Occupy Oakland 10/25/11 - Your tax dollars at work
As I was preparing for the show this morning, reports started crossing my twitter stream of violent police action against the protesters at Occupy Oakland. The picture above was taken by someone on the scene… Hundreds of cops in riot gear, including officers from surrounding municipalities as backup… against peaceful protesters.
This video was shot by someone there and posted on the ustream account of punkboyinsf. At around 16:00 in, you see a citizen journalist thrown to the ground by police; at around 17:00, tear gas is used;
He was livestreaming via his cellphone (something I’ll have to try one of these days)… but I hope to not get hit by tear gas as he was at around 17:30… He said the cop tried to tell him it was the occupiers gassing them! Pretty powerful citizen reporting.
The Occupy Oakland website has lots more on this morning’s pre-dawn raid.
This morning at 5am over 500 police in riot gear from cities all over central California brutally attacked the Occupy Oakland encampment at 14th & Broadway. The police attacked the peaceful protest with flash grenades, tear gas, and rubber bullets after moving in with armored vehicles. Apparently the media was not allowed in to document this repression, and the police established barricades as far apart as 11th and 17th. Over 70 people were arrested and the camp gear was destroyed and/or stolen by the riot police.
Contact the mayor and tell her what you think of her actions.
Reconvene today at 4pm at the Oakland Library on 14th & Madison. Occupy Oakland is not finished, it has only begun
If anything, the actions of the police will only make the protesters more resolute in their occupations.
I had already arranged to have Joshua Holland of AlterNet on the show this morning to talk about his coverage of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Joshua happens to live in San Francisco, and was awakened by someone alerting him of the raid at 5am PT… We talked about the differences of the police response to the occupations between SF and Oakland, and talked about these pieces Joshua wrote in the past week about the movement:
Occupy the Boardroom: 9 Angry, Heart-Breaking Messages to Wall Street’s Elites From the 99%
How Video of Police Behaving Badly Made Occupy Wall Street a Global Phenomenon
Which Bank Is the Worst for America? 5 Behemoths That Hold Our Political System Hostage
We Have a First Amendment Right to Protest — So Why All These Arrests Around Occupy Wall Street?
In hour two, The Political Carnival’s GottaLaff joined in to talk about some of the stories we might otherwise have missed this week, and premiere a new Blunt webisode:
The Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann campaigns are a mess. “Rude, unprofessional, dishonest, and at times cruel.”
The L.A. Times essentially calls Michele Bachmann a big ol’ liar. TPC provides the bullet points.
Florida teacher could face thousands of dollars in fines for helping students register to vote
Ruh-roh! Romneycare allows free care for some undocumented immigrants!
Chemical bomb tossed into Occupy Maine encampment
Herman Cain the “outsider” was “an ultimate Washington insider: industry lobbyist.”
Eric Cantor: I canceled my speech after learning it was open to the public. University: Um, it always was.
VIDEO and PhotOH! Hey! Eric Cantor!
91-year-old can’t get voter ID because she was too frail to stand in line long enough
And just because everyone MUST see this…Herman Cain’s new TV ad… Warning: This comes from Herman Cain’s campaign; It is not a parody from the Onion, Funny or Die, or even SNL….