This rough video taken by a protester gives an alarmingly visceral feeling—minus the choking—of the chaos of the second round of tear gassing plus use of flash bang grenades* by Oakland Police when Occupy Oakland protesters amassed after the OWL encampment located at Frank Ogawa Plaza was destroyed by police early Tuesday morning.
*NOTE: There is now a dispute about whether the Flash Bangs were used. Oakland police say they were not in use.
UPDATE: IRAQI WAR VET HIT BY POLICE PROJECTILE AND REPORTEDLY IN CRITICAL CONDITION
The Guardian reports on this upsetting story about Scott Olson, who did two tours in Iraq and was now working for a software company and part of the group Veterans for Peace. He now has a fractured skull and brain swelling after allegedly being hit by a police projectile in one of Tuesday night’s incidents.
ABC News also has a report on Olson.
This video from KTUV shows the wide variety of protesters….then the warning from police…..then the firing.
Kristin J. Bender, Scott Johnson, Sean Maher, and Cecily Burt and Angela Woodall writing for the Oakland Tribune are following the story. The San Jose Mercury News has a newsy, cut down version of their reporting. The full coverage complete with interviews with protesters about why they joined OWL in Oakland is here.
A good series of images by J.P Dobrin here.
The New York Times also has a bunch of videos up here.
Mother Jones has a roundup of the day’s and night’s moments at Occupy Oakland—told in Tweets, photos and video.
Would this have happened if Jerry Brown was still mayor?
I don’t think he would have ordered the park vacated. But I don’t know. Read the update about the Iraq vet’s injury.
“I don’t know” is probably the right answer, and that’s not really a reflection on Jerry Brown but on my own shock at what happened. A week and a half ago, at the Oct. 15th demo, Mayor Quan spoke and as the march wound up at Civic Center she was wandering around the Occupy site with her daughter. A friend of mine stopped her and had his picture taken with them. At least one city council-person was sitting around the encampment with “occupyers.” I was struck by the thought that we were a different kind of city than most.
Then this. I really didn’t expect it. Not the uprooting nor the violence. Although there were some provocations, this could have been handled totally differently. The mayor was out of town, which was unconscionable when this situation was brewing – and her initial statement was clueless at best. I don’t much like the mayor, but she presents herself as a “progressive.” I think she was some combination of incompetent and cynical in handling and reacting to this. The decisions should have been in her hands. She’s got an interim police chief and should have had this under control. She should have engaged the Occupy group over whatever public safety and sanitation issues were substantive. Raw confrontation was insane and the city is reeling. I don’t think Jerry would have been this inept and careless, but then I didn’t think Quan would take this route either.
Jim, I’d have to say, yes, this would happen if Brown were mayor. Brown was the one who turned Oakland into a police state. Read “Blues City; A Walk In Oakland” by Ishmael Reed. Boomers and upper class liberals love ol’ Jerry but the poor people of Oakland have a different story to tell about him. He basically told them to talk to the hand throughout his entire tenure, and never met an abusive cop with a totalitarian agenda that he didn’t like.