Mayor releases statement on shooting, urges Occupy protesters to leave
on November 10, 2011
Oakland Mayor Jean Quan released a statement on Thursday night regarding the shooting of a young man near the Occupy Oakland encampment earlier that evening. The statement is reprinted here in its entirety:
Mayor’s Statement on Shooting in Downtown Oakland
Tragically, a young man was shot at 14th and Broadway tonight. But whether a murder occurs here or at 98th and International, I call on all Oaklanders to demand peace and reject violence anywhere. Whether this incident is related to the encampment, or is an unrelated act, it is unacceptable.
We heard that fights early in the day were broken up by people on Frank Ogawa Plaza.
Tonight’s incident underscores the reason why the encampment must end. The risks are too great. We need to return OPD resources to addressing violence throughout the city. It’s time for the encampment to end. Camping is a tactic, not a solution.
I call on the community to be united in the need for the camp to close. I am calling on campers to leave voluntarily. We have sent additional outreach workers tonight and made additional shelter beds available.
Our Measure Y outreach workers are reaching out to offer additional services. City Team Ministries, 722 Washington St., has beds for men, and for women, Crossroads Shelter, 7515 International Blvd. We appreciate the service workers at the Interfaith Tent who are also providing outreach to the homeless.
We need a peaceful resolution to the encampment. The campers need to leave voluntarily. I call on the community to be united around a peaceful resolution.
You can see Oakland North’s complete coverage of Occupy Oakland here.
12 Comments
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Here’s an idea Mayor Quan, how about you RESIGN because it is your complete failure as a leader that is responsible for this.
It was you, Mayor Quan, who decided to attack a peaceful encampment with teargas and rubber bullets and hospitalize at least two of us. How you have the nerve to turn around and accuse the peaceful people camped at OSCAR GRANT plaza of violence is beyond me. You give a bad name to lying hypocrites everywhere.
If you think the city cannot afford to maintain the constant police harassment of the occupation you’ve alternately pretended to support and then tried to destroy the obvious solution would be to remove them. Indeed, if you hadn’t made the decision to pull neighborhood cops off the streets in order to intimidate and harass people this poor young man might still be alive. His blood is on YOUR hands Mayor Quan, no one else’s.
And you can stop asking us to leave because we’re not going anywhere. The fact is the people of Oakland know that the General Assembly that meets every night in Oscar Grant Plaza is the only truly Democratic body in the city of Oakland and represents our community far better then the Oakland City Council or the Mayors office.
RESIGN Mayor Quan, and then pack your bags and get the hell out of Oakland. You’re not welcome here any longer.
Well, Quan’s hands and the hands of the people who actually killed him. that’s what I get for letting myself get all worked up when writing.
point still stands though, Occupy has nothing to do with this murder and everyone knows it. Mayor Quan and Councilman De La Fuente are using this as an excuse to try and advance their pre-existing personal agendas and deflect criticism away from the absolutely terrible jobs they’ve done.
I second what Lynx said. Especially this:
“… you can stop asking us to leave because we’re not going anywhere. The fact is the people of Oakland know that the General Assembly that meets every night in Oscar Grant Plaza is the only truly Democratic body in the city of Oakland and represents our community far better then the Oakland City Council or the Mayors office.
RESIGN Mayor Quan, and then pack your bags and get the hell out of Oakland. You’re not welcome here any longer.”
ARE YOU LISTENING, Ms. QUAN?
This person in Oakland thinks the city government is democratically elected by way more people than vote in the 90% consensus-format GA meetings I’ve witnessed. Our city government is deeply flawed, but OO isn’t so unflawed intself. Humility and civility all around might be a good approach. There ought to be negotiations between council, mayor, cops, and OO, and everyone should step out of their respective rigid and brittle positions.
Quan has accomplished only one thing all by herself in her 10 months in office: she has unified diverse Oakland against her.
Residents can differ on supporting the OO encampment or opposing it, supporting gang injunctions or opposing them, adding more cops vs anti-violence programs, higher parcel taxes vs cutting costs, funding pensions vs shifting the burden to the future younger residents.
But the one thing a majority of this town agrees on is that Quan is incompetent.
Petitions should be ready in about 10 days for signing.
-len raphael, temescal
member, The Recall Quan Committee
recallquan.com
recalljeanquan.com
[…] Jean Quan issued a statement urging Occupiers to leave their encampment. You can read her statement here. Share this:TwitterFacebookLike this:LikeBe the first to like this post. Tags: california, crime, […]
[…] incident underscores the reason why the encampment must end,” the mayor said in a statement. “The risks are too great. We need to return O.P.D. resources to addressing violence […]
Mayor Quan is egregiously jumping to conclusions that this tragic shooting had anything to do with Occupy Oakland. Occupy Oakland is not responsible for the OPD’s skewed priorities, Mayor Quan is responsible. Occupy Oakland is not responsible for the fact that instead of policing the city the OPD is harassing a peaceful protest, Mayor Quan is responsible. Young people are killing each other in the streets because they live in a society that condemns them to poverty and gives them no hope. To expect Occupy Oakland to have prevented such violence is to expect it to have already overcome the very conditions it is protesting.
[…] Mayor releases statement on shooting, urges Occupy protesters to leave […]
[…] incident underscores the reason why the encampment must end,” the mayor said in a statement. “The risks are too great. We need to return O.P.D. resources to addressing violence throughout […]
This is just what the politicians and police wanted. This all started with the cops bringing violence to a peaceful protest, so they could claim that the Occupy movement was violent. It is not. This is a separate incident that just happened to be near Occupy Oakland. Under the reasoning of the politicians and law enforcement officials, that would mean that everyone that lives or works near where someone was shot in Oakland should be removed. Happen to live on the corner where a bunch of gangsters shot each other? Sorry, you gotta go. Happen to have a business and someone was shot outside your door? Sorry, you have to go.
Their logic is flawed. This is the fault of the Oakland PD and and the politicians’ inability to control crime in the city. Quan has been desperate for an excuse to distract the people of the Bay Area from her horrible job at keeping Oakland safe and now her and the rest of the morons at City Hall are trying to convince us it’s the protesters fault.
Recall Quan. Fire the law enforcement leaders and bring in someone who can finally beat down the criminals like they deserve.
[…] occurrence underscores a reason because a outpost contingency end,” a mayor pronounced in a statement. “The risks are too great. We need to lapse O.P.D. resources to addressing assault around a city. […]