Holy crap.
As many of you know, on Monday night, Oakland police raided the Occupy Oakland encampment, arresting and tear-gassing residents and destroying the entire camp. Last night, 500-1500 people reportedly came out to protest, and they were met with tear gas, rubber bullets, a sound cannon and concussion grenades.
Just to portray the seriousness of this, here is a protesting man, reportedly a veteran, shot in the face with a nonlethal round (difficult, NSFW). (The police chief denied the use of rubber bullets.)
I probably wouldn’t believe the blatant Orwellianness of this all if I hadn’t been watching the live feed myself (I’m in LA), but right as the police began firing, the news choppers—both of them, from CBS and ABC—left the scene, apparently claiming a need “to refuel.”
Channel 7 did have someone on the ground. Here they are in the midst of some tear gas.
This seems to be a movement best covered by independent media, at least for now. Oakland North is doing a wonderful job.
Also, Xeni Jardin at BoingBoing has a great roundup, and she points to this other great roundup at The Lede.
Protestors are meeting again today at 6pm, 14th and Broadway, saying “we will not be moved.” If you can, go. I wish I was there. This is important.
A army medic at reddit on what to do about tear gas.
In the meantime, Oakland Mayor Jean Quan released a somewhat insulting statement and is in DC while all this goes on. She is facing a recall and terrible poll numbers. She’s also taking heat for deleting angry posts from her Facebook wall. Will she be the first politician Occupy takes down?
UPDATE: Boots Riley from the Coup in Oakland right after the attacks making a helluva lot of sense.
Also, here’s some notes on protest safety from an OccupyLA medic.
