Occupy Oakland // Current TV

Revolution 99% Updates: While the US is Massaged by the Corrupt Media… VIVA the Revolution!

The EU Won What? Spanish Parliament Protest Global Noise protesters in Seattle to... more

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Occupy Anniversary in Berkeley, SF and NY

Advances made by the movement are celebrated.

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Oakland Unwelcomes President Obama During Campaign Fundraiser – Photos & Video

As President Obama made his way into Oakland, CA for a series of pricey campaign... more

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Inside Occupy Oakland

Projet En Vue is documenting the stories of Oakland residents. Visit us at... more

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Here is a link to a rare interview with one of Oaklands Occupy Lead organizers from Projet En Vue.

www.projetenvue.org

Well, to revolt for a life worth living, like the first banner that Occupy Oakland ever created for the first march in the week and a half that the camp was there, before the first raid, that's kind of why I'm here. Revolt for a life worth living. And, you know, we gotta spring forward, take back every park that we ever had, 'cause it's ours anyway. This is all the common space. And any time any of our comrades in other places or other cities get fucked up, we're going to be there to support them. It comes down to that. And, you know, no matter what, solidarity. I may not agree with every tactic, they may not agree with every tactic. It doesn't matter. Solidarity.

Yeah, I've been here the whole time, so it's, like, (laugh) - Well, you know, like, let me put it this way, like: Planning for the general strike, like, trying to set up a nice day of events and all this other shit and then a hundred thousand people showing up? And I'm like, that's pretty crazy, 'cause nobody will tell you that, honestly, that they were expecting those numbers. But, between that and, like - I mean, January 28th I was out with my parents, you know, when they started tear gassing in broad daylight and everything and I was like, 'Are you kidding me? Are you fucking kidding me?'

I always blame it on the police, that's the ultimate thing. And, also, it's like, what's funny is that the rest of the world seems really surprised by what they did to us in Oakland, yet all of us in the camps were like, 'Oh shit, the cops are gonna kick our asses soon, we gotta get ready.' 'Cause OPD sucks and we all know that, unlike in many other cities where they may be privileged enough to have a police department, we don't. And most of the police department isn't even from Oakland. Seven percent of OPD are actually Oakland residents, apparently. Some statistic I heard.

The day of the first raid - I got arrested at the first raid on the camp of Occupy Oakland, and I remember uh, the LRAD weapon that they used for, like, two - twice, right? It's, like, Pow! Big sound cannon. I was, like, holy shit! This just got real, you know? And then I look down and there's laser sights on me, I'm, like, what the crap? And I turn around and I start running and rubber bullets start flying over me and, like, shit starts exploding. And that's when I was like, OK. Whether I like it or not, the cops have just made this a war zone. Better get used to it. (laugh) Like, and that's actually held through pretty much.

OPD manages to create any magical scenery that we manage to retake into a fucking warzone. And NYPD, I mean fucking A! Yeah, no. NYPD, there are fifty thousand of mother fuckers and they've got their own, like, FBI spy net, whatever thing, like, 'We gotta protect New York from any more Muslim terrorists!' Crap, like, NYPD is crazy. I mean, like, we - For us it's like, 'Oh, let's go take the streets, why the fuck not?' They weren't even allowed to march in the streets most of the time until they finally took the Brooklyn Bridge and got fucked up again, like, fucking A. I mean, again, it's, like, par for the course. I'm not going to say that I'm surprised at police brutality 'cause cops are pigs, but it's also - It's also, like, nobody should have to go through that. Especially- Nobody should have to be in a seizure for fifteen minutes while handcuffed and receive no aid or support. Like As a basic human being, like, that's what happened yesterday. A woman was either beaten too badly - I'm not really sure of all the stats on it, but she was not given aid and was left on the ground in a seizure for fifteen minutes. Somebody - Somebody's head was smacked so hard against a department store window that all the glass is still cracked. Like, there's no reason for any of that. There's no reason for any of that. I mean, you're trying to, like, what? Subdue people so they don't actually come out and protest something that actually, like, fights for their interests too? These guys are absolute pigs and monsters, and anybody who's part of the police-industrial complex, whatever the hell you want to call it, it's systems of domination that are eating away at them and breaking us in the interim. (laugh) We're gonna have to keep fighting back.

