Economy
Hundreds of people attended the Thursday night Occupy Oakland City Council meeting, which lasted over five hours. The meeting was held to discuss recent events pertaining to Occupy Oakland, most notably the vandalism and property damage that occurred late Wednesday night when protesters clashed in the street with police officers. Almost 150 people signed up to speak before the council.
Raw footage shows Wednesday night’s violent confrontation between police and Occupy Oakland protesters, which lasted into the early morning. The clash followed a day of general strike actions against banks and the Port of Oakland, which was shut down.
Wednesday’s Occupy Oakland general strike began at 9 am and continued until early the next morning. According to the City Administrator’s Office, the demonstrations were “primarily peaceful protests with some isolated incidents of violence and vandalism.”
As many as 10,000 people participated in the Occupy Oakland “day of action” Wednesday. Reporters from Oakland North were on hand to capture all of the events of the day. The above slideshow is a series of photographs from throughout the day.
Oakland Community and Economic Development Agency has partnered with service organizations to create job opportunities for out-of-work youth while mitigating blight in the city’s commercial corridors. The city’s partnership with Men of Valor, a non-profit re-entry program in East Oakland that provides housing, job training and other services to high school drop-outs, recovering addicts and the formerly incarcerated, has proven so successful since it began in June—removing about 114 graffiti markings from 88 businesses along Foothill and International boulevards—that in October CEDA decided to expand the program and take on new partners.
Around midnight on Wednesday, confrontation flared between Occupy Oakland protesters and police officers near Telegraph, Broadway and 17th streets. A generally peaceful day of protests in which as many as 10,000 participated in what organizers called a “general strike” ended with clouds of tear gas, burning barricades and loud banging sounds.
A day during which thousands of people attended protests and marched through Oakland wound up this evening with as many as 10,000 protesters marching across the Highway 880 ramp and shutting down the Port of Oakland.
In front of downtown Oakland banks, some protesters staged peaceful and even comic demonstrations, while others smashed windows, blocked access to ATMs, and spray-painted graffitti.
Marches and protests continued Wednesday as part of the day of action organized by Occupy Oakland. Around 11:30 am, the Oakland Educational Association (OEA) teachers union, high school students and parents of children who attend the five Oakland elementary schools up for closure gathered in the outdoor plaza at Laney college in support of today’s strike.