Oakland protest arrests

Oakland needs to regroup, organize a march with tens of thousands, close down the city and show those slugs who's in charge. Keep doing it over and over, clog the courts with arrests and bankrupt the city if necessary.

Another source of a sometimes live feed and chat can be loaded at:

www.livestream.com/occupyoakland?utm_source=website-channel-page&utm_medium=related

The use of repressive violence is counterproductive, something that Occupy can use as long as we stay nonviolent and are willing to cooperate about real issues of sanitation, etc.  The appeal of this democracy movement is very broad.  It is not like taking out a small radical protest group or even a movement against Global Free Trade where the agenda is limiting to others.  This Occupy Wall St. stuff is like the lens through which everyone's personal experience can be cast onto the screen to join.  It does not require reading or hearing any speaker.  It is already there waiting to connect.

I think the Tea Party facade lured some people with the yearning for something along with its reactionaries.  It could not sustain their participation because it was not real.  Nobody planned or engineered this movement.  It is as natural as it gets.

The police in every city where there is a Occupy movement need to keep two things in mind. Number one: if they incite violence, eventually if the violence is bad enough, the protesters will fight back in self defense. I am not advocating violence but self preservation is basic human behavior. Number two: the police are part of the 99% class and need to decide if they will protect and serve those who pay their salaries via taxes or become the hired goons and thugs of the financial minority.

You people crack me up. I consider myself center left politically and voted for Obama. However, this "occupy everything" movement is ridiculous. I listen to Thom Hartmann talking about how this is protected speech under the constitution, blah blah. What a bunch of crap!

Look, if you want to protest go ahead. Nobody is preventing you from exercising your constitution right to freedom of speech. At the end of the day, go home! What makes you people think that protesting=squatting? I fully agree with these protesters being removed for health and sanitary reasons. What a great movement to allow homeless and indigent people to squat on public lands under the guise of "protest".

I think you guys need to get a clue. This "occupy" movement has no goal. If it is comprised of liberals, conservatives, libertarians and tea partiers as people claim, then this movement cannot have a unified message and will go nowhere. At least the tea party had a clear message and a clear goal in mind. They did it in an organized and legal fashion - I didn't see any tea party rallies and protests lasting into the night with people pitching tents and camping. Oh but you guys will say there is some big conspiracy.

If the occupy movement has any hope of going anywhere, it needs a clear message and a goal. Not just a bunch of pissed off people who think they can use public parks and city hall as their own personal urinals. There are other people out there too, people who deserve to have clean and sanitary parks, etc. Stop acting like a bunch of hippies and learn how to fight the system in an organized, less volatile fashion.

Talking points right straight out of the pages of Townhall.com. 

Expect a huge and relentless assault from the right on this issue. The genius of this movement so far is that it refuses to be corraled into a set of issues that will provide the right with its necessary propaganda ammunition.  Whatever might have been genuine about the Tea Party movement, we know how it lost it's vision and became the pawn it is today.

"fight the system in an organized, less volatile fashion"... Hah!

"The system isn't broken, it was built this way."

You don't think it was built this way?

Well, I think TalkingPoints is all bullshit, Ren. Well, the departments are based on a miltary model and from there it morphed into the Army. Really, all the veterans returning from Iraq believe it is their right to be a police officer. All this is happening off the radar screen while the black mascott is asleep. 

So you don't think propaganda is designed?

You should write that book.

That's what I mean by the system was built that way.

The people of Oakland should to have a meeting with Chief Officer Howard Gordon, who just replace the Last Chief of Police, Battshit, and have him explain the weaponry that could be unleash against the citizens of Oakland ( maybe you will find weapons of mass destruction). The Police Chief should show up in full riot gear and explain the function and cost of each piece to the people of Oakland.

If people don't realize how ready these institutions are for any movement towards democracy, they have obviously been sleeping through the last ten years.

Remember Hooverville. When the Oaklandpolice union contract is up for renewal, watch for substantial pay cuts. 