How do you think the movement has changed since it started?

Well, it finally goat a little bit less white and middle class, that's what I like about Occupy Oakland, like (laugh) - My favorite thing is that we've actually tied together, like, stances against police brutality as well as many other causes. Occupy's become the umbrella for foreclosure defense, for food justice, for what have you. But police brutality, recognizing that no matter what society you're in, the police exist as an organized body to sup - Like, basically maintain a monopoly on organized violence, shit ain't gonna be good. When you have absolute power, absolute power corrupts absolutely. We see it in jail all the time, the way they arbitrarily throw people in solitary for giggling when they're getting patted down because they're like, 'This is an absolute violation of my rights, but all I can do - My defense mechanism is laughing at how absurdly wrong this is.' You know? And, like, fuck this rights discourse. The only rights we have are the ones that we can actually assert and fight for. Everything else is just something on paper that they'll, you know, make up a new law to tomorrow to take away. Like - (laugh)

For more from Projet En Vue, visit www.projetenvue.org
For more information about our project, visit http://kck.st/HOhPv2Here is a link to a rare interview with one of Oaklands Occupy Lead organizers from... more

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The Passion That Fuels Occupy – An Untelevised Conversation Between the MSM & an Occupier

Full story with video here: http://politicalfailblog.com/the-passion-that-fuels-occupy-an-untelevised-conversation-between-the-msm-an-occupier/

Occupy Oakland celebrated it’s six month anniversary with a public gathering Tuesday night in Oscar Grant Plaza, near City Hall.

Despite the rain, an estimated 50-75 participants joined together and danced into the evening before dozens of riot police crashed the party to confiscate the unpermitted sound system.

Live streamer and independent journalist Jessica Eiko-Hollie was among the party goers when the police began handing out printed rule sheets to people in the plaza early on. Apparently the police department was under the assumption that something much larger had been planned. The rule sheet, dated April 10th, 2012 read,”The city of Oakland is committed to facilitating peaceful forms of expression and free speech rights, and protecting personal safety and property,” across the top of the first of two pages. It also said, “We are aware that there is a planned activity in Frank Ogawa Plaza. We have tried to work with the organization that is planning the event, with no success.” The fourth rule on the list was a reminder that “no person shall operate, or permit the operation of, any sound amplification system (including portable or car audio equipment) with out a permit.” The handout also warned that all “activity in the park must cease by 10pm.”

“People gathered in the rain and the police were passing out these papers with the rules on them to everyone,” Hollie said. “A little while later they began staging around the plaza before giving a two minute warning to turn off the sound. Then about 60 riot police came to confiscate a little speaker and to give Leo a citation.”

Back in February, the OPD sent in a team of riot police to confiscate the sound system protesters were using to speak out against police brutality during an anti-oppression rally in the same plaza near City Hall. The over the top force and large amount of resources being deployed to silence dissent is largely ignored by the main stream media.

From day one, occupations across the country have faced negative perceptions as a result of the corporate media bias against the true message ‘Occupy Wall Street’ promotes. One of love, unity and anarchism. A young man by the name of Trae’z had the opportunity to express his true feelings to members of the media later in the night when a camera crew from KTVU was finishing up their report. Luckily, Hollie was there to capture his message, which is likely to never be shown or reflected in the main stream media.

As Trae’z approached the camera crew he assured them he was not a threat, he was just “heated.” Within the first moments of the conversation, the reporter snapped at him and yelled, “I’m tired of being poor too! I’m out here in the rain!” The reporter’s comment that she was “tired of being poor too,” threw Trae’z into one of the most beautiful rants I have ever heard, even with some of it’s religious notes.

