A bit of catching up to do on Oakland News, so here we go.
Occupy Oakland
Occupy Oakland continues to "occupy" the collective minds of Oakland and much of America, just one week after Oakland's Brutal Tuesday, where police and Occupy Oakland protestors clashed. The result were some injuries to protesters - one fatal and to Iraq War veteran Scott Olsen.
After suffering in critical condition for some time, the good new is that Olsen is out of that status, and is recovering. Mr. Olsen was visited by both the Mayor of Oakland, Jean Quan, and Interim Police Chief Howard Jordan.
And in related news, Jordan got to the media to defend the actions of the police who hurt Olsen. Jordan said “I want to ensure you that all allegations of misconduct and excessive uses of force are being thoroughly investigated by internal and external investigative sources,’’ Jordan said. “I am confident in our abilities to conduct thorough and fair investigations into the actions of police personnel during the Occupy events.’’
And to show you how much Oakland's episodes with the Occupy movement have captured national attention, that quote was from the website of the Boston Globe.
Jesse LaGreca Visits Occupy Oakland
If you don't know who Jesse LaGreca is, you will not forget him after this segment. LaGreca a participant in the Occupy Movement who goes by the Daily Kos handle "Ministry of Truth." The New Yorker became famous after a dustup with a Fox News reporter and a video that was never aired on Fox News, but now seen on YouTube over 1 million times.
This one:
That video was the basis for mention from John Stewart to The New York Observer (one of my favorite websites). Because of it, a friend called and said "Jesse's coming to Oakland! You've got to meet him." So I called Mr. LaGreca and we met over at Oakland's City Hall Plaza, the home of Occupy Oakland. The result was a pretty engaging (if I do say do myself) 29 minute full on hyper-rant by Jesse, where I just let the Flip cam run, and managed to insert my questions wherever I could see an opening.
Here's Jesse on how the Fox News video came to happen:
And Jesse talks about MSNBC as giving a "smile and a wave" to Democrats and liberals, but (as of this writing) has failed to cut off right-wing racist contributor Pat Buchanan:
But Jesse saves his greatest angry words for conservative blogger Andrew Brietbart, who he called a bunch of names that can be printed, but sound better coming from LaGreca.
Libby Schaaf Video Interview Seen Over 1,000 Times
This certainly should cause Oakland District Four Councilmember Libby Schaaf to have a YouTube Channel of her own. The video interview we conducted last week on Tuesday at 2 PM (before the night's violence) has been seen over 1,000 times. What's amazing is I have not written a blog post around it as of this writing. If you've not seen the interview, here it is:
Now the question is, have Councilmember Schaaf's views on Tuesday's events changed since the night of violence and the answer's yes. As she told me last week "I am worried for my city and the safety of everyone, including the protestors."
Personally, the question is 'How long will this go on?' The sad truth about the dynamics of what's happening with the Occupy Movement is its being compartmentalized into clashes with police, and nothing more. After a time that will become the meme for the movement. In a society already contaminated by the idea that a police state is OK, the only thing that will wake people up is if one of the protestors dies.
That almost happened in Oakland.
I wish the Occupy Movement would move from "occupy" to "Sue" because they're costing the same taxpayers who would join the cause (and in some cases have). The Occupy agenda needs to include legal and political action to effect change. So far, that's not happening. Regardless of what many of the most involved people say, the way the WORLD works is that you have to impact change via politics and the legal system. If the Occupy Movement did that, plus the protests, they would be a very powerful force. The most effective one in the World.
Occupy Oakland General Strike and Local Oakland Business
On Wednesday, Occupy Oakland plans a local general strike that has some in the Oakland Business Community up in arms. There are a ton of misunderstandings about what's planned. And while I don't agree with it, it's important to get the facts straight: Occupy Oakland does not intend to harm small local businesses.
As I mentioned to a friend on Facebook, business people should go down and find out what the Occupy Movement is all about, and add their voice. Indeed, it's rather stupid for a business person not to be down and involved just to get a real handle on what they're concerned about. It may be that there's more of an agreement between what the Occupy Movement is concerned about and what small business owners are worried about. I can't help you as a business owner connect the dots; you have to do that yourself.
Occupy Oakland Plans To Take Over Foreclosed Properties
An interesting Twitter tweet just popped up:
@occupyoakland Occupy Oakland The #OccupyOakland GA just passed a proposal to encourage the occupation of bank-owned/foreclosed and abandoned properties across #Oakland. 14 hours ago via Twitter for Android Favorite Retweet ReplyNothing more in the way of a link to more information. City Of Oakland's Occupy Oakland Moves Confuse Oakland Police An interesting new blog post by the Oakland Police Officers Association. Here's part of it:
An Open Letter to the Citizens of Oakland from the Oakland Police Officers’ Association 1 November 2011 – Oakland, Ca. We represent the 645 police officers who work hard every day to protect the citizens of Oakland. We, too, are the 99% fighting for better working conditions, fair treatment and the ability to provide a living for our children and families. We are severely understaffed with many City beats remaining unprotected by police during the day and evening hours. As your police officers, we are confused. On Tuesday, October 25th, we were ordered by Mayor Quan to clear out the encampments at Frank Ogawa Plaza and to keep protesters out of the Plaza. We performed the job that the Mayor’s Administration asked us to do, being fully aware that past protests in Oakland have resulted in rioting, violence and destruction of property. Then, on Wednesday, October 26th, the Mayor allowed protesters back in – to camp out at the very place they were evacuated from the day before. To add to the confusion, the Administration issued a memo on Friday, October 28th to all City workers in support of the “Stop Work” strike scheduled for Wednesday, giving all employees, except for police officers, permission to take the day off. That’s hundreds of City workers encouraged to take off work to participate in the protest against “the establishment.” But aren’t the Mayor and her Administration part of the establishment they are paying City employees to protest? Is it the City’s intention to have City employees on both sides of a skirmish line? It is all very confusing to us.I can only imagine... Stay tuned.
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