Anti, I love you, but don't make Obama too much your focus.  It diverts you from better thinking.  The Reform Emperor is only partly powerful, and events on the ground have all the authority we need.  The fact that the cops are militarized and culturally prepared to bust popular protest is not new.  Having it so visible is.  So far, the cops have not won the day with violence and have mobilized a lot of anger against themselves.

The attempt to make the OWS into hippies and marginal folk is missing.  Having to deal with the homeless and the uncared for is a real challenge; but it also makes a great point about what the streets are like without the protesters.  We could just be opening community health encampments to feed and care for those our "society" ignores.

As a veteran of the brutal Alameda County Sheriffs in Vietnam protests, I appreciate you points about police corruption and thuggery.  Keeping the natives on the plantation from invading the manor houses has been the Oakland cop mission ever since WWII.  The Panthers did not come out of the air.  Still, this can be a time when we call for serious police reform and have public support.

Finally, I may long for Obama to become the Drum Major for the march, but the march is more important and I don't know what it would cost him to "come out" that publicly if he is so inclined.  How ahead of the paranoia cycle does he have to be?  I expect anyone in DC to be behind the actual moving of the Spirit because they are breathing high octane entropy inside the bubble.

If you have not been aware of the militarization of America's police, try the gulag we call our prison system.  Empires are not democracies, and soldiers trained to obey and serve are not likely to be civilian-oriented community based police officers.  At least the Marine in NY recalled the professionalism of the soldiers in Iraq compared to the bully crap macho he saw in America.  Maybe more of his type will show up at home.

I know that is true. It's like coming across a mashed dead cat in the road and see it before I can turn my head away. One thing I wouldn't do is interview Joe the Plumber and ask him plumbing questions--I thought that was vicious treatment, but very funny!

This is a document about non-violent protesting from the US Department of State- aka Hillary.
BTW, it was her birthday yesterday, Oct 26. Happy Birthday Hillary!
http://photos.state.gov/libraries/korea/49271/dwoa_122709/Nonviolentej.pdf

I can't wipe my ass with a digital copy. I mean, have you ever tried cleaning your glasses with your fingers?

In the local story of Cmdr. Norman Wielsch,  the drug task force commander in Contra Costa County Californian and Concord private investigator Chris Butler who hired women to drink with  East Bay men involved in divorce cases. http://concord-ca.patch.com/articles/wielsch-freed-on-100000-bail-to-get... The victims were never identified. We never get the full story or it is put out piecemeal over a long period of time. It would be interesting to hear their stories. Even the details of the Oakland Riders are still to this day not known after these many years. When things go to shit, they really go to shit don't they? Police instructors often tell their new officers a great mother fucking truth: "When the skeletons come out of the closet, they ALL come out." And could Officer Howard Gordon get a uniform that fits, he looks like a $5.00 an hour homless security guard.

It is not missing DRC, it is right on the mark.

Chheck it out.

http://zombietime.com/occupy_oakland_10-22-2011/

Hello Ronald AKA kulak.2.1 Are you still being paid to troll? How is Karl Rove's harim?

Antifacist wrote (that's me): "And could Officer Howard Gordon get a uniform that fits, he looks like a $5.00 an hour homless security guard."

Now that's a great idea. Oakland can fire all the police, and rehire them as security guards just after their pension fund crashs. I say "rehire" because it would be more humiliating than firing them. This element of total personal humiliating is very important--it's like walking around in the coummunity with an electric cattle prod in hand--they still don't get it. This way when they go looking for another job in law enforcement THEY GOT OAKLAND ON THEIR RESUME! LOL! Hey, are you a RIDER? Talk about profiling! LOL! In other words let them take ALL the legal risks. These guys love law enforcement, heck, they will even do it for free I bet! They can be like teachers that dedicate their lives to educate childern and we exploit that love of teaching and idealism...and then don't let them teach except to a test. The same pattern. Being reduced to minimun wage survival would be a great flash bang finish to the Great Oakland Beast. Let's learn some Neo-Liberal-Fuck-You economics.

