Mike Peake at Unlikely Stories: Episode IV

Oakland Officials Caught in Lies about Attacking Occupy
by Mike Peake

"Officials" in Oakland have been blatantly lying since their first police riot against Occupy Oakland in late October.

When riot police first were sent to attack Occupy Oakland, police had the two helicopter internet live feeds shut off moments before police attacked the protesters (and in the attack, very nearly killed Iraqi Veteran Scott Olsen). They did so in order to lie about what then occurred, to blame the peaceful protesters. Here is what they said happened:

"Q. Did the Police deploy rubber bullets, flash-bag grenades?
A. No, the loud noises that were heard originated from M-80 explosives thrown at Police by protesters. In addition, Police fired approximately four bean bag rounds at protesters to stop them from throwing dangerous objects at the officers."

"Q. Did the Police use tear gas?
A. Yes, the Police used a limited amount of tear gas for a small area as a defense against protesters who were throwing various objects at Police Officers as they approached the area. The objects included glass bottles, rocks, pots, pans, kitchen utensils and plates at Police Officers. In addition, the protesters sprayed a Fire Extinguisher on Police Officers." ¹

Unfortunately, later-released video clearly shows no protester throwing anything at police, or being threatening to provoke police assault; it does show police attacking with flash-bangs and tear gas:

When people attempted to help the fallen Scott Olsen, they were again attacked with flash-bangs. In the time prior to the police attack, do you see anything being thrown at cops? Anyone getting in their faces? Police attacked people attempting to help a fallen, unmoving man. Police did not one thing to help a man in obvious trouble. Did any of them turn to their fellows and demand that they do something to help the injured man? If so, I'd love to hear about it.

Here are the nice rubber bullets:

Shamus Collins:

"Department declines to offer evidence substantiating Chief's assertions, downgrades them to 'preliminary belief'..." ²

Oakland officials knew crime had dropped 19% since the camp was formed:

"When Jordan received an update that crime was actually down 19 percent in the last week of October, he wrote an email to one of Mayor Jean Quan's advisers. 'Not sure how you want to share this good news," he wrote. 'It may be counter to our statement that the Occupy movement is negatively impacting crime in Oakland.'" ³

So why would anyone believe anything from the mass media or most especially, from the Oakland lie factory, regarding Occupy? Especially when the local 1% had been threatening Quan to remove the Occupation:

"The protest has been allowed to run its course. Now it's time to focus on jobs and the economic restoration of our city. It's time for bold leadership and forceful action, not unending social experimentation. We call upon the Oakland City Council and the Mayor of Oakland to step up and provide cohesive, common sense leadership—before it really is too late." ⁴

"The Oakland Metro Chamber of Commerce has been quite vocal with their mantra of 'OCCUPY OAKLAND ENCAMPMENT MUST GO! OCCUPY OAKLAND ENCAMPMENT MUST GO! OCCUPY OAKLAND ENCAMPMENT MUST GO!' as they twist the arms of elected officials and try to engender popular support for their position. Now today, the Lake Merritt/Uptown District (business) Association, claiming to be a part of the '99%', has piled on, delivering a letter to the Mayor calling for 'forceful action' to end the 'social experimentation' of Occupy Oakland." ⁵

Quan has also let slip that 18 mayors had been conference-calling about Occupy. ⁶ And here are two confirmed police infiltrating Occupy Oakland early on:

One of them later released a video "explaining" things, but why would you believe someone who is paid to lie to your face, to get you to trust him, who is good enough at it that he is paid to do so? Whose job is betrayal? And who chooses every day to belong to this group of proven, blatant liars, who has their best interest at heart (and also his wallets)?

