Vigilante response to Black Bloc anarchists of Occupy Oakland?
After the latest Occupy vandalism march on October 8th, it looks like some may just be fed up.
This flyer was apparently being distributed in Oakland.
Speculation among Occupy Oakland participants is rampant as to who might be behind the flyer, everything from aggrieved community member to a COINTELPRO plot by police.
But the most common guess is unhappy Occupy member.
Schisms have exploded over the past week between various elements of Occupy Oakland, with elements threatening each other, saying things like “we will hunt you down” and “no love all bullets and body bags”. See more here. Within the schism is an undercurrent of race, with disturbance being expressed by people of color over the “white” nature of such groups as the Oakland Commune.
The flyer itself doesn’t read as though it were a mere aggrieved citizen.
- it cites the date of October 25th. That is the day when Occupy is planning a big action and a possible re-occupation, something the normal citizen probably wouldn’t know.
- it appears to be calling on Occupy to “beat the shit out of anarchists”.
- it also claims to be from “DOOM” (Defend our Oakland Movement). Could mean just defend Oakland, or alternatively, defend our Oakland Movement(indicating involvement).
- it has a clear grievance against the “caucasian” nature of Occupy anarchists, echoing some of the underlying issues expressed in the schism talk.
Whoever it is, one would hope that this doesn’t indicate a ratcheting up of the violence in Oakland.
Communique from an anarchist in Oakland (with video)
Last night, Bay Area Occupiers from San Francisco, Oakland and surrounding environs held a “Hoodies & Hijabs” anti imperialist anti war march on the 11th anniversary of the start of the war in Afghanistan. The march was billed as being organized by ”Afghans for Peace”. As we noted in our prior article, after a few minutes of brief speeches at Frank Ogawa Plaza, they then spent under an hour smashing and vandalizing businesses, homes and cars in the downtown area. There were no arrests. More on the story here.
An old SDS (Students For a Democratic Society) poster that read, “Bring the war home” was used as a propaganda tool online.
Organizers urged marchers to wear hoodies or hijabs. During the march, chants included “Allahu Akbar”, ”Free Afghanistan” “Free Palestine”.
Here is a post from Anarchist News from an anarchist who participated in this action:
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Tonight was an intimate experience with the direct confrontation between what is wild and what is the negation of life. It was a little release from the choke of politics, of representation, and order. It’s a peek into a proper response to what we face as contained life.
Our symbiotic relationship between each other, our kenesis, chaos, and our ebb and flow outran the law. Our bodies are equipped with joy and it may be our most valuable weapon when under attack. In this most impersonal world where one can fly a drone and drop a bomb killing untold amounts of life, our intimate bonds of life—our animal nature unleashes. Of course The Oakland Scientific Facility got some of our rage.
Yesterday the state took 25 friends away from us. The destruction tonight was in part our response—the struggle continues. Whether staffing the legal call-in center, covering imprisoned friends work shifts, smashing police recruitment stations, raising bail, or etch bathing the Community Policing Centre in East Vancouver we take care of one another. Every day agents of the state take people away and imprison them, and while 25 of our friends were nabbed, about 35,948 other people were arrested and carted off to jail yesterday.
It didn’t start with Chase Bank and it doesn’t end with City Hall or the Police recruitment station. It all must go, every last vestige of this wretched earth, and it is always a violent phenomenon.
An incomplete list of some of the attacks:
The last big window of the old Obama office on telegraph (The office has since moved because Oakland is to real for ‘em)
The disgusting new Chase bank on 14th and Broadway
The whole side of California Bank.
Bank of the West
Some ATM’s here and there
Some condos here and there
Sears
Oakland Tribune
Kaiser Permanente Office
AC Transit
Rudys can’t fail
“Die yuppie scum” & “Gentry” were scrawled on some yuppie condos around 19th and Telegraph
OPD recruitment station
Oakland City Hall
Several BMW’s and some other posh cars
The Oakland Scientific Facility, which houses computers and data storage for Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.With love and dedication,
for myself
for the silent ones
for the revolutionary comrades behind bars
for the survivors and victims of US imperialism, colonialism, and war in Afghanistan, Palestine, and throughout the Muslim world.Fight Genocide, Destroy what is civilized.
Here is video of the event. The video is edited by a participant live steamer, PFailblog, with faces deliberately blurred to make recognition difficult.
Occupy vandalizes Oakland again, calls for “class war”
City Hall doors damaged. Credit ABC KGO News.
For the second day in a row, Occupiers in the Bay Area conducted a disruptive march, last night causing damage to several businesses in Oakland.
On Saturday, 22 were arrested during a “Fuck Columbus” anti-colonialism anti capitalist march in San Francisco. Around 3 pm in broad daylight, they threw paint bombs with rocks in them at cops and vandalized cars and businesses yesterday. After several of the paint attacks, police made the arrests. Charges ranged from conspiracy to assault on a police officer.