Sent from Ouccupy Tucson to Scott Olsen

"To the Mothers and Fathers of America:

This may not be clear to you yet, but those protestors out in the streets are your bravest children. They now hold the front for all of us in the centuries-old battle against tyranny. Many are fighting the corrupting influence of money in American politics, others against a system no longer functional for a majority that will only grow. Some do not know exactly what they want–only that something has gone terribly wrong in a country in which they would like to believe. They have not articulated one focused message, or one set of demands–and they do not need to. This is not a battle of right against left, red against blue, or liberal against conservative. It is not made-for-TV politics. It is a battle of right against wrong. America has lost, in its political discourse and behavior, the ability to distinguish between the two. Many of its practitioners seem not to care.

Those who support this movement in all its myriad shapes, sizes, sexes, colors, ideologies, income levels, and nationalities–have no sound bite. They get the problem, in general, and are massing to change it. Like the old thinker, they would rather be approximately correct than precisely wrong.

They give their nights, their sleep, their weekends, and their comfort to fight an uncertain battle for you, for all your children. They face police lines and mainstream scorn. They face the indifference of the vast armies of complacency and distraction, who keep waiting for the channel to change, the web page to update, and this movement to end. They face cynics who believe nothing will change, they face the often well-intentioned defeatists who believe nothing can change. They face politicians who patronize, tell them they don’t understand–that they, the politicians, support the movement, even as they make plans with their police forces to clear them.

On Tuesday, October 25th in Oakland, California, Scott Olsen, a 24-year-old Marine and Iraq veteran, standing beside another veteran, a naval officer in dress, was critically injured by a weapon used against him by a police officer from one of 17 jurisdictions in the San Francisco Bay Area. A group of occupiers running away from the scene, amidst police flash grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets, rushed back when they saw Scott Olsen lying still on the ground. As they rushed in to pick him up–a dozen of your bravest, America–an unidentified officer tossed, from behind police ranks, another flash grenade at their feet. A handful of these unarmed protestors persisted, carrying Scott Olsen, dazed with a fractured skull, away from the police line, shouting for medics as the explosions and smoke recalled the nightmare of American battlefields.

Like this, the guns have again been turned back on your bravest children, most fighting only for the core values they were taught as children: people in need should be helped; democracy should be uncorrupted; citizens must gather in peace; and this country belongs to all of us, not a political elite increasingly indistinguishable from a financial and industrial corporate elite. Like all of us, they see clearly and abhor this crony capitalism now ascendent. They are doing something about it.

These are not trouble-making hippies, America–you mistake them as such at your peril. These are your better angels, trying to save you from yourself. They are your child that cannot help tell the truth, the sometimes inconvenient one that thinks of safety last and justice first. They are fighting the war that rages inside you when you see the circus on TV, in print, or online and can only shake your head. You ignore them, laugh at them, demean them, or discount them at your peril. They may be our last hope of transformation for this country reeling from war, from a crisis of confidence, from scandal, division, corruption, and poverty. Let no demagogue–especially talkers at the service of money and power–convince you, a thinking American, that these are not patriots of the truest kind.

So go out and support your children, America, and with them the fundamental ideas upon which this country was founded. Take a walk by the protest in your town at night, in the morning–drive by or bike past. Stop and talk to someone for a minute. Listen and watch. Gather your friends and neighbors. Everyone has their own place and their own role.

For every Scott Olsen, now lying in a hospital bed in critical condition, there should be 100,000 witnesses, who by their presence lend this movement strength and legitimacy.

As long as they occupy the centers of our cities, big and small, we–who wish to create a more perfect union–have an opening to change something vital, such as removing money from politics once and for all. It is possible. It has been done elsewhere. These children have brought the season of democracy, the days and especially nights of renewing democracy, and they need your protection.

Even your bravest children need to feel your strong hands on their back.

Thank you Fred Wilder for the full detailed account of the violent assult against Scott Olsen. Somehow I feel injured also, but not in a physical way.

Hello Global Hedge Fund Community!

Wanna make some money? Max Kieser thinks you can. For every dollar of market capitalization removed from Coca-Cola, it costs Coke five dollars. Yeah$, Coca-Cola leveraged five times $ales. LOL. (It's stock price might drop.Shsss.)

researching...

