A Witness to the Violence in Oakland

Photos and Story By Marc Ash, 
Reader Supported News
26 October 11
http://www.readersupportednews.org/news-section2/316-20/8096-focus-a-witness-to-the-violence-in-oakland

The function of a civil resistance is to provoke response
and we will continue to provoke until they respond or
change the law. They are not in control; we are.
-- Gandhi

f 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.

The second confrontation began with a rally at the Oakland
Public Library. Occupy Oakland organizers obtained
permission from the Oakland Library to meet there to
discuss their options. The meeting was announced on the
OccupyOakland website with a 4 pm start. By 4 pm, the area
in front of the Library was packed with over 2,000
resisters determined to make a stand or, more precisely,
undertake a march against the razing of the encampment
that morning, and to reclaim it. The mood was passionate
and upbeat, but there was a clear understanding that
between the Library and the Plaza the marchers would be
confronted by police ... in riot gear, of course. Many,
many of them.

As the march began I remained out in front of the crowd
with about two dozen other independent cameramen and
women. We tried to stay in position to film any potential
confrontation between the police, who were everywhere, and
the protesters who were on the march. The refrain of "Keep
it non-violent!" was heard as often as "Our streets!"

Perhaps not surprisingly, media reports have chronically
underestimated the size of the crowd.

Within three blocks the crowd had swelled to 2,500 strong
and was growing as it ran into its first police blockade.
It turned to avoid a confrontation - a process that would
be repeated again and again as the police forced the march
off course both south and east of Ogawa Plaza. Not that it
would have mattered because the Plaza itself was guarded
by over 100 police in full riot gear. No unarmed,
non-violent protester had any chance of making it into
that Plaza. Period.

For a time the marchers and the police continued to play
out the drama in a fairly predictable manner. Time and
again, it was the police escalating the situation. They
began to basically break up the march. They relied on two
main tactics: first, sever the march by blocking it off
into sections; second, cut it into pieces by inserting
lines of riot gear-clad officers into the column of
marchers. That had the effect of chopping the march into
sections. The other tactic was direct confrontation. Park
a line of police in front of the march and say, "You'll
have to march through this if you want to keep going."
That worked for a while, but then the marchers decided
that they were not going to take it anymore.

Armed only with a growing chant of "Our streets!" the
marchers moved forward towards the line of police in riot
gear. Shoulder to shoulder in non-violent defiance, the
marchers tried to filter through the line of riot-armored
police. The police attacked the marchers with their
truncheons, mostly spearing at protesters' midsections. It
did not work.

The marchers took the blows, overwhelmed the police and
kept on marching. The police, however, were not to be
outdone and singled out one of the marchers for arrest,
quickly throwing him to the ground and forming a circle
around the conspicuous incident in the middle of the
march. A melee ensued. The demonstrators encircled the
police, shouting "Shame!" and "Let him go!" Again the
police attacked with truncheons and the demonstrators
pushed back with their hands. The crowd began to pelt the
police with water bottles and paint ... red and blue
paint.

By this point the march had been repeatedly interrupted
and was splintering. The police again blocked the path of
the section of the march I was in, which was now moving
towards the police station. This time they used more
officers. The marchers halted and a standoff followed. An
announcement was made on a megaphone, "This is an unlawful
assembly! Disperse now or you will be arrested!" I began
to work my way out of what was quickly becoming a kettle.
I made it out, but another young woman did not. A
riot-clad police officer stopped her and ordered her back
into the crowd. So, clearly the crowd was told to
disperse, but not allowed to do so. I maneuvered free and
moved carefully around and back towards Ogawa Plaza. There
I would find a "public plaza" under military siege. Entry
would have been impossible. My cellphone and camera
batteries were running low and so was I. I made the
decision to pull out with the film I had.

Whatever meaning the Occupy Movement represents to the
protesters who participate, to the Oakland Police
Department, and the system they are paid to protect, it
obviously represents something to be feared and repressed
... violently, and even lethally, if necessary. The police
that confronted the people in the streets of Oakland,
California, were scared, their riot gear notwithstanding.
Make no mistake about it. More importantly their corporate
employers are scared, too.

Several Northern California police departments were pulled
in to support the siege in Oakland. It was more than the
Oakland Police Department itself could handle. The
alternative to all of this insanity was to let the kids
camp out in the park. That was apparently a greater threat
than turning downtown Oakland into war zone.

Yesterday the police, the city fathers and the commercial
media saw Oakland and made their decisions based on that.
But they did not see the movement within its "world-wide"
context. This is big ... very big, and spreading rapidly
across the United States and around the world. And there
is no indication that police violence can stop it.

Marc Ash is the founder and director of Reader Supported
News, as well as Truthout.

Reader Supported News is the Publication of Origin for
this work. Permission to republish is freely granted with
credit and a link back to Reader Supported News.

___________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people
on the left that will help them to interpret the world
and to change it.

Submit via email: [log in to unmask]

Submit via the Web: http://portside.org/submittous3

Frequently asked questions: http://portside.org/faq

Sub/Unsub: http://portside.org/subscribe-and-unsubscribe

Search Portside archives: http://portside.org/archive

Contribute to Portside: https://portside.org/donate