My visit to Occupy Oakland
(Oakland, California: October 28, 2011) Riding my bike from West Oakland to Downtown Oakland tonight, I wondered what the Occupy Oakland protest would look like. The streets at 7:30pm on a Friday night looked too empty as I crossed under 580 on 7th Street. I took a left onto Jefferson Street, and still saw no one on the sidewalk and very few cars.
Earlier in the week, I had read Oakland Local's coverage of the Tuesday night police action. And I had seen photos of the crackdown with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and video of an Iraq vet hauled away, with his head bleeding and people shouting "Medic!"
I had an eerie feeling cycling the empty streets, similar to the feeling I had when I was in the West Bank the day before the Israel-Gaza War started back in December, 2008. But this was my hometown and not halfway around the world. These were my streets. I pedaled on.
When I arrived at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall, I was surprised to see so many people there.
I went to Occupy Oakland as a spectator and not as a participant. I felt I had to go because I'm writing a book on Oakland, and this protest is the biggest thing currently happening in Oakland. I've been going through several drafts of my introduction and afterword, reading commentary on Oakland from Ishmael Reed and Chinaka Hodge, and interviewed Oakland intellectuals like Chinaka and Ise Lyfe about Oakland in the post-Oscar Grant era.
And being from Oakland, for the last week working in Silicon Valley, I've had to put up with questions and comments from friends there, like "Why are they occupying Oakland? Don't they know that's not a financial center?" "I heard it's just just a bunch of white hippies with dreadlocks from Berkeley and Santa Cruz, and not actual people from Oakland at that protest." "Dude, you should wear a [bulletproof] vest if you're actually going. And a gas mask too."
Perhaps the most offensive response I heard was after I mentioned that the Occupy Oakland movement is planning a Nov. 2nd General Strike, "Well, that won't make a difference because they're all unemployed anyway."
When I arrived at Occupy Oakland on Friday, October 28 around 7:45pm, a woman was speaking in front of the outdoor amphitheater over-brimming with people. People were standing several rows deep behind the filled seats listening to her giving committee reports and going over the language of proposals they're putting to a vote. It seemed like a loosely-run city council meeting with an agenda, voting items, and a lot of talk about organization, committees, and rules for camping out in the plaza.
Feeling calm and seeing people peacefully gathered, I walked around and talked with a number of people about why they're there, what Occupy Wall Street means to them, and also for personal testimonies about the Tuesday night raid.
From what I saw tonight, the event was very peaceful, and people were much more organized and committed than I had thought. These were Oakland residents of all ages, colors, creeds, and backgrounds. People from the hills, the flats, and the in-between (like me) gathered in this plaza. There was a mix of working professionals, college students, high school students from East Oakland, union folk, the homeless, the retired, and every other group that makes up Oakland. The only group noticeably absent were uniformed police. No police cars were even parked on the streets near City Hall. (I was later told by one man that the police were there, but in plainclothes.)
I asked people exactly why they're here, and a common response was because so much of the United States' wealth is in the hands of too few people, and that isn't fair. Others said that they're here to show support for their friends who were attacked by the police Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and to show solidarity against police violence--an issue with a decades-long history in Oakland, for those familiar with why locals call De Fremery Park, "Lil' Bobby Hutton Park".
It's interesting to see a movement without a really strong single message or a single leader still have the support and growing momentum that it has in Oakland. If a major leader were to emerge, I wonder how that would change the landscape of this movement.
What I took as a sign that the protest is gaining momentum in Oakland is that the majority of the plaza was filled with tents, and yet, the speaker said she's sorry that they don't have enough tents for the possibly 1000+ people there, but that OWS NYC was sending an additional 100 tents, which should arrive soon. The reoccupation movement seems to be stronger and more committed than the original occupation movement because now it's taken on a dimension that's struck a chord in Oakland: police brutality.
As Ise Lyfe said in his interview with me referring to the African American community in Oakland: "We have a different relationship with the police." This new centering the Occupy Oakland movement around issues with the police is made evident in the Occupy Oakland schedule for 10/29/2011 which includes after meditation and yoga: Police Brutality Speak-Out and a March Against the Police State:
One way the lack of centrality to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement could actually help it gain deeper adoption across the U.S. is that each community can use this OWS umbrella to address the most pressing social issues in their community--be it housing foreclosures, unemployment, the widening gap between the rich and poor, police violence, civil liberties being stripped, or government corruption. Because there's no defined agenda being pushed by OWS, and each group can define what they want to focus on, it has the potential to take off among these groups who can customize it to their community.
In a city where the locals name parks after people who've been shot by the police and where the name Johannes Mehserle is still raw in people's minds, sending 500 police officers clad in riot gear into Downtown Oakland may not be the best tactic to take. This very visible police action contributed to the resurgence of the Occupy movement because it helped reframe it in Oakland not just to address economic inequality, but to address police violence in Oakland. The protesters call Frank Ogawa Plaza, "Oscar Grant Plaza," and some in the public forum argued that they aren't occupying Oakland, but it's the police who are occupying Oakland.
One criticism I heard from a woman was that the Occupy Oakland movement has spent so much of their group gatherings talking about the organization of the protest, and not the issues that the movement is addressing. She said that they've been busy arranging the necessary logistics: additional tents, toilets, and food, which take precedent over defining why they're there; however sooner rather than later, they're going to need to address what they stand for.
Overall, thought the sanitation I saw on site was actually nicer than many outdoor concerts I've been to. It also had that vibe of an outdoor concert like Bonnaroo, where this was the happening place to be in town, that the movers and shakers were here philosophizing and debating political theory at each other, deciding whether or not they are "decolonizing Oakland from police occupation" or if there's a better way to put what they're trying to say.