Largest Stock Holdings (by Market Value) of Oakland Police Retirement Fund June 30, 2006

1. Bank Amer Corp 78,355 shares at $3.7 million. (Today BofA stock closed at $7.35 X 78,355 shares is $575,909. and twenty five cents.)

2. Exxon Mobil Corp 61,400 shares at $ 3.7 million

3. ConocoPhillips, 44,400 shares at $2.9 million

4. GE, 87,100 shares at $2.8 million

5. Johnson and Johnson, 40,600 shares at $2.4 million

6. CitiGoup, 48,800 shares at $2.3 million

7. Pfizer, 97,700 shares at $2.2 million

8. Duke Energy, 69,900 shares at 2 million.

9. IBM, 26,400 shares at $2 million.

Benefit Expenses by Type for Fiscal Year Ending June 30, 2006:

Police Retirees 725, Gross Amount $37,369,428

or $51,544.03 per retiree.

Maybe NATO should step in to guarantee the Constitutional right of U.S. citizens to assemble and  protest the actions of their government.. Or does that sort of think only happen in Libya?

Hillary and Obama raised hell when the Libyan state attacked its own citizens. Not a peep when it happens at home. Is anyone surprised?

Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease"

Can the 99%/OWS do more than "protests"? Can they withdraw their money from Citi bank and put it into a credit union that help foreclose home owners and student debts? It would be even better if 99%/OWS create there own credit union,just to meet the 99% demands. It would be a real solution, other than protesting the criminally insane.(rulers) What more proof do we need????

Throw those MFs under the bus--the OPD goons squad pension fund is bankrupt. Make them eat shit. Maybe Max Keiser can come up with an idea to fuck over this already bankrupt pension fund.

Ideas to develop:

-Apply own standards to department itself.

-Logically undermind and critique the military paradigm of policing in general. The military paradigm imports assumptions into the process of policing. In military doctrine there is no place for protest, critique, or freedom of expression. Civilian law is the default situation in which the citizen theoretically has freedom of speech and the freedom to assemble to redress grievances. However, whenever the status quo is questioned, military doctrine is activated as the rule of goverance. In other words, you have all the rights in the U.S. Constitution afforded to you--until you need them. 

How is this switch from civilian rules to military doctine done in public? Representives of civilian rule simply say the police forces are in charge of the "technical details." That means policing is a technical matter, not a matter of Justice.

WE ARE THERE! Many of the city mayors supported the Occupy movement publicly, and then something happened. The mayors may of been manipulated. Oops. Wait a minute. Did the police wait until Mayor Quan left Oakland before launching the violent attack? Does that theory fit the facts? Was she used as a patsy? Was the rank and file upset with Mayor Quan about anything? Must we be extra attentive when a Mayor leaves town for fear of unilateral action by the riot squads? This is what happens when you have people experienced in war and then return to civil life--those skills remain and become redirected in other directions. Mayor Quan could be a powerful new force if....

This is exactly the reasoning we have seen with the massive growth of security organizations that have sprung up in the last ten years. Fear and efficiency (or cleaness and littering in this recent use of military force in Oakland) are the two conceptual tools being used as mere pretense to reinforce Police State rules. The switching shell game of civilian law and military doctrine is the most important insight here.

-Find % of Oakland Police Officers that are ex-military. This would be interesting.

-Two authoritarian concepts to exploit in the military police paradigm: 1. Use of collective punishment internal in the lower rank departments, and on the external citizenry itself. 2. Across the country department policy for quotas to acheive arrest goals.

-Suggest new police department policy to find police corruption in the department every six months and report it. If there are no reports of police ethical misbehavior in a month, it doesn't mean there is no corruption--it means it hasn't been found so a need for police misbehavior quotas.  That's how the reasoning usually goes for quotas.

-History of OPD abuses need to be in abstract handbook form for quick reference and test consistency of past department justifications for the use of force. In other words, a historical context to view these issues.

-Suggest methods for 100% surveillance of all police activity while on duty. Some departments use minicams on uniform. This isn't a good idea since the citizenry may be forced to wear cameras instead.

-Keep the issue of the mistrust between the OPD and the citizenry on the table.

