Police are amassing somehwere in Oakland now to clear the plaza.
(Will post images as they come in)
The Occupy Oakland text alert (that used reports from law enforcement family members to correctly predict the first raid) has sent this message out tonight.
From XXXXX
Multiple confirmations of early morning raid of OO plaza. Get downtown by 2 or 3 at the latest. All out to defend the Oakland Commune!
Now, just posted at The Bay Citizen
The Oakland Police Department is planning an enormous operation to evict hundreds of Occupy Oakland protesters from their encampment near City Hall early Monday morning, according to police and city offcials with direct knowledge of the plans.
Oakland has agreed to pay for 700-to-1,000 officers from numerous agencies to be deployed over the next three days, according to an Oakland official who agreed to speak on the condition of anonymity. The operation was shaping up as the largest and most expensive police action in Oakland in recent memory.
The extra 700-1,000 officers will be used not only to sweep the camp, but also to try to hold it from being taken back... as nextdoor Berkeley goes out on Strike on Tuesday.
Police declined comment on reports of the raid, but labor organizers were hurriedly making plans to protect the encampment Sunday as word of the impending police action spread among the protesters.
Source: The Bay Citizen (http://s.tt/...)
Quan is following through on her threat to (using armed violence-imho) evict Occupy Oakland once again, despite the violence her assembled coterie of police agents used last time. There's not just two veterans, there are many. 34 Veterans (from Iraq Veterans Against The War & Veterans For Peace) marched the night before last in solidarity with Occupy Oakland.
Remember what happened after the Mayor Quan used 500 police tried to close down Occupy Oakland & arrested Allie123 & some hundred other occupiers? Remember how that turned into tens of thousands of us on Nov 2? Quan has forgotten already. She'll be reminded later today, tomorrow, & in the days to come.
Good lord, Quan, you can't crush this movement with violence-it is a non-violent movement.
The last time Quan sent the police in to wreak havoc on flesh, bones & non-human objects (such as food, tents, & sleeping bags)...she succeeded in wreaking havoc...and in recreating a much enlarged & energized Occupation movement.
When the Berkeley chancellor tried the same thing a couple days ago & arrested 34, he did the same. Berkeley has their General Strike scheduled for next Tuesday. The Oakland GA has voted to march to Berkeley on the day of the strike, just like many in Berkeley marched to aid Oakland on (& before) Nove 2.
Does Quan think the Occupy movement will evaporate because she resorts to violence? It will not.
I've met veterans at Occupy Oakland. JPMassar reported the night before last that there were 30 veterans there. Doug was one of them. He's the one often working in the medic tent. If he's arrested, Quan's police won't replace him. Other vets will though.
In a city with 101 homicides in the last year, why are police wasting time & resources in attacking peaceful protestors.
A couple of days ago, in spite of the 101 homicides already in Oakland, Quan used the most recent one to scapegoat the Occupy movement. "I'm calling on the campers to please leave voluntarily tonight."
This evening she's doing it. & she''ll be doing it with violence.
-------------
The last time the empty camp looked like this after-
And was surrounded by this-
And then by Nov 2 we had this-
Tina Dupuy, managing editor of Crooks & Liars, also of The Atlantic, said last night in Frank Owaga plaza, "Oakland has become the epicenter of the Occupied Movement. Every Occupy site I've been to is in solidarity with Oakland." This movement has a thousand epicenters, & when one is hit we all feel it.
INFO:
OFFICIAL ANNOUNCEMENT (11/10/11)
If for any reason there is a raid and the camp is disbanded, we will reconvene the next day at the Main Branch of the Oakland Public Library at 4pm.
Our own Allie123 is great source for on the spot tweets from the epicenter of Oakland.
Occupy Oakland's livestream.
There's also live-blog.
Legal info
Legal Hotline 415-285-1011
Medic Hotline 510-712-8129
The legal & medical committee will be meeting at SF Pizza 15th & broadway on tuesday at noon re: bail & other legal questions.
(UPDATE: Just saw JPM's diary
& removed "live-blog" from this-then saw he said he was going to sleep. So, lol, I'll start this as a live-blog assuming he doesn't wake up in the next few hours, lol).
(UPDATE: 1:08 A.M.)
1. Photo below showing police vans lining up at Coliseum 20 minutes ago. Other tweets claiming police are suiting up in parking lot.
