mutual aid

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November 15, 2011 | 1:35 PM | By

Law enforcement covering badges, nametags at Occupy Oakland protests

Ali Winston

Unidentified law enforcement officers at 13th and Broadway on the morning of November 14, 2011

Section 830.10 of the California penal code requires all uniformed law enforcement personnel in the state to display the officer’s name or identification number on their uniform. In spite of state law, several police officers deployed on mutual aid assistance to Oakland over the past week – and at least one Oakland Police officer – have covered identifying insignia up with tape or body armor.

During the eviction of Occupy Oakland’s Frank Ogawa encampment yesterday, at least four officers in a group of police from San Mateo law enforcement agencies had their shoulder patches, name tags and any other identifying markings covered with riot gear. The officers would not identify their home agency when asked by this reporter and people in the crowd.

Other officers with body armor over their agency insignia and name tags with no identifying markings on their helmet were observed on the night of November 2-3 as police attempted to disperse a crowd of people following Oakland’s General Strike. Photos after the jump.

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FILED UNDER: Police, mutual aid, Oakland, Occupy Oakland
November 14, 2011 | 4:00 PM | By

Oakland Police sued for violating crowd control policies – again

Ali Winston

A tear gas canister in the middle of 14th and Broadway

The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California and the National Lawyers’ Guild filed a federal civil rights suit against the Oakland Police Department today alleging repeated violations of OPD’s own crowd control policies and asking for an emergency temporary restraining order against Oakland Police.

District Court Judge Richard Seeborg has issued an order requiring the city of Oakland to respond to the lawsuit by 5 PM tomorrow.

The suit was filed on behalf of five plaintiffs, including Scott Campbell, a videographer who was shot with a less-lethal projectile while filming a police line during civil disturbances following the November 2nd general strike.

“I was filming police activity at Occupy Oakland because police should be accountable,” said Campbell. “Now I’m worried about my safety from police violence and about retaliation because I’ve been outspoken.”

The lawsuit, which can be viewed after the jump, alleges that OPD and agencies under their control during mutual aid callouts used indiscriminate and excessive force by targeting demonstrators with flash bang grenades, tear gas and less lethal projectiles on the nights of October 25th and November 2nd. It also charges OPD with intentionally targeting videographers like Campbell with less-lethal projectiles. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Courts, ACLU of Northern California, crowd control, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland
November 7, 2011 | 10:43 AM | By

Man shot with less-lethal round while filming police during 11/2 Occupy Oakland protest

A video posted to Youtube on Saturday shows a man struck by a less-lethal projectile while videotaping a line of police at Frank Ogawa Plaza during an Occupy Oakland demonstration gone awry last week. The videographer, Scott Campbell, said in an email interview that he had moved to Ogawa Plaza after police from Oakland and other agencies had dispersed a crowd gathered at a foreclosed building that had been occupied earlier Wednesday night following Oakland’s day-long General Strike.

Campbell said he began filming the line of police around 12:50 AM, after the dispersal order was given outside the Traveler’s Aid Society but before fires were set and windows broken along Broadway that night.

“There was nothing going on in that area, everything was calm and I thought it would good to document the police presence. That’s what I was doing when I was shot,” Campbell wrote.

In the video, Campbell can be heard asking police “is this OK?,” presumably in reference to his distance from the police line and whether or not he can film the officers in riot gear. As Campbell walks down the skirmish line, 33 seconds into the clip an officer can be seen leveled some sort of firearm at Campbell and firing on him. Campbell is not sure whether he was struck with a beanbag or another sort of projectile. Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Police, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland
November 3, 2011 | 4:30 PM | By

Strike a success but Oakland’s a mess

If you haven’t seen it already today, Downtown Oakland is a mess. The tail-end of yesterday’s General Strike degenerated into violence, vandalism and looting following a successful shutdown of the evening shift at the Port of Oakland by tens of thousands of marchers. Windows at City Hall were smashed, buildings were covered in graffiti, and trash burned at the intersection of 16th and Telegraph following an attempt to occupy the foreclosed building of the Traveler’s Aid Society, an organization that aided the homeless.

The Black Blocs that touched off the property destruction in the afternoon at the downtown banks and 27th Street Whole Foods and that fired M80 firecrackers at a line of riot police late that evening had strong contingents of out-of-town anarchists (a group of masked demonstrators were overheard speaking Greek amongst themselves). Eighty people were arrested by the Oakland Police Department, with the assistance of an undetermined number of Contra Costa and Alameda law enforcement agencies called in on mutual aid (again).