--Research established legal protections on retirement funds against civil suits?

Well, Son of a Mo**** F***ing B....Scott Olsen needs to hire a civil attorney to place Oakland PD upside down in a courtroom, and cut $51,544.03 out of their ass (that's right guys...including the three cents). Collective punishment is OPD's favorite method.But it needs to be a "shitty-er deal," as they say on Wall Street.  

Oakland Cops Shoot at Longshore Workers And Antiwar Protesters April 7, 2003.

Yeah! Michael Moore is at OccupyOakland. I hope he meets with Mayor Quan. Why do I feel optimistic?

How to F*** The Oakland Police Department:

 Oakland Mayor Jean Quan is the clueless, obedient mayor that is at this very moment being recalled by the beaten citizens of Oakland. She is a frightened old Chinese lady that would drop to the floor to give Officer Howard Gordon a BJ if he order her to do so. Here is a little summary of this cluster*uck. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/10/14/BADV1LHBL6.DTL  The Oakland Police Department is one of the most corrupt and dysfunctional police departments in the country and they influence other departments in the area--they are buddies. There is a entire subculture of police, and an army of private investigators (some live in their cars), and private security that is nothing but a pool of corruption. Oakland still hasn't recovered from the public housing police called "The Riders" that planted drugs on Oakland citizens and busted them--and it was a massive operation that went on for years. 

Recently,  Cmdr. Norman Wielsch,  the drug task force commander in Contra Costa County Californian (FREE ON BAIL OF COURSE) and  Concord private investigator Chris Butler where  discovered hiring women to drink with a victim to help catch East Bay men involved in divorce cases driving drunk. The men then lose their court cases. Yeah. Good times. http://concord-ca.patch.com/articles/wielsch-freed-on-100000-bail-to-get... So being f***** over by the police is the norm here. These two thugs stand accused of 17 felonies against the sheeple of Contra Costa County. Both of these police thugs also opened a brothel in Pleasant Hill! Possibly the only whorehouse in the entire city of Pleasant Hill besides City Hall. This is only the tip of the iceberg. The private and public police officers in San Francisco are even worst. In one reported incident a SFPD officer was trying to sale guns and left a car full of illegal weapons abandoned on the wharf. It's one f***** up story after another. 

So, dear citizen, the cop that just knocked your teeth out isn't your friend. If you where arrested, that police record that will follow you until the day you die. If you apply for a job or if you are ever accused of dishonesty, that record WILL BE USED AGAINST YOU. IT ISN'T A JOKE. YOU GOT A BIG PROBLEM AND THAT RECORD WILL NEVER, EVER GO AWAY.  What can we do to show our hatred for this kind of authoritarian organization?

The reason that White Shirted Fascist Thug Tony Anthony Bologna from NYPD swings his baton to orgasm is because he is dreaming of retirement and drinking Mai Tai on a Maui Beach while bragging about how he f***** up those young people. A hatred of young people was the mindset in the 60's and the same will be true this time. Let's take that nice retirement way from him. Let's take it away from all these jackbooted smirking Nazi thugs. Most police departments have defined retirement plans that cost the cities millions of dollars. In my area, police retirement cost the City a quarter of all revenues! City officials tyically give the police anything they ask for after making the sign of the cross.The police departments need to have some skin in the game: transform these costly retirement plans to 401k plans-- which will be 101k plans shortly. I am sure there are plenty of psychopaths on Wall Street that already have a transition plan to move a entire police department to a worthless 101k plan within hours. It would be nice way to f**** them over. There is a 99.999% chance the same is happening in your local police department. Find the s**** and restructure of your local police department on a more humane model. Stop letting this f****** shit slide.

Don't worry about their retirement plans--the police would bust your head open for free if they had the choice. 

Michael Moore's speech to OccupyOakland.

 Mr. Arotzarena of the OPD asked, "What would you do?" Hmm. I would ask a cop: a cop that had a critical intellect like Dr. Joseph D. McNamara . I'll betcha he'll know.

california ow struck back last night.   they shut down a container last night.

Recorded October 30, 2011, 5pm. Dr. Angela Davis addresses the satellite Occupy Wall Street general assembly.