Last night was billed as an “Afghan led” anti imperialist anti war protest, “Hoodies and Hijabs” march, commemorating the start of the war in Afghanistan 11 years ago. They started out around 7 pm with a few speeches in front of city hall, but then went on an hour run of vandalizing businesses in Oakland. About 200 people marched through the downtown area smashing windows and throwing paint along the way. According to KGO 810 News, they broke large plate glass windows of three banks along Franklin Street. Six windows were attacked at the Chase Bank on Franklin. Doors and windows of the City Hall were damaged, as was the AC Transit office and the police recruiting office. The group also broke windows at the Oakland Tribune. KTVU noted several businesses were damaged including Kaiser Permanente and that cars were vandalized as well.
There were no arrests last night.
In a rambling statement posted on the Occupy Oakland website, the “Afghans for Peace” accuse US soldiers of atrocities and multiple instances of desecration of the ‘Holy Quran”. They also claim the military has “Kill teams”. They call for US soldiers to “go AWOL, refuse to fight and start a revolt amongst your ranks”. They closed their statement with “say no to all wars, except class war”.
Anti-capitalist Occupy anarchists cause havoc against banks in Oakland (updated)
A group that included Occupy Oakland members, radical gay activists and other anarchists created havoc in Oakland after a march yesterday.
The march was organized after they found out that Oakland had a fee to enter the gay pride event held on Sunday. The rioters apparently wanted to “take action against the commercialization of their life struggle”, according to one local participant account.
The group utilized black bloc tactics, dressing alike in black to make it harder to identify them and smashed windows and ATMs in the financial district.
According to PFailBlog, a local anarchist blog:
The targeted property destruction, seen in the video above, is inspired by the violence perpetrated on a daily basis by capitalism & it’s banks. The main target seemed to be Bank of America, as it sustained substantial damage to it’s front windows and ATMs. All machines were left unusable, sending a firm message to the institution that the people are rising up and fighting back.
There were further unconfirmed reports of anarchists taking down a fence, struggling with police to keep fellow members from being arrested and attacking a police car. Those reports cannot be confirmed at this time.
No arrests or injuries occurred and marchers dispersed about an hour after the start of the action.
Update with more details from Mercury News:
According to the Mercury News, about 50 to 60 marchers, several of whom covered their faces with pink bandannas, amassed at Snow Park at 5:30 p.m. and tried unsuccessfully to crash the gate at the Pride Festival, which was taking place in Oakland’s Uptown District. Around the same time, police said several agitators smashed windows and ATMs at the nearby Bank of America branch at 300 Lakeside Drive.
The marchers continued to move through city streets for the next hour, tagging several buildings and spray painting an anarchist symbol on a police vehicle. They dispersed about 6:30 p.m., police said. No arrests were made.
Much of the graffiti vandalism was still visible Monday morning.
The Sears at Broadway and 20th Street was tagged with red spray paint that read “Destroy Capitalism” and “Queer Riots Now.” A vacant building on the corner of 19th and Broadway was tagged with “Queer Revolt.”
Less than a block down on Broadway, the Community Bank of the Bay was tagged with an anarchy symbol and the words, “Queers: Burn Banks.”
Gesturing at police. Credit anarchist at PFailBlog
Occupiers storm Obama campaign headquarters in Oakland and Portland, scuffle with staffers (video)
In a coordinated effort (and we leave how coordinated and with whom to your imagination), Occupy Oakland and Occupy Portland stormed Obama campaign headquarters in their respective cities in Oakland, California and Portland, Oregon. The Occupy group in Oakland was comprised of the far left organizations including Iraq Vets against the War(including Scott Olsen who was injured in October of last year at a protest) and Code Pink. Both groups are active members of Occupy. The headquarters in Oakland still had boarded up windows from Occupy smashing the windows out on August 3.
After members stormed the office in Oakland. they read a formal statement by bullhorn asking President Obama to apologize to Bradley Manning for saying he broke the law, for better treatment and for a pardon for Bradley Manning. Bradley Manning is awaiting trial on charges related to leaking government documents.
Protesters crowd the Oakland office here.
Photos of Code Pink and Iraq Vets Against the War members blocking the doorway in Oakland, Scott Olsen is 4th from the left, with the long blond hair:
After storming the office in Oakland, they got into a scuffle with Obama staffers when Occupiers climbed on top of and over chairs and tried to move further into the working area of the office.
Video taken by Scott Olsen:
Police were called in both locations. See pictures of Portland and in Oakland of police. A hostage negotiator actually had to be called out in Oakland to talk with seven Occupiers, who refused to leave. Police lost patience and moved in to make the arrests in Oakland around 9 pm last night. Scott Olsen was the only one of the seven not arrested, as they were given a last opportunity to leave and he left. Six were arrested in Oakland and five are reported to have been arrested in Portland.