However, unlike Bonnaroo, it was not all fun and entertainment, but there was a sense of victimization among some of the public speakers in the open forum. The organizers are putting on workshops/support groups for people suffering from PTSD from the police raids, tear gas, etc.
Tonight was an interesting experience. I can't say I'm a member of the movement, because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what they stand for--and I would only be a part of a principled nonviolent movement with clear deliverable goals and outcomes, like Gandhi's and Dr. King's. Until that happens, it will be interesting to see how things turn out.
Earlier in the week, I had read Oakland Local's coverage of the Tuesday night police action. And I had seen photos of the crackdown with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and video of an Iraq vet hauled away, with his head bleeding and people shouting "Medic!"
I had an eerie feeling cycling the empty streets, similar to the feeling I had when I was in the West Bank the day before the Israel-Gaza War started back in December, 2008. But this was my hometown and not halfway around the world. These were my streets. I pedaled on.
When I arrived at Frank Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall, I was surprised to see so many people there.
And being from Oakland, for the last week working in Silicon Valley, I've had to put up with questions and comments from friends there, like "Why are they occupying Oakland? Don't they know that's not a financial center?" "I heard it's just just a bunch of white hippies with dreadlocks from Berkeley and Santa Cruz, and not actual people from Oakland at that protest." "Dude, you should wear a [bulletproof] vest if you're actually going. And a gas mask too."
Perhaps the most offensive response I heard was after I mentioned that the Occupy Oakland movement is planning a Nov. 2nd General Strike, "Well, that won't make a difference because they're all unemployed anyway."
When I arrived at Occupy Oakland on Friday, October 28 around 7:45pm, a woman was speaking in front of the outdoor amphitheater over-brimming with people. People were standing several rows deep behind the filled seats listening to her giving committee reports and going over the language of proposals they're putting to a vote. It seemed like a loosely-run city council meeting with an agenda, voting items, and a lot of talk about organization, committees, and rules for camping out in the plaza.
I walked around, looking for the hippies in drum circles that my friends in Silicon Valley said would likely be there, but I didn't find them. Instead, here are some images of what I found.
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| People standing in line for free "Hella Occupy Oakland" posters being silkscreened on demand |
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| People gathered at the Broadway end of Ogawa Plaza |
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| News vans parked outside Ogawa Plaza |
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| Assembly at Ogawa Plaza in front of Oakland City Hall on October 28 |
I asked people exactly why they're here, and a common response was because so much of the United States' wealth is in the hands of too few people, and that isn't fair. Others said that they're here to show support for their friends who were attacked by the police Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, and to show solidarity against police violence--an issue with a decades-long history in Oakland, for those familiar with why locals call De Fremery Park, "Lil' Bobby Hutton Park".
It's interesting to see a movement without a really strong single message or a single leader still have the support and growing momentum that it has in Oakland. If a major leader were to emerge, I wonder how that would change the landscape of this movement.
As Ise Lyfe said in his interview with me referring to the African American community in Oakland: "We have a different relationship with the police." This new centering the Occupy Oakland movement around issues with the police is made evident in the Occupy Oakland schedule for 10/29/2011 which includes after meditation and yoga: Police Brutality Speak-Out and a March Against the Police State:
One way the lack of centrality to the Occupy Wall Street (OWS) movement could actually help it gain deeper adoption across the U.S. is that each community can use this OWS umbrella to address the most pressing social issues in their community--be it housing foreclosures, unemployment, the widening gap between the rich and poor, police violence, civil liberties being stripped, or government corruption. Because there's no defined agenda being pushed by OWS, and each group can define what they want to focus on, it has the potential to take off among these groups who can customize it to their community.
In a city where the locals name parks after people who've been shot by the police and where the name Johannes Mehserle is still raw in people's minds, sending 500 police officers clad in riot gear into Downtown Oakland may not be the best tactic to take. This very visible police action contributed to the resurgence of the Occupy movement because it helped reframe it in Oakland not just to address economic inequality, but to address police violence in Oakland. The protesters call Frank Ogawa Plaza, "Oscar Grant Plaza," and some in the public forum argued that they aren't occupying Oakland, but it's the police who are occupying Oakland.
One criticism I heard from a woman was that the Occupy Oakland movement has spent so much of their group gatherings talking about the organization of the protest, and not the issues that the movement is addressing. She said that they've been busy arranging the necessary logistics: additional tents, toilets, and food, which take precedent over defining why they're there; however sooner rather than later, they're going to need to address what they stand for.
Overall, thought the sanitation I saw on site was actually nicer than many outdoor concerts I've been to. It also had that vibe of an outdoor concert like Bonnaroo, where this was the happening place to be in town, that the movers and shakers were here philosophizing and debating political theory at each other, deciding whether or not they are "decolonizing Oakland from police occupation" or if there's a better way to put what they're trying to say.
However, unlike Bonnaroo, it was not all fun and entertainment, but there was a sense of victimization among some of the public speakers in the open forum. The organizers are putting on workshops/support groups for people suffering from PTSD from the police raids, tear gas, etc.
Tonight was an interesting experience. I can't say I'm a member of the movement, because I'm still trying to figure out exactly what they stand for--and I would only be a part of a principled nonviolent movement with clear deliverable goals and outcomes, like Gandhi's and Dr. King's. Until that happens, it will be interesting to see how things turn out.
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| "Hella Occupy Oakland" posters being silk screened |
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| Hella Occupy Oakland poster |
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| Memorial for Scott Olsen, an Iraq vet injured protesting Tuesday This post is cross posted on Oakland Local: http://oaklandlocal.com/posts/2011/10/my-visit-occupy-oakland-oct-282011-community-voices |