Here are cops in a later raid shooting a peaceful journalist, Scott Campbell, with a rubber bullet:

Army veteran injured in Oakland clashes with police

"The veteran, identified as Kayvan Sabeghi, was the second former American serviceman during the past two weeks to be badly hurt in confrontations between anti-Wall Street protesters and police in Oakland. 'He told me he was in the hospital with a lacerated spleen and that the cops had jumped him,' Kelly said. 'They put him in jail, and he told them he was injured, and they denied him medical treatment for about 18 hours.'" ⁷

Here are Oakland police/Alameda sheriffs purposefully covering up their identification against California Code 830.10, which states that identification must be visible at all time (thanks OakFoSho Spencer for Hire for that one, and all his incredible coverage):

And this man who carried a protester on the hood of his car for 20+ feet was as far as I know never charged. The protester didn't have the right to block him from driving, but this man punched it and after dislodging the protester, nearly backed into another! Where is the justice?

Daily Kos are compiling reports of torture and humiliation from the J28 arrests:

"Just got out of Santa Rita Jail last night the prisoners from the Oakland Commune were being denied medications (some had seizures) while the guards said they didnt care if they died. Some people were brutally beaten. The put tear gas in the vents of my cell twice. They were keeping people without restrooms forcing them to shit and piss themselves or puke all over and stay in the same area...."

"Women arrestees were forced to give urine samples in front of male officers, ostensibly for pregnancy testing." ⁸

And if after all of the above you do not believe it at all possible that the city of Oakland and its 1% want Occupy GONE through any means necessary, and you still hate flag-burners (in Oakland, most likely cops or provocateurs), check THIS out...LAPD destroy an American flag. They don't care about America or Americans! Where is the outrage over this? Is it okay when cops do it?

Here is a light-enhanced video of the OPD attacks on J28:

Police kettle protesters, order them to disperse, then fire tear gas and pepper bullets:

Why did police need to beat this man?

And this is an excellent Counterpunch article, I strongly recommend spending the time on it; it also presents other facts detailing Quan's lies and conniving tactics:

"A crowd of several hundred quickly swelled to a couple thousand, as Occupy Oakland attempted to occupy the vacant Kaiser Convention Center. The goal was to use it as an indoor base for Occupy Oakland—a place to have General Assemblies and meetings, share food and get shelter for the winter. This was in keeping with what Occupy Oakland has always done, a goal that is simple, though not simple enough for the mainstream media to understand and honestly report. As in Argentina, Oaxaca, or Egypt, when society makes life unlivable for some and miserable for others, we will come together, decide what we need to do to meet our own needs in a directly democratic fashion, and do it. It is not surprising that people meeting their own needs outside of the control of the various forces that maintain the existing social order is going to be attacked. When people attempting to fill their own needs and the needs of the community are seen as socially unacceptable, the need for an entirely different social order becomes abundantly clear. From the diverse group of people who came out to take that space on Saturday, that understanding is not just held by a small group of militants. Despite the fact that the city government is run by corporate profiteers and liberal charlatans, and the federally coordinated police apparatus often looks far less intelligent than we usually give them credit for, the State knows the threat that exists in Oakland. They are responding accordingly. Saturday's attacks are part of an ongoing counter-insurgency campaign to attempt to strip the movement of its substantial legitimacy, to intimidate, to harass, to divide, to contain, to co-opt, and to eventually destroy Occupy Oakland. The lines in this ongoing conflict are clear. The City's overwhelming use of force and mass arrests, firing less-than-lethal weapons into marches with many children, the violent beatings, and the trumped-up charges in response to a peaceful attempt to make social use out of an unused building makes the State's position clear. What is not clear is who will eventually win." ⁹

"The city adminstration, with the full approval of the police, is intent on provoking violent behavior from Occupy Oakland, regardless of any consideration for the safety of the general public or the fact that people might be injured, or even killed. Thanks to the incredibly slanted coverage of such incidents by the mainstream media, they now view every potential for violent confrontation as a chance for a big PR victory. If it bleeds, it leads, and City Hall applauds." ¹⁰

From the video below:

"On January 28th, 2012, Occupy Oakland moved to take a vacant building to use as a social center and a new place to continue organizing. This is the story of what happened that day as told by those who were a part of it. it features rare footage and interviews with Boots Riley, David Graeber, Maria Lewis, and several other witnesses to key events:"