The soulful speech by Trae’z was a great reminder of why we occupy, to take care of other people and to create a better society. The question “why do we have to pay for food” came up during the conversation. This is something that has had me baffled since childhood. Why the hell do we have to pay to survive? At which point did I agree to participate in a system designed to separate humans into classes in which some are able to eat and the rest are left to beg? Everything we need is already here, all we have to do is get it and share.

Social revolution in today’s society of propaganda wars is an uphill battle. Children are trained to be selfish competitors in order to become “productive members of society.” Though it is an uphill fight, there are many who are willing to use their lives and talents to create a new, human friendly world. The entire ‘system’ needs to be shifted away from personal profit motivation, and to achieve this, the masses must break free of the illusionary MSM world of conflict and hate and join the rest of us in creating a society based on human needs.

Video of conversation: http://politicalfailblog.com/the-passion-that-fuels-occupy-an-untelevised-conversation-between-the-msm-an-occupier/Full story with video here:... more

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Occupy Peace

Interview by Sarah van Gelder of Pancho Ramos-Stierle who was arrested while... more

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The Cancer in Occupy

By Chris Hedges
The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in Oakland and other cities, are the cancer of the Occupy movement. The presence of Black Bloc anarchists—so named because they dress in black, obscure their faces, move as a unified mass, seek physical confrontations with police and destroy property—is a gift from heaven to the security and surveillance state. The Occupy encampments in various cities were shut down precisely because they were nonviolent. They were shut down because the state realized the potential of their broad appeal even to those within the systems of power. They were shut down because they articulated a truth about our economic and political system that cut across political and cultural lines. And they were shut down because they were places mothers and fathers with strollers felt safe.

Black Bloc adherents detest those of us on the organized left and seek, quite consciously, to take away our tools of empowerment. They confuse acts of petty vandalism and a repellent cynicism with revolution. The real enemies, they argue, are not the corporate capitalists, but their collaborators among the unions, workers’ movements, radical intellectuals, environmental activists and populist movements such as the Zapatistas. Any group that seeks to rebuild social structures, especially through nonviolent acts of civil disobedience, rather than physically destroy, becomes, in the eyes of Black Bloc anarchists, the enemy. Black Bloc anarchists spend most of their fury not on the architects of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) or globalism, but on those, such as the Zapatistas, who respond to the problem. It is a grotesque inversion of value systems.

Because Black Bloc anarchists do not believe in organization, indeed oppose all organized movements, they ensure their own powerlessness. They can only be obstructionist. And they are primarily obstructionist to those who resist. John Zerzan, one of the principal ideologues of the Black Bloc movement in the United States, defended “Industrial Society and Its Future,” the rambling manifesto by Theodore Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, although he did not endorse Kaczynski’s bombings. Zerzan is a fierce critic of a long list of supposed sellouts starting with Noam Chomsky. Black Bloc anarchists are an example of what Theodore Roszak in “The Making of a Counter Culture” called the “progressive adolescentization” of the American left.

more at the link...

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_cancer_of_occupy_20120206/By Chris Hedges The Black Bloc anarchists, who have been active on the streets in... more

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Occupy Oakland: From Flowers in Your Hair to the Dark Side

The Bay area has a long history of protest. At 1960s UC Berkeley, Vietnam war... more

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PressTV Now Has A Show Called #OWS Week

PressTV Now Has A Show Called #OWS Week http://bit.ly/y55rLZ #OccupyWallStreet... more

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Oakland Mayor Quan to Call Parents of Rowdy Occupiers

OAKLAND -- The exasperated Oakland Mayor, Jean Quan, threatened Monday to call the parents of those rowdy Occupy Oakland kids. Quan was upset with Saturday's demonstration which left City Hall vandalized, and resulted in 400 arrests by the Oakland PD.

"I plan to call the parents of those in Occupy Oakland and say their kids are acting rowdy and not being nonviolent," Quan said in an interview. "That is, if they even have parents." She stomped her foot and said, "I've had it with them."