2. Just got text from OO at 1:11 a.m.
"We need people down here. Numbers on low side."
(UPDATE: 1:24 a.m.)
1. Now confirmed: 30+ police vans, cars & buses at Coliseum.
2. live-blog back up.
(UPDATE: 1:51 a.m.)
1. My new friend Doug (Iraq War Vet) just on livestream & estimates crowd size now at 400-500. Many Teamster, Longshoremen & SEIU jackets seen.
2. Livestream in Oakland is on Al-Jazeera.
(UPDATE: 3:00 a.m.)
1. Police Buses still at staging ground at Coliseum
2. Some tents taken down to preserve them for future use (after the projected 2-3 days of police action).
(UPDATE: 3:15
From Allie123 (Thanks AngelaJean)
Photo (below) of armored buses leaving the coliseum & heading for the occupation (or, more of Quan's White Doves of peace being released).
(UPDATE: 4:15 A.M)
Local KRON 4 TV airing extensive coverage of the "anaconda" of police forces "slowly wrapping in closer & closer." Strange analogy, but the reporter is actually doing a good job of pointing out the diversity of the crowd &...yes...their calmness (he actually pointed it out) in the face of overwhelming force.
(UPDATE: 4:30 A.M.)
1.A man runs by yelling, "The British are coming, the British are coming" -& the crowd yells back, "The police are coming, the police are coming."
2. KRON reporter sees the 1st SWAT van.
3. Hayward & Fremont Police identified, but Oakland PD not seen yet.
4. Union rank & file set up picket line on 14th & Broadway.
(UPDATE: 5:00 A.M)
1. Buses arrive at plaza via San Pablo.
2. Police in riot gear marching across the street to plaza right now.
(UPDATE: 5:40 A.M.)
1. Oakfosho live-stream (link above) walks line of police (photo below) & IDs 11 Agencies.
San Mateo, Burlingame, Hillsboro, Foster City, So. SF, Alameda County, Hayward, Fremont, Oakland, Pacifica & another name I missed.
2. Meanwhile, local CBS 5 actually interviewed a 70-ish year-old SEIU member on TV about why they were supporting Occupy Oakland by picketing.
3. Police have now erected the familiar metal barricades to seperate people from the camp.
(UPDATE: 6:08 A.M.)
1. Police now arresting occupiers at the Inter-faith coalition tent (whose members had earlier been gently singing, "Help me do what I must do.").
2. Most occupiers are now physically seperated from the camp by barricades manned by the police.
(UPDATE: 6:33 A.M.)
1. From Allie123 comes the below photo of a marriage happening now outside the police barricades
2. SF Chronicle reporting that Dan Siegel, my one-time attorney & life-saver, has resigned in protest over as Quan's legal advisor over this raid. For those who know, he was the one who said decades ago in Berkeley, "Let's take the park!"
(UPDATE 7:35 A.M.)
1. The city government will hold a press conference at 8:15 to explain their actions.
2. From JP Massar
HugeAtomicFreak Richard Edwards
To be fair they have arrested some dangerously violent radicals who were aggressively praying in the interfaith tent. #occupyoakland
3. If you do not see how OWS in general, & OO in particular, has just won another victory...then please go back & read prior updates in this diary. You'll see people of faith getting arrested, stalwarts of labor picketing with the movement, & the most diverse community in the world standing up together in the lonely hours of the night...unafraid.
Meeting today at 4 p.m. at the main Oakland Library. March tomorrow to join the Berkeley Strike. Then (if not before), even Quan knows, the tents will return where they belong when the 100s of hired police go home.
Thank you to the brave souls who put their bodies on the line. Thank you to the people who decided to get arrested. Thank all commentators below. Thank you OWS for being a flexible movement.
(UPDATE 8:20 A.M.)
1. Approximately 30 arrests reported.
2. No injuries reported.
3. No vandalism reported.
(UPDATE 8:44 A.M.)
1. Press conference over. 32 Arrests (9 from Oakland). No camping equipment,tents or sleeping bags will be allowed. Quan says that her college friend & legal adviser, Dan Siegel, is merely moving on. Dan has said on FB he resigned rather than be aligned with an administration that attacts unarmed protestors. Meanwhile, Quan is absolutely hoarse & barely able to get through the press conference. Next city press conference at 1:00. Important decisions about the future of the plaza will be discussed at the main Oakland Libarary at 4 this afternoon.
Thanks Dan...again.