Rachel Maddow on Oakland general strikes — The police started both of them

By Gaius Publius on 11/03/2011 05:15:00 PM
This first segment from last Wednesday's Rachel Maddow Show is excellent for many reasons.

One of the best aspects is the history lesson. There's never a wrong time for resistance to connect with its history.

If you already know how visually stunning the Bay Area is, skip to 2:30 and watch from there. The information about general strikes (a whole different beast) and the 1946 Oakland general strike, starts around 3:15.

The part about the cops starts at 4:00. Ugly, important, never-changing stuff.

The cry:

"Strike, occupy, shut it down,
Oakland is the People's town."

Resistance always looks like this, from Women's Rights to numerous labor battles and massacres (usually strikers vs. police and Pinkerton men). Elites always link arms; they always have to be forced to give in.

Best to learn the history, know what to expect. Also, best to know how to win (the secret is always action).

What can you do? Move your money on November 5

Perhaps Oakland is a precursor of things to come.

QUOTE:

The middle class has – at least two thirds of it – crashed into  hard times. Americans’ store of value and savings – the house – is worthless; the always pathetic social safety net has eroded. Thirty million Americans are without work or working part-time. Nearly 6 million manufacturing jobs in the United States have disappeared since 2000, and more than 40,000 factories have closed. African-Americans have endured the greatest loss in collective assets in their history. Hispanics have seen their net worth drop by two-thirds. Millions of whites have been pitchforked into desperation. Students emerge from higher education crushed by debt.

This is the mulch that has created the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Its strength lies in the simplicity and truth of its basic message: the few are rich, the many are poor. In terms of its pretensions the capitalist system has failed.

I’ve no doubt that if by chance the left in Greece today were to evict the local political agents of the international banks, it would not be long before a NATO intervention, covert and then overt, was under way, using the usual arsenal of assassination, drone attacks and armed support for whatever security forces do not defect to the left.

Having briefly tasted batons and pepper spray, OWSers should know that when capital feels it is being pushed to the wall, it will stop at nothing to crush any serious challenge. The cop puts away his smile. The indulgent mayor imposes a curfew. “Exemplary” sentences are handed down. The prisons fill up. The FBI dusts off the Cointelpro blueprint. Organized repression can only be defeated by organized resistance, nationwide. How to mount this is the OWSers’ long-term  challenge. These are very early days in the formation of the  movement. In Oakland, on Wednesday, OWS staged a rally calling for a General Strike. That was optimism of the intelligence. That was most certainly thinking along the right lines.- Alexander Cockburn

Full article here: http://www.counterpunch.org/2011/11/04/the-iron-heel-and-the-resistance/

"People of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage" - Gailbraith

Retired Monk - "Ideology is a disease

Mayor Quan stands up to lead the people of Oakland--and alas, she soils her panties.

Ex-Mayor Jerry Brown is no better. He also support the Oakland police goon squads when they unleashed all that brand new riot gear in the Oakland Port industrial area protest in 2003 so that OPD can see how much they could fuck someone up with "non-lethal" weapons. The office of the Oakland Mayor is merely a front, while the OPD actually runs the city. These Democratic politicians are merely RIGHT-WING proto-fascist political agents used to ease the perception that Oaklanders really live in a fucking police state. These submissive Democratic proto-fascist politicians suck Americans into believing that they actually have a voice in manipulated elections ran by a police state.

Oakland City Councilmember Ignacio De La Fuente is a cockroach. This is the kind of shit Oakland has for leaders. This isn't even the outrageous stuff. 

 De LaFuckup demanded that Occupy Oakland be closed down. He's outraged. 

Pay no mind to the party affiliation. Look at our brilliant Governor here in Illinois, Mr. Blagojevich (hope he enjoys his time in prison). Anyone who tries to argue that one party is more corrupt or responsible for the downfall of this country, or that one has more blood on their hands than the other........is nothing less than a fool. The city of Chicago was built on corruption at every level, and it's not much different today...and has long been a Democrat city.

Police state.....lol. Try Syria for a week, then come back and complain about your "police state".