It remains to be seen how last night’s events will affect Occupy Oakland and the broader Occupy Wall Street movement. Yesterday’s violence and property destruction has been widely condemned by Occupy Oakland, and there is talk of the camp participating in the ongoing cleanup efforts. Tonight’s City Council meeting at 5:30 PM on Occupy Oakland will provide the best indication of how authorities will approach the encampment in the aftermath of the General Strike

Photos and videos after the jump Continue reading →

FILED UNDER: Community, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland General Strike, Occupy Oakland
October 28, 2011 | 2:39 PM | By

Who threw a flash-bang grenade at the protesters aiding Scott Olsen?

[UPDATED 11/1/11: A new video shot by Ernest Doty, one of the people who carried Scott Olsen to safety on October 25, offers yet another angle of the incident. In the video, an unidentified man who helped carry Olsen says police on the line used shotguns to fire beanbags at the crowd.]

As Marine veteran Scott Olsen’s health slowly improves after having his skull fractured by a projectile, most likely a police projectile, on the night of October 24, speculation continues to swirl about what hit Olsen and where it came from. In addition to Oakland Police, officers from the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department, Alameda County Sheriff’s Department, Palo Alto Police Department, and California Highway Patrol were deployed as mutual aid at the intersection of 14th Street and Broadway.

Video from the skirmish line on Tuesday evening shows an officer holding a shotgun retreat from the front line of the barricade, then lob a flash-bang grenade into the crowd trying to help Olsen.

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FILED UNDER: Police, Alameda County Sheriffs Department, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland, San Francisco Sheriff's Department
October 25, 2011 | 12:43 PM | By

Hundreds of police raid Occupy Oakland: Tear gas, rubber bullets, at least 85 arrested.

Occupy Oakland, the two-week-old tent city that sprawled across Frank Ogawa Plaza and Snow Park, was dismantled early this morning during a raid by hundreds of police from Oakland, with the help of other Bay Area law enforcement agencies brought in under mutual aid agreements from as far away as Vacaville. Police say at least 85 people were arrested at both encampments. City officials delivered an eviction notice to Occupy Oakland last week, listing a host of safety, sanitation, and public health concerns.

Sanitation workers and other city officials tipped off protesters to the imminent police raid, and around 2 AM a flurry of messages drew supporters and media alike to the camp. The occupiers used wooden pallets, bike racks, railing, dumpsters and string to build ad-hoc barricades around the 150 tents on the lawn in front of City Hall.

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FILED UNDER: Police, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Wall Street
October 24, 2011 | 5:28 PM | By

How could short-staffed Oakland Police evict Occupy Oakland?

Ali Winston

Riot police deployed in Oakland last November - could evicting Occupy Oakland mean another mass deployment of Bay Area law enforcement?

Occupy Oakland, the two-week old offshoot of the Occupy Wall Street movement, defied an eviction order issued by the city this weekend to dismantle a sprawling tent city in front of City Hall and in a park adjacent to Lake Merritt. Despite Oakland City Administrator Deanna Santana’s claims that the Occupation at Frank Ogawa Plaza (renamed after Oscar Grant by demonstrators) poses fire, sanitation and public safety hazards, as of today the camp shows no signs of moving and Oakland Police have not made any effort to remove the protesters.

Oakland Police say they are currently weighing their options and drawing up a plan for dispersing the camp, though they are worried about a confrontation with protesters that could bring up ugly memories of OPD officers charging an April 2003 anti-war demonstration with motorcycles and firing less-lethal projectiles at the crowd.

Other cities, including San Francisco, have taken a harder line with occupations. San Francisco Police twice dismantled Occupy SF’s tents outside the Federal Reserve on Market Street, only for another camp to spring up in Justin Hermann Plaza. In Chicago, 130 people were arrested over the weekend by Chicago Police after refusing to take down a tent city in Grant Park.

Unlike San Francisco and Chicago, Oakland’s police force is drastically understaffed, with 652 officers currently on its rolls. Roughly half of those officers are on duty at any given time  Any attempt to dismantle Occupy Oakland, which consists of anywhere from three to several hundred people throughout the day, would require a significant show of force that would test OPD’s ability to fulfill its patrol duties while quelling the occupation.

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FILED UNDER: Police, mutual aid, Oakland, Oakland Police Department, Occupy Oakland