Occupy Oakland 11-2 Strike: Police Tear Gas, Black Bloc, War in the Streets

http://www.mediaroots.org/media-roots-tv-occupy-oakland-general-strike-afterm...

Abby Martin of Media Roots was on the front lines of the war in the streets of Oakland during the aftermath of the Occupy Oakland general strike and shutdown of the port on November 2, 2011.

Over 10,000 peaceful protesters successfully shut down the Port of Oakland, the fifth largest port in the country at 8pm earlier that night. About two hours later, the anarchist "Black Bloc" came to downtown, smashing windows of banks and setting trash cans on fire.

The Oakland PD in full riot gear lined up and marched toward the now out of control rally. They started firing smoke grenades and tear gas into the crowd of people, to which people starting throwing bottles and other objects back to the police.

After the crowd scattered, the police lined up and starting to close in and arrest the remaining protesters at the Occupy Oakland camp.

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Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• occupy oakland
• media roots
• abby martin
• tear gas
• rubber bullets
• smoke
• grenade
• flash bomb
• war
• strike
• occupy wall street
• journalism
• activism
• anarchists
• black bloc
• rally
• assembly
• reporting
• police brutality

[JJNoire]

Abby, those weren't "anarchists" no matter what they call themselves. They are no different from Republican saber-rattlers or the young testosterone jocks who are easy fodder for military recruiters on high school campuses. This is simply "the side" they picked. There is a time to face off with cops/military and a time not to. Immediately following the highly successful & peaceful General Strike was not one of those times. Infiltrators, uncover cops provoking a scene to eclipse the GenStrike

[AbbyMediaRoots]

@JJNoire You are absolutely right. Anarchism is philosophically peaceful and I shouldn't have made that generalization. Interestingly enough, the police didn't attempt to single out the easy-to-distinguish "Black Bloc" individuals who were actually instigating violence, instead they used horrendous methods of crowd control on thousands of people.

[DHCMAV]

Our forfathers would have been shooting by now...

[continuityofliberty]

It's too bad standing and yelling the dominant method of protesting.

Sitting down and remaining quiet would be a better approach because it would make ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS look more foolish when they attack.

[Blacuchops]

FPS! lol

[NewMadrid01]

There is no possible way to get anything through matters of peace anymore. This whole world is so corrupt. The elites do not care about any of us.

[DKingSoaD]

@continuityofliberty then maybe you should watch the mace spraying of the Occupiers in UC Davis, they all linked arms while sitting down & the riot cops replied that the protesters 'surrounded' the cops, resulting in their excessive force.

Whether we sit down or stand up, it will happen. It's the numbers we need, waking up the American Sheeple is a huge task, but it must happen. I was there & i watched as riot cops attacked us before they ever gave their dispersal warnings!!

[quoe1]

peaceful protests dont work!!

[spacegeeks3]

anyone notice we are using more force and injuring more people than the Egyptian dictatorship during the revolution? WOW america fuck this i'm off to Canada....

[pitasmith1]

@JJNoire You've never heard propaganda of the deed?

Yeah I don't know why they keep advocating it either...

[anarcrustie]

@JJNoire as for fashion statements, the argument i was responding to was that these images overshadowed and "canceled" images of the General Strike in the media. this assumes that media images can have an enlightening and even galvanizing effect, an assumption i'm willing to run with.

my point, then, was that the image of a large group of people, clearly from diverse cultural/political backgrounds, united by anonymity and defiantly confronting the police together is also powerfully positive.

[anarcrustie]

@JJNoire and also... the nazis! i'm probably a nazi, right?

no input or consent? the GA supported autonomous building occupations fool! also, once again, the entire day involved aggressive illegal tactics. folks showing up should have known what to expect.

also, this action has now been replicated in other cities, the tactic of autonomous building occupation is spreading, which the communique from this action states was the main goal. so successful action, even if botched?

[JJNoire]

@anarcrustie Again, "anacrustie," I was there. I'm not sure why you are steering your comments toward fashion statements, as that isn't the point. The point is failed strategy that puts others at risk without their input or consent. The 16tth & Telegraph action called cops down upon the camp and effected others who had chosen different tactics. Not 'reg vs vandals.' You removed their choice & made them 'collateral damage.' Who else does that? Oh yeah, the US military. Sure you're not a cop?

[anarcrustie]

@JJNoire

A) there was a black bloc at the anti-capitalist march earlier in the day, and presumably the same folks attended the port shutdown as well.

B) this group is also pretty diverse- a few look like black bloc, but most are wearing normal clothes and improvised masks. you see quite a few people of colour with bandanas or keffiyehs up throwing teargas canisters back at the cops.

overall, the divergence you are drawing between "regular people protesting" and "vandalism" is a media myth.