the early morning raid. Credible first-hand reports and video of tear gas make almost certain that at least tear gas was used. Reports of use of rubber bullets by Oakland Police on demonstrators cannot yet be confirmed.
Police Raid on Occupy Oakland
25 October 11
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