Early in the morning of Oct. 25, a police force culled from various cities in the Bay Area attacked the Occupy Oakland encampment and drove the occupiers from their camp. In what might become a national trend, the city cited health and sanitation ordinances as an excuse to use violence against peaceful protesters.
Occupy Oakland was the largest Occupy Wall Street movement in the Bay Area, regularly swelling to 500 campers on a given night. Over the last weeks, the occupiers had set up art galleries, libraries, a children’s play area and Internet cafes within their encampment. The camp had a highly multinational character, with Latino, African-American, Asian, and white protesters camping side by side.
On the night of Oct. 24-25, approximately 300 campers were reportedly occupying Oakland’s Frank H. Ogawa Plaza—renamed by the Occupy movement “Oscar Grant Plaza” in memory of the man murdered by a transit cop in Oakland—in front of City Hall. At around 4:30 a.m., a force of 600-800 police officers descended upon the encampment. The police presented themselves as a hostile, invading army, banging their shields with their clubs.
The occupiers demonstrated militant resistance, building barricades from appropriated police barriers. The police bombarded the encampment with tear-gas-emitting flash-bang grenades and attacked the protesters with bean bags and rubber-bullets. The occupiers were able to resist for a full hour, but ultimately the superior numbers and firepower of the invaders was too much for the encampment, and it was destroyed. The smaller Occupy Oakland encampment at Snow Park was also attacked and destroyed.
Ninety-seven occupiers were arrested, with bail set at $10,000 each.
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan ridiculously claimed that she had initially been sympathetic to the Occupy movement, but claimed that Oakland’s encampment had become unsanitary and violent. It has now emerged that the attack on the encampment had been planned for more than a week. So for nearly a week prior to the attack, while the mayor was ostensibly supporting Occupy Oakland, she was secretly involved in planning the attack. She conveniently left town before the attack took place.
At 4 p.m. the same day, a crowd of approximately 1,500 people, including members of the Party for Socialism and Liberation, gathered in front of Oakland’s downtown library to protest the attack against the occupiers. Many union banners could be seen at the action, including those of the SEIU and ILWU. The Alameda Labor Council and the California Nurses Association issued statements condemning the raid and expressing solidarity with the occupiers. Many motorists honked their horns in solidarity.
The crowd started marching towards Oscar Grant Park—also renamed by the Occupy movement —but were immediately confronted by another army of cops, composed of members of the Oakland and Gilroy police departments, as well as the California Highway Patrol.
The police then did something unusual. They told the crowd: You are “engaging in unlawful assembly, and if you do not disperse immediately we will clear you by force. This may result in bodily harm and the use of chemical agents.” The police, then, verbally threatened a large, peaceful demonstration with brutality and chemical weapons.
Instead of being intimidated, the crowd defiantly changed course and started marching towards the nearest police station. The police then attacked once again, raining the crowd with tear gas, flash-bang grenades and rubber bullets. One grenade hit two-tour Iraq war veteran Scott Olsen in the head, knocking him unconscious. He was brought to safety by fellow activists. Olsen remains hospitalized, and is on a breathing apparatus. His status is currently listed as serious but stable.
The pro-occupy protesters managed to regroup and headed back towards Oscar Grant Park, ignoring the threats of the police to arrest them en mass. Although over 100 protesters have so far been arrested, some remain in the streets as this article is being written. Occupy Oakland plans to hold their General Assembly in the streets surrounding Ogawa Plaza every night at 6 p.m. until they restore the camp.
A participant from Occupy Oakland who preferred to remain anonymous told Liberation News that they had been “shocked at the level of force used by the police” and compared it to “a highly orchestrated military operation.”
As the attack unfolded in Oakland, across the bay at the Occupy San Francisco encampment occupiers nervously wondered if the SFPD had similar plans of attack. Chants of “We love you Oakland,” could be heard late into the night.
The “war against working people” seems more literal, and less metaphorical, every passing day.
Paul Greenberg, Forrest Schmidt and Sarah Carlson contributed to this report.