After the arrests in Oakland, other demonstrators marched on the Oakland Police station.
Reports this morning indicate that the people arrested in Oakland have been released already, except for one who will be held over the weekend.
The last time that Obama campaign headquarters faced “occupation” or sit ins was when illegal aliens occupied the offices in some locations in the week prior to President Obama granting amnesty to those who were brought here as children.
Occupy anarchists attack Obama HQs with kids inside
Occupy Oakland had another “FTP”(Fuck the Police March) last night in Oakland, California.
Occupy Oakland
About 100 people marched. During the march, some smashed the windows of cars, with one report of them surrounding a woman in a car as they attacked it. They also tossed rocks and bricks through the windows of Obama Headquarters in downtown Oakland. Tweets note that children were inside the headquarters at the time.
I was inside the Obama campaign office in Oakland earlier when protestors hit our windows with rocks & paint. Srsly?? There's kids in here!
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Sh▲i▲n (@shaianisreal) August 04, 2012@OakFoSho also someone tweeted that they were there, and said were kids there; also saw someone said there was cake, so it was a party?
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♡Anon♡ (@LauraAllen55) August 04, 2012Windows at the headquarters:
Image source: Twitter user @davidcolburn
KGO News
Other Occupiers celebrated the destruction:
So many stupid laws are being shattered right now in Oakland. Lovin' it. #OO #StreetParty
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Political Fail Blog (@PFailBlog) August 04, 2012Lots of love to #OO tonight, looks like they are doing it #RAD style. Keep dancing. Keep speaking truth! @OccupyUptown @21JS_
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ChiTownPhilly (@PhilipDeVon1) August 04, 2012Hey USA, = is how #occupyoakland roles: smash a ObamaHQ window, streetparty 2 blocks away #oo #ows #osf #ochi (live at ustre.am/IyLE)
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(@Ergoat) August 04, 2012One even accused the Obama workers inside of breaking out the windows from the inside:
Again, 90% plus of that glass on the ground is what the Obama workers smashed from inside live KTVU #oo #FTP (live at ustre.am/IyLE)
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(@Ergoat) August 04, 2012While police were reportedly following the march, there were apparently no arrests reported at this time.
Oakland Labor March shows Occupy losing influence
Are the SEIU and unions ready to start throwing Occupy under the bus?
Since Occupy started, the group has made every effort to bring in like minded liberal-oriented organizations with some success.
But, according to SF Gate, with all the violence that Occupy has been involved with all over the Bay Area, Oakland Occupy “appeared to be losing some of its cachet”.
Attempts by Occupy Oakland adherents to join the March for Dignity demonstration – an annual event that predates the Occupy movement and involves thousands of demonstrators for immigrant and worker rights – didn’t go too well.
The March for Dignity folks had permits to march from the Fruitvale BART Station to Oakland City Hall. Occupy protesters apparently wanted to get in with this huge crowd and waited at San Antonio Park to join the tail end of the March for Dignity to City Hall.
“There were some heated conversations between Occupy and the organizers for the March for Dignity,” said Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan. “At one point (immigrant) marchers stopped and took a different route to avoid the Occupy people who were in the (San Antonio) park.”
The largest march in Oakland on Tuesday wasn’t organized by Occupiers. It was organized by Dignity and Resistance. And that group’s event had no incidents involving police.
In downtown Oakland, where Occupy protesters staged a demonstration, 39 people were arrested during the course of the day, police said.
“We’ve been planning this a long time,” said Miguel Perez, a representative of the group that organized the march. “This march is about immigration and labor. It’s not Occupy.”
Many marchers actually refused to go near the occupiers:
Many of the marchers cut their participation short at San Antonio Park, refusing to go to City Hall after hearing of the clashes Occupy was having with police there. Those who did continue to City Hall left when the march ended, packing up their signs and banners.
“We are peaceful protesters,” said Gary Jimenez, vice president of Service Employees International Union Local 1021. “We don’t condone the destruction of property or vandalism. We believe in using our voices.”
Note the rejection by the SEIU local vice president. More disavowal by unions may be on the way.
Marchers weren’t about to be co-opted by privileged protesters:
The March for Dignity was a community event that included senior citizens, children and families all marching for a common cause – their cause. It’s hardly a recruitment center for mask-wearing, middle-class and privileged white kids who arrive by bicycle and try and win the crowd. These are people with varying degrees of legal residence who came to this country willingly – and most want to stay.
HT: Maddley Burns
Occupiers rampage through the Bank of the West in Oakland
Occupiers veer off in a clearly organized May Day attack. Notice not only the organized destruction but the organized camera making sure the “attack” on the evil bank is properly recorded. Also the one brave employee lady who tells them to “get out”:
