Development
Police officers raided the Occupy Oakland encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza early Monday morning, evicting scores of protesters, arresting 32 people and closing off the plaza. There were no injuries, according to police.
On Sunday morning around 9 am, the Mayor Jean Quan issued a statement thanking Occupy Oakland protesters who have left the camp at Frank Ogawa Plaza voluntarily. The text is reprinted in its entirety here:
An urgent-sounding evacuate-now order from the city Saturday had Occupy Oakland protesters collecting their belongings and readying for a raid — but by midnight, after a heated argument between campers and a small faction of black-clad confrontationalists, the camp was still intact and settling for the night.
On Saturday evening around 7 pm, the Oakland City Administrator’s Office issued a Cease and Desist order directed at the Occupy Oakland protesters. The text is reprinted in its entirety here, including bold type and all-caps type as used in the original:
The attorneys representing the two people who were hit by a car during the Occupy Oakland strike march on November 2 held a press conference Friday at the Waterfront Hotel downtown, calling for the arrest of the man and woman who were in the vehicle during the accident. The attorneys also criticized the Oakland Police Department for not making any arrests and for the way officers have been conducting the investigation.
As the Oakland School Board moves forward with its plan to close five elementary schools in order to save $2 million, the California Supreme Court is considering whether redevelopment agencies should be required to give up some of their funding to support school districts and county services.
As the antiwar advocacy groups Veterans for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War held a joint press conference Friday afternoon in front of City Hall, near the center of the Occupy Oakland encampment in Frank Ogawa Plaza, Oakland Police arrived at the plaza and began handing out “Notice of Violations” fliers. The fliers stated that all belongings and infrastructure must be removed from the plaza “immediately.” They warned, “Your continued use of the Plaza for overnight lodging will subject you to arrest.”
Over the past month, protesters in hundreds of camps around the country have rolled out sleeping bags, set up food tents and trucked portable toilets into public spaces. Across the country, the reactions of city officials dealing with Occupy camps have ranged from supportive to baffled to downright angry.
Even if you set aside the tear gas and broken windows, it’s hard to keep things clean when thousands of people are gathered in one place. The city says that things have gotten so dirty it’s a danger to the neighborhood, but some of Oakland’s occupiers are working hard to clean up their act.