Posts Tagged ‘Occupy Oakland’
Oakland North’s biggest news stories of 2012
2012 was a year of big changes for Oakland, as the city dealt with its struggling finances, a possible federal takeover of its police department, multiple petitions to recall the mayor and the closure of several elementary schools.
Read MoreTwo arrests, no reports of vandalism, graffiti after Occupy march
Apart from patches of dusty, multicolored chalk art on the sidewalks—a remnant of Chalkupy—little evidence of last night’s march and gathering commemorating the first police raid on an Occupy Oakland encampment remained Friday morning. Despite declarations that the group would hold an all-night vigil, and rumors that they might attempt to set up a new encampment, the only people at Frank Ogawa Plaza this morning were security guards, commuters and City of Oakland maintenance workers.
Read MoreAfter peaceful downtown march, Occupy protesters return to plaza
On the night of the one-year anniversary of the police raid on the first Occupy Oakland encampment, a crowd of Occupy Oakland protesters zig-zagged on a march through the downtown before returning to Frank Ogawa Plaza, where they declared that they planned to hold an all-night vigil. The six-hour protest Thursday night, which drew no…
Read MoreA look back on Occupy Oakland a year after the first raid on the camp
A year ago today, in a dawn raid, Oakland police cleared the downtown encampment that was drawing national attention as the center of Occupy Oakland. This story reconstructs that raid and the remarkable, controversial sequence of public disruptions that held the city’s attention for many weeks.
Read MoreOccupy anniversary begins with calm afternoon at Frank Ogawa Plaza
The one-year anniversary commemoration of the first early morning police raid on the Occupy Oakland encampment at Frank Ogawa Plaza has been quiet so far, and a press conference sponsored by Occupy Oakland scheduled to take place at noon failed to materialize.
Read MoreMonitor: Oakland Police backsliding on reforms
The Oakland Police Department has slid backward in its nearly decade-long effort to comply with court ordered reforms, the independent monitor of the department wrote in a quarterly report released Monday.
Read MoreStepping down as Mayor Quan’s spokesperson, Sue Piper reflects on challenging years
For the two years since Jean Quan was elected mayor in Oakland’s first ranked-choice voting election, the voice of her administration—through multiple turbulent situations—has been Susan Piper, who retired last month as Quan’s official spokesperson.
Read MoreNearly six months later, two Occupy benefit albums struggle to break even
In May, Rob “Reason” Silver, a part-time record producer from Oakland, and Jason Samel, the owner of a small insurance brokerage in New York, announced their nearly identical but independently conceived plans to bring a new element into the national Occupy protest—marketability. Both had come to the conclusion that there was potential within the anti-capitalistic, determinedly decentralized protest to sell a product that could help raise funds and draw in new supporters. In May, both men launched Occupy benefit albums.
Read MoreNeighbors organize an outdoor library in the Fruitvale
Over the past two weeks an impromptu library has sprung up on the location of the former Latin American Library in the Fruitvale district. A group of nearly fifteen people, including a few Occupy Oakland protesters and several community members, have been loaning out books, constructing planters for gardening and holding community meetings.
Read MoreOakland restores City Hall plaza and lawn, damaged by Occupy campsite
Nearly a year after the Occupy protest coalesced in downtown Oakland, a longsuffering casualty of the protest is finally being attended to as the City of Oakland begins a full-scale restoration of the lawn of Frank H. Ogawa Plaza. The project involves the removal and replacement of all grass sod in the plaza—a new lawn, essentially, from scratch.
Read MoreBradley Manning supporters occupy Obama campaign office in Oakland
Barely one week after the Obama campaign office on Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland had one of its window panes shattered by Occupy protesters, at least 100 protesters calling for the release of jailed U.S. Army soldier Private First Class Bradley Manning invaded the campaign offices Thursday, occupying them for at least three hours and bringing business to a standstill before police forced them out.
Read MoreSF Mime Troupe brings a play about Occupy to Oakland
It’s Wednesday night, and just over a hundred people had filed into Lakeside Park—just off of Bellevue Avenue—to see The San Francisco Mime Troupe perform “For The Greater Good, or The Last Election” during it’s annual run through the city. The play transformed the Occupy protests into a melodrama. Its narrative, filled with the tensions of Occupy—protests, an encampment, and death—also played on morality and the nature of fate.
Read MoreJobless protestors target president Obama’s campaign offices in Oakland
Protesters demanding the implementation of a jobs creation program disrupted business at President Barack Obama’s campaign office on Telegraph Avenue in downtown Oakland Wednesday, calling for an end to increased military spending, government surveillance of citizens and cuts to education.
Read MoreAfter school camp shut-down, Lakeview supporters march to superintendent’s house
On Wednesday evening, a crowd of nearly 150 people, many of them parents, kids, and Occupy Oakland protesters, gathered on the concrete steps of Lakeview Elementary School hours after their two-week-old tent city was raided by Oakland Unified School District police and other law enforcement officers. The encampment was an effort to protest the district’s decision to close five elementary schools —Lakeview, Lazear, Marshall, Maxwell and Sante Fe—and keep all neighborhood schools open.
Read MoreLakeview Elementary protesters mark 16 days with film screening, tightened security
After 16 days, the number of tents visible at the encampment at Lakeview Elementary School has doubled and protesters have changed their rules: No one is allowed to know the number of kids or adults who occupy the site in an effort to avoid a police raid. To celebrate the first two weeks of the sit-in protesting the closure of Oakland elementary schools and the launch of the People’s School of Public Education, the tent city residents hosted a community potluck on Sunday, as well as a documentary screening.
Read MoreEncampment continues at Lakeview as protesters demand district reopen closed schools
On Tuesday a second “stay away” order was issued by the Oakland Unified School District to protesters currently occupying the Lakeview Elementary School property but a small group of people continued to camp on the school grounds overnight as well as hold classes and community speak outs there during the day.
“We reserve the right to remove protesters from the premises,” said OUSD spokesperson Troy Flint.
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