On Sam Seder's show, Majority Report, today, Alyssa, who was in the OccupyOakland "eviction" Tuesday morning give her account on what went on in the eviction AND in the jail cells.
Listener Alyssa was arrested yesterday peacefully protesting at Occupy Oakland. She gives us her stunning first hand account of the days events
It's rather upsetting, but Alyssa thanks DaikyKos!
If anyone can transcribe this, it would be fantastic.
Alyssa was told if they (OPD) see her in the park again they will hold her until December 5 and triple her bail. She was also told that she can't pick up her belongings (including her car keys) until Thursday (tomorrow) and then BY APPOINTMENT.
Today:
A small band of protesters remained outside Oakland's central city plaza Wednesday morning after a night in which Occupy Oakland demonstrators clashed with police.
The group watched peacefully as city workers erected a chain-link fence around the grassy area that about 350 people had populated before police cleared the main encampment Tuesday.
City officials said they planned to reopen the plaza to the public once the fence was up — to allow for protest but not camping.
LA Times
A chain link fence will create choke points for the OPD to deal with protesters. Protesters will be unable to escape if more "non lethal" force is used, because it narrows escape routes to a few places police can guard. It doesn't matter if the fence is 4 feet or 6 feet high, in chaos and panic protesters will be unable to get out.
If you've ever played a video game, like say "Dragon Age," and you position your character on one side of a door, arch, etc. and the baddies are coming through the other side, you are more likely to win the battle because only one or two are able to get through before you and your crew can pick them off. This is the same concept here with the fence.
This is a not only a heavy handed tactic by OPD but terribly dangerous one as well as it increases the risk of trampling. If OccupyOakland refuses to leave the park after this fence it up, what happened yesterday might be considered mild.
The words "fish in a barrel" come to mind.
Despite whatever they say for the reason to put it up (the fence and the gates will keep the protesters from being in the park from 10pm - 6am, blah -blah -blah), creating choke points is probably one of the major unspoken reasons.
When you return OccupyOakland be very careful, stay strong
from Duccio in the comments
Fence taken down
On Network news tonight Wednesday they showed live pictures of the crowd--about 800 people--and the fence around the plaza area has been breached. People have flooded in and are sitting and standing there calmly. As of 6PM.
by Duccio on Wed Oct 26, 2011 at 10:45:22 PM EDT
The next move is the OPDs