She then went on a tirade: "Even when the police shot tear gas and rubber bullets and bean bags at peaceful protesters last October, and then prevented Occupiers from helping that Marine when he got blasted in the head point blank by a rubber bullet or bean bag or something, and anyway, his life was on the line, and the police still threw flashbangs at those trying to carry him to safety, and then I didn't condemn the heavy-handed and violent police force, well, anyway these kids still have no right to get angry and show their disapproval."

Severe economic hardship in the Bay Area, a history of rampant police violence and abuse, and an unemployment rate of around 8.7 percent in Oakland isn't easy to forget about for these protesters.

Quan went on to talk about Occupy Oakland's protests every Saturday, which is also the day the Mayor said she usually needs the most police officers to do other things, like terrorize the black community. "Our police are busy stopping and searching black motorists on Saturdays. That takes a lot of time and energy out of our Oakland PD. Yet we have to worry about people demonstrating over wealth disparity and crap."

Mayor Quan is also planning to tell Occupy Oakland protesters' parents that she wants the movement to leave town. "Go protest in Richmond or something," she said. "Otherwise we're going to get our 'Rough Riders' police gang back to do some real damage."

Quan alluded to OPD's botched investigation into journalist Chauncey Bailey's murder. "We're going to have more of that, as long as these not nonviolent Occupy folks keep reminding us about not having enough money."

The mayor bemoaned the fact that she had to stop using Facebook for a time to adequately install new filters to block out Occupy Oakland / Wall Street protesters and their incorrect "version of what happened."

http://deardirtyamerica.blogspot.com/2012/01/oakland-mayor-quan-threatens-to-call.htmlOAKLAND -- The exasperated Oakland Mayor, Jean Quan, threatened Monday to call the... more

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Occupy Oakland: Over 400 Arrested As Police Fire Tear Gas, Flash Grenades at Protesters

Police have arrested more than 400 Occupy Oakland protesters, as well as a number of... more

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OWS Anarchist Violence in Oakland; The 0.99% Strike Again!

OAKLAND, Calif. • For weeks the protests had waned, with only a smattering of people taking to Oakland's streets for occasional marches that bore little resemblance to the headline-grabbing Occupy demonstrations of last fall.

Then came Saturday, which started peacefully enough — a midday rally at City Hall and a march. But hours later, the scene near downtown Oakland had dramatically deteriorated: clashes punctuated by rock and bottle throwing by protesters and volleys of tear gas from police, and a City Hall break-in that left glass cases smashed, graffiti spray-painted on walls and an American flag burned.

More than 400 people were arrested on charges ranging from failure to disperse to vandalism, police spokesman Sgt. Jeff Thomason said. At least three officers and one protester were injured.

On Sunday, Oakland officials vowed to be ready if Occupy protesters try to mount another large-scale demonstration. Protesters, meanwhile, decried Saturday's police tactics as illegal and threatened to sue.

Mayor Jean Quan inspected damage caused by dozens of people who broke into City Hall. She said she wants a court order to keep Occupy protesters who have been arrested several times out of Oakland, which has been hit repeatedly by demonstrations that have cost the financially troubled city about $5 million.

Quan called on the loosely organized movement to 'stop using Oakland as its playground."

"People in the community and people in the Occupy movement have to stop making excuses for this behavior," she said.

Saturday's protests — the most turbulent since Oakland police forcefully dismantled an Occupy encampment in November — came just days after the group announced a new round of actions. The group said it planned to use a vacant building as a social center and political hub and threatened to try to shut down the Port of Oakland for a third time, occupy the airport and take over City Hall.

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/news/national/occupy-protests-turn-violent-in-oakland-calif/article_f6bb1466-2a03-5edc-a07c-8c7098e5919a.html#ixzz1kxZYFcyFOAKLAND, Calif. • For weeks the protests had waned, with only a smattering of... more