As this article was being prepared for publication, the Oakland police once again raided Occupy Oakland.
On Nov. 12, more than 500 protesters marched on the streets in downtown San Francisco chanting: “From Cairo to the Bay! Solidarity All the Way!”
The march was initiated in the General Assembly of Occupy SF with a proposal made by this reporter Nov. 7. The planned pro-Occupy march was a day to show solidarity with the Egyptian people. This was in response to a request a week earlier sent out by a group in Egypt asking for international support against the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces of Egypt. SCAF has imprisoned 12,000 civilians in military tribunals and defends a Mubarak-era status quo in Egypt.
The march started from Justin Herman Plaza and went onto Embarcadero Street. There, SFPD officers forced protesters onto the sidewalk. The police presence was about 30 police officers on foot and 10 on motorbikes. Once the protesters moved past the police lines, they poured back onto the street and the police were slow to regroup.
The police started to aggressively push, grab, shove and tackle protesters. At one point, motorcycle police officers were trying to drive into the crowd to weaken the front lines, but the protesters persevered. The protesters quickly formed security lines and linked arms together in response to police aggression.
The march was greeted and hailed by pedestrians in the tourist area of Fisherman’s Wharf. At Ghirardelli Square, where the march ended, the crowd was energized with a sense of victory.
Jiddou Sirker spoke on behalf of the Progressive Students Union of Oceana High in Pacifica: “Change doesn’t come by electing a rich politician but by actively being on the street, like what happened in Egypt!” Other speakers spoke of the need to demonstrate against tuition hikes. After the rally, the march returned to Justin Herman Plaza with no police harassment or intervention.
Throughout the march and rally, there were no media interviews, no media coverage. The only subsequent coverage was that two police officers were allegedly injured. Channel 7’s website stated: “Two police officers were attacked with sharp objects by protesters in an Occupy San Francisco march this afternoon, police said.” The one-sided reporting of this alleged incident was based only on statements from police; protesters and organizers were never interviewed.
These allegations of violence against the police serve as propaganda to undermine the Occupy movement. The only violence witnessed that day was from the police attempting to run over protesters and push them onto the sidewalk.
The encampments of Occupy San Francisco and Oakland are currently endangered from police raids. On Nov. 11, the Oakland Police Department handed out eviction notices to vacate Oscar Grant Plaza. Occupy Oakland is currently on high alert. In San Francisco, the encampment appears to be more likely subject to a police raid after the mayoral election with the victory of Ed Lee.
Prior to the election, no politician wanted to come out and say they were against the camp. Then acting mayor Ed Lee also got a lot of heat for ordering the raid on the SF camp on Oct. 16. It was used as an attack by his political opponents to say that “Ed Lee is against the 99%.” Now that the election is over and Lee won, Occupy SF expects an imminent attack, especially since activists saw the SFPD being trained at the Occupy Oakland site on how to dismantle